Satori Tutorial 6. Colour Pick 'n' Mix Page 2

Tutorial : Mixing and Choosing Colours

By Michael Hirsh.

Page 2 of 3

Here's how I blew up the Satori Color Mixer

I suppose you'll have to call it a 'Satori moment' ("Satori" = A sudden intuitive flash of enlightenment ) when I realised the solution to my mixing problems was right under my nose. In a way, I was already halfway there with the Box Corner filled Rectangle method.

I created two canvases, each 200 by 200 pixels. One for Tints of colours (that is the lighter values heading towards white) and one for Shades (darker colours heading towards black).

There are seven layers in each of these canvases. The Tints canvas has a pure white bottom layer, and each layer also contains white. The Shades canvas contains a white to black gradient in the bottom layer, as well as black in each layer.

The remaining upper layers are each occupied by a series of Box Corner filled rectangles containing the six colours at the perimeter of the colour cubes. These six colours give rise to the names of the layers (see below).

Each Box Corner fill has the primary colour at top left, and the next neighbouring colour from the spectrum is in the top right corner. At lower left is the complement of the primary colour, and black or white occupies the bottom right corner.

Of course, being a Satori canvas file, each layer will have its own opacity slider in the Layer List Palette, and it is this control, coupled with the ability to turn layers on and off, that gives this colour blender its subtle degree of power.

Bigger can sometimes be better

Turn Layers on and off, and use the Opacity sliders to generate trillions of colours. Re- arrange the order of the Layers for even more control.

How it works....

I keep these two canvases minimised in my Satori workspace all the time, and pop them up when I need to choose new colours or set up a new Swatch.

By clicking layers on and off, and reducing their opacity, one can generate an almost limitless range of colours, all within two small files. (Each takes up just 36 Kb.)

If you use Film FX (64 bit colour) why not download both files here, and start playing with them. I have saved them as read-only files, so that each time you open them they remain unchanged.
If you're using Photo XL (32 bit colour) click here to download the two pickers.

A Couple of examples

Here, I've turned off all the layers except the bottom two, and reduced the opacity of the second layer to 20%

Here's the colour range, and

here's the Layer List settings

This next example shows the same two layers active in the Tints canvas, using exactly the same settings.

Subtle, or what?

Perhaps all this workaround stuff will be made redundant when the next version of Satori appears, until then, Happy Blending!

The Gradients Colour Picker

Here's a third colour picker for you to download. (Added 1st July 2004) (41Kb Zip file)

There's an extra, undocumented feature in Satori that might occasionally offer you extended colours to pick from. Find out what it is on Page 3 of this tutorial.

Main Page

Software Page

Tutorials Page

Page 3 >>

Tutorial : Mixing and Choosing Colours

By Michael Hirsh.

Page 2 of 3

Here's how I blew up the Satori Color Mixer

I suppose you'll have to call it a 'Satori moment' ("Satori" = A sudden intuitive flash of enlightenment ) when I realised the solution to my mixing problems was right under my nose. In a way, I was already halfway there with the Box Corner filled Rectangle method.

I created two canvases, each 200 by 200 pixels. One for Tints of colours (that is the lighter values heading towards white) and one for Shades (darker colours heading towards black).

There are seven layers in each of these canvases. The Tints canvas has a pure white bottom layer, and each layer also contains white. The Shades canvas contains a white to black gradient in the bottom layer, as well as black in each layer.

The remaining upper layers are each occupied by a series of Box Corner filled rectangles containing the six colours at the perimeter of the colour cubes. These six colours give rise to the names of the layers (see below).

Each Box Corner fill has the primary colour at top left, and the next neighbouring colour from the spectrum is in the top right corner. At lower left is the complement of the primary colour, and black or white occupies the bottom right corner.

Of course, being a Satori canvas file, each layer will have its own opacity slider in the Layer List Palette, and it is this control, coupled with the ability to turn layers on and off, that gives this colour blender its subtle degree of power.

Bigger can sometimes be better

Turn Layers on and off, and use the Opacity sliders to generate trillions of colours. Re- arrange the order of the Layers for even more control.

How it works....

I keep these two canvases minimised in my Satori workspace all the time, and pop them up when I need to choose new colours or set up a new Swatch.

By clicking layers on and off, and reducing their opacity, one can generate an almost limitless range of colours, all within two small files. (Each takes up just 36 Kb.)

If you use Film FX (64 bit colour) why not download both files here, and start playing with them. I have saved them as read-only files, so that each time you open them they remain unchanged.
If you're using Photo XL (32 bit colour) click here to download the two pickers.

A Couple of examples

Here, I've turned off all the layers except the bottom two, and reduced the opacity of the second layer to 20%

Here's the colour range, and

here's the Layer List settings

This next example shows the same two layers active in the Tints canvas, using exactly the same settings.

Subtle, or what?

Perhaps all this workaround stuff will be made redundant when the next version of Satori appears, until then, Happy Blending!

The Gradients Colour Picker

Here's a third colour picker for you to download. (Added 1st July 2004) (41Kb Zip file)

There's an extra, undocumented feature in Satori that might occasionally offer you extended colours to pick from. Find out what it is on Page 3 of this tutorial.

Main Page

Software Page

Tutorials Page

Page 3 >>

Main Page

Software Page

Tutorials Page

Page 3 >>

Tutorial : Mixing and Choosing Colours

By Michael Hirsh.

Page 2 of 3

Here's how I blew up the Satori Color Mixer

I suppose you'll have to call it a 'Satori moment' ("Satori" = A sudden intuitive flash of enlightenment ) when I realised the solution to my mixing problems was right under my nose. In a way, I was already halfway there with the Box Corner filled Rectangle method.

I created two canvases, each 200 by 200 pixels. One for Tints of colours (that is the lighter values heading towards white) and one for Shades (darker colours heading towards black).

There are seven layers in each of these canvases. The Tints canvas has a pure white bottom layer, and each layer also contains white. The Shades canvas contains a white to black gradient in the bottom layer, as well as black in each layer.

The remaining upper layers are each occupied by a series of Box Corner filled rectangles containing the six colours at the perimeter of the colour cubes. These six colours give rise to the names of the layers (see below).

Each Box Corner fill has the primary colour at top left, and the next neighbouring colour from the spectrum is in the top right corner. At lower left is the complement of the primary colour, and black or white occupies the bottom right corner.

Of course, being a Satori canvas file, each layer will have its own opacity slider in the Layer List Palette, and it is this control, coupled with the ability to turn layers on and off, that gives this colour blender its subtle degree of power.

Bigger can sometimes be better

Turn Layers on and off, and use the Opacity sliders to generate trillions of colours. Re- arrange the order of the Layers for even more control.

How it works....

I keep these two canvases minimised in my Satori workspace all the time, and pop them up when I need to choose new colours or set up a new Swatch.

By clicking layers on and off, and reducing their opacity, one can generate an almost limitless range of colours, all within two small files. (Each takes up just 36 Kb.)

If you use Film FX (64 bit colour) why not download both files here, and start playing with them. I have saved them as read-only files, so that each time you open them they remain unchanged. If you're using Photo XL (32 bit colour) click here to download the two pickers.

A Couple of examples

Here, I've turned off all the layers except the bottom two, and reduced the opacity of the second layer to 20%

Here's the colour range, and

here's the Layer List settings

This next example shows the same two layers active in the Tints canvas, using exactly the same settings.

Subtle, or what?

Perhaps all this workaround stuff will be made redundant when the next version of Satori appears, until then, Happy Blending!

The Gradients Colour Picker

Here's a third colour picker for you to download. (Added 1st July 2004) (41Kb Zip file)

There's an extra, undocumented feature in Satori that might occasionally offer you extended colours to pick from. Find out what it is on Page 3 of this tutorial.

Main Page

Software Page

Tutorials Page

Page 3 >>

If you use Film FX (64 bit colour) why not download both files here, and start playing with them. I have saved them as read-only files, so that each time you open them they remain unchanged.
If you're using Photo XL (32 bit colour) click here to download the two pickers.