Graphics

Hi,

I use a directional light bound to a specific material to create a 'dim down' effect by keyframing an alpha change on the light. I now need to control the HSL of that "dim down" effect and I can't figure out how to do this. Unfortunately, the material that needs to "dim down" to a specific color and opacity is always changing shapes - and there is not enough time to be creating duplicates.
Any suggestions on a better way to do this?

Thanks in advance

With Visual Logic , you can bind "animatable" properties to the diffuse color of the light.
For example the position of a hidden object where X,Y,Z are between 0 and 255 and represent R,G,B color :

But color blocks only allow RGB values as input and not HSL as you needed. (maybe this could be a new feature to have a additional information in Color blocks to tell what kind of input is used : RGB or HSL )



Since Xpression version 8.0 , light objects are available for scripting : diffuse component of XpDirLightObject object can be changed with SetColorDiffuse(R,G,B) function.

see script for OnRender event :

Dim light as XpDirLightObject
Dim obj as XpBaseObject
Dim m as XpMaterial

if Self.GetObjectByName("Group_HLS_Animation", obj) and Self.GetObjectByName("DirLight1", light) and Engine.GetMaterialByName("Mat_HLS_Animation",m) then

m.ColorDiffuse.SetHSL(obj.RotX,obj.PosX,obj.posY)

light.SetColorDiffuse(m.ColorDiffuse.RF,m.ColorDiffuse.GF,m.ColorDiffuse.BF)
end if


HLS values are generated from "animatable" properties of a group object named "Group_HLS_Animation" :
RotX from 0 to 360 for Hue
PosX from 0 to 100 for Saturation
PosY from 0 to 100 for Luminance

Conversion from HSL to RGB is be done throught a existing color object of a material named "Mat_HLS_Animation"

see sample project attached : [ATTACH]n16827[/ATTACH]

#XPression

Thank you for this detailed and clear explanation. I'll give it a try. I need to have the HSL (orRGB) of the diffuse light to change over time on a scene director, moving from one value to another for a specified length of time. I'll download your project and take a look. For now, I used two lights and dissolve between them. Thanks - I really appreciate it.
#XPression