Color Wheel Pro - See Color Theory in Action
A software program to create color schemes and preview them on real-world examples.
Step 1: Creating a Preview Image in Flash
This page describes how to create a Color Wheel Pro preview image using Flash. If you have any difficulties creating your preview image, see the sample, Cubes.fla, located in the Samples folder in the Color Wheel Pro installation directory.
1. Creating the Artwork
Dimensions: When creating a Flash document, set the preview image (Stage) size to 495 x 360 pixels (use the Modify > Document command). You can use other dimensions, but the aspect ratio must be the same. Otherwise, the preview image will look distorted when loaded into Color Wheel Pro.
No bitmaps: You can create an original artwork in Flash using its drawing tools as well
as import vector graphic
Layers: You can use as many layers as you wish — Color Wheel Pro doesn't differentiate between objects placed on different layers.
Frames: Don't use animation — your Flash document must contain only one keyframe, and all the graphics must be placed in it. Later, you will need to add two extra keyframes, in which to store Color Wheel Pro scripts.
Colors: You do not need to colorize objects in the Flash movie — their colors will be overridden by Color Wheel Pro. The only exception is for the objects you don't want to be affected by the color scheme changes, for example, Sparkman's face and hands in our "Logos with Characters" preview image.
Transparency: When assigning colors to objects, Color Wheel Pro preserves their transparency (alpha). You can use transparency to create gradients and other transparency effects such as highlights on the pen in our "Corporate Identity Package" preview image.
Object Complexity: Keep the object count and complexity at a reasonable level. If your artwork contains too many complex curves, Color Wheel Pro will not be able to update this preview image in real time as you move the color controls.
Fill and Stroke: You can convert both the fill and the stroke of an object to separate symbols and give them unique Instance Names. This lets you colorize both the stoke and the fill separately when editing colors with the Color Wheel Pro Preview Editor.
2. Converting Objects to Movie Clip Symbols
To make graphic objects accessible to Color Wheel Pro, they must be converted to Symbols of the Movie Clip type. To do this, select an object in Flash, press F8 (or choose Insert > Convert to Symbol from the Flash menu) and select the "Movie Clip" option. The name of the symbol is not used by Color Wheel Pro, you can assign any name you wish, or simply leave it as it is.
If you don't want an object to be affected by color scheme changes (such as Sparkman's face and hands), do not convert it to a symbol.
Every object you convert to a movie clip must have a unique instance name. To assign an instance name, select the movie clip and enter an instance name in the Properties inspector (see the picture below). Spaces in instance names are not allowed. Every instance name must be unique; if two objects have the same instance name, only one of them will be recognized by Color Wheel Pro.
3. Adding Color Wheel Pro Scripts
To allow Color Wheel Pro to change colors of objects in the Flash document, it must have three keyframes containing Color Wheel Pro scripts. Here's how to add them: