Palette Editor – Menu
The Palette Editor has a menu which offers some additional commands.
The first menu command is labelled Colormodel, and as the name implies, you can choose between four colormodels:
- RGB – the default color model as found in almost all graphics programs.
- CMY – very similar to RGB, except that the base colors are not red, green and blue, but cyan, magenta and yellow.
- HSL – humans like this color model because it lets you specify a color more naturally by first defining the hue color, then the saturation/luminance of the desired color.
- HSV – almost identical to HSL, but the luminance is replaced by the value, which has only half of the range of luminance.
Please note that changing the colormodel will change the gradient! The interpolation takes place using the current color model. Although the knot points are the same, the interpolation curve will change and thus affect the gradient. So don’t be astonished if the colors change…
Besides the colormodel you can “reorganize” your knots: This means, ChaosPro examines your palette and the resulting gradient and removes knot points which are unnecessary, i.e. which leave the gradient (almost) unchanged if removed. Having fewer knots simplifies working with palettes.
Example:
If you load a FractInt *.map palette and view it using the palette editor in ChaosPro, you most probably will see many knots. In fact, you will see round about 252 knots, one for each color in the palette.
If you a look at a FractInt *.map file using a texteditor (e.g. notepad), you will see only color definitions, most of the time 256 colors, defined by the red, green and blue component. There is no information about ‘knots’ and such stuff. Now ChaosPro has to be compatible to FractInt, i.e. read *.map files.
Because there are no knot definitions in FractInts *.map file, ChaosPro makes its life easier and simply assigns a knot to each color. You will have noticed it already: The Palette Editor is not useful for changing such palettes. You can only grab a knot in a color component and move it around, but then only a single color changes. You don’t even have easy access to the red, green and blue component. And due to that some “clean up” routine has to be built into ChaosPro. So if you have loaded a FractInt palette, then choose Reorganize in order to remove knots so that you can work with the palette.
Working with Preset Palettes
In ChaosPro each fractal has its own palette. A number of preset palettes exist, which can be copied into the fractal and thus replace the colors of the fractal. If you save a fractal parameter set, its color information, i.e. its palette will be saved as a part of the fractal as well. So please note: The preset palettes are only predefined palettes which can be copied into the palette of the fractal. The palette editor will always display the palette of the currently selected fractal and never a preset palette.
- In order to copy a preset palette into a fractal just select it from the list of preset palettes. The list will appear if you choose the menu item Choose Preset.
- If you want to load additional preset palettes choose the menu item Load Presets. You can load FractInt palettes as well.
- In case you have created a wonderful palette and want to save it as a preset palette so you can always use it for any other fractal as well choose the menu item “Create Preset”. You then are asked for a name of the palette. After that it will be added to the list of preset palettes and it will be saved onto harddisk into the proper preset palette folder.
Working with Knots
The remaining menu items let you work with knots:
Select All and Invert Selection lets you work with the selection state of the knots.
Randomize randomizes the selected knots, i.e. creates random values for the knots.
The bool setting Knots per Component lets you specify whether knots are per component or global for all three components:
 If knots are not per component, i.e. “global”, then a knot consists of the red, green and blue component. If you drag a knot within the red component, then the corresponding green and blue “knot index” will be moved as well. |
 If you choose “Knots per Component”, then a knot in one component is independent from the knots in the other components. If you drag a knot in the red component to a new position, then the knots in the green or blue components are not affected. So in this mode you have three completely independent curves. |
The last menu item specifies whether knots can be dragged to any position inside a component or whether knots must stay between neighboring knots. The image at the left illustrates this.