Tuesday, November 15, 2011

The Illusion of Transparency

I started to get a little frustrated on the WORQX site because I could not find an example or even any reference to the the second part of the Palette Picker test.  We are asked to "create the illusion of overlapping/transparent hues" with no guide on how to do that or even what it is.

I did a little research which I will share with you in case you are having the same dilemma. It is a difficult concept to explain, but when you see it you know exactly what it is and what to do.  Here is great example:



So you need to choose two colors that appear to overlap, but they really are not. You just choose a third color to put in the place where the you want the illusion to be. If you choose the right blend it will appear that you can see through the lighter color and that changes the color underneath, but not of that is really happening. You just created the "Illusion of Transparency."

Here is my attempt at it:


It would appear that a yellow band crossed over the blue band creating a green tint through the yellow's "transparency.' But it was just the color green I chose that created the illusion.

I hope this helps. If not, here are a couiple of links I found:

Color Theory 101
Color Theory 101a

Illusion of Transparency

And at Understanding Transparency Using Solids there is actually a PDF showing you step by step how to do it.

I found a couple of these sites after I was already finished the assignment. So, you'll be ahead of me. Good luck!

2 comments:

  1. Thanks for posting these examples! I was lost when it came to this one too. Admittedly, I'm not sure my final product was as spot on as yours but I gave it a try and stuck with lighter colors trying to make them darker as they "overlapped."

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  2. Very interesting. your right about palette picker it doesn't show an example of overlapping

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