Guest
2006-11-22, 03:17 PM
In an effort to create strategically focused views of a diagram layout which I use to map out all of my current projects, I attempted to create layers acting as masks, that could be turned on and off according to desired views. For example, in order to create a focused view for a particular set of actions, I placed a large black rectangle over the entire diagram, and then reduced the opacity a tiny bit to allow for a slight glimpse at the diagram in it's entirety. To focus the action-set, I wanted to put a rectangle over the specific action-set portion and use that shape to cut out a portion of the large, black, translucent rectangle, so that said action-set would be plain to see. Alas I'm not sure if there is any such feature available in OGP for such a tactic. I know that amidst other visual programs, such features often revolve around terms like masks, pathfinder, compositing, cutout, cutaway, overlap, reveal, and so forth. There's a rough feature in FlySketch (unfriendly to anyone other than the Mac PowerUser) that I use for similar goals that they have dubbed Compositing Mode, which is derived straight from the veins of the Cocoa AppKit (or was, as the Flysketch link to the "shamelessly stolen" compositing mode overview from Apple is now an ADC redirect to AppKitFrmWkRef).
In the hopes that I've somewhat successfully articulated my goal, are there any OGP features that might aid in this masking/cutout technique? Or any hacks anyone knows of to "fake it" via a shape/format/graphic exported from Illustrator or Flash or otherwise and imported/placed into an OGP document?.
FYI My initial solution involved creating layers underneath the diagram layout, a large almost black rectangle as the base - reducing the contrast between the majority of the diagram which is black; and then on top of that, a smaller, white rectangular shape strategically placed behind the section to be focused. The drawback is that while most of the diagram is black, there are occasional nodes that utilize a brighter color coding scheme, and those dramatically pop against the dark background. Hence my desire to lay a large, translucent black rectangle over the top, so every part of the diagram, including the colored nodes are muted.
TIA omnifriends/users/and associates.
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