Pixel Shader Effect Examples
I've seen a number of pixel-shader effect examples, stuff like swirl on an image. But I'm wondering if anyone knows of any examples or tutorials for more practical uses of shader effects?
I'm not saying that a swirl effect doesn't have it's uses, it's just that many of the examples I've found have the basic effect explained and don't go into how it might be used subtly with another effect or transition to produce a wonderful effect. There's a video here, that outlines all the WPF Effects Library, but I'm not sure how I would use some of them in a practical context.
For example, when Flash 8 came out with effects like blur, I found a wonderful video that showed how to use the blur effect to create a cool effect with speeding text, that video inspired many ideas of what I could do with the effects in Flash 8. I'm looking for something similar with Pixel Shader Effects.
Answer
One practical thing that pixel shader effects enable ... are blend modes.
Check out Robby Ingebretsen's post on the matter (which discusses a useful way to take advantage of the linear burn blend mode). There is also a StackOverflow question on this subject as well.
In fact, I actually have written a blend mode library for WPF & Silverlight, and make it freely available at my blog. Following is a list of all my blend mode posts (all of which have source code and binaries attached):
- Blend Modes, Part I
- Blend Modes, Part II
- Blend Modes for Silverlight
- Blend Modes, Part III
- Blend Modes: Now Opacity Aware
- Blend Modes: Hue, Saturation, Color, and Luminosity with WPF 4.0
Hope this sparks your imagination ... and let me know if you toy around with the library!