One of the really nice tools that Blend has is the ability to set an item as a color resource for later use.  What this means is that I can set myself a really nice gradient or have a set of colors that I specifically need to stick to (i.e. logo or company colors) and I have those available as a nice resource tool and they’re as easy to designate (some might argue that they’re easier) than a color pallet created in Illustrator.

Well this lovely tool does have limitations where UI is coming into play.

So to describe this, I’m going to talk a bit about the details of my favorite elements (this is something that I geek out about and most step back thinking I’ve gone off the deep side in drama) – the hover, click, and go on buttons ( and objects which have been turned into “buttons” which really aren’t the standard thing that people might consider as a button ).

Something about a button that does more than just a button really gets me hyped.  You hover and it looks nice, you click and it does something, and then the transition between the click and the loading of… whatever.  That sort of thing really gets me hyped.  I guess my girliness shines through there… shiny objects really can entertain me at times.

This is where I find the limitation though in the color resources tool!

Sometimes I’m not the most proactively organized.  I’ll create my button animation effects on the fly.  Sue me for not thinking it ALL the way through.  Unfortunately Blend really does limit you in this.

What I’m refering to needs further example though.  So lets say I’m creating a button.  When my mouse hovers over the button, I want it to DO something to show me that hey, someone’s hovering over this and it has to do something more than just change the cursor to a pointed finger.  So I’m working on this and I come up with this INCREDIBLE gradient that just looks amazing, but its just a bit too dramatic for this button – but I LOVE the color usage.  I want it!

Well now there’s a problem.  See, I want to take those settings and add them to my color resources… but wait, when I try doing this, it just adds the base color used when the button is not actively being interacted with NOT the wonderful gradient created.

…

Very irritating.  I want my gradient of colors for other objects!!!