JavaFX™ Special Effects: Taking Java™ RIA to the Extreme with Animation, Multimedia, and Game Elements

CHAPTER 4

Effect: Animated Lighting

As you glance around any room, it becomes apparent that though every object is illuminated subtly from many angles, one light source tends to dominate the others. The light from this main source makes one side of an object appear bright and the other side dark, often with a smooth gradient transitioning between the two. The human eye uses this difference between the light and dark to estimate an object's size and shape. When light moves across an object, the eye and brain get a chance to confirm the guesses, providing certainty about the nature of the object.

Simulating light in an application is an old trick; both the beveled corners of the 90s and the over-glossy buttons of the 2000s are ways of simulating ...