As the Exchange is now depreciated, and Orbolt.com doesn’t cater for color schemes, I’ve had to post my scheme file here as a zip file (see attached) - .hcs files are apparetly ‘not allowed’. Simply drop the unzipped file into your \houdiniXX.X\config directory and launch Houdini. The scheme “ajb Dark” should now be available in the Edit > Color Settings dialog. Let me know what you think.
*Important* I’ve not yet identified the purpose of every color variable featured in the default schemes (many are depreciated and there’s limited documentation available in the file) so I’ve set these unknowns to magenta (bright purple) as per SideFX practice. If you observe any bright purple elements in the UI let me know where and I’ll fix them – they’re not there by design! (It’s thanks to Wolfwood’s post back in 2007 that I was able to get as far as I have).
Improvements over the ‘Houdini Dark’ scheme (in my opinion) include:
- * Softer and more consistent use of gradients for the base controls (can’t actually get away from gradients entirely).
* An ‘amber’ highlight / accent color that matches viewport selection color and is used more consistently throughout (including menus, as per the ‘Houdini Light’ scheme).
* Re-introduced specific channel colors from the ‘Houdini Light’ scheme (modified for the dark scheme) that follow the ‘red, green, blue’ pattern for channel triples.
* Brightened bevels on nodes giving them a sharper appearance (subtle but effective).
* Reduced intensity of parameter field colors which makes parameter text more readable.
* Reduced intensity of network context colors on pane headings and tweaked color slightly for better visual separation.
* Myriad other tweaks that you may not even notice.
I generated the color scheme file from an Excel spreadsheet I built which visualises the color variables in-sheet, with VBA code to export the .hcs file in one click. It’s not quite ready for prime-time yet but if there’s interest I’ll make it suitable for release and share it with you.
One final note: I’ve noticed a slight difference in the way H13 uses color scheme variables to H12.5 (which I originally developed for), and since I’m now targeting H13 and don’t have earlier versions installed you may notice more ‘purple’ artefacts in earlier versions. As above, just let me know where you spotted them and I’ll implement a fix.
