Question

I have a menu screen, with an animated background layer. This background is calculated runtime, hence it is not a simple sequence of images, and it uses graphic elements that are used inside the application itself.

As soon as these graphics elements are studied to be very colourful and visible, the background animation sometimes makes the menu that is on the foreground a little confused.

So, I have to reduce the contrast of the background animation.
What is the best practice to reduce the background contrast/brightness without changing the graphic elements? (or maybe blur the background layer)

And more, would it be possible to reduce the contrast/brightness ONLY on a portion of the screen, the one below and around the menu buttons, and leave the rest of the screen as it is?

Thank you very much.

Answer 1

You can make the menu layer larger (think of it as a “padding” around the menu itself); if that “padding” is dark (black or close to it, depends on the effect you want to achieve, maybe even 50% gray if you only want to reduce contrast) then you can set its alpha value to something that achieves your effect of “dimming” the background. Or let the “padding” have an alpha gradient so the darkening fades out/the background fades in.