How to Make a Custom Overlay View Transparent on top of a SurfaceView?
<p>OK I've gone through many similar questions here on SO and around the web, to no avail.
I'm just trying to overlay a transparent view on top of a SurfaceView.. and eventually draw a rectangle on it, such that it appears to overlay the camera preview.</p>

<p>I cannot get the custom view to be transparent, it blocks-out the underlying camera preview.  Any suggestions?</p>

<pre><code>&lt;RelativeLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    android:layout_width="fill_parent"
    android:layout_height="fill_parent"
    &gt;
    &lt;FrameLayout 
        android:layout_alignParentTop="true"
        android:layout_width="fill_parent"
        android:layout_height="400dip"&gt;
        &lt;SurfaceView
            android:layout_width="fill_parent"
            android:layout_height="fill_parent" 
            android:id="@+id/drawSurface"  /&gt;
        &lt;com.bobby.facecapture.FaceOverlayView
            android:id="@+id/drawOverlay"
            android:background="@android:color/transparent" 
            android:layout_width="200dip"     
            android:layout_height="200dip"    
        /&gt;
    &lt;/FrameLayout&gt;
&lt;/RelativeLayout&gt;
</code></pre>

<p>The 200x200 is just temporary, to prove that it is indeed overlaying the other view.</p>

<p>The FaceOverlayView is just a custom view - deriving directly from View, without overriding anything (for now).</p>

<p>I get a black rectangle on top of the camera preview</p>
