Transparent\Translucent textures
by Ryan Edmar · in Artist Corner · 03/28/2008 (1:02 pm) · 9 replies
I need some assistance with a problem I am having. I am working on a character which I have created in Blender, and I want my character to have a sort-of HUD visor over her eyes. The visor itself was easy to create but I can't get the texture to work properly. I want the screen part to be translucent so it appears to be a projected digital display, as in projected onto glass or plastic of some sort(fiber optic). I have my texture all setup with an Alpha mask for the visor part, which I believe is correct, but I can't get it to export from Blender that way. After the export finishes and I load it in Show Tool the visor shows up as a solid form instead of a translucency. If anyone could direct me to some information on this subject that would help greatly. I've looked around but couldn't find anything that helped. Perhaps I'm doing something wrong on the texture end, but I don't think so. Also, I have tried turning the transparent flag in the exporter on but it did nothing. I am using Blender 2.45 and exporter 0.95 and my texture is saved as a PNG file. Any info would be appreciated thanks.
edit: spelling
edit: spelling
About the author
#2
I have a new question though. When I got it to work it made the entire texture translucent. Do I have to make a texture for the solid part of the character and a seperate one for the translucent part? Sorry for my question being so "newbie" but my background with alpha channels is not extensive, and this is the fist time I've tried to use one on a mesh.
04/02/2008 (2:37 am)
Thanks for the info Joseph. I found my problem was neither the texture file or the exporter but something I was not doing. When I went to export my character I was not selecting the texture before I changed the settings and therefore not applying the settings to the texture at all. this is something I keep forgetting to do and should have realized it.I have a new question though. When I got it to work it made the entire texture translucent. Do I have to make a texture for the solid part of the character and a seperate one for the translucent part? Sorry for my question being so "newbie" but my background with alpha channels is not extensive, and this is the fist time I've tried to use one on a mesh.
#4
Here is how I am making it. First I started with a solid red for the background, then a layer on top with a gradient to give the appearence of glass. I saved it as a png and opened it in Gimp. Here I added a mask for the alpha channel. I then applied the mask and saved the file.
To test that the file was saving properly I used a simple white and black mask with just a wavy line in the middle similer to your simple shapes texture. The file looks like it should when looking at it in gimp or simply in a windows browser, but when I load it into Blender the full texture shows without the alpha. Then when I export my mesh and open it in Show Tool Pro the part with the texture applied is completely invisible unless I turn the ghost button on. Also if I turn the model I can see parts of the texture the appear to be reversed on the mesh. Your texture worked fine so I know normals are facing the right way. Another thing, if I open the material properties window the texture also appears without the alpha.
I don't know what is going wrong. Is there something else I need to do to my texture before I save it?
04/05/2008 (12:21 am)
I thought that would be the case, but I tried putting them both on the same texture to save memory. Those textures you provided worked great. Although I am having some trouble still with my texture. I can't get it to work properly.Here is how I am making it. First I started with a solid red for the background, then a layer on top with a gradient to give the appearence of glass. I saved it as a png and opened it in Gimp. Here I added a mask for the alpha channel. I then applied the mask and saved the file.
To test that the file was saving properly I used a simple white and black mask with just a wavy line in the middle similer to your simple shapes texture. The file looks like it should when looking at it in gimp or simply in a windows browser, but when I load it into Blender the full texture shows without the alpha. Then when I export my mesh and open it in Show Tool Pro the part with the texture applied is completely invisible unless I turn the ghost button on. Also if I turn the model I can see parts of the texture the appear to be reversed on the mesh. Your texture worked fine so I know normals are facing the right way. Another thing, if I open the material properties window the texture also appears without the alpha.
I don't know what is going wrong. Is there something else I need to do to my texture before I save it?
#6
After I made this discovery I tried multiple names for the texture but with no success. I thought maybe the list was alphabetical so I tried "test.png", my base mesh being named "skin.png", but this had no effect. I named one "under.png" and that one worked. Although your file was named "simple shapes.png" and it also worked fine. This has me completely stumped and I was wondering what thoughts you may have.
04/06/2008 (3:47 am)
After hours and hours creating and testing of textures I seem to have stumbled upon something odd that seems to be causing all my problems. As it turns out, the procedure I was using to create the texture works fine. The problem lies within Blender. I've noticed during my testing that when I go to export my mesh, in the material list(under the material tab in the export script) the transparent material is listed fisrt and then the base material. This seems to have an effect on the transparent texture although I don't know why. By accident one of the textures I created was saved as "untitled.png" and this one was listed as the second material and not the first. When exported then opened in Show Tool the transparency was perfect. This was also the case with the textures you provided. I should add that the textures I was testing were just revisions of the original saved under a different name. After I made this discovery I tried multiple names for the texture but with no success. I thought maybe the list was alphabetical so I tried "test.png", my base mesh being named "skin.png", but this had no effect. I named one "under.png" and that one worked. Although your file was named "simple shapes.png" and it also worked fine. This has me completely stumped and I was wondering what thoughts you may have.
#9
04/09/2008 (2:07 am)
Problem Solved! Something must have been wrong with my texture, though I still don't know what. After I changed the names of both the textures they worked fine. I also lowered the resalution of the main texture. Now that I think about it that may have been part of the problem. I was using a fairly large texture to make it easier to paint. I've noticed that the exporter won't export an entire mesh if the poly's are to high. Maybe that is what was happening with my texture. Now that this is solved I can get back to finishing my character. Thanks for all your help Joseph. 
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