Hope this isnt a double post

[TheJunglist]

I tryed starting a new topic about 5 mins ago, the post hasnt shown yet so im gonna post again an hope for no double post.

 

Hello all,

I would like to make this

 

 

look like this

 

but fade the transparency out, or in depending how you look at it, overtime.

The problem is when i adjust this

 

to lower the opacity of the decal in an action or chor i get this

 

in other words the patches that are stamped with the decal disappear.

i'm getting something wrong along the way even after reading quite a few alpha channel an decal tuts .

i'm using AM 11.0t.

 

heres the decal

decal

 

any help greatly appreciated.

Junglist

[KenH]

I don't know if you can rely on the real time for this. Try rendering to see the result.

[C-grid]

Hello TheJunglist,

 

I don't recognise the problem, but I would most certainly try using a different format than .BMP for this particular decal for transparency.

 

Niels.

 

ps.

Use .TGA or .PNG

 

 

[EDIT] Before people start... Yes, I know a tmap is not transparent itself, or at least it doesn't have to be.

[TheJunglist]

Ive got targa's and png's for the same map neither seemed to make a difference. Ive messed with the alpha in the targas to try an have some effect, none of the results of that we encouraging.

Thx for reminding me about the progressive render difference. I will render out a frame or 2 an post the results. What i really want to know is if im animating the right property. Changing that value should effect how much the decal effects to the model correct?

[KenH]

Yeah, that's the right property to change. I just tried it in v13.

[TheJunglist]

Ok so i have switched targas for the bmps, rendered out both on final quality. I have also progressive rendered out the targas to something i just noticed. For some reason i'm getting transparency at the edges of the decal in final quality render. This would suggest to me that there is a black border around the image, correct? Could this all be a PS problem like in ps7 where the alpha weren't handled correctly? I just got cs2 an don't recall this happening in cs. i'm officially befuddled. On second thought scratch that, frustrated. I think i might do away with the animated transparency. You know what they say , If you don't need it get rid of it. Just hope the client wont gripe

So heres the results. I've tried to use a naming convention to help describe the images. Give me a shout if you have any q's about that. Even if i don't use the animated transparency I would welcome any suggestions!

 

NOTICE

This project is for a medical animation. The procedure is a no scalpel vasectomy. There will be anatomically correct models in the imagery! consider yourself warned

No blood or guts or anything to scary tho!

 

 

 

Transparency results Webgallery

[C-grid]

Hello TheJunglist,

 

As I may understand your black-border problem, then I would say increase the border, thus make the circle smaller.

 

Niels.

 

 

ps.

What the exact problem is, 'the why', I don't know, it could be a combination of geometry and decal placement or just a wrong distraction of the image used within the programcode, like I said, I don't know, making the border around larger has helped me thus far.

[KenH]

If any part of the patch that the decal is on isn't covered by the decal, then AM renders it as transparent. You don't even need an alpha....just black for transparent and white for opaque.

 

What you need to do is: Identify the patches you want to decal and hide the rest of the model. Then decal your transparency map onto those patches, making sure the white of the map covers all of the patches.

[TheJunglist]

heres the stamp..

 

results :100 % trans

 

15 trans

 

 

Does lowering a decals transparency cause the decal to become more transparent or is it that you are changing the transparency of the patches AFTER the decal is applied?

 

PS thanks for this help guys!!

[KenH]

In v13, 100% gives me a patch with a hole in it. 0% makes everything transparent. I think it's an all or nothing thing. Here's an animation going from 100% to 0%. I would have expected that just the black would become opaque at 0%. Maybe I'm wrong. Time to consult Dave Rodgers book.

trans.mov

[NancyGormezano]

You might try having an animated decal (series of tga's) applied as a transparency map always at 100% - where the hole part goes from black to white in some number of steps, and one animates the frame number rather than the percentage of transparency.

[C-grid]

Hello TheJunglist,

 

I guess a .TGA having the .TGA transparency channel within the image and adding a circle having the right keycolor for the transparencymap will do, for your animation-purpose.

 

 

Niels.

[TheJunglist]

Ken:Glad to see it does the same thing in 13 that it does for me. At least i'm not crazy. obviously this isn't what i want to be changing. oh well so much for the lazy way out. Thx for the effort ! YOU ROXORS!

 

Neils & Nancy

Sweet ideas. I guess I will make a series of maps is ps. or mabye ill use a material effector. i don't know though there will geometry under this model in the shot so that could get to complex.

Thx again guys for rackin your brains. Will post results in WIP once they start coming out.

J

[ronburk]

I'm using 12.0g++ on Windows 2000.

 

I downloaded your bitmap and created a simple 10x10 grid to apply it to. Things I noticed of possible interest included:

• partially covered patches Patches partially covered by the decal produced 100% transparency for the not-covered portions of those partially-covered patches (no matter what the decal transparency % was set to). The advice to make sure you hide any patches that your decal is not going to completely cover when applying the decal holds here.
  
• 0-100% transparency This range of transparency appeared to affect the pure white portions of the transparency map. In other words, setting the decal "Percent" to 50% caused the white-covered portions of the model to be 50% transparent. At the point of "100%", white values finally offered complete opacity. Presumably, when you simply want the transparency map to convey a range of opacity where white equals opaque and black equals 100% transparent, you would set "Percent" to precisely "100%".
  
• transparency > 100% Increasing this parameter above 100% finally began to affect the actual transparency of bitmap pixels that were less than pure white. For example, at 200%, some of the gray fringe around your black circle appeared to have become nearly opaque. Although the documentation I read seemed to cite "5000%" as a magic number, that appeared to me to be insufficient to make black pixels produce 100% opacity. A value of 10000% appeared to me to produce 100% opacity, though I don't know if whether that is the exact value required. Nor do I know the formula for calculating how much opacity a black pixel conveys, given a particular value of "Percent" greater than 100. These seem like things that would be nice to know.
  
• funny bidness It seemed like there were some times where I had to save the project, exit AM, and restart to have a decal change correctly noticed. If I can repro this behavior when my 13.x arrives in the mail, I will report it. You might want to try a similar strategy if you make a decal change that seems to produce no difference.
  

In summary, I was able to animate the transparency effect I believe you were trying to achieve, using your original bitmap, no need to mess with alpha channels, TGA, or anything else. I started with a "Percent" of 100 for the transparency decal, and had it increase to 10000. (I guess you want that to go the other way for the case of creating a hole.)