Decal w/ Transparent background

[flashawd]

I have a client that I am making a character for and she wants the eyes to be able to change from white to black when angry. The problem is I have a decal applied to the eye that has a white background when I make an action to make the eyes black you can see the white background of the decal. Is it possible to apply a decal w/ a transparent background? Or does anyone have any ideas how I can make this work? Thanks - Eric

[Tralfaz]

Yes, it is possible to add a decal with a transparent background. I did this for the Rebel logo I created for the side of the gas tank on the Honda Rebel motorcycle I am modelling.

 

I created the logo in Photoshop with a transparent background and saved it as a .tga file. I then imported it into A:M and applied it as any normal decal.

 

It took a while to get the background to actually save as transparent (not really familiar with Photoshop and transparent backgrounds), but once it saved properly, it worked like a charm.

 

I believe Caroline did a little tutorial on creating images with transparent backgrounds so they can be used in A:M.

 

Al

[flashawd]

Hi Al - thanks for your reply. I only have Fireworks and it will not let me export as a .tga, so emailed to a friend to do it. I'll see if I can search for Caroline's tutorial. Thanks again - Eric

[zandoriastudios]

The image needs to be saved with an Alpha Channel that defines what areas are transparent. Here is a link to a tutorial (Google is your friend...):

http://www.axialis.com/tutorials/tutorial-misc001.html

[Rodney]

If you carefully select the specific areas you want decaled you may not need any transparency at all.

 

In other news...

I'm attaching a project that has a basic example of an alternate method using Patch Images instead of decals.

I did this mostly as a demonstration that there are several ways to approach the problem.

You could also just adjust the surface property of the area you want over time without or without Patch Images or Decals.

There is also the Material route as well which are quite customizable.

 

Again... my addition here is just to demonstrate that you can solve the problem completely in A:M if you prefer to do that.

There are other methods you could use as well... such as creating your transparent decals in A:M. If the transparency is generated by A:M then you know it'll work for you.

 

In the attached project I've created a sequence of 30 grayscale images from white to gray that once rendered are in turn used in the project as the patch images. The blue of the iris has no images applied to it. The white of the eyes has the grayscale image sequence applied.

 

Note: You must render the grayscale images found in Action 1 in order to have the project file find the images to work with so my apologies if that trips you up or sends you in a direction you don't need to go. I'm adding this to the discussion just to show there are several ways to approach the problem. Decals with Transparency is one. Adjusting surface properties another. Patch images or materials yet others...

 

If you are working with clients you should have a copy of Photoshop, Photopaint, Gimp or some other equivalent to help create your decals.

EyeColor.prj

eyechange000.mov

[Caroline]

I'm not sure how you are currently doing it? Decal going transparent to show diffuse?

 

I have to go to work now, but I'll have a look later.

 

Fireworks will save a .png, I think? That should work with transparency.

 

Also you will probably need to click the Show More Than Drivers if you are animating a decal to fade in and out:

[Caroline]

I think this is the same as Rodney's, but simpler and with .pngs.

 

You just have 2 decals one on top of the other, and you animate the percentage of each decal over time. And you do need to click Show More than Drivers to get the decals to display in the choreography.

 

AnimatedDecals.mov

 

Project+pngs.

AnimatedDecals.zip

 

If you need a third static decal underneath the animated two, you can do that too.

[flashawd]

Thank you everyone for links and project files ;-) I have never used a forum with such great support and helpful people - thank you.