Sorry your browser is not supported!

You are using an outdated browser that does not support modern web technologies, in order to use this site please update to a new browser.

Browsers supported include Chrome, FireFox, Safari, Opera, Internet Explorer 10+ or Microsoft Edge.

3 Dimensional Chat / transparent bottle help

Author
Message
Sickly
15
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 14th Jul 2009
Location: Does it matter?
Posted: 18th Aug 2009 04:44
Link
ok.. i made a table, with all kinds of items on it for an alchemy lab. the problem i am running into, is i cant seem to make any of the potion bottles see through. im using 3D Studio Max 2009 to model my objects, and i have photoshop for my textures. if i try to use the 3dsmax material tab to make the object see through, its either solid, or completly invisible. even if i only set it to 1 on transparency, its invisible. id like it to look like glass, not air, but i cant seem to figure this out. its been driving me nuts for 2 days now... anyone got any ideas or suggestions?

The darkest minds, are often the brightest.
Back to top
Profile PM
Azunaki
15
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 11th Feb 2009
Location:
Posted: 18th Aug 2009 05:06
Link
is this for a game or like a movie?

[url]http://myportfolio.x10hosting.com/[url]
visit my site.(still in progress)
Back to top
Profile PM Website
Venge
18
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 13th Sep 2006
Location: Iowa
Posted: 18th Aug 2009 06:40
Link
Try setting Transparency to a decimal between 0 and 1?

I have never let my schooling interfere with my education.
-Mark Twain
Back to top
Profile PM
Sickly
15
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 14th Jul 2009
Location: Does it matter?
Posted: 18th Aug 2009 19:26
Link
its for a fantasy / action game (third person). i tried everything with the transparency settings.. i did kinda get something working using 60% opacity, and it looks great in 3DSmax. but when i export the model, it just shows up black when i import it into my level... im ready to smash my monitor.

The darkest minds, are often the brightest.
Back to top
Profile PM
zeroSlave
15
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 13th Jun 2009
Location: Springfield
Posted: 18th Aug 2009 20:43
Link
If you are using it for just a scene in max, try this:

In your material editor, look for the button that says "Standard" (under the sphere material examples.) Click it and select "Raytrace"

Once this is selected, you will be presented with a different material interface. You should see "transparency" with a black box to the right of it. Click this box, and drag it to grayscale value that you feel comfortable with. You will also see a setting for reflection that is similar. You can change this to a value you want as well. I would also suggest changing the reflection type to "falloff" and setting it to "fresnel"

Apply the material to an object and render it. It should be transparent and have refractions appropriate to the shape of the object. To get the "shiny" glass look, mess with the specular settings to get the shine you want.

(I don't have 3dsMax in front of me right now, but I am pretty sure that this is the process. Sorry if it is hard to understand.)

Also, I found this tutorial that covers what I am trying to explain:
Try this tutorial
Skip to about halfway down and it has step-by-step to get what you want.

There's something in this room that makes you can't speak well.
Back to top
Profile PM Email
Sickly
15
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 14th Jul 2009
Location: Does it matter?
Posted: 18th Aug 2009 23:50 Edited at: 18th Aug 2009 23:55
Link
i found a half ass decent tutorial on glass earlier and gave it a shot. i got it working in max, the problem now, (and this applies to all my textures on the model) when i export the model, and load it into my level, its white, and black. see, i made a tower, and keep in mind, this is my first custom model as im a new 3d modeler, and a table with alchemy supplies on it, to go in the tower. when i load the items into my level, they show up white, and anything that is supposed to be trasparent, appears black. i dont know if 3D Studio max is not freindly to the other software i use, or if im doing something wrong with i apply the textures, or export the model. im exporting in .3ds and loading it into T.Ed which supports .3ds files. i dont know what im doing wrong. i suppose it could have something to do with T.Ed also, but when i render the model in studio, its the same thing. black and white. im going to keep at it though, but any advice would be awsome. thanks guys.


and i just looked at the tutorial you just posted, im going to give that one a shot when i get off work tonight. that one seems more promising than the one i tried earlier. i still need to figure out why im having exporting issues though.

The darkest minds, are often the brightest.
Back to top
Profile PM
zeroSlave
15
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 13th Jun 2009
Location: Springfield
Posted: 19th Aug 2009 00:03 Edited at: 19th Aug 2009 00:03
Link
I don't think many (if any) of the texture map settings from 3ds max other than the UVs can be used in DB or software like T.Ed. I have never used T.Ed, so I'm not sure, but that would be my guess.

If you are wanting it in game, the best thing to do would probably be to create a PNG file with a transparent background and then create a layer on top of it with the color of your choosing with an opacity around 20% or so.

Apply this to your model inside DBPRo then you will need a "SET OBJECT TRANSPARENCY" I'm not sure why it is black and white, but you might want to "SET OBJECT TEXTURE" inside DB as well.

Hope any of this helps. :/

There's something in this room that makes you can't speak well.
Back to top
Profile PM Email
Venge
18
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 13th Sep 2006
Location: Iowa
Posted: 19th Aug 2009 01:30
Link
Oh, I wasn't aware that you were exporting it. Yes, an alpha-mapped PNG texture would probably work best for that.

I have never let my schooling interfere with my education.
-Mark Twain
Back to top
Profile PM
Sid Sinister
19
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 10th Jul 2005
Location:
Posted: 19th Aug 2009 08:51
Link
If it's for a game (or even for inside max), you'll need to use Photoshop to create a 32-bit (24 bit doesn't carry the alpha channel) Targa (awesome texture filetype) file using a alpha channel.

English please?

Create your texture for the bottle. Go into the channels tab in photoshop. You'll see R, G, and B channels (red, green, blue). Click on the create new layer button and it will insert an alpha channel. White keeps parts of the texture while black makes it invisible. Knowing this... how would you create transparent? Use a gray

It's as simple as that.

"If I have seen a little further it is by standing on the shoulders of Giants" - Isaac Newton
Current Project: http://strewnfield.wordpress.com/ (Last updated 06/11/09)
Back to top
Profile PM Email
Sickly
15
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 14th Jul 2009
Location: Does it matter?
Posted: 19th Aug 2009 20:23
Link
ok. well, thats terrible. so how would i got about texturing my tower (wooden floor, glass windows, rock walls) in dbpro? i had it looking great in 3dsmax.. but if i cant export textures too, looks like im gonna have to trash the tower completely, and make it a one texture object.

The darkest minds, are often the brightest.
Back to top
Profile PM
zeroSlave
15
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 13th Jun 2009
Location: Springfield
Posted: 19th Aug 2009 20:36
Link
I have found that using max's "export selected" works great for this. Take a model, convert it to an editable mesh, break it into pieces that use the same textures with the detach option, then "export selected" for each piece. If you are only using three textures, then you should only have three models. You would have more models to work with, but if you don't mess with the pivot points, you can load and position them all in the same place.

Also, what I have been getting into the habit of doing, is to make one large texture file (like 2048x2048) with everything I need and UV mapping the model accordingly.

I'm not sure how, but there is a way to export the model with multiple textures. The texture file that is associated with the .x file might have to be in the same folder, but I not sure since I have never done this.

There's something in this room that makes you can't speak well.
Back to top
Profile PM Email
Sickly
15
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 14th Jul 2009
Location: Does it matter?
Posted: 19th Aug 2009 21:30 Edited at: 19th Aug 2009 22:03
Link
ok. im going to give that a shot now. as i stated in a earlier post though, im completly new to all of this. my brother and me bought the dark studio package, and i bought 3ds max and a few other peices of modeling software. were both just starting school like... next week for programming and graphic arts, but were completly new to all this, and trying to learn all of it too fast i guess. he is going to do the programming for our game, im doing the modeling. so im going to give this a shot now coughmist, and i thank you for all your advice up to now. hopefully this will work.

also, while im at it, i dont really understand UV mapping. anyway anyone could explain this in one sentence? is it just in short, all the textures i would use for one model, in one image file?

also, is there any software i could buy that i could import my models into, then texture them, and export into dbpro format or x format? sorry for being the annoying nub, but i am very interested in all this.

The darkest minds, are often the brightest.
Back to top
Profile PM
zeroSlave
15
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 13th Jun 2009
Location: Springfield
Posted: 19th Aug 2009 22:15 Edited at: 19th Aug 2009 22:17
Link
UV mapping is the missing link between the model and the texture; picture flatting out the 3d model onto a 2d plane and then applying the texture to the flattened version of the model.

(I snagged this from Wiki, I hope they don't mind):



This would be considered as unwrapping the UV map.

Check out this fresh thread here on TGC for some more info on programs and the such.

There's something in this room that makes you can't speak well.
Back to top
Profile PM Email
Sickly
15
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 14th Jul 2009
Location: Does it matter?
Posted: 19th Aug 2009 22:22
Link
CoughMist, you are an awsome individual. thank you for your input. you have been a major help.

The darkest minds, are often the brightest.
Back to top
Profile PM
zeroSlave
15
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 13th Jun 2009
Location: Springfield
Posted: 19th Aug 2009 22:26
Link
I'm just glad I can help! Also, just as a note, 3ds max has a pretty good "Unwrap UVW Map" modifier in the modifier rollout. This is all I ever use for my models.

There's something in this room that makes you can't speak well.
Back to top
Profile PM Email
Sickly
15
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 14th Jul 2009
Location: Does it matter?
Posted: 20th Aug 2009 01:07 Edited at: 20th Aug 2009 01:56
Link
yea. im playing with it now trying to do this tower i made. gonna mess around with it till i figure it out. i got the UV map image rendered, and im about to put it in photoshop and texture it. kinda dont really know what im doing, but im reading what i can trying to get it. if it works out, ill post the tower, as it will be my first finished model. its not the greatest, but ive only been playing around with this stuff for a month now.

after playing with it, im not sure if im doing it right. i rendered the UVmap as a jpg, and imported the jpg to photoshop. now im having problems adding the texture to the map. dont really understand photoshop too well. ive spent the passed month only playing with 3ds max, and have ignored photoshop up till now... so i guess i gotta learn how to use this thing now. im sure i can find a tutorial somewhere on it though.

is it possible to add the textures to the model, then unwrap the map rather than having to paint the map after unwrapping it? because i think ive got the unwrapping part down pat.

Well i just found this tutorial, and im about to start reading up on it. it looks to be a promising tutorial. http://waylon-art.com/uvw_tutorial/uvwtut_01.html Ill post the link on another thread later as a reference for newbie modelers such as myself to check out.

The darkest minds, are often the brightest.
Back to top
Profile PM
Back to top

Login to post a reply

Server time is: 2024-11-24 23:25:39
Your offset time is: 2024-11-24 23:25:39