I need an area that renders transparent.
JMCarrigan
Posts: 179
Is there a guaranteed way to render certain areas of an image as transparent? I rendered an image that I thought would have a transparent area but it was just black and for some reason and Photoshop CC 2018 wouldn't do what I thought it would over black areas. ( I'LL INCLUDE AN IMAGE AS AN EXAMPLE.) I couldn'tclip it out cleanly either. You see, I want to inlcude a Lightwave3D saucer shape that I have been unable to get into DAZ3D the way I need it to look - so far.
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Is Richard Haseltine ariound. He seems to know quite a bit.
are you rendering in Iray?
There's a special plane in iray that might do just what you want
Yes I am. It is an Iray World background I turn off too. There are so many controls!
You will probably have to set your background image on a giant flat plane, unless you are using a skydome, that will work too.
You will need to go into your environment tab and make sure it's set to none, then go into Create -> Iray section plane
The section plane was originally developed to cut holes in walls and ceilings behind the camera to let light into a scene, but I think it should work just the same for what you want.
Make sure you are saving the render with the transparent area as a png, not jpg, etc.
If you are concerned with how the saucer looks in the second render, check the reflectivity settings on its surfaces, it looks like they are too high.
To make the background transparent you need to render with no backdrop or dome (Draw Dome off in render Settings, nothing in the Environmetn pane), then save your render as PNG or tiff - either of thsoe will apply an alpha channel to mask the areas that didn't have any geoemtry or dome/background to render. If you need to have the backdrop for some reason, you can render twice - once with the doem or whatever visible, once with it off, then in your imaeg editor use the alpha (saved selection) from the version without the background item as a mask on the version with.
Okay. But I am really at a loss now. I am using The Iray Worlds Skydome. There are many selections under Environment. Part of my image (other than the Background) disappeared. What am I to set to NONE?
When I went to Create > Iray Section Plane. The girls and floor disappeared. I will try to do things now. While I wait.
I turn (the EYE) off and on that represents the Iray Section Plane Node 1 and the Girls go away and come back accordingly. I haven't figured out how to move the "plane" around so that it becomes the transparent area I need.
I'm pretty sure a section plane isn't what you want - you want to lose the background, as I understand it. Hsve you tried just turning off Draw Dome under the Editor tab in Render settings? The dome will still provide lighting and reflection.
Oh yes Richard. And I figured that that would work. The background turned to black though and didn't save out as transparent. That has really messed my aging brain UP though.
All I just figured I need is a solid blue or green Skydome!
I just noticed that these remarks are not in the order I thought they were. Sheesh. This Iray World Skydome is not the same as other skydomes either.
Haha
I misundertood, I thought you wanted the background but just with a hole cut in it. Hense the suggestion of the iray plane
When the background terned black were you saving the render as Tiff or PNG, and opening/viewing in an application that understood alpha channels/transparency?
I saved it as it stood, a png. I've used it a lot when a transpaency channel is used in Photoshop CC 2018. I do not know how to use DAZ very well though
With no actual,dome model, no backdrop in Environment, and Draw Dome off the gaps should be masked so I'm not sure what is going on.
Oddly enough, to me, whether or not the Dome is on or off and the Environment Intensity is 0.00 I still see the clouds and sea of the Iray Worlds Skydome.
I had a Camera 1 created, but when I loaded the Iray World Skydome it includuded an IR-Base and a Film-Cam and A RenderCam.
NOW I can't even make the Backgound go Black. I wish DAZ3D had some other Saucer models. With bells and whistles even.
I don't have that set so I'm not sure how it works.
There is this ne, but the page is throwing up a 404
https://www.daz3d.com/sci-fi-ufo
I suspect most of your problems are in the surface editor, but here's a cheat I use when I can't get what I want out of Daz.. Sometimes you just need to get it done and this helps.
That is wonderful! I hope. Tomorrow.
Got it, at least what I want for now. Background, midground and foreground, all rendered separately. I'll put the final product in my gallery. After I redo the saucer in Lightwave. Tomlongmacon's idea is fantastic too.
I am new to Daz, so take this with a grain of salt. But I have been doing just about everything with Iray canvases now. It allows me to isolate elements I want with super high accuracy by having Daz make the alpha-channels and also allows me to tweak the light mix without re-render.
(Not my tutorials, but) See:
https://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/62101/relighting-with-iray-canvases/p1
(My workflow:
To get the alpha renders to work in PS, you will need to copy their image data, make a new Alpha channel in the Channels list, and paste the contents. But then you can load selections from them as normal.
Sample Daz -> PS layer set attached for my recent campfire image.
Sounds like a lot of work, but I think its worth it for the flexibility.
Phew! I mean to tell ya. Gottcha.
I'll try a pointer: https://www.daz3d.com/gallery/images/579661/
A copy/paste of the URL above will get you there, but I saw someones' blue text get me there but I can't figure out how to do it - yet.
I just got it.