How to make billboard items
cherpenbeck
Posts: 1,413
I understand that I can render png pictures with a transparent background, and that these pictures then can be used as billboards in other renders, which even make their own shadows.
But I don't know how to make these billboards, and forum search doesn't help. Is there a tutorial for such stuff?
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In Daz Studio? Just take the image you want and apply it to a plane primitive (Create>New Primitive, set the type to plane and adjust the size). If the image you want to use is not square use the x-scale to adjust the proportions, use the overall Scale control to adjust the overall size. The image gets applied to Diffuse colour in 3Delight, Base colour in Iray, and you want most other properties set to 0%.
Also don't forget the transparency image. At least if using 3DL, that would also be in the Surfaces pane. I don't have DS in front of me but I think the parameter was called "opacity", and I think there was a second parameter below it you might need to adjust to either one end or the other.
No, if the opacity is a separate mask image (and I think that tends to be more reliable than using a png with a mask) then just apply the mask image to Opacity.
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I'll try that, thank you!
Richard, I am struggling. I have saved a simple image as both psd and png files. The PSD will show black against white, but the png is all black or grey. PSD will become translucent, but at the same time the black bits get lighter and eventually disappear, so it is not strictly a billboard. I don't understand why the PNG is not transparent, and I don't understand how to make them work as transparent to work as billboards. I have changed the image on the primitive, but there is no 'base colour' option I can see. The PNG files are transprent in photoshop and other programs, but not here, which suggests I am overlooking something simple.
You are using the 3Delight shader on the plane and you are trying to rebder in Iray. Change the plane shader to iray using the Iray Uber Shader.
How does one "apply" the png file to the newly-created primitive plane (ctrl-C and ctrl-V do not work), and what form of "saving" is then used used?
with your primitive selected click on the surfaces tab scroll down to difusse colour tan click the arrow and from that menu click browse to find your image and select it and it'll appear on your primitive, have not worked out how to have clear around image still getting black or white background on the primitive - and yeah done a cut out png image erasing around it like a picture tube image but I still get white or black around the cut out