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Alpha maps

Posted: Wed Sep 12, 2007 10:41 pm
by Sayris
Is there a way to make use of alpha maps in indigo and c4d without edit the igs(xml) file?

does it work with blend material?
pls help :?

Posted: Thu Sep 13, 2007 8:41 am
by Zom-B
Yes, use blend.... mark "Alpha map", and load a separate B&W silhouette Picture for your alpha Map.

ATM Indigo doesn't support alpha channels, so this "work-around" is the way to get alpha mapping...

Posted: Thu Sep 13, 2007 9:03 am
by Sayris
hmm ok then I will have very much work later hope indigo will support it soon :wink:
thx for reply.

Posted: Fri Sep 14, 2007 1:19 am
by Kram1032
you can simply go th "channel" view in PS/Gimp/anything else^^ and turn off all the channels, besides the alpha channel ;) - simply safe the pic, you get, as either jpg or png and it will work as expected :D

Posted: Thu May 15, 2008 11:47 pm
by Phoenix
I know, this is an older thread, but I think, my problem is related to it.

I also have a few problems with alpha maps and the blend material.

It's discussed a little here:
http://www.indigorenderer.com/joomla/fo ... php?t=3672
(There you'll find a test scene setup attached too)

It would be nice, if someone could tell me if there is a better way (and how) to setup a material with a texture and an alpha map than how I did in my example.

Posted: Thu May 15, 2008 11:53 pm
by fused
in the blend material, leave material 1 empty(for null_mat) and set material 2 the leaf mat.

Posted: Fri May 16, 2008 1:42 am
by Phoenix
Okay, thanks, I finally got it! 8)

But have it really to be necessary to define two materials in C4D for that effect? Or could you perhaps change the blend material (the material helper tag) in a way, to get all the needed informations out of one C4D material where in the color channel is one of the textures defined and in the alpha channel is the texture with the alpha informations associated.

And what really would be great, if even the material conversion feature of cindigo would be able to handle C4D Materials with an alpha map automatically correct and would create the material helper tag with the right blend material settings. :wink:

By the way, what do you think about a check, if materials are still converted when the cindigo convert materials fearture is called?


I made a few tests and here are the results:

Posted: Fri May 16, 2008 2:42 am
by fused
about the already converted materials...

ill add, that only the selected materials get converted, if none are selected, all.

the rest... maybe in the future :)

Posted: Fri May 16, 2008 4:10 am
by Phoenix
fused wrote:about the already converted materials...

ill add, that only the selected materials get converted, if none are selected, all.
Yeah, that had been exactly my suggestion! 8)

fused wrote:the rest... maybe in the future :)


Im looking forward to it. :wink:

Posted: Thu Jun 26, 2008 9:22 pm
by cinema
I tried to import an "Ivy generated" plant into C4D and than I tried to setup the scene with cindigo and alpha maps. I found that Cindigo crash C4D because of the multiple selection made on the plant to attach uvw mapped leafs on poligons. Anybody has tried something like that?
(Sorry for my very very bad english)

Posted: Fri Jun 27, 2008 2:12 am
by Zom-B
actually cindigo should handle this fine :/

Try to reduce your scene to and post your c4d file, so we can have a look!