Not sure how to word this so plz bear with me. Say you have a picture of your car. Then you make an alpha plane of the car pic. Is there a way to make the car/alpha plane look like the other standard Vue objects? As in the same looking format ...like not so real looking..? argh I hope you guys know what I'm trying to say. :)

Sorrry, but I don't understand what you mean. An alpha is an alpha, you cannot make it become a 3d object. But that's maybe not what you wanted to know? Guitta

Most alphas will "blend in" well when you bring them into vue... Reason is that the lighting will be different than what was on the original picture and the rendering will add anti aliasing and stuff, which will smooth out the original... So, it will look like Vue 3d stuff... I use a lot of alphas in my work.. Try to pick out which is the alpha plane and which is the real model... :)

Sorry. I messed up in the 1st reply. Ive just deleted it from my end but I dont know if that deletes it so knowone can see it. (hopefully it did) Ill start over. I want to make the alpha plane look more like materials in Vue, as in their 'not so photoish look'. If you look at the dog in my pic you can see that he still looks like a photo. I would like the alpha plane(no matter what it was)to blend in a bit more so that it doesnt look out of place with everything else in the render.

put some blur to your image:-)

And add some miniature terrains to the legs of the dog, it will look more natuarl. Also don't forget some foot steps behind him (he came from soewhere and walked in the snow, isn't it? Guitta

no....he's a hover-dog. He just planted himself there. :p Actually I dont know how to do footsteps. :)

You gotta use the pen tool to extract the dog from the image and then when you cut the image from the original, make sure you have a 1 or 2 pixel feather to smooth out the edges... Also, the picture should be put more in the background.. what Guitta said about the footprints is very good advice, but what I would suggest is change the ground texture be closer to the dog's texture/colors, that way he doesn't stick out so much... Whatever illumination you use, make sure you give it a orange/yellow filter to match the light color in the dog picture...

Another thing you can do is to use the same image for a bump map, it takes a little adjusting as far as the amount of bump to show, but in the final image it seems to add a little more 3D to the alpha plane. Also, in your image, all the legs are on the same level where they go into the snow. If you could somehow adjust something to make the legs go into the snow at different levels, I think it would help look a little more 3D. Just my thoughts & good luck . . . Mark.

For footprints see in the FAQ--->HOW DO I--->Footprints:-) Guitta

Thanx guys. I'll try all the suggestions. And thanx Guitta, I did go through the tut area, and your site, but didnt see one for footprints. I'll look now in the HOW DO I section.

Attached Link: http://market.renderosity.com/%7Evue/archtips.html

I did not say that footprints are on my pages or in any other tutorial area. I said that they are in the the FAQ--->HOW DO I. Above the direct link to the HOW DO I (there you find footprints). Guitat

yes i know. i was just telling you where i had looked before you posted your msg. ....as in so you or anyone else didnt think i was being lazy and not actually searching. :)

:-)