Whenever I convert Poser-characters to obj and import them in Bryce I have problems with the transparency especially with transparent hair. I can't get it looking right when I use the original transparency image. Please help.

In the Materials Lab, select the small arrow at the top of the screen to open the Shading Mode menu, Select Blend Transperancy. In the OPTICS section of the Material Lab, check the 2nd dot next to transperancy and set the component to picture(Click the "P"), import your transmaps into the Picture Editor, load your map into the first box, then click copy, goto the 2nd window(where bump maps go) and click paste, click ok to delete current selection. Click the Exit checkmark and return to the Materials Lab. This process will have to be repeated for each body part the tansperancy map is applied to.

Heya FastTraxx... I'm working on something similar right now, based off of the tips you gave in the earlier reply to this query that we posted. I was wondering, could you post a screen capture here of the process you're describing? It might help... even for someone like myself who's already conversant with the .mat editor window. I'm still having problems getting Kosaburos hair trans to look the same in Bryce as it does in poser. The trans just doesn't seem to be applying properly for me and I'm stumped. The process you describe here seems so simple to me that I shouldn't be having problems with it. Ah well... not the first time simple the ings in Bryce stumped me. The complex I do right away. :}

you could look at this tutorial if what FT is a little unclear: http://www.brycetech.com/tutor/bryce/brycealive.html there are flash movies there that will walk you thru the entire process to help make objects use transparencies. Probably the biggest thing to do is to check "blend transparency" otherwise it doesnt quite cut it ;) luck BT

Thanks dcrich... that looks like what I needed to clear up the uncertainties. For some reason, I was having a hard time visualizing the application of the steps when looking at the Mat lab interface. Reading that made me want to go Doh! That's what he meant! Cool.

All right... I got it to work, at least with Kozaburo's hair and pony tail. Part of the problem I think was that the mair and trans I was using to test with had no alpha channel on the trans map... that was what was screwing up the proceedure and throwing me off, because I was convinced that I was following the steps correctly. When I took it into photoshop and added an alpha channel mask it worked just fine. So did Kozaburo's pony tail which DOES have an alpha channel in the transmap. I'll post the render here later, with a screen cap of the channel settings I used. I used the three hair method: duplicating and sizing up the mair model slightly, with different transparency setting on each duplicate to get the glossy look I was after. Worked nice, but I need to scale the pony tail texture slightly to compensate for the over long tail on the model... Only problem now is, I'm getting mesh distortions around the waist of the exported .obj model. Always something, aint it?