Is there a way in Bryce 5.5 to texture an object and then apply a second texture with partial transparency (.psd or equivalent)so that the original texture will show as the background and the texture with transparent sections will appear to be on top of it ? Bob

I use Bryce 5.01 and I would imagine it's the same process,...............what I do is(this is for terrains) apply my base texture and then duplicate the terrain(Control+"D"), go to the ("Object Attributes")tab (the little "A" beside the object)and rasie it slightly above the original terrain on the "Y" axis ("Position" on the middle "Y" dialog box)say for example from 32.06 to 32.08,.........then apply your transparent texture to the second terrain. Make sure to use the "Blend Transparency" option in the Texture Editor. I find the the texture will be applied using the Alpha and Bump channels,..........so use something fairly hard edged for your trans map. This method will work for other objects but you have to use the "Size" panel in the "Attribues" dialog and increase the size by the same method along all (X Y and Z)axis. This is probably not very clear as I am not very good at giving detailed instructions,.........if you have further questions feel free to IM me. There might be an easier way of doing this,........this is just the method I use.

You can use C to drive the Bump channel as well. This will give a raised appearence except on the edges where the effect shows through. If you use an image the C texture must also be in the second window of the material. That's where Bryce gets the alpha channel information.

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That was quite honestly the most simple explaination of how to do something I've failed to do miserably for years. Many thanks, Electro! :thumbupboth:

Or you could do multiple render passes and postwork the thing using layers in a 2D program. :huh: Yeah, it's extra rendering time. But the flexibility in what can be done with the layers sometimes makes it worthwhile.

The only thing 'glyph missed out which took me a few frustrating minutes (way back when I first tried this) is that you ctl-click in the c blob to populate all abc channels in this manner.