With Vue 5 Infinite, when I saved a render as a PNG and chose Embed alpha, I would end up with the rendered object on a transparent background, exactly what I wanted. When I do the same thing with Vue 6 Infinite, I get the exact opposite. I get the infinite planes with a cutout of where the selected object SHOULD be, but isn't.

I've selected "Hide infinite planes from alpha" the same way I did with Vue 5 Infinite. Anyone know what the deal is here?

No one's got any ideas on this?

Try inverting the image in vue 6.

Thanks for the reply. But what do you mean by inverting?

Sorry I didn't read your original message properly - I thought you were using a PNG as a texture map. Didn't realise it was the final render. Can't help with that I'm afraid as I've never done it!

lol, no problem, at least you replied ;)

I dont know if this applies to what you are doing but for 3D object renders, here's one quick way that works for me:

1. In atmospheres select - "Effects" - then "Others" then "Black Back" (Solid black sky for use as a mask).

2. Export using broadcast/render to disk/options: save colour picture, select "TARGA", when you click ok the 'picture format options' dialog box comes up, select "16M colors" and SELECT the checkbox for "EMBED ALPHA INFORMATION" - click OK.

3. You can also elect to save an ALPHA MASK or DEPTH MAP at this stage - depends what you are doing. Click OK.

4. Click render.

One thing is if you are importing a 3d object like a "House Door Key" from Maya or Max into Vue and want to do a simple texture, rotate and render, if you apply a reflective material in Vue like chrome to the door key, it will render black if you dont adjust the material as it reflects the black environment. Duh I dont know Vue that well so I am sure there will be a work around.

These targas work fine in Motion but should be ok in After FX or whatever.
This is probably a very retarded way but I am not a Vue expert. 

Regards
Mick

Thanks for the reply, but that's not what I'm looking for. I can get done what I need to, but it involves saving the color pic as png WITHOUT embedding alpha information, then saving the alpha separately. Then I open Photoshop and load both pics. Select the areas I need from the alpha, then save the selection, then load the selection in the color pic. Then copy out the selected pic, then paste into a new transparent image. Not a fun thing to do hundreds of times.

With Vue 5 I could save as a PNG and check the "Embed alpha channel" on the save dialog, and I would end up with a transparent PNG with just the rendered object, exactlty what I want. But it doesn't work the same way with Vue 6. I get the exact opposite of what I want then, just the inifnite plane with the rendered object removed where the alpha information was.

I can't use a black background because I want the reflections from the HDRI atmosphere on the objects.

They changed it, but what they changed it to doesn't make any sense.

Damn that's a downer then - soooo much extra legwork.

I guess you have tried exporting as another file type besides png?

Do you get the same "inversed" alpha problem if you export a targa etc?

Quote - With Vue 5 I could save as a PNG and check the "Embed alpha channel" on the save dialog, and I would end up with a transparent PNG with just the rendered object, exactlty what I want. But it doesn't work the same way with Vue 6. I get the exact opposite of what I want then, just the inifnite plane with the rendered object removed where the alpha information was.

I just tried that to make some billboards of some figures and it worked perfectly - that probably doesn't help you but it does work.  That's the way I've always done it.

I didn't have "hide alpha planes" checked though when I did the render

Are you using Vue 6 Infinite? I've tried it both ways, I think, with and without hide infinite planes. I'll have to try again.

Just tried again. Unchecked hide infinite planes from alpha, and the same thing happens. Everyting except the main selected object is saved in the pic, even though it was there before saving.

yup, I'm using infinite.  This is on a PC though, there's been some Mac weirdness with this latest build so I dunno if that's the problem.  I just render, save as PNG and tick the "Embed Alpha" option.  I haven't loaded it into photoshop or anything like that, just applied it to an alpha plane.  I might have to do a spot of postwork on it though as there's a bit of fringing

I'm on a PC as well. on Vista Ultimate, though it does  the same thing on XP Pro. Very strange.

Well, the report is much appreciated.

ir,

What are you using to display the PNG file? I launched Vue-6 Infinite, rendered a simple cylinder with no ground plane, saved it as a PNG with embedded alpha, and it opened fine in Photoshop.

I've used Photoshop, Gimp, and several different image viewers, all show the same thing.