How do I make the bat appear black?

Try plugging into diffuse value instead of diffuse color.
DPH

Plugging into diffuse value didn`t work, the render looked exactly the same.

You'll need to use a map (the transmap might possibly serve) to drive a Blender node connect to the Alternate_Diffuse, with one input set to black, and the other set to white with the Fractal_Sum node connected.

Hi ... Can you post youre scene ? just the cone and the texture ? may be it could help !

Are you using a decal effect for your image?  Show us what image you are using for your image map.

Quote - Nruddock, I tried that and it had no effect, the picture shows the settings I used, I am not sure if that is what I was supposed to do, I tried the colour map plugged into the blender node as well and that also had no effect.

The map needs to be connected to the Blending input and the value set to 1.0

Anthanasius, I dont have my own site, so I cant easily post the scene here.

Quote - I tried it with these settings and it still didn`t work.

Reverse the settings/connections on Input_1 and Input_2
I'd also turn off the Ambient , Translucence, and Specular.

It's always best to build things up one affect at a time, start with the colour, then add the transparency back in, and finally add in other things to see if they're really needed and/or enhance the render.

If you open up the previews on the nodes, you will find it easier to tell if your going to get what you want/expect.

Try this setup I managed to quickly put together.  Not perfect but it may solve your problem.

Nruddock I switched off specular and translucency and it worked but it still wasn`t quite what I wanted.

Glad to see that it worked well for you.  Just tweak the settings to your liking.  I threw the whole thing together rather quickly to solve the inverted Bat Insignia color.  Took a little doing to find the right combination that would work.

Thank you for the help hborre and nruddock.

You don't need two image maps: you can easily calculate the negative map by using a Math Functions->Subtract node, setting both input values to 1.000 and plugging the image node into the Value2 input.. Saves on memory used by texture maps.

Quote - You don't need two image maps: you can easily calculate the negative map by using a Math Functions->Subtract node, setting both input values to 1.000 and plugging the image node into the Value2 input.. Saves on memory used by texture maps.

Thank you for that, it is good to know.

The same trick can be used to create "quick and dirty" bump/displacement maps from a color texture.

The "quick and dirty" method consists of desaturating and inverting the color map. See the attached .JPG file for the material room setup.

Note: the bump map will look quite dark. In fact, after inverting the image map (using the formula bumpValue= 1-colorValue) I subtract another 0.5, which gets you both positive and negative bump in the same map.

I knew there was a way of doing it without a second map.  Thanks for the tip, svdl.  Definitely want to use this approach on a regular basis.

Quote - The same trick can be used to create "quick and dirty" bump/displacement maps from a color texture.

The "quick and dirty" method consists of desaturating and inverting the color map. See the attached .JPG file for the material room setup.

Note: the bump map will look quite dark. In fact, after inverting the image map (using the formula bumpValue= 1-colorValue) I subtract another 0.5, which gets you both positive and negative bump in the same map.

I see this a lot. It relies on the premise that darker areas on the color map are actually raised on a human figure. Examples- nipples, eyebrows, chest hair, moles etc. But don't get carried away. There are other dark areas that actually should be lowered, not raised, such as pores. If you're not careful, you're going to get raised pores which is going to look mighty strange.

Also, a lot of color maps made from photos have burned in specular highlights, from tiny raised bumps on the skin. What happens to these when you invert? They get lowered - not the effect you want.

A bump map should have texturing or shapes different from the colour texture, things like pock marks could be made using a bump map.

The old idea that a colour map can be made grayscale and be a bump map has always been wrong.

It is a "quick and dirty" bump map indeed. Correct bump mapping is a whole different ballgame, I don't think it's possible to derive a correct bump/displacement map from the texture map alone, using only shader math.

But I found it helpful for displacement mapping a stone tile floor, for example.