I'm following Mark's Dark Arts "Apply a label" tutorial and when using the preset milk bottles everything works fine. When I open my own beer bottle file and follow the same directions, I can't draw (or see what I've drawn) in the preview window - similar glass bottle and shader - although 'Rect Layer' shows up in shader tree. If I apply a color or texture map into the color channel, I don't get a preview and back in assembly room I can't do an area render.

test 1: Mark's tut with milk bottle preset - works

test 2: Mark's tut using my beer bottle file and glass shader - doesn't work

test 3: milk bottle preset with my glass shader - works

test 4: milk bottle preset with my beer bottle and glass shader pasted in - doesn't work

test 5: milk bottle preset, preset's glass shader applied to my beer bottle - doesn't work

test 6: my beer bottle file with preset's milk bottle pasted in, using preset glass shader - works

test 7: my beer bottle file with preset's milk bottle pasted in, my glass shader applied - works

I'm starting to think it's my beer bottle model, it's a vertex model, nothing fancy, but I can't draw a layer on it in texture room - and as stated above - "'Rect Layer' shows up in shader tree. If I apply a color or texture map into the color channel, I don't get a preview and back in assembly room I can't do an area render."

Where to from here? Probably something simple.

Humbly,
willingparticipant

Oh, and another thing: what does "optimize shader" do under view menu in texture room. Besides, of course, optimize the selected shader. I'm guessing it simply brings an older shader up to snuff with the Carrara version one is working in . . . or is there more to it than that?

Again, and quite possibly more humbly,
willingparticipant

 Hi WP,

It sounds like your bottle doesn't have  UV coordinate system assigned to it.  Have you set a UV space yet in the Vertex modeling room?

Mark

Thanks Mark,

I thought it would be something simple like that, works now. I selected 'cylindrical' under the 'UV Map' tab, I assume that's what did the trick.

Now, what exactly does the 'optimize shader' function under the view menu do?

Thanks again

I don't remember the specifics but it was for better integration of legacy shaders, specifically transparency, into C7, so you intuition was right on that.