Hi all, Vern here. I am trying to get back up to speed with my renderings and needed some help. I am currently working on an 'Arrow' shape to use on my web page. I am not sure how to explain this, but is there any way to render the arrow so that the area outside of the arrow (Red in example above) is transparent or do I have to do this post rendering with another program. Ideally when I get through, I can place the rectangle with the arrow in a web apge and only the arrow will show and not the rest of the rectangle. I am on a Mac and can use Photoshop if it will do it, but I would rather do it all in Carrara if possible. Any help is greatly appreciated. Thanks, Vern

Photoshop would be your best bet. It's color & masking features are much better then those in Carrara (understadably so). There is supposedly an option for gif transparency in Carrara but it's grayed out on my Mac.

hi vern,

this is how i would solve the problem...

1.) render in carrara with whatever background color you want it
doesn't matter. set the file type to photoshop, and enable
"mask" in the g-buffer section.

2.) open the file in photoshop, and go to: SELECT: LOAD
SELECTION. load the selection named "mask." your arrow
should now have marching ants.

3.) copy and paste this selection (pasting creates a new layer.)
delete the background layer by dragging it to the trash can in
the layer pallete. now you should have your arrow surrounded
by grey and white checker boxes. the document should only
contain one layer now.

4.) now save for web. (FILE: SAVE FOR WEB) select GIF as the
file format and make sure the "Transparency" check box is
checked. all other settings are up to you.

also, looking at your arrow, it is not so complex that it needs to be done in 3D. you could use the same T-Map for the arrow... define it as a pattern and fill it into an arrow shape. then use the type tool for the word back and use the drop shadow or bevel and emboss layer effect to create the same exact look. just a thought.

well i hope all of this has been helpful.

good luck,
-scott

Thanks Willf and Scott. I will try my luck with Photshop ( I have not used it much.) I was trying to avoid going to GIF format since the images tend to look somewhat crappy in 256 colors. Yes, this image is simple, but I have some some complex ones that I need to do the same thing to so I am using this one for a test. Thanks,Vern

Attached Link: http://www.geocities.com/scottspringer78/info/information.html

hi vern,

i made a quick step by step tutorial in pdf format covering the process of making transparent gifs in photoshop using embedded alpha channels. you can download it from the above link. make sure you view it at 100% in acrobat, or the screen captures will look wonky.

in addition, i posted a comparison between jpg and gif. both images were compressed using photoshop 6's save for web feature. the gif shows some banding but i think it is pretty minimal. if your image has lots of texture, like your arrow, you might not even notice the diffusion. it shows up on this image because the objects are so smooth.

well i hope all this helps. feel free to ask if you have any photoshop questions.

-scott