I'm trying to get an image onto a sphere, which is transparant. the effect I'm looking for is similar to a HUD(Heads Up Display) where there is an image projected onto the glass. I've tried to use an image I created as a texture on a sphere for the transparancy, but instead of being in one place on the sphere, it was wrapped all around(I know, I should have realized before I tried) I also tried doing a 3d transform in Photoshop, but that just put a mask around the edges of the picture. is there an "easy" way of accomplishing this?

Try object front and world front. You can also simply make a spot light and apply the image as a gel and project it onto the sphere. Another way is to Make the image curved like you want in phtotshop and then apply it on to a 2d face and then stick it on the sphere. The best solution i can think of Is to import each unit of the display as a separate pic and then just place them in the right spots.

hmmm....I don't think I wan't to try to manually distort the image, and I don't like the idea of having to place each section individually. I never thought of projecting the image as a gel though...I may try that, but the sphere is glass, so will that make any diffrence? If I set some reflectivity, it should work right, right? also, when using an image as a gel, doesn't the opposite of what you have come through? for example. if I had a big 'x' as the image, wouldn't the space around the 'x' show through, or does it work diffrently in Bryce? I'll mess around some more, and get back as to what worked.

Hi, you need to rework your image: for Bryce, it needs to have twice the width, if you want to map it onto a sphere (parametric!). In your graphics-program, simply expand one of its side margins by image-width and then map it parametric to the sphere. Also adapt your transparency(alphachannel)-image for the second image-slot to those size-changes. (Dont forget to checkmark the "blend-transparency" in the material and to set the transparency-dot in the MatLab to that Slot). H.

I tried using the image as a gel, but it distorted what I could see, and some of the image I could not see. I increased the width, but when I applied it to the transparancy channel, it did nothing. I used blend transparancy, but it made my test object invisible, when I increased the transparancy. perhaps I'm creating my image incorrectly. is there anything I need to know about the image I am attempting to apply to my object(properties...etc)?

I still say import the pieces separately for the best effect, and I know it will work.

You can always group the individual sections together so it looks like the full object. When using a gel image, try using a parallel light and it will not distort the image, and make sure the use an alpha mask for transparency so you won't have the extra light. A method that I found that worked was to import the picture onto the sphere with blend transparency on, and the open of the edit texture palette in the materials lab and resize along the x and y axis until it is in the right position. As a hint, pretend the zero values are the same as 100%, so, for example, if you wanted to make it half as wide, you would input 50% in the x value for scale. Then simply drag transparency to around 20% for that semi-transparent look. Sorry for not giving you screen captures, but for some reason it won't let me do it. Hope this helps!

it kinda does. I did, in fact, use a parallel light, but it wasn't the light that distorted the image, it was the sphere. I want it distorted a bit, to give the impression of looking through a bubble, but not so distorted that you can't tell what you are looking at.

OK.... I've got the image to correctly show up on my sphere. I realized that I can use a native paintshop file as the image, so I did that, instead of using a jpg file, and it worked great, except for one thing... It came out gray scale. My picture is supposed to be color. any ideas?

I put the image into my scene, and it actually looks better greyscale than it would in color, given the focus of the picture. thanks all for your help! I learned quite a bit doing this. thanks again, big_hoovie

Load a jpeg version of the image into the clor channel maybe? I've never worked with paintshop so i cant say...