Was tyring to follow the tut regarding "copying a painting" using an alpha plane. I managed this OK a couple days ago, now today, when I've tried bring in an alpha plane I see no pic in the background..it's just stays white, obviously of no use. I've played with the camera/messed with the atmos. and transpareny on the AP is 0. What have I missed.... TIA

Post a render of what you see! Alpha is very simple import command, I suspect you probably have a defected .jpg file; since you said you already checked the atmos and transparency.

The alpha plane is made up of two layers the color picture and the mask. Your looking at the mask. There is buttons on the alpha plain part to switch it. Click on the picture part and if it's loaded correctly you'll see it.

This shows I have loaded the color pic with NO mask.

AS you can see I can see the pic in the preview window to the right but not on the main view.

You have to have a alpha version of your colored picture. You can do it in your Paint Shop Pro. Then you have to load both colored & ALPHA picture together. The red Arrow is invert option, after you load your alpha, you click "invert" to get the picture right!

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According to this tut I'm to ignore the alpha image...

Ok then look at your image there if you want to see your image the alpha channel has to be black if you don't want to see the image make the alpha channel white. White is the clear parts black is the solid light don't pass threw parts. You need a black solid image to be able to see it. Understand? Notice the alpha part is completely black? You need it that way too make it work in this case. ( In the tutorial?) If it's not black there is a invert button there, the square button with the white circle. Click it. If you cannot see your image in the next screen on the right there then you got it goofed up. It must apear on the right, It's what will render. Notice his picture is there twice? You need it that way before you got it right. It will work then. He's saying don't worry about it cause the picture is a square. Usually it's not like a leaf. In that case only the leaf will be black and the rest white on the alpha part. Look at the tutorial about the sign in the book. See the sign alpha picture? It's that way so only the sign shape will render and not the entire square original picture.

I guess I'm not being clear, sorry...If you look above I DO have the alpha black...god I feel so stupid..I've never had this much trouble with anything :(. The problem is I DO see the plane on the right(look up at screenshots)..However the pic is NOT showing for use as an "overlay"..it's just solid white....I must be over thinking this..it worked for me the other day..now it's not....damn :( Sorry to annoy anyone...thanks anyway.

You only can see it in the final render..... That answer your question? Render it see if it shows up, Broadcast quality is fine. If you can't see it then there is some other problem we'll try that one next. let us know. Don't feel stupid Alpha channel type pictures and alpha planes are a very complicated concept to grasp for people. It's how we make trees look proper and lots of very special effects. It's a very powerfull feature. It's our way of telling the computer what is clear and what is not clear. It takes a bit to get used to. Oh just looked. Rotate your alpha plane in the scene so it's 90 degrees to the camera. Try a different atmosphere like a cloudy one. Direct sunlight could be goofing you up.

Thanks MP....I bet you right about the direct sunlight...I've been using brightly lit atmos...in order to see it better....LOL..off to give it a whirl...thank you for your patience :) have a great night!!!