Hello, I was trying to make an avatar using bryce 5.0 and I wanted to render the object mask but when I selected that option the render was all black. How do I make the mask render properly?

Did you select your object(s) before rendering?

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Ignore the shooty dog thing.

No, I forgot to do that, thank you.

Hows that for service:)

I never intended to make art.

I havent used bryce recently and forgot that you have to select the objects for the mask. Is there any way in bryce to save a render with an alpha channel? I tried reading the manual but couldn`t find it there.

No, you just have to "save image as"(the mask that is)

I never intended to make art.

But if I want to render a scene with the alpha channel is it possible in bryce?

Alpha channels in Bryce are used to mask out areas of mats/textures and or to create hight or bump maps. Why would you want to render a scene with an alpha channel?

I never intended to make art.

You can save the mask from Bryce then bring it into Photoshop or some other graphic program like photoshop, and make the mask an alpha channel, and save as a TIFF file. You then can import the texture back into Bryce, and it will automaticlaly add the saved alpha channel. Or you could just add the mask into the transparencey slot of the texture, and save as a mat preset and re-use it over and over.

Sans2012 I wanted to render the scene with the alpha channel so that I could remove the background in a paint program. I use paint shop pro and I don`t know how to make the mask into an alpha channel there.

You have to be carefull with Bryce's alpha channel 'cause that's what Bryce uses to resume (or batch) a render. In Photoshop (don't know about psp), you just open the Bryce image and the saved alpha mask. You then drag the mask to the Bryce image's Channels window, then drag that channel to the "Load channel to selection" icon. Best; Dan

I worked out how to do it using paint shop pro, thank you.

In PSP its just a little more complicated than that, but it can also let you mask translucency and blurs.

I wish PSP 6 would do .png with alpha... (It would be handy for making animations when combined with Bryce & Flash MX.) sigh (I know another workaround, but there's more steps involved.) Time to upgrade I guess...

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Barbequed Pixels?

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Also feel free to browse my freebies at ShareCG.
There might be something worth downloading.

xantor: you should have written you just wanted to remove the background. Well you figured it now, so thats cool;)

I never intended to make art.

Sans2012 it would have been good to know if bryce can save alpha channel pictures anyway for compositing.

Thats what the object mask is for;)

I never intended to make art.

I meant for animation compositing, it would be much easier and more convenient if the alpha channel could be saved with the picture.

Bryce 6 feature perhaps? PNG or TIFF with alpha could be quite handy. Not sure what other formats could carry alpha... I suppose transparent GIF too, but the pallette's quite limited on that one.

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Barbequed Pixels?

Your friendly neighborhood Wings3D nut.
Also feel free to browse my freebies at ShareCG.
There might be something worth downloading.

PNG and TIFF would do, PSD files can have alpha channels, I think that TGA files can have alpha channels but I am not sure about that.