Attached Link: http://www.jgmart.com

Hello All, I'm still having problems using pictures in my scenes. I'm probably missing something basic, but I just can't figure it out..... I've been using a wonderful tutorial from Guitta's site - Using Pictures Inside Scenes, but I get stuck at the end...... Here are the steps I've done so far: I'm using a picture which has been edited in Photoshop. It has an alpha channel. - I open a new scene. - I add a plane - I go to the Material Editor - I select Mapped Picture and load the picture (at this point Guitta's tutorial notes an "Object Space" to check, can't find that in Vue4) - I then go into to the Transparency tab - I set the Global transparency to 100. I check Variable Transparency. - At this point I need to go to the Transparency amount & softness function. I can't find it. When I click the sphere it takes me to a list of materials to choose from????? This is were I'm stopped...... I know I'm supposed to do something with that Alpha channel, just can't seem to get there....... Can someone please get me to the next steps.... Thanks very much for your time!!!!!!! John

Hi John, First, remember that the tut was written for Vue 3.1. But you lready know that. Next, what used to be "Object Space" is now "Object-Standard", and it's in the upper right hand of the material editor. It's a drop-down menu now. When you first load your pic, it'll probably say "World-Standard". Then after you get to the variable trans part, you have to RIGHT click on the sphere, and select Edit Function from the little menu which will pop up. Then at the left you'' see a selection for "Mapped Values", or "Mapped Picture" (can't remember right now, and I have a scene rendering so I can't check, but it's one of those). So check that box and a button to press to load your alpha pic will appear. Click on that and load your pic. You might have to double click on the filter picture next to the trans sphere (the upper one) and load the "Invert" filter from the "Other Filters", but if your alpha is set up right, i.e, white for transparent, black for solid, you won't have to do that. hope this helps. :)

What Mike said regarding "Object Standard". They've modified how that looks in v.4. I'm using a picture which has been edited in Photoshop. It has an alpha channel. -- You need to start with two images, the color and the black & white alpha. - I then go into to the Transparency tab - I set the Global transparency to 100. I check Variable Transparency. -- After this step, right-click the gray sphere to the righthand side. This will give you a small menu; select Edit Function. The edit window opens. Toward the left side of this screen, mark "Mapped Values". When you do that, the picture option will appear at the bottom of the panel. Click the "Load Picture" button and navigate to your black & white prepared image.

Don't forget, that if you load a TIF file with alpha channel info onto a Alpha Plane, then Vue 4 will automatically load the transparency info onto the Alpha Plane. Cheers

Thank you all..... Very helpful information. I've finally gotten it to work! Without this wonderful community I'd have gotten nowhere with Vue. :)

No problemo John! And just remember, you will still have dozens of more questions, as you delve deeper into Vue 4... we'll still be here, too. :)