starter tute - Newbie Q: creating a billboard rectangle with texture and alpha

I have a starter tutorial here now:

http://www.thebest3d.com/pdp/tutorials/blender

and more to come. 

--- In [email protected], "philip at staigerland.com"
<philip@...> wrote:
>
> 
> Hi Myscha, thanks. That's a good start, a really good start. I think
I might
> incorporate some of these steps into a tutorial, with screenshots and
> highlights.
> 
> So, in same way, how to select a picture from file to map onto the
plane?
> It's still showing grey at this point.
> 
> I have two pictures actually, for my texture which I want to map
planar or
> cube to the plane. One picture contains the colors, the other a
transparency
> mask in form of greyscale image. I'll need to dig around to see where to
> access or create a shader for the plane, similar to the sky's I guess?
> 
> Can Blender use a single file that has the transparency mask in the
alpha
> channel, for example from a 32-bit Tiff or Targa image file?
> 
> -Philip
> 
> >
> >
> > Message
> >
________________________________________________________________________
> >
> > 1. Re: Newbie Q: creating a billboard rectangle with texture and alpha
> >    Posted by: "Myscha" novawoman@... womankindeternal
> >    Date: Fri Sep 15, 2006 6:29 am (PDT)
> >
> > Hi Philip. I hope you haven't become completely disenchanted with
> > Blender. I found that once I had mastered a few basic principles it
> > was deceptively simple.
> >
> > I will try to walk you through what you asked:
> >
> > First, start Blender, and tap the "x" key to delete the default cube.
> >
> > Now, [space] Add > Mesh > Plane
> >
> > The corner vertices should appear as yellow dots, meaning they are
> > selected, so [s] and drag with the mouse will scale your plane as
> > large (or small) as you want.
> >
> > To change the sky color;
> >
> > [tab] to switch from Edit mode to Object mode
> >
> > then, locate the globe button on your control panel (typically at the
> > bottom of the screen unless you have changed your setup), and click on
> > the globe button. Your control panel should show World settings,
> > typically a dark blue preview panel, with [Real], [Blend] and [Paper]
> > buttons next to it.
> >
> > Start by setting the HoR, HoG and HoG sliders to 1.0 for a light
> > horizon value, then leave ZeR and ZeG at 0.10, but slide ZeB up to 1.0
> > for a deep blue sky directly overhead.
> >
> > Now locate the "leopardskin" button, to the left of the "globe" button
> > and click it.
> >
> > On the "Texture" panel, click [Add new]
> >
> > Click on the listbox for Texture type and select "Clouds"
> >
> > In the listbox that says "TE:Tex.001" you can click to change the
> > texture name to something meaningful, for clarity and [Enter].
> >
> > Clicking on the "Globe" button again, you should find that your
> > "Texture and input" panel tab (righthand side of control panel) now
> > includes your cloud texture, with whatever name you gave it. Click the
> > "Map to" tab, and you will see the default color preview for the
> > texture, a hideous magenta. Use the sliders to change the color to
> > something more acceptable for clouds, i.e. R 0.890, G 0.885, B 1.000
> > and click the [Blend] and [ZenDo] buttons, to blend the texture from
> > the zenith down.
> >
> > Finally, click the [Blend] and [Real] buttons next to the preview
> > panel (left of control panel) to preview the result.
> >
> > Finally, [f12] will show a preview from the default camera angle,
> > looking down onto your plane, with the sky behind.
> >
> > --- In [email protected], "staigermanus" <philip@> wrote:
> >>
> >> I can't believe how non-intuitive and difficult Blender is for
> >> starters. I've spent the better part of an hour trying this, and have
> >> failed. Bryce took me 5 minutes. Ok, maybe 8.
> >>
> >> Can someone guide me? All I am interested in doin at this time  is
> >>
> >> - place a large or infinite ground polygon, perhaps a terrain, but a
> >> simple square will do
> >>
> >> - set the sky top half of the background to a blue color, or even a
> >> gradient that fades to white near the horizon (also known as Los
> >> Angeles grey, or Phosphor yellow)
> >>
> >> - place a distant light for the Sun up there in the Sky.
> >>
> >> - a great sky with clouds and sunset would do even better. Can the
> >> distant light be matched with the Sun in the sky so the shadows
> >> correlate automatically? (like in Carrara)
> >>
> >> - place a rectangle into the scene, standing upright on the floor
> >>
> >> - map a texture on it, from an image file in Targa format, or tiff,
> >> with 32-bit depth, alpha included for transparency mask
> >>
> >> - render it and see 'through' the mask where it's not opaque.
> >>
> >> - and make sure it's casting a shadow that shows the opaque mask
only,
> >> not the whole billboard rectangle.
> >>
> >> I want to show some results of particle brush based foliage rendered
> >> in Blender, coming from PD Particles. Perhaps put it into a
tutorial -
> >> http://www.thebest3d.com/pdp/tutorials - anyone can give me a pointer
> >> to the above steps?
> >>
> >>
> >> Thanks. I know it can be done, I just am flabergasted as to why I
> >> can't figure it out on my own. I'm not seeing that challenge with
> >> Cinema4D GO or other apps so far.
> >>
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > Messages in this topic (3)
> >
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