Mesh hair creation query

[Bongo Steampunk]

Hey folks :)

 

I'm toying with the idea of making some hair - All the slulpting/rigging and weighting bit's I can think through fine.. It's just the effect of see through bits i notice when i scrutinise the classier products on the market.

i'm imagining it must be one of two things or a bit of both.

 

It might be that the bangs [or major forms of hair] have slightly larger replica's which envelope the smaller bang of the same shape, but with the normals reversed on the larger so that the effect is of seeing through it, but seeing glimpses of it from certain angles. The smaller bang being always visible. This gives that liveliness to the hair perhaps.

Or is it some sort of alpha cleverness i wonder...? i see sections of hair whick look clear, but the painted lines of the hair texture are still about 50% or so transparent on those forms - thus creating the effect of liveliness to the hair .. 

 

I understand how to do the first, but not so much the second, alpha method - i know how to make alphas for SL avatar at basic level, but cannot translate that to clear bangs of mesh hair with 50% transparency with regards to texture/opacity.

 

I hope someone can understand my meaning and perhaps point me in right direction before i begin experimenting with mesh hair :))

 

Bongo.

 

 

 

 

 

[Rolig Loon]

The opacity of any area on a texture depends on the alpha value assigned to its pixels.  So, if you want 100% opaque pixels, you assign them an alpha value of 1.0  (white).  If you want completely transparent pixels, you paint them black (alpha = 0.0) in the texture's alpha channel.  Pixels that are supposed to be partially transparent will be gray, with alpha values somewhere between 1.0 and 0.0.  I find it easiest to work with a TGA-formatted image, so I can see the alpha channel and manipulate it directly, but you can use PNG if you're more comfortable with it.

When you upload your texture to SL, you'll have to use the Alpha Blending option, not Alpha Masking, since Alpha Masking does not allow you to have partial tranparency.

[Bongo Steampunk]

Thanks for the swift and most excellent response.

I didn't realise that black would create invisible in sl in this way, always thought it had to be actually transparent for it to work.

Also now very tickled with the idea of trying various shades fo grey to vary texture transparency.

I use PS 3 [i know, but i never needed better yet] - should maybe grab gimp also. Been doing PNG's as JPGs save out as white where transparent should be.

I'm gathering from what you say that in whichever image editing program, one must draw black areas over the relevant SL avatar UV space in order to make invisible parts, grey [eg, 0.5] would show a semi transparent area of the texture on the model and white would reveal it completely.

One thing is confusing me though, when the texture is uploaded into SL as you say - where does one locate the alpha blending/alpha masking options you mention ? Please forgive this nooby question, but the more i squeeze in new knowledge about making mesh stuff, the more i forget how to navigate SL !

 

Once again, thankyou i look forward to experimenting !

 

Bongo.

 

[Rolig Loon]

OK, back up a bit.  :smileyhappy:  We're talking about the alpha channel in your texture in Photoshop.  Any area that is white in that channel will be opaque.  Any area that is black will be transparent.  Any area that is some shade of grade will be partly transparent. It doesn't matter what is on any layer in your image.  The alpha channel acts like a mask, in a way, or a cookie cutter, defining the amount of transparency that will be applied to each pixel in the texture.  I suggest looking carefully at Robin Wood's lovely tutorial(s) >>> http://www.robinwood.com/Catalog/Technical/SL-Tuts/SLPages/ChannelDiscovery.html

If you save an image as JPG, this is irrelevant, because you cannot save transparency in JPG, as you have discovered.  Both PNG and TGA support layers and channels, so either will work for what you want to do.  As I said earlier, I strongly prefer TGA because I find it easier to handle the alpha channel directly, especially if I have a complex image.

Your options for alpha blending (the default) or alpha masking are spang in the middle of the TEXTURES page in your Edit tool in the viewer.  Each of the options has advantages and disadvantages.  In your case, the disadvantage of alpha masking is that it does not allow partial transparency.  You get all or nothing.  It can be exactly the right choice, however, if you are trying to avoid alpha sorting issues, which are an annoying side effect of alpha blending.

 

[Bongo Steampunk]

Thankyou kindly once more for your reply -

 

Since I have watched all I can find on the matter so far, I did infact use a method previously which did not require an alpha channel but just transparency on layers in image layer stack - it works, but it's not really an alpha channel proper. Having followed your links and watched some other bits and bobs, I'm feeling a great deal better about it all so thanks again

 

 

Bongo.