kim Posted July 24, 2015 Share Posted July 24, 2015 I have been trying to create a texture in Renderzone which will cast a shadow using the alpha channel. I can get it to work in Shaded Full Option but not in Renderzone. The Renderzone shadow is of the rectangle that the texture is on and not of the image in the texture. Thanks Kim Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jonmoore Posted July 25, 2015 Share Posted July 25, 2015 I'm no Renderzone expert as I render in outside applications but having taken a quick look it seems the trick is to apply your texture to both the colour and transparency tabs and ensure use alpha is enabled in both shaded & renderzone options. And the final trick seems to be to set shadows to 'all transparent' under the Renderzone display settings tab. Check screen grabs below (only pay attention to the apha settings). The rendering shows an object from the component library beside an image with transparency on a flat piece of geometry (both with shadows) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kim Posted July 25, 2015 Author Share Posted July 25, 2015 Thanks Jonmoore for your response. I have selected all the settings as you show above but the shadows only work in shaded view but not in the Renderzone. I have even used an image supplied by AutoDesSys. It leaves me baffled. Which version of FZ are you using? Thanks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jonmoore Posted July 25, 2015 Share Posted July 25, 2015 I'm using the latest 8.5 beta (beta 5). I'm happy to take a quick look at your file if you're happy to upload directly (as a zipped file) or via dropbox or similar. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kim Posted July 25, 2015 Author Share Posted July 25, 2015 Created a new FMZ file and the shadows are working? Will send file to tech support :-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jonmoore Posted July 25, 2015 Share Posted July 25, 2015 Glad to have been able to help. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DennisA Posted July 25, 2015 Share Posted July 25, 2015 Kim... renderzone does not support Soft (mapped) shadow transparency... make sure you are using Hard Shadows in Light Parameters on all your lights. As Jon advised you should NOT use All Opaque in Retrace display Options. This should work. Note: if you are using transparent layered .psd files & an Alpha Channel problems can be unexpected. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kim Posted July 27, 2015 Author Share Posted July 27, 2015 Thanks DennisA. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tech Posted July 27, 2015 Share Posted July 27, 2015 Hi Kim, Yes, as Dennis and Jon note, you need to either set your Light's Shadow Parameters to Hard Raytraced: Transparent, or set this as an override in the RenderZone Options. Alternately, you can trace your shape (like the Realistic Tree Components) and map the image, and the Alpha Chanel will create the nice clean outline, and the traced outline can be used to generate the soft shadow... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kim Posted July 27, 2015 Author Share Posted July 27, 2015 Ztech, Could you please expand some more on the 'trace your shape' option. Thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tech Posted July 27, 2015 Share Posted July 27, 2015 Bring in your image as an Underlay (in the Reference Plane Parameters) and then Trace it -- like the Realistic Tree Components (vs just mapping a rectangle). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kim Posted July 27, 2015 Author Share Posted July 27, 2015 So just to check I am following you. The idea would be to trace with B-splines the outline of the barbed wire and then to texture map the new 2D form. Make a component out of it and then select that the component is orientated to the view. Is this correct? If so the drawback here is that I am doing multiple pieces of wire, which are different lengths and some are bent. The texture mapping of the barbed wire gives a lot of flexibility in this case, whereas the components don't - if I am correct? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tech Posted July 27, 2015 Share Posted July 27, 2015 Hi Kim, The suggestion above was for flat 2d images (for example, if you need barbed wire running between fence posts). However, if you need a full volumetric sculpture with continuous pieces of wire that is wrapped around the path, you should draw the desired path for the wire, generate a Helix along that path, and then sweep a simple shape along that path to generate the 3d spiraling wire. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kim Posted July 27, 2015 Author Share Posted July 27, 2015 ok, thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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