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.PSD files with transparency showing as Black in v.8?


Justin Montoya

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Hello!

 

I've noticed a problem with using .PSD files.  Never had this problem before using Photoshop files, but it appears that now the .PSD files with transparency are showing as BLACK backgrounds instead of WHITE?  It always worked fine this way before.  We could use a .PSD logo file with transparency as both transparent decal type logos as well as solid white background logos using the same .PSD file.  

 

It's annoying to have to create 2 separate files to do a simple task like this.  Is there any way to restore this to the previous functionality?

 

Many Thanks!

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It has to be something with how v8 is handling PSD files because opening the same file in v6.7 works fine as intended.  This becomes an issue whenever we open v6 files with these psd logo files, in v8, and cannot render them unless we recreate the logo files with white backgrounds for use in v8.

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Thank you, but sorry, no that does not do what it always did previously.

 

We use it both with and without the transparency map.  When used with the transparency map, yes it is working correctly, but when we use same image map file, without the transparency map, the background now shows up as Black.  Whereas previously, it would always show the background as White.  White is needed as we are constantly placing logos on white walls, signs, cabinets... etc.  

 

In your file, remove the transparency map and you should see that background change to Black.  But if you save that file out and open it in v6, it will show the background as White.  That's what we need.  White background as default for PSD files please.

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Hi Justin,

 

Oh, ok, now we understand -- the background color of a map that does not have a color (is transparent).  Well, actually, that is not something that we can control, since the PSD format is converted via Apple's Quicktime.  Older versions of formZ (6 and 7) use an older 32 bit version of Apple's Quicktime.  The newer versions use the newer 64 bit version of Quicktime, and apparently Apple has "flipped" how the "lack of color" should be interpreted.

 

We can submit a suggestion to Apple that they "invert this" -- but for now you will need to actually specify the desired background color (unless you want black).

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Gotcha!  Makes sense that it's happening in Quicktime. 

 

Thank you so much for your help.  I wonder if there is an option in the 64 bit Quicktime API to get it to show white as the default background.  Would you mind submitting this to Apple to check it out?  

 

We just have so many older files we are converting to v8 as we move forward, and this is a constant annoyance, even if work around is pretty simple, it adds up creating and then maintaining all the additional files!

 

Thanks!

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Thanks envdesign!  I have used other formats for transparency with mixed results.  For some reason .PNG doesn't work.  ".Tif" files are usually really large, but I'll play around and see how it does.  I'll be sad to lose the layers of the PSD files though.  We've long used PSD files with great success in FormZ as a shortcut to needing multiple formats of the same file.

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Thanks envdesign!  I have used other formats for transparency with mixed results.  For some reason .PNG doesn't work.  ".Tif" files are usually really large, but I'll play around and see how it does.  I'll be sad to lose the layers of the PSD files though.  We've long used PSD files with great success in FormZ as a shortcut to needing multiple formats of the same file.

 

The other thing to bear in mind with image formats is the speed that they're processed by the render engine (it can have a huge impact on final frame render speeds). Of TIFF & TGA, TIFF creates smaller images, but your experience may vary depending on image content. TGA is larger but also much faster to store, requiring almost no CPU time for the compression. TIFF (LZW) is slower, and TIFF (ZIP) is the slower again. There's pro's and cons to them all. PSD is slowest of all to be processed by those render engines that allow their use (many don't these days).

 

I personally stick to PNG as much as possible and not being a user of RenderZone was unaware that FormZ had issues with PNG.

 

I get the convenience of multi-layered PSD's but I'm not sure they're the most efficient format for texturing workflows with most modern rendering software.

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Hi Jon,

 

Yes, good point about the performance.  formZ is fine with PNG files, but currently it does not utilize a PNG transparency (unless it has a specific alpha channel).

 

For the way that I work personally that isn't a problem as I'd always use an alpha channel if I wanted transparency. 

 

Now that I have the full capabilities of Renderzone, I'm seeing possibilities for working with it that are complementary to the forthcoming Thea and V-Ray plugin renderers. I don't consider that Renderzone is a match for V-Ray or Thea with regards to photorealistic renders but it can be a source of wonderfully stylistic results that render very quickly. It's just a matter of playing to it's strengths rather than focusing on what it lacks.

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