dis•appointed

[__archiben]

more art•lantis woes:

• textures alpha channel - what is going on with them? i get that they're not treated the same as in archiCAD, but how are they treated?
• no "Help" menu (like every other application i have has)?

~/archiben

[Dwight]

From page 326 of the Artlantis User Guide

"If this option has been activated, the background of the calculated image will be considered a mask. You can easily modify… blah blah

It means that selecting the "Alpha channel" in the Render options makes the background a mask.

You can easily drop in a background into the rendering afterward.

That's all folks. [Carrot chewing sound]

Spweyn Cadeau.

[Dwight]

I guess that means, after reading your post more carefully, that the aren't considered at all in the material texture. To knock something out you need to use the alpha channel mask to identify the place for a contrasting "Bluescreen" to be later used as a knockout color in the Artlantis material. I use intense magenta as my knockout color.

[__archiben]

so completely different to archiCAD.

i had a material set up in archiCAD with an alpha-channel texture to 'bump' the mortar joints in my blockwork. how do i go about replicating this in art•lantis?

i guess i have to create a new shader from an existing brick/block shader and go from there?

appreciate your help dwight! thanks.

~/archiben

[Dwight]

Artlantis lets you bump up or down using light or dark colors.

Mess with this control [ attached].

Ignores the alpha entirely.

Wascally.

[__archiben]

think i've got it sussed now: i add two 'textures' to the shader, right?

the first being my original block texture map (carefully crafted in photoshop!) without the alpha channel mortar lines.

the second would be solely an extraction of my original alpha channel mortar lines. i make this second texture invisible (transparent) in art•lantis and just use it to bump?

~/archiben

[Dwight]

Art*lexic uses color to differentiate edges for bumping, not alpha info. therefore any image can be bumped - just pull on the slider and see what happens.

Dis•lantis

Disney•lantis

Praying Mantis

[Dwight]

and with plain bricks. no alpha at all.

[Karl Ottenstein]

Hi Ben,

See also the Tutorial folder, Tutorial 1, Room Final and zoom in on the vase on the glass table ...which has a masked bubbles texture used to bump the surface. Talked about in the PDF a little as I recall.

Yes, you can combine multiple textures, varying their opacity/etc.

Have fun,
Karl

[Djordje]

~/archiben wrote:
think i've got it sussed now: i add two 'textures' to the shader, right?

the first being my original block texture map (carefully crafted in photoshop!) without the alpha channel mortar lines.

the second would be solely an extraction of my original alpha channel mortar lines. i make this second texture invisible (transparent) in art•lantis and just use it to bump?

Not necessary; the first one will do. Slide the Bump slider as needed. Zoom in the Preview window so you can see what is happening, and play it by the ear. As they say in rendering - if it looks right, it's right.

The second one would do if you want to add a brick bump to a painted wall - effectively showing a non-plastered brick wall painted over.