sprite alpha problem

[Mikademius]

Tried TGA?

[Night Hawk]

it didnt work too and the sprites turned into black, ok, here is the steps i follow:-

1-Open the sequence file in after effects and make a clip of it, and choose interpret footage=>main=>ignore

2-Select the layer that's on the clip and go to (layer)=>(pre-compose) and choose (Leave all attributes).

3-After that a new copy will be created in the Project box.

4-Take the same file sequence and drag it in the timeline, and hide layer 2.

5-Choose the first layer and go to (effect)=>(channel)=>(set matte) and (go to take matte from) and choose the first layer, and (use for matte) will be luminance.

6-Go to composition=>Add to render queue, render settings will be (best settings) and output module will be as follows:-
-format :- Targa
-channels :- RGB+Alpha
-Depth :- Millions of colors
-Color :- Straight (Unmatted)

7-Render

8- Place the composited version in (Source Images) in Maya folder and the cloud texture sequence in (Images).

9- I now load the composited version but an error message appears.

I need to know what's wrong cuz without that done i cant get my sprites to work properly so a REAL help is needed.

[Mikademius]

What does the error say?

[Night Hawk]

There are two errors one of them says:-

1- The sprite image name for particleShape1 : E/Document and settings/User1/My Documents/Maya/Projects/default/sourceimages/smoke[1-100]Comp 1_00099.tif 0 could not be found in any of the following paths E:/Document and settings/User1/My Documents/Maya/Projects/default/images/E:/Document and settings/User1/My Documents/Maya/Projects/default/images/

*This error message appears during the animation of the sprites.

-The second error says:-

2- Warning: Texture file E/Document and settings/User1/My Documents/Maya/Projects/default/sourceimages/smoke[1-100]Comp 1_00099.tif doesnt exist, node file2.

* This error message appears after stopping the animation.

[Night Hawk]

hey guys, dont forget me, i want a real help for this to enable my sprites work properly. :sad:

[Mikademius]

It's obvious that maya can't get the files. How did you name them?
If you have a sequence of 100 images, did you rename the first one to be 001, 002, 003 etc.?
Maybe Maya can't get the sequence to finish if the framepadding differs? However it shouldn't be like that because it should stop if it can't go on. Say you have a sequence from 0 to 100 and you have framepadding set to 2 it should stop at 99.. But this shouldn't be a problem really. I don't know really, just throwing out thoughts... Does it work if you create an AVI of your sequence? And have you doublechecked the hyperGraph to see if all the connections are intact?


Try changing the filenames to
smokeComp_001.tga and so on to check if it feeds her better?

[akewt]

if your on frame 0 and your image sequence starts at 1 then turning on image sequence will fail to load an image at frame 0. have you tried scrubbing the timeline and still no luck? also make sure naming is ok and your project is set properly. seems like the second time you output the sequence from AE you didnt embed an alpha. the first image you show seems fine and your only prob would be frame number. if you delete the expression on the image sequence attribute and key it instead you can start the squence from 0.

[Night Hawk]

To make this easier for you and me, here is the sprite file that should be rendered and its 100 frames.I hope from anyone to try using this file to make things clearer for me.

[BigSky]

I think that you've named your sequence wrong.
Maya likes the sequence to be named
fileName.ext.1 with no padding. You will have to search for "all files" when you pick it in the file texture ae.
The black issue may be a seperate one. Try using .iffs

[akewt]

i dont have any problems with sequences named 'filename.###.ext' so it cant be this. i will have a look at your scene file a little later after lunch gmt.

cheers
kev

[Night Hawk]

i've named my sequence smoke with frame padding (0).I just have a question, Why an error message appears and tells me Warning: Texture file E/Document and settings/User1/My Documents/Maya/Projects/default/sourceimages/smoke[1-100]Comp 1_00099.tif doesnt exist, node file2.Despite that i used a texture from Maya's texture menu ?

[Mikademius]

comp.tga.0000
comp.tga.0001
and so on... Try it.

[akewt]

yes please do. the [1-100] is your problem i wreckon!

[Night Hawk]

yes please do. the [1-100] is your problem i wreckon!sry, but explain more cuz i didnt get your point.

[akewt]

DUDE! your naming convention is bogus. you shouldn't use '[' characters in the filename. please use this convention - name.###.ext


(name dot number dot extension.)

[Mikademius]

No need to go "caps lock" on him. Doesn't Maya read "filename.ext.####" better? I don't remember because I haven't been working on particles for about 1.5 years... :O

[akewt]

it was meant in the nicest possible way. i've actually never used name.ext.#### so not sure about it. wouldnt think it mattered much. i wreckon the naming thing is going to have nothing to do with it and we'll still be stuck! ! ! 1 ! ! 1

good luck dude........

[Mikademius]

i wreckon the naming thing is going to have nothing to do with it and we'll still be stuck! ! ! 1 ! ! 1


Hehe. Of course since Maya is a female program, try flowers! Might get her into the right mood :thumbsup:

[akewt]

don't say that she might here us! then we won't have anything working for a month! ;)

[Mikademius]

I don't even lift an eyebrow when she crashes no more... I just hit ok and fire her up again.

[Night Hawk]

Akewt, that what i have done exactly when rendering on Maya concerning the name.###.ext, but my problem begins when trying to get the alpha channel for my sequence using After Effects that's when my file name begins with smoke.[1-100] Comp 1_[#####].

I dont know alot about after effects, that's why i requested from you all to try all your suggestions on my file cuz simply my exprience in AE is weak and i didnt get used on how to obtain an alpha channel for an object before. I also want to know if i should place my sequence in a specified folders cuz i get the 'Path' error, and there's an error for the texture file telling me that my texture couldnt be found despite that i used Maya's cloud texture.

[Night Hawk]

no more help !!! :sad:

[akewt]

ok, well you need to make sure first of all that your layer in AE has a matte channel. select anohter comp/layer to use as its matte channel in effects and add to the render que. when setting up the options make sure your saving out 32 bit images. i havent got time to go into it right now but wqill tell you more after you've had a play with this.

cheers
kev

[Night Hawk]

Akewt, that's where i stopped and its where i choose my destination for my comp/files and i dunno whether its the right destination or not !.

I would like to hear from anyone who worked alot with sprites and After Effects to tell me what's missing to get my smoke sequence done.

help appreciated

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