can I render with a transparent background?

[TickTock]

...tried saving the alpha channel after you render the image? Then you can import it into Photoshop... Just a thought.

[dmcgrath]

Just save it as a Targa file, and then everything that isnt geometry will be automatically alpha'd when you open it up in p-shop

[erwin1978]

I did as you told, but when I open it in photoshop, I get one layer that is unlockable. I duplicated this layer and deleted the locked one so I can put a layer below. I created the empty layer. I drew stuff on that layer but they don't show through the top layer.

[iC4]

what dmcgrath said is right......maybe post some photoshop screenshots

[Houkah]

just go to the channels list in photoshop and select the alpha channel. Make that a selection then go back to your layers menu (the image will change from black and white to regular color) invert the selection (ctrl+i) and delete it. Strange tho when i open targas in photoshop i usually don't have to do this. Maybe you have some different settings.

[erwin1978]

Yah, I see the alpha channel of the targa file in the channels tab but in the layers it's just one solid layer.

Can I use other formats to export from Maya or is Targa the only one?

[lricho]

Try this - with your background layer selected (not the alpha channel) go to select>load selection...
in the channel section of the window that pops up, there should be an "alpha" option. Click ok. If you want to delete parts of the picture based on the selection, duplicate your background layer then press delete. Make sure you hide the background layer to see the effect of your deleting :)

[leigh]

With the normal RGB layer (under Layers) selected, just go to your Channels menu, hold down [CTRL] and click on the alpha channel. That should then select just the object.
You can then just hit [CTRL+J] to put it on it's own layer :)

[dmcgrath]

Yeah Irwin, it works, you might just be doing something wrong. No big deal. Leigh is right, go to the channels area in your layer window. You'll see something that says Alpha1 or Alpha channel (something like that). Then you can control select it or even go to the selection pull down menu and load selection/Alpha transparency. That will work for you.
Also, you dont need to duplicate the layer and then delete the original. Just double click on it and then you can rename it (or not), when you close the pop-up window it'll be unlocked.:)

[BRUTICUS]

what version of photoshop you using?

my photoshop 6 works fine.

you are exporting the alpha in the render globals right?

copy the alpha channel and use select color range,... hmmph

[beaker]

This was a new "feature" in photoshop 7 in how it handles alpha channels. TGA files read the alpha in as transparency. Very annoying, alot of people complained about it till adobe fixed it. Just download the 7.01 update on adobe's website. It is also present in the 3d image plugins in the goodies folder for ps7(sgi, iff, soft, rla, etc...)

[beaker]

Here was my previous post on highend back in summer about this annoying "feature".
http://www.highend3d.com/boards/showflat.php?Cat=&Board=thebuzz&Number=112583&page=&view=&sb=&o=&vc=1
Glad they fixed it in the tga files, hopefully they fix it with the other file readers.

[dmcgrath]

Well, Dave I never looked at that transparency as a problem. It was always thought by me that if you want an Alpha channel, that the alpha part would end up being deleted anyway. Its a composition layer, not a complete pic. We are moving off topic here but, what would you need the rest of the image for in the alpha channel anyway?

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