Noob game animator question

#1

Hi all, been working on a new game and need a bit of advice.

I need to define alpha channels for particular regions of the characters I make… ie, vest, sleeves, pants, etc. Does anyone have a clue as to how to add different ‘alpha region tags’ or alpha channels embedded in their renders?

I’m rendering out to .png files for animation…

ie., a character might have an alpha value of 225 for his vest, and alpha value of 235 for his pants, etc. I need to know how to define and create those alpha channels with their values imbedded in the renders.

I’m using 3D max 7.0.

the rendered .png files need to have multiple alpha channels defined by values such as 254, 253, etc.

Please help!, any advice would help alot,

Thanks,
Matt.

#2

No replies yet? Come on guys, somebody has to know this… When I render an image of the character the default alpha value for every colored pixel is 255… I need to find a way to change parts of the mesh to be different alpha values for animation. ie, aplpha value 254 for the shirt, etc. These ‘alpha colors’ wouldn’t be viewable in the viewports necessarily, but are embedded in the final image for compositing in a game engine…

Anyone know how to alter these values?

Maybe vertex painting or something? I’ve been looking for info for 2 days and still no luck, that’s why I’ve come here to ask you guys…

Matt.

#3

If I understand you correctly you have a character with textures that have alpha channels and you are rendering out sprites. You want the surface opacity to be embedded in the alpha channel of the final png. All you need to do is multiply the surface opacity by the alpha in the shader. Not using Max I don’t know how exactly this is done, bu there must be an option for it in the material editor somewhere, if not perhaps in the render settings somewhere. There has to be an Opacity value somewhere in the material that you can feed you alpha channel in to.

#4

Thanks for writing… I can create different alpha values simply by making parts of the characters less opaque in 3d max… this is not the solution though, I need the alpha values to be generated, yet still keep the opacity of the original character… I guess you could say I need hidden alpha values(0-255) embedded in the final renders for the different regions of the characters…

I am making sprites for a game engine but I don’t have textures with alpha channels on my characters… wouldn’t doing that make parts of the mesh transparent? Or can I make textures with alpha channels(with different alpha values from 0-255) and still have them viewed as opaque with original colors when rendered?

Thanks,
Matt

#5

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