The mystery of the Coca-Cola bottle which refuses to go away

#1

This problem is driving me bonkers. The question is whether the attached 32-bit PNG file contains anything other than a black and white Silhouette of a hand offering a soda. A long time ago, that file which is Alpha was paired with the bottle and hand. However, I removed the color version but it seems to follow the Alpha file everywhere.

Just%20a%20Profile%20in%20Black%20and%20White
Just a Profile in Black and White.jpg1200x1200 41.7 KB

This is the test that I very much would appreciate if any of you folks perform. It is really simple.

(1) Create a box

(2) Drop the file attached on the Slate Material Editor. That is when the mystery begins, the icon is colorful, with the bottle and hand.

(3) If you assign that material to the box, the bottle and hand appear out of nowhere.

I have tested this in 3 computers. In Maya I assigned what I claim to be just black and white, and the bottle appears. I perform “Send to 3ds Max” and sure enough the bottle, color and hand are still there.

Photoshop and other viewers simply show black and white.

TIA

-Ramon

Mind%20Reading%203ds%20Max
Mind Reading 3ds Max.png1669x1007 326 KB

#2

In the Photoshop Forum I am assured that there is no way to hide the colorful hand and bottle in a PNG file. If they were there, I would see them.

https://community.adobe.com/t5/Photoshop/First-time-Alpha-Channel-user/m-p/10707720

Perhaps this is relevant. My Photoshop is CS6 and does not seem capable of handling the 32-bit PNG file format.

TIA,

-RFH

#3

Yes, this is a well known annoying Photoshop behavior when working with alpha PNG.

When an image has alpha, PS deems that RGB does not matter since it will be hidden by the alpha for applications that do not support direct alpha editing like PS, so it just keep it filled with the original data, hence you can still see it in max since it is still there even if you can never see it in PS. It’s an so problematic, Unreal has an option to clean PNGs if it was made in PS.

A simple solution is either save in another software that does not do this, just use another format like Targa(TGA) which will work even when created in PS, and also supports 32-bit with alpha, or in max simply select to use the alpha in the PNG texture options.