Trees Glowing Problem. How to fix?

Trees Glowing Problem. How to fix?

Hi,

I have mapped a .png to a plane and used the alpha channel. I am getting a white glow on the edges which I don't want. Is there a way to get rid of this?

Thanks.

When you cut out your shape, before you save to a png with an alpha channel, replace the background with a colour as close to your trees as possible.

There is always a certain pixel radius around the image that gets included when using alpha channels, so to use a close colour will all but eliminate your problem. It will be nearly imperceptible.

macitect said:

When you cut out your shape, before you save to a png with an alpha channel, replace the background with a colour as close to your trees as possible.

There is always a certain pixel radius around the image that gets included when using alpha channels, so to use a close colour will all but eliminate your problem. It will be nearly imperceptible.

Click to expand...

Thanks. I don't understand? I just saved the tree as a .png. I hardly know photoshop at all. Could you talk about the steps?

Are the alpha and .png two seperate images and if so where does the alpha go in Cheetah? Sorry for the lack of knowledge...

In case that wasn't clear, this is what I mean:
you'd use 1 instead of 2.

hey check out this thread. Download franks example and replace the laser with the tree. I think this will fix the problem but i'm not sure...

Greg

Innerdreamrecords said:

Thanks. I don't understand? I just saved the tree as a .png. I hardly know photoshop at all. Could you talk about the steps?

Click to expand...

OK, sorry, I didn't think that it was terribly clear... I always just do these things without paying attention so explanations never come easily.

Another thing is that I haven't looked into how to set up materials like this in Cheetah, but this method works in other render programs that I have used.

Normally you would cut out your shape, then save 2 copies; 1. a black copy of the shape of your image to cut-out on a white background (your alpha layer), and 2. your image on a neutral background.
The tendency is to leave the original image as is or to put the colour image against a white background. IN order to avoid the edge glow you simply have to save your image against a background that closely resembles the colour of your desired texture.

I'll take a quick look at this in Cheetah and see if it works the same way - then I'll post back.

the following 2 images represent your alpha image and your texture image:

Just tested in Cheetah and it works the same...

3 images:
1. texture channel - used the leaf image with the white background
2. texture channel - used the leaf image with the green background
3. the settings - used the black on white in both examples in the transparency channel.

Hope that helps.

Eureka! said:

hey check out this thread. Download franks example and replace the laser with the tree. I think this will fix the problem but i'm not sure...

Greg

Click to expand...

Thanks Greg. That's how I have it set up...still no go.

macitect said:

Just tested in Cheetah and it works the same...

3 images:
1. texture channel - used the leaf image with the white background
2. texture channel - used the leaf image with the green background
3. the settings - used the black on white in both examples in the transparency channel.

Hope that helps.

Click to expand...

Okay, thank you.

So when I save a .png I have that checkered pattern. You're saying I should have a green background instead?

Yup, because not all programs support transparency. When you save as jpg, png and many of those types of images whatever is transparent in PS becomes interpolated as white for all the programs that do not support transparency.

macitect said:

Yup, because not all programs support transparency. When you save as jpg, png and many of those types of images whatever is transparent in PS becomes interpolated as white for all the programs that do not support transparency.

Click to expand...

Thanks for your help, much appreciated. I'll give it a go tomorrow.

Hope this make sense here.

Okay thanks everyone!

Here is my contribution:
http://www.photoshopcafe.com/tutorials/masking/masking.htm

A little photoshop work to randomize the trees and hedge and i think it'll work.