Another newbie's questions

Another newbie's questions

Hi folks,

I am trying out Cheetah3D now with a view to using it to render application icons,
so no big scenes, just a few objects/lights rendering to 512x512 or something like that.

I haven't touched any 3D apps since my university days so I am finding that I am very rusty,
although C3D does look the most inviting 3D app that I have seen.

After playing for a few minutes I have a couple of questions:

Can Cheetah3D save out the images with a transparent background? i.e. If I render an object
placed centrally in the scene, I would like any surrounding background colour to be transparent.

Also, I have been playing with some objects in .3ds format. The objects came with some materials files,
ending in .mat and also some texture and mask .jpg files. When I load the objects into C3D it just loads
the bare object with no texture/material information. Is it possible for C3D to use these files?

Thanks,

Charlie.
 
Can Cheetah3D save out the images with a transparent background? i.e. If I render an object placed centrally in the scene, I would like any surrounding background colour to be transparent.

http://cheetah3d.de/wiki/index.php5?title=FAQ#How_do_I_render_an_image_with_a_transparent_background

Also, I have been playing with some objects in .3ds format. The objects came with some materials files, ending in .mat and also some texture and mask .jpg files. When I load the objects into C3D it just loads the bare object with no texture/material information. Is it possible for C3D to use these files?

I'm guessing the texture files may need to be in "the right place". If you check the file once loaded into C3D, are there any materials defined? They may have lost track of their texture maps and just need them loaded back in. I've had mixed results working with .3ds (in both directions).

If you have a choice, FBX seems the most reliable option.
 
Thanks for the reply.
I did manage to get the object in .fbx format as well, but it still doesn't seem to load any texture/material info.

Is this supposed to work?

Thanks,

gambcl
 
So there are no materials defined in the imported files? Or there are materials but they just look the same. Big difference!
 
Hi,

The objects I am trying to render are a pair of 6-sided dice.

When I load the .3ds file, I get the dice in a plain white material. At the bottom
of the screen I only see a plain white material defined.

When I load the .fbx file I get the dice in a transparent material, I see what looks
like a glass material at the bottom, nothing else.

These objects came with some .mat files and a few jpgs. Some of the jpgs have the
6 sides of the dice laid out in them, showing the dots. I assume this is meant to
be wrapped around the object somehow so that the dots line up with the actual
recessed dots in the object. Another jpg has a texture image which should give
a more textured look to the paint.

C3D doesn't seem to take any notice of these files, whichever object format I use.
I was hoping to just load it up and be able to render the same coloured, textured
object that I saw in a preview image.

Do you know what these .mat files are? Can C3D load them.

I have tried opening the object files in a text editor to see if I could see any filenames
being referenced in there, but didn't see anything obvious.

Thanks for the help,

gambcl
 
I would assume that the .mat files contain material meta-data.

One fairly serious issue with 3ds vs. C3D is that 3dstudio (the program whose file format has become ubiquitous -- the DOS predecessor to 3D Studio Max) had a really neat multitexturing feature that really doesn't translate very well, so this may be the problem.

I'm no expert on 3ds (I didn't use the original program, I started with Max R3, and stopped with Max R4). Frankly, given how simple the model is, you should just build six new materials and assign them and be done with it. Five minutes work.
 
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