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Combing diffuse and opacity maps

12 REPLIES 12
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Message 1 of 13
jreeder
565 Views, 12 Replies

Combing diffuse and opacity maps

I'm trying to make a model which will have diffuse, opacity, and bump maps, but I'm having trouble getting them to work together, specifically diffuse and opacity. 

 

The model should have crossing lines which are raised (bump map) and the lines should have color (diffuse map), and in the squares in between the lines I would like to have a translarent blue color (opacity map). However, if I apply the opacity map to the areas in between the lines, I can not get my transparent blue color to show up. I assume this is because the opacity map is making everything in these squares transparent.

 

Is there a way to do what I am looking for? A zip of the model and the maps I'm using is attached (let me know if there is a problem opening it. Hopefully all the material settings came through.) Sorry for the Dropbox link, it's a zip file that's slightly larger than the max upload size.

 

https://www.dropbox.com/s/s4zug8ckjktzrno/Active%20Matrix%20Gel.zip

 

 

12 REPLIES 12
Message 2 of 13
Steve_Curley
in reply to: jreeder

How very odd...
I just deleted the 3 extra layers, added them back, and it works. Leave the Opacity of Layer 1 at 100 like the others.

Gotta ask - why the really dense Editable Mesh when a Plane with just 1 poly works just as well? Unless you intend rolling it up, of course 😉

Max 2016 (SP1/EXT1)
Win7Pro x64 (SP1). i5-3570K @ 4.4GHz, 8Gb Ram, DX11.
nVidia GTX760 (2GB) (Driver 430.86).

Message 3 of 13
jreeder
in reply to: Steve_Curley

Thanks for the reply.

 

So I'm still slightly confused though. Do I need an opacity map at all? It seems like using a map+mask for each diffuse layer would leave the black areas of the mask completely transparent (which is what I want), but that doesn't seem to be the case. Instead, the black areas of the diffuse masks appear gray in the render.

 

So can I use an opacity layer and only apply it to layers 2-4 but not layer 1?

 

Or, how can I change this gray layer that appears in the black areas of my diffuse mask to transparent?

 

Message 4 of 13
Steve_Curley
in reply to: jreeder

I thought you wanted the blue squares semi-transparent? That's what I got after I re-created the 3 layers of the (diffuse) Composite Map. The Checker is on a plane below your mesh, just so it shows the opacity more clearly than a black background.

CompositeMapOpacity.png


Max 2016 (SP1/EXT1)
Win7Pro x64 (SP1). i5-3570K @ 4.4GHz, 8Gb Ram, DX11.
nVidia GTX760 (2GB) (Driver 430.86).

Message 5 of 13
jreeder
in reply to: Steve_Curley

So you do not have the opacity map enabled, correct? What you are showing is exactly what I want. I tried re-adding the diffuse layers but I get the same results as before (completely transparent squares if I use the opacity map, gray squares with out the opacity map).

If so, then I think I have a setting wrong, because the black areas of my diffuse maps show up as gray when they are rendered (they should be transparent, correct?). This is if I turn off the transparent blue layer. This is the reason I added the opacity map in the first place, to make these gray areas transparent so that I could add the blue transparent layer.
Message 6 of 13
jreeder
in reply to: jreeder

Would you mind attaching the file that you used?
Message 7 of 13
Steve_Curley
in reply to: jreeder

Here you go 🙂

Max 2016 (SP1/EXT1)
Win7Pro x64 (SP1). i5-3570K @ 4.4GHz, 8Gb Ram, DX11.
nVidia GTX760 (2GB) (Driver 430.86).

Message 8 of 13
jreeder
in reply to: Steve_Curley

Thanks! Unfortunately I have 3DS Max 2013 and I can't open your file. Any chance you could save it as a 2013 version? Also, as to your question about the fine mesh, yes, a ripple modifer is going to be applied to the plane which is why I wanted the fine mesh. It should end up looking something like this when I'm done (bottom view with added boxes): https://www.dropbox.com/s/tjp9vjewvzpa76o/untitled.1.jpg

 

 

Message 9 of 13
Steve_Curley
in reply to: jreeder

Ahh - vital bit of info that - pays to always state the version as it prevents this kind of problem. I was using 2015...
Ignore the MassFX warning - the one in 2015 is (logically enough) newer than the one in 2013.


Max 2016 (SP1/EXT1)
Win7Pro x64 (SP1). i5-3570K @ 4.4GHz, 8Gb Ram, DX11.
nVidia GTX760 (2GB) (Driver 430.86).

Message 10 of 13
jreeder
in reply to: Steve_Curley

Awesome. Thank you for your help!

Message 11 of 13
Steve_Curley
in reply to: jreeder

I didn't really do anything (except re-create the layers, and maybe adjust a couple of values). Just one of those weird things which happens now and then.
By the way, you might want to bake the results down to a single bitmap and a single opacity map (Render to Texture). All those nodes are really slowing Max down, especially the multiple opacity maps.

Max 2016 (SP1/EXT1)
Win7Pro x64 (SP1). i5-3570K @ 4.4GHz, 8Gb Ram, DX11.
nVidia GTX760 (2GB) (Driver 430.86).

Message 12 of 13
jreeder
in reply to: Steve_Curley

Thanks for the tips! Baking the layers down helped alot, and also allowed me to import into Keyshot (which I didn't initially think was possible).

 

This is how it ended up:both.12.jpg

Message 13 of 13
Steve_Curley
in reply to: jreeder

The ability to have lots of overlayed images with opacity is pretty powerful, but computationally expensive, as you noticed 😉

Thanks for posting the image - always nice to see how a project turns out 🙂

Max 2016 (SP1/EXT1)
Win7Pro x64 (SP1). i5-3570K @ 4.4GHz, 8Gb Ram, DX11.
nVidia GTX760 (2GB) (Driver 430.86).

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