Texturing with text

[owan213]

Hi, I'm new to Maya and 3d, I'm trying to add a texture which is just text with a transparent background. Is there a way to add a texture like this but without losing the shader color? I'm using Arnlod Standard Material.

[n8skow]

You want your 'text' texture to show on top of the existing shader color?

You can use a blend node to combine two different shaders...

[mspeer]

Hi!

On color inputs you can only have one, either a color value or a texture (which replaces the color value), but not both, so you need to combine the text with the color before, by using other nodes, or simply do this with an image application.

[owan213]

Hi!

Thanks for your answer, I'm trying with LayeredShader and also AiMixShader (which seems to work pretty much the same as Blend), the problem is that I'm not able to render the transparency properly. It's just a simple black text on a transparent background. The file is a png and I'm using Arnold 5.

Thanks again!

[mspeer]

Hi!

"I'm not able to render the transparency properly."

What does this mean?

Just search in the forum for "Arnold transparency".

2 threads that might be helpful:
https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/maya-shading-lighting-and/transparency-renders-black-in-arnold/td-p/6...
https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/maya-forum/arnold-maya-2017-transparency-with-file-texture-showing-bl...

[sean.heasley]

Hi @owan213

I'm just checking in to see if you need more help with this. Did the suggestion that @mspeer provided work for you?

If so, please click Accept as Solution on the posts that helped you so others in the community can find them easily.

[owan213]

Hi mspeer,

Yes, thanks for your help. Before creating this thread I read those solutions, but they didn't work for me (or I'm doing something wrong). What I mean when I say that I can't render the transparency properly is that the transparency on the PNG is not visible in Arnold. I mean, If I uncheck the opaque option on the shape, the text will show up, but the object will become transparent. I must be doing something wrong. I can duplicate the object and apply the shader and that will work (one object will be transparent with the text, and the other one solid with the color), but I wanted to find a better solution, I mean, there has to be one lol.

[sean.heasley]

Hi @owan213

Solid Angle has some great breakdowns on using transparency you can find here!

Please let me know if this helps or if you need any more assistance!

If one or more of these posts helped answer your question, please click Accept as Solution on the posts that helped you so others in the community can find them easily.

Kudos are greatly appreciated. Everyone likes a thumbs up!

[sean.heasley]

Hi @owan213

Just wanted to check in to see how things were going. Are you still having this issue?

If your issue is resolved, please click Accept as Solution on the posts that helped you so others in the community can find them easily.

[owan213]

Hi Sean,

Thanks for your interest. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to solve the problem as I wanted to. So I guess you can delete this whole thread since the "solutions" mentioned here, are already posted in the forum.

Have a nice day 

[mspeer]

Hi!

It seems you are doing something wrong, if you upload the scene-file (+ PNG texture) i will check it.

[owan213]

Mspeer, thanks, it's very simple, I need to apply a black text to a solid shape (which will be white, but the color doesn't matter really). The png has transparency, but I can't render it in Arnold, if I uncheck the opaque option on the shape, the text becomes visible, but the object also becomes transparent. I have used the Arnold Standard Material btw.

If you can share a capture of your Hypershade with the configuration that you will use, it will be much appreciated.

[mspeer · Accepted solution]

Hi!

"the opaque option on the shape, ...the object ... becomes transparent"

Sure, that's what this attribute does so don't disable it.

You want to do compositing inside Maya, so you need to do this (as stated above) by using utility nodes.

Here just 2 options that work fine (but you can also use Layered Texture or something else).

[owan213]

Thank you for you help mspeer! It worked perfectly 🙂