Need help with transparency map, maya 8.5

mattimus

I'm having trouble getting a perfect transparency copied into my alpha map in photoshop.. i seem to be getting a white haze around the actual hair fibers and i don't know how to get rid of it... or for that matter how EXACTLY to copy an alpha selection period without the stinking magic wand which never does a good job with gradients.

claydough

mebbee...
before selecting, up the contrast then select the negative rather than positive space.
then invert

mattimus

yeah, i tried that but it doesn't seem to have the effect i'm looking for... their has to be a way to invert the black and white values 100% so that no grey will show in the maya viewport.... Anyone??

ivars

ctrl+click any layer or channel to convert it to a selection (is that what you were looking for?)

The grey in the texture seems to come from the fact that you are getting a white background on your texture, try using a black background instead of transparent.

teacup42729

I will normally use 'Select-Color Range...' for this sort of selection, just select black or white, and play with the fuzziness slider till you get a nice result.

You can also just copy/paste directly into the alpha channel. I normally create a layer group in the normal color channels which will contain my alpha. This means you can use all the regular image adjustments, multiple layers, etc. Then just copy it over to the alpha channel.

But... As ivars said, I think the white halo is because there is white in your color channel, either fill it up with as close a color as possible, or fill it with the clone tool so it matches the hair perfectly.

mattimus

if i create a perfect invert of the hair in my "layers" how do i then copy it to the "channels" part... i've tried copy paste as well as ctrl+c and ctrl+v and it won't go over... wtf??

Marine

if you've got it as a selection, go in to your alpha channel and fill it with white
if you've got it as a layer, you should be able to just paste it straight in
worked for me in 6 and cs2