alpha channels not displaying

joel96

I can't get alpha channel nodes to display in Maya. They display just fine in renders, but they won't show up in preview mode, where I'm selecting and moving around objects. So why is it doing that and how do I change it? Do I have to get some Tesla action? Can I fix it with Maya settings?

CheeseOnToast

What file format are you using? TGAs always worked for me, but PSD alpha channels are ignored.

Marine

http://gameartisans.org/forums/showthread.php?t=6442 try that

joel96

I'm using jpg.

throttlekitty

jpeg doesn't have alpha channels, which may be your problem. Targa is a popular format for personal works: can be uncompressed and has an alpha channel.

What is it you're trying to accomplish? Transparency?

joel96

Nnnnn-yeah kinda. I'm trying to add get the alpha channel that has been added to a non-alpha node to DISPLAY IN THE VIEWPORT PREVIEW THING. It renders the stuff that has alpha nodes added to it fine. It's the non-render view in the workspace that is not displaying. Also, the point is not to add in an image that has an alpha channel already in it, like a PNG, the point is to add an alpha channel node to something like a jpeg and have it be visible to make changes during editing easier.

CheeseOnToast

Easy enough. Connect the "outcolor" output of your texture to the "transparency" (or whatever you want to use the alpha for) input of a shader. You'll need to do this manually, as by default it hooks up "outalpha" instead. Works fine for me in the viewport with an 8 bit TGA file with no alpha channel.