Smoke - What am I missing?

[yellow]

Hi Gang,

Here's something I clearly know very little about. I put a transparent/alpha PNG on a "face-me" object of a puff of smoke (I even re-processed the image to make *sure* the alpha channel had variance).

In Sketchup (see first image below) it looks *exactly* as it should. In Twilight (no matter if there's a sky or not) it has a "hard edge" on it (see second image below).

I am missing something obvious I'm sure, but at a complete loss to what it might be.

-S

[Chris]

Currently in Twilight Render, materials applied to geometry always render partially transparent textures as "clipped" meaning they don't have partial transparency. This provides the fastest rendering which is desirable for the majority of cases (tree leaves, etc).

If you want to render with partial transparency, you have to use a SketchUp Image, instead of geometry. Then it will render correctly.

[yellow]

Hi Chris! Thanks for the quick reply!

If I can make sure I have it right, rather than importing a transparent texture to a surface, flat-out import the image (not as a texture) instead...?

If so, I will give it a shot when back at the office.

-S

[Chris]

Yep, when importing, make sure to select "Use as Image".

[yellow]

Chris,

AMAZING advice. I'd have never thought to approach it that way (in fact never knew there even was a way to pull it off). I cannot thank you enough.

Resulting (final) image below (thanks again!).

-S

[Fletch]