Opacity
David,
>> I've had some trouble with "cookie cutter" opacity maps… <<
Right, well, the "new" transparency applies to "transparency" as a setting. I'm
using it straight with objects rather than with opacity maps. As I understand
it, it gives you increased saturation of colors so that when you throw a
projector light on a semi-opaque object the colors are richer.
So what I've been doing is creating flat planes and projecting the lights on
them almost fully transparent but with the specular color set at 255 white,
transparency at 100 SUB IN Shininess at 35 and Strength at 100. Then by
projecting a map from a spot on this using highlight place to pinpoint the
angle I can generate an image with alpha that just follows the outline of the
projected map, hence the cookie cutter reference.
Then edges aren't perfectly aliased but it works quite well.
John