#.TGA file editing
9 messages in this thread
Is it possible to edit a .TGA file? I am doing a scene of The Invisible City of
Kitezh. The city is only scene as a reflection in the water. If I render a GIF
file, I can use ANI PRO to "cut-out" the city with color 0 (black), but I would
like to render it in .TGA but can find no such ability to edit the resulting
file.
Judy
Judy:
There are _many_ ways to edit a Targa file to do what you need. Hi-Res QFX,
PhotoStyler, PhotoShop, Fractal Design Painter, Altamira Composer, etc.
However, there are many ways to do this in 3D Studio itself.
Matte objects could be used, but one way that I would approach would be to
build your city upside-down below the ground, and have your 'water' a
transparent glass material to see through to the 'reflection'.
Have fun,
Greg Pyros
That's interesting idea to build the city upside down. It sounds like
creating the reflection in a glass like material would also teach me
quite a bit.
Judy:
>> Thanks for the idea.
You're welcome!
Greg Pyros
I tried out your suggestion and the image rendered fine — but I lost
that blurry, fuzzy quality of a real reflection in water that I got
when I rendered it "above ground". I can get that quality if I render
it through a hemisphere with a "glass" material assgined to the
hemisphere, but I can't get the hemisphere large enough to get rid of
the curvature in the image.
I think you can get that blurred look with the proper values on the
translucence on the 'water' material. Maybe add a bit more blue to
it, or even a gray tint.
I'd even try something like a smoke IPAS or one of the Paint effects
like Rough or Smudge just on the water surface. Have you tried to
make two or more layers of 'water' material, with slightly different
materials assigned to each one?
Greg Pyros
How would you do the "water" in layers? I was doing my water in a large shallow
box. I just increased the height/depth of the box and turned the city upside
down in the larger box. I am not sure how I would make more layers.
Judy
Judy:
I'd just make the water a plane, not a 3d box. Less faces to render, less
things to screw up!
Then just copy it down a few inches and assign a different material to it.
Greg Pyros
You'll get a ton of replies, Judy, but basically it boils down to this: you
can
edit TGA files just like any other, but you need a program that can handle
the format. Ani Pro doesn't, because it's really more an animation program
designed to deal with 256color images. Any of the high end pain programs
(Fractal Painter, et al) or photoprocessing programs (Photostyler, etc.) can
handle TGAs with aplomb (and along the way do things in 24K color space
you couldn't even begin to imagine in Ani Pro).