Transparent decal background

[Dave Otte]

Geetings. I'm having issues with my Decal backgrounds not rendering transparent. I've tried all the different decal file types and all the masking options but with no luck. Currently I 'blend' the background of my decal to the color of the object its placed against but this blocks out part of the surface  texture of  that object. any suggestions/recommendations?

 I,m using Acad2012 with AR5.Decal.JPG

[Roy Hirshkowitz]

I'm not exactly sure what you're trying to do from your description, but I think you're trying to mask out a portion of the decal without altering the surface underneath.  Typically this is done with masking-- if you're not familiar with alpha channels (in Photoshop, for example) you can use nXt's color masking options.  Attach a copy of a simple drawing and the decal (I'll need both) and I'll take a look.  If you're not comfortable attaching something here, you can send it to me privately.

[Dave Otte]

Hi Roy, Thank you for your reply. Your correct. I'm trying to 'mask' the black portion of the decal transparent so just the image appears and the surface underneath is not altered. I have tried using the 'mask color transparent' option with no success. This problem started with AR5 (didn't have issue with AR3 or AR4) and my work around is to try and match decal background to underlying surface as shown in the image on the left in 'SIGN.JPG' file. The image on the right is what typically happens. The results are the same with other file formats.  Unfortunatly I don't have access to Photoshop and don't have much expierence with alpha channels, but I do have acess to Adobe Illustrator.

[Roy Hirshkowitz]

Don't make the mask transparent, just use color masking.

Attach a drawing and decal if you want me to show you how to do it.