How do I get in images with transparent backgrounds?

[henry]

How can I get PSD, PNG, GIF or any files with transparent backgrounds in to AC3D?

[Andy]

Have you tried the sample gif in the models directory? This is a transparent gif of a tree.

Andy

[henry]

I just tried that and it work. But I tried other .gif images and no luck.

Basically what I'm trying to do is get objects that I created in Adobe Photo Shop into AC3D. Any suggestions?

[Andy]

PNG files should be fine. So should gifs. You need to ensure that the program you save the picture with supports transparency.

For gifs, I think the specific version is gif89a and the old version of photoshop that I used had a special export for this (saving in normal gif was not adequate).

I use Macromedia Fireworks to make png files and they work well with transparent backgrounds.

Andy

[henry]

No still the same thing happens.

A message comes up saying...

Sorry there is no geometry importers for .png files
I can import these files:
.ac
.3ds
.dxf
.lws
.lwo
.tri
.wrl
.vec .r2v
.bsp

Is there a new importer I have to get?

[Rune]

The error message you get is displayed if you try to import a 3D model from the File | import... menu, but select an unknown file format. This is not the menu item you need for what you're trying to do.

If you're trying to set the background image in one of your 2D views, for instance the front view, what you want to do is go to the View menu, select "Background image", then Set. This will allow you to set the background image for the 2D window of your choice.

To use one of your images (gif, png or other formats) as the surface of your object, you need to add it as a texture. You can for instance create a rect(angle) or a box, then make sure you are in object mode (select "object" at the top left of your screen). Now go to the Object menu, select Texture, then "Load texture...". Select the image you want to display on your box, and you'll be seeing your gif before you can say "someone bought ac3d and all they got was this really great piece of software"!

Hope this helped...

[henry]

It worked! I did what you said and by the time I said "someone bought ac3d.." the image was right there!

Thanks!

One more question, could I make .gif amimations with this program?

[Andy]

The png plugin adds a menu item to the tools menu that allows frames of a spinning animation to be saved.

Import these into a gif animator, save the gif and you can get something like this:

http://www.ac3d.org/ac3d/tieanim.gif

Andy

[henry]

Oh my! This program is better then I thought!

[Rune]

Oh my! This program is better then I thought!

But of course :lol: