Guild of Writers

I want to put some hand prints on certain walls of my age.
I have created my own hand prints using a vector based graphics package and can save to any format. Currently saving as png.
I thought I might then apply them to simple planes and position them where I want on the walls.
Now, 3DS Max shows the area around the hand print on the plane as white, not transparent. How do I fix this?

Many thanks to all those who have made such excellent tutorials, maybe I have missed the one which explains this kind of thing?

I am not familiar with 3 d max as a blender user.
But in general it depends on the way you " blend " it to the background.
If the plane has a default white layer and you mix, or add a png. Then then the rest of the plane will be white.
If you use a transparent layer and mix it with a png then it will be transparent .
Isn' t there a setting in max where you can adjust the opaque from 1 to 0?

Just in case, make sure that the image itself is transparent and not white in the areas you want it to be, otherwise you'll have to work around that (usually with less-than-stellar results).

first thing that comes to mind is the materials editor under layers parameters you need the output blending set to alpha
also if you double click on the sample slots you can get a larger sample slot to work with that can be dragged even larger
what you see in the sample slot should be what it looks like more or less in the age after exporting.

another thing that comes to mind (not knowing 2D graphics as well) In Photoshop I just delete the back ground or the white around the hand print export as png
and the background should be invisible with the output blending set to alpha.

there is not as much info on Max as their is Blender so Its a combination of tutorials available, translating what I can from some of the blender tutorials, experimentation
and lots of save files so if I screw something up during an experiment I can always go back to the previous save

also The Guild of Writers has a little sister that specializes in max you might be interested in
http://www.writers-guild.org/Forum/index.php

Thank you for your speedy replies!

Hurrah! Success!

In the Texture Parameters, Texture Color/Alpha box there are some check boxes and I unchecked the Discard Alpha and that got rid of the white background and also set the output blending to alpha, as you suggested.

I have now used this successfully on other things, for example, my fringed rug no longer has a white border but a proper fringe!

Thank you again for all your help.

Your most welcome

also I don't know if you've found them yet however thier are a boat load of tutorials from Andy for Max here

Yes, I have used lots of these tutorials, they are excellent, well written and easy to follow. I have been amazed at what I have been able to create in such a short time (I started in August with no experience at all and have just tinkered away in my spare time).

I also have a couple of tutorial books which have been useful, particularly 3DS Max8 Fundamentals New Riders by Ted Boardman which I got for £2 from Amazon. It also has a disc with autodesk itself on it! It teaches you the basics through practical activities which build up to create a little 3D scene and I worked through the first few chapters before launching into my own age creation.

Here are some pics of some of my materials with transparent bits:


The hand print


The trellis




The arch



Oh bother, how do I fix these images?
OK, I've fixed it.

very nicely done Semjay!

congratulations, Semjay