jagged edges on active objects - how to clean up?

[method72]

I am building a Hidden Object game and it is going pretty well so far. I have a professional artist building 3d scenes in Maya and texturing them in photoshop. My additional objects which I use to hide in the scenes for the players to find are photos/images in .png format.

The way i am doing it currently is to create an active object for each game object and then import the image and pick a transparency background for it (usually black)

The issue i am seeing is that some objects still show some jagged black lines around the edges and i am not liking the way it looks.

the only solution i can think of is to open each object up in photo shop and try and clean up the edges manually..

my question is, can i somehow use an alpha channel to help with the object blending into the scene..

I have MMFDev so i see that it has alpha support. but not really sure how to make it work.. or if it can even help with my issue.

here is a link to a small image so see the jagged edges http://www.dungeonlooter.com/ho/jagged.png

I am using a 1024x768 resolution for the game just fyi.

If anyone has experienced this sorta problem or knows enough about alpha channels and if they can be used to make a smoother blend please let me know.

thanks
- sam

[Shawn]

There are two ways to fix this, both are on the 3d artist side.

He needs to either:

A). Turn off anti-aliasing when rendering, so that there is no gradient between the edge of the object and the black background. This will get rid of the border, however, the object's edge may not appear as smooth as you want.

Or

B). He needs to render and save them as .png. If he saves the files as png and NOT bmp or jpg, the black background will be treated as a transparency.

It has nothing to do with what you are doing. It's how he is rendering and saving the images.

Edit - Re-reading your post, is the artist doing the objects? Or are you using images you found on the internet? Obviously the above only applies if the 3d artist is rendering the objects.

[method72]

The background images are saved as .png
not sure on the antialis thing though.

[method72]

the artist rendering the scenes is NOT doing the objects.
i am using my own photos and photos from another artist, which are photoshopped and then given a black background which is used as the transparency level.

so it may lie on me to clean every edge better in photoshop.. thats why i was hoping i could figure out a better way to make the images look better..

[maVado]

make sure you save them with alpha channel and import them with alpha channel.

[method72]

not quite sure exactly what the alpha channel does..or how to make it work properly..

so whats the correct steps..?

create a new active object

create alpha channel (does this require any additional steps.. like in setting a transparency you need to select the color u want to make transparent..etc)

export the object and save it with a name as a .png and it will have an alpha cnannel built into it.

then reimport it into the active object? and place it in the scene?

is that what you are saying?

[Game_Master]

the artist rendering the scenes is NOT doing the objects.
i am using my own photos and photos from another artist, which are photoshopped and then given a black background which is used as the transparency level.

so it may lie on me to clean every edge better in photoshop.. thats why i was hoping i could figure out a better way to make the images look better..

Open the image again in photoshop and select the magic wand tool. I use Fireworks and I am not sure if it is the same, but try and find something called "Tolerance". Set it to 10. There may be a dropdown box (or similar) near tolerance, set that to "Anti-Aliasing". Then click on the black area around the image. Once it is selected, delete it. If you find the edges still to be jagged, undo the delete and select then instead of "Anti-Aliasing" select "Feather". Save the image as a png with Alpha Channel enabled then open it within the active object editor in MMF2.


It sounds more work than it is.

[Fimbul]

not quite sure exactly what the alpha channel does..or how to make it work properly..

so whats the correct steps..?

create a new active object

create alpha channel (does this require any additional steps.. like in setting a transparency you need to select the color u want to make transparent..etc)

export the object and save it with a name as a .png and it will have an alpha cnannel built into it.

then reimport it into the active object? and place it in the scene?

is that what you are saying?

If you're using photos, you're in for some huge trouble. It's not specific to multimedia fusion, you'll run into that problem with every software in existence.

Alpha channels are used to preserve the anti-aliasing of an object in MMF2.

They are grayscale "transparency masks" for the object, where black means completely opaque, and white means completely transparent (or maybe it's the other way around, I don't remember).

They must be done separately in multimedia fusion (the image editor in MMF has a small "alpha channel" button).

You can export the alpha channel of an anti-aliased object in most modern image manipulating program, but there's no such thing as alpha channels for photos - you'll have to do them by hand [size:8pt](or, if your objects are always in the same place, just blend them into the background and create a cropped picture of it that fits pixel-perfect into the scene)[/size]