Transparency and Decals

Transparency is used on textures to make parts of textures see through to make them more realistic. The degree of transparency goes from 1-0 where 1 is fully opaque and 0 is fully transparent. To make use of transparency you have to create an alpha source for the texture. Anything you want the player to see should be white, whilst anything you want to disappear and be see-through should be in black. Transparency is used mainly for fences, windows and even foliage.

To test it out we had to find a chain link texture and take it into Photoshop. The actual fence part needed to be made white with the space around the edge and inside made black so it becomes see through.

Chain link alpha source

We then added the original texture to the diffuse section in the material editor in 3DS and applied the alpha source to the opacity setting. This then applies the texture and the opacity meaning you get the effect of a chain link fence that you can see through.

Added texture and alpha source into 3DS Max

I then decided to add it into a scene in Unity to see if it looked the same and the effect works exactly as it did in 3DS Max.

My fence in Unity with transparency still working

We were then taught that transparency can be used for decals. This is the process of adding a texture to an object that already has a texture, in order to give it some more detail. The decal won't cover up the entirety of the original texture, it simply adds something more on top of it. Examples would be stains, dirt and graffiti on surfaces. I made a graffiti decal and then created the alpha source for it which was more difficult seeing as it was multiple lines for text rather than an overall shape. Eventually I managed to do it and applied both in the material editor, exactly how I did for the fence texture.

Graffiti on wall in 3DS Max

As I said earlier, foliage can be created by using alpha sources to make the space between and around leaves/plants transparent. We were shown how to create a leaf and then curve it slightly for realism and adding a lot of these leaves together gives the appearance of a small tropical plant. Another way to create foliage is to use the same texture multiple times with them at different sizes/angles and we used this to create a bush. The final piece of foliage made was a tree that I rotated multiple times to give a more 3D effect.

Foliage textures with alpha source

For home study I was tasked with creating some particle effects in Unity which is a something I've never tried before. In order to make a particle effect I had to add a particle system to my scene. This is a default effect producing white orbs at a steady state, in which a huge amount of settings can be changed. The 3 particle effects I created were: an explosion, exhaust fumes and a glowing golden ball of light. These 3 effects varied in size, speed, emission shape, lifetime and textures.
The explosion needed to be fast expanding and quick to end with the particle size decreasing as it blasts out. The exhaust fumes puffed out at a steady speed both rising and disappearing over time. The golden orb is quick and compact in a spherical shape with the particles fading quickly.

My particles in a GIF