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Artistic Renderworks Style Request


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It would be very helpful if somebody could create an artistic renderworks style where the shadows were gray or whatever color they wanted to be, and the background was transparent instead of white.


This should be possible now that the program supports alpha channels.  For whatever reason, I haven't been able to figure out how to create

Shadows 1.png

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  • Vectorworks, Inc Employee

You should only need to set the background fill of the viewport to None and disable any Renderworks backgrounds and the areas within the viewport that don't have geometry in them will render and export as alpha channel.

 

If the viewport was originally created before alpha channels were supported however, I think you have to go to Advanced Properties in the viewport's Object Info and check the box for "None fill uses ALpha Transparency"

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Maybe I spoke too soon.  So I render with shadows only, selecting "none uses Alpha Channel" for the background.  When I overlay it, the area not in shadow for the viewport is still white. So the background is alpha'ed (if that is a verb) but the content of the viewport is still white.  It would be great to have shadow and nothing else. 

Screen Shot 2016-11-21 at 3.51.06 PM.png

Edited by cberg
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Thanks Jim,


Yes I did...  However, I think I am asking the program to do something it can't do and it's probably just me.  The base imagery is a flattened Design Layer Viewport with a lot of 2d information overlaid onto it i.  I was hoping i could get shadows by overlaying a model viewport that has shadows only.  Anything not shadow (or white) would be transparent. 

One of the challenges with the current VW workflow, is that there is no good place to put the 2d design information that accompanies the model viewports.  Inevitably something needs to be colored, clarified or detail needs to be added.  Adding drawing information onto the annotation viewport of a sheet layer viewport creates problems when you try to export or share with consultants. 

 

As a result I tend to work almost exclusively in flattened design layer viewports, which is probably not the intended VW workflow but it is one that communicates better with the outside world and keeps drawing and model information separate from notes, text and layout.  It keeps design space for design, and annotations for annotating.

 

However when one works this way one  loses some of the advantages of rendered viewports, which include shadows.  I was wondering whether there were any workarounds.

 

Maybe the next version of VW should allow renderworks functions within flattened design layer viewports :-)

 

Thanks for your help!

Edited by cberg
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when i saw jim's initial response i got excited about being able to create transparent image layers!  then i tried it, and became confused.  and now disappointed.  where can i learn what alpha transparency means in vectorworks?

 

and if cberg is correct, and transparent layers still are not possible, can his wish be moved back to the wish list?

 

thanks for any effort to clarify this for me.

 

ray

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I think the transparency only applies to complete 'nothingness' - meaning areas where no objects are present. So in this case, if an object has a solid fill, the viewport will render it solid white instead of transparent. As cberg described, the outer portion in the 'background' is transparent, but the structure itself is still solid white.

 

I assume you're trying to overlay the VP with the shadows in front of another viewport. I don't think that RW style will allow you to do that, though you could accomplish this with Photoshop (not ideal, I know).

 

What would be REALLY handy is if VW had blend styles - setting the Viewport to "Multiply" for example would solve this problem (and allow for lots of other cool things).

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I was indeed trying to overlay my original viewport that I added some 2d line work with shadows from a separate viewport. My thought was that if alpha channels were supported, then it wouldn't be all that difficult to tell the computer that white (or any other color) could be set to be transparent.  That is kind of how alpha transparency works in other rendering programs.  Hopefully I can quote another product manual without violating forum rules....  If not, I will edit. 

 

https://www.vray.com/vray_for_rhino/manual/transparency_mapping.shtml

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