Mix Texture and images with alpha channel Tweet

[Andreas_Resch]

I probably didn't make myself clear enough. I want to overlay a transparent image that contains BOTH RGB information AND has transparency in it as well. For now I (as I don't know it better yet), I always have to create two nodes (RGB Image as well as Alpha Image) for each image that I want to overlay. But that will always result in twice the work, for creating as well as changing the images. In Blender I have two output sockets on the image node - one for the RGB information and one for the Alpha information. And if I want to change that image I only have to reload the image once.

Here's the image I want to overlay ... http://www.argfx.at/upload/smiley.zip

[J.C]

As I said in previous reply, RGB or Grayscale image node does not output alpha channel. You need to use Alpha Image node to get alpha channel from an image.
In the end you will have two texture nodes, one for alpha and one for rgb information.

[Andreas_Resch]

Sometimes you have to take the bumpy road. Thanks anyway.

[J.C]

Sometimes you have to take the bumpy road. Thanks anyway.

I wish it was easier too.

[Andreas_Resch]

The day will come when one of the devs will realize that there are file formats now that can store transparency as well

[elsksa]

What J.C wrote. In my case (Standalone), the selection of the "image type" can be done during import, while in Octane Blender, it's only via a dedicated node to add beforehand (as far as I know).

The day will come when one of the devs will realize that there are file formats now that can store transparency as well

They do, and there are no issues whatsoever. Everything one would need is supported and works. However, I would rather say "the day when people will know how to properly encode “alpha” in appropriate file formats".

[Andreas_Resch]

It doesn't really make a difference if there are two dedicated nodes or two equal nodes with a different purpose selected for them. It's still two nodes. And not sure about the second comment. If there is a proper way about how to encode a transparent file that will allow me to get to a solution that requires just one image node, please share it with us. It might be helpful for a lot of users.