What an alpha channel is

A Digital image is first and foremost a file, ready to be viewed in your computer or multimedia device. There are a lot of different types of digital images, but all of them have been designed to store data.

Digital images store values for what we call colors in a RGB format (Red, Green and Blue). RGB are the primary light colors allocated in channels. Certain types of images can allocate yet another channel called alpha channel. This alpha channel stores the values you decide to be transparent in the image.

In SL environment you can only upload *tga and *png images for a transparency effect or transparent area. This type of image stores colors in three channels, and also can store the transparency in the alpha channel.

Not too long ago, *tga was the only type with alpha enabled for SL. However, Portable Network Graphics format, or *png, works as well as *tga and it's easier to handle.

SL is flooded with transparency areas. Transparencies have a little drawback though: They collide. Not only in_world, but at any virtual environment. It's something the processor has to decide which goes first. That's why sometimes, your hair will be eaten up by a glass, or floor, or even a wall, given the fact that they have been textured with any image with transparency effect. Ctrl+T will give you an idea about this usage, turning into Red all transparencies.

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Mesh and Templates, Head

Speaking of meshes...If we dissect the mesh we can see what a template really is and where it comes from.

The Mesh

As almost everything you see - or do not see- in SL, a mesh is comprised of triangles. Their varied angles, coordinates and forms, determine the 'bumps' that mimic surface, as this example shows.

Here we go :-) 

Head 

UV texturing permits polygons that make up a 3D object to be painted with color from an image. The image is called a UV texture map, but it is only an image, that's all.  

Unwrapping the UV map is pretty much like extending a map onto a flat surface. 

Thus, the map for the head becomes this template:

It's in this template where make-up, and the very skin of the avatar's face is done. It's rarely used for clothing.

Copyright 2011,Eme10 All Rights Reserved

About this blog

SL is a world inside another and, even thou its ways of presenting itself vary greatly, one comes to realize that somehow it's an extension of our daily lives. I was attracted by SL for the very reason Fine Arts enticed me: The real opportunity to learn and express beyond what we see.

I entered SL fresh from digital Art, and wanting to know more about '3D worlds'. In fact, Raytracing and modeling surely provided me with the thrill of creating a world -literally- from scratch. I wanted to know how would it be 'to live' inside one. And decided to start from Zero...And here I am!

There are many areas to explore and create, to share and enjoy and all of them are never ending endeavors. One of those was to make 3D textures I really like, and another, trying to find by myself how to design clothing. In the same way we carry with us our inventories in SL, we get to relate, and connect, with all of what we have lived in our lives. A 'feeling good' experience :-)


First entries of this blog will have to do with where we -as avatars- come from, hence the name : We are All One and the same:-)

See you in the next post!




Copyright 2011,Eme10 All Rights Reserved