Introduction to Maya - Rendering in Arnold
This course will look at the fundamentals of rendering in Arnold. We'll go through the different light types available, cameras, shaders, Arnold's render settings and finally how to split an image into render passes (AOV's), before we then reassemble it i
# 1 01-05-2013 , 03:56 AM
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Mia_X Material Transparency problem

Hello all,

I've a question about the transparency of the Mia_X Material. I have a couple of cans that I wanted to put some condensation on. The can has an Mia_X material, and so do the nParticles that I used for condensation. The condensation material is reflective and refractive. When I render, the rgb looks ok, but the alpha looks like the particles punched holes through the cans. It's an old issue, I think but one I never did get to figure out.

Also, I'm lighting using an hdr image, if that makes a difference user added image

Any and all help would be appreciated. user added image

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Last edited by Calvin; 01-05-2013 at 04:00 AM.
# 2 09-05-2013 , 08:27 PM
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The only way around that I've found is piping the mia's result into the outcolor of a surface shader. The "Pass Custom Alpha Channel" attribute in the render settings doesn't seem to work and neither does "propagate alpha" in the material settings.


- Genny
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# 3 10-05-2013 , 03:46 AM
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Ok, so I pass the MiaX material result to the outcolor of the Surface shader then apply the surface shader to the nParticles, correct? user added image

I'm wondering if this has anything to do with it being particles. I tested this with a transparent torus around a sphere and the alpha of that was what you'd expect.

# 4 10-05-2013 , 05:06 AM
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That's right. And it does seem to be a problem with particles. Standard Maya materials and MR materials handle alpha differently, but didn't think we'd have to deal with this -_-.


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# 5 10-05-2013 , 05:23 AM
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Great, thanks, good to know. user added image I was resigned to use a blinn instead. Not that blinns are bad, but It also just irked me that it wasn't working with the Mia_X user added image

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