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948 Chapter 8: Modifiers
• Hue—The output color has the saturation and
value of the base color, with the hue of the layer
color.
•
Saturation—Theoutputhasthehueandvalue
ofthebasecolor,andthesaturationofthelayer
color.
•
Co lor —Theoutputhasthevalueofthebase
color, and the hue and saturation of the layer
color.
•
Lumi no si t y —Theoutputhasthehueand
saturation of the base color, and the brightness
value of the layer color.
Note: Usingtheshowendresultbuttoninthe
modifier stack for the current paint layer will allow
you to interactively paint under any over laying
paint layers (vertex p aint modifiers that are above
thecurrentoneintheobject’smodifierstack).
This allows you to see the final results of your p aint
strokes for any paint layer in the stack.
Opacity Slider—Allows you to set the opacity of the
current vertex paint layer, f rom 0 to 100 percent.
100 percent Opacity means that the current layer is
entirely opaque: you cannot see through it to the
layer directly under it or to the base ver tex colors
of the objects being painted.
The opacity of a layer is animatable. Simply turn
on Auto Key, move the time slider and adjust the
spinner value. This will set a keyfr ame.
Note: If you painted on the layer with a brush
opacity less than 100 percent, then colors stored
in the layer can already be less than full opacity,
and t he final opacity at any vertex is a product of
the two values. If you vertex had only 50 percent
opacity worth of paint applied to it, and the layer is
50 percent opaque, then the ver tex will appear 25
percent opaque overall.
Be aware that the paint opacity is d i fferent from
the vertex alpha channel. Values less than 100
percent incrementally reveal any vertex color,
alpha information, and so on, coming from vertex
paint layers beneath it, or the base object’s original
information. Opacit y values c an be changed for
the current layer at any time. Since vertex paint
layersarepreservedinthemodifierstackyoucan
return to a particular layer at any time and adjust
its opacity to tune an object’s final appearance.
Note: The opacity for a specific paint layer should
not be confused with “alpha” information for
a given vertex. Opacity controls the mixing of
painted information in the modifier stack for the
currently active map channel (whether it be color
information, alpha, illumination, or any arbitrary
map channel from 1 to 99). Alpha Channel
information (by convention) is intended to be
used specifically to indicate the transparency of all
combined color information for a given vertex.
Another way to th ink about the opacity slider
is that it is identical to the amount spinner. The
difference between them is that opacit y is for the
entire layer, where as amount is for the current
brush stroke (between a mouse down and mouse
up period when painting). Changing the amount
spinner after painting does not affect what is
already d isplayed on the screen; where changing
the opacity layer does. In the end, the cu rrent
ver tex paint layer being applied generates a final
colorthatisthecombineresultofamountand
opacity. The whole concept should be quite
natural to any Adobe Photoshop user. However,
Photoshop is able to display a light grey and dark
grey quilt as a background to give a visual cue
about layer opacity, w hereas 3ds Max does not
suppor t this same display cue. So in 3ds Max, more
attention is required of the artist to understand the
opacity of each vertex on each layer.
Opacity numeric entr y field—Allows you to
enter an opacity amount. Range=0 (completely
transparent) to 100 (totally opaque).