1

Im following blender gurus How to Make Earth in Blender (Cycles) tutorial, and around the 16 minute mark, when he adds the clouds, mine still end up being opaque. I have followed his exact node setup, but i still dont know where the problem is. I am new to blender, this is my first time making something on this scale

enter image description here

brockmann
  • 12,613
  • 4
  • 50
  • 93
Bazil Asim
  • 11
  • 2
  • 4
    Even though you are using Cycles, you are viewing it in Material Preview mode which uses EEVEE to display your scene (materials in eevee have transparent blend mode set to opaque by default). Press Z in the viewport and select "rendered" from the pie menu. – Christopher Bennett Jul 11 '21 at 22:11

2 Answers2

1

Have you tried what @ChristotherBennet said?

You need to be in Cycles' Rendered mode to see the transparency as EEVEE doesn't display transparency by default. If you want to see transparency in EEVEE for a material, you need to go to the material's tab under the Settings section and Change the Blend Mode to either Alpha Clip, Alpha Hashed or Alpha Blend :

enter image description here

Also, as @Sabnaldo's answer states, you need to be aware of the orders of your input sockets : if you plug the transparent shader into the bottom socket, it means that all the white parts of your texture is going to be transparent and only the black parts are going to show up, which may not be what you want.

The comment of @Nxdhin2005 should be noted too, if your cloud texture has an alpha chanel, you need to plug it into Fac instead of the color.

mqbaka mqbaka
  • 3,036
  • 7
  • 22
  • It is the material preview using Eevee which Christopher and you correctly explained... of course he needs to be aware of the order of nodes (but this answer would be rather frustrating than helping when someone already uses the correct order) and if there would have been alpha information it could be used, but he doesnt need to plug it in the Fac input. The image color should work too, especially since it's a black and white image (and obviously works because that's how it's done in the tutorial). And actually Sanbaldo's answer gives the wrong order. – Gordon Brinkmann Mar 17 '22 at 07:15
  • I'm sorry, not that I want to contradict you but the bottom socket is the one that will show up on the white parts of the inputed image on the fac, in this case the clouds are going to get transparent or am I wrong? As the bottom socket is the one Blender puts "on top" – mqbaka mqbaka Mar 17 '22 at 07:37
  • You are wrong, the clouds are white in the image. – Gordon Brinkmann Mar 17 '22 at 07:38
  • Yes the clouds are white, which would make them transparent if you plug the transparent BSDF in the bottom input. – mqbaka mqbaka Mar 17 '22 at 07:40
  • 1
    Haha, forget everything, I'm so stupid... I had the screenshot open in a different tab, and in the next the paused video tutorial. I looked at the tutorial :D Anyway, if he would use the rendered preview something would be transparent... it's also frustrating for commenters if people ask their questions and say things like they followed the tutorial exactly... sure, only that you have a different node order and you're using a different preview mode. – Gordon Brinkmann Mar 17 '22 at 07:46
  • 1
    I kinda guessed that there was a misunderstanding by reading your comment on Sabnaldo's answer. – mqbaka mqbaka Mar 17 '22 at 07:47
  • Please stop calling poor Sanbaldo "Sabnaldo", haha :D – Gordon Brinkmann Mar 17 '22 at 08:33
  • Oh sorry, I guess I need coffee too. – mqbaka mqbaka Mar 17 '22 at 08:35
  • 1
    I'll get one for you, my mug is empty again, too. – Gordon Brinkmann Mar 17 '22 at 08:36
0

try to switch the input nodes of the "mix shader": - transparent shader should be the 2nd dot, while the diffuse one should be the 3rd input node (alpha channel is ok to be at 1st connection)

Sanbaldo
  • 3,189
  • 1
  • 9
  • 26
  • I tried that too, didnt work – Bazil Asim Apr 07 '20 at 10:32
  • can you share the file with the textures appended? https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/82963/how-do-you-share-a-blender-file thanks – Sanbaldo Apr 07 '20 at 15:08
  • did you mean the blender file? how do i share here? – Bazil Asim Apr 07 '20 at 15:55
  • https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1x9Ln_SNo7olRoslfmHj8Gzb0doqLT3Qn – Bazil Asim Apr 07 '20 at 16:09
  • Try connecting the alpha of the texture to the factor of mix shader node – Nxdhin Jul 11 '20 at 13:25
  • @BazilAsim your file requires access autorisation, please use pasteall.org/blend or make the file public. – mqbaka mqbaka Mar 17 '22 at 06:26
  • @Sanbaldo The cloud texture is just a black and white image without transparency, which means the Alpha output is completely white and unusable for mixing - so the Color output of the image texture is needed for mixing. The clouds in the image are white, the part where no clouds are (and should be transparent) is black. So the Transparent BSDF needs to be plugged in the second input, and the Diffuse BSDF in the third. – Gordon Brinkmann Mar 17 '22 at 07:06
  • @Nxdhin2005 See my comment above, the image has no transparency and even if, it should still work with the black and white values of the color output. – Gordon Brinkmann Mar 17 '22 at 07:08
  • @GordonBrinkmann your first comment is exactly what Sabnaldo said. Transparent in the second dot and diffuse on the third. – mqbaka mqbaka Mar 17 '22 at 07:46
  • @mqbakamqbaka I guess I need more coffee (see my answer on your comment above). Anyway, alpha doesn't help here and no matter the order, if the rest is done correctly at least something should be transparent. – Gordon Brinkmann Mar 17 '22 at 07:48