Graphics

I've been fighting with the Material system.
I got this image layer on a colored layer. Now I want to make the bottom 10% part of the image to let the color layer shine through. But when I apply a gradient, things go very wrong for the upper part of the image. It either disappears or blows into white evil.

Manipulating the image in photoshop is NOT an option: it must be possible to let a user smack on any image and let the XPression take care of the gradient.

Is there anyone who could tell me what to do? I tried fiddling with all the values at no avail.

Gvane,

I created a material, added a texture layer (a photo) and added a gradient layer you can see in the attached. With Color Blending set to Multiply, the gradient seems to work. Having yours set to Blend Alpha may be the problem, although yours kind of looks like Blend Mode: Addition, Mix Value: 99. Start isolating possible causes, try turning off layer1. How many lights do you have in your scene? Is there one that could be causing the overblown exposure?

With that said, if you want a user to add the gradient effect to any photo, it might be easier to build the scene with a Quad1 for the photo and Quad2 (child of Quad1) for the gradient made in Photoshop as a blend from transparent to full color. Set Quad1 QuadOptions, Auto Size to "On Material Assign Only", check "Maintain Aspect Ratio of Texture" and add a little visual logic to size the gradient quad to the size of the photo: Quad1:Height--->Quad2:Height, Quad1:Width--->Quad2:Width.

Hope this helps,
James.

#XPression

I half solved this problem by adding a shader with a gradient image, in the material. Somehow that extra image shader on top of the photo does exactly what I want: it eats away at the bottom of the image and lets the naked quad color shine through. No normal mortal person can comprehend how the programmers designed the gradient system. It requires NASA skills.

However, I can start all over again, as a template user can't update an image inside a material the proper way. A user can only change a simple image on a quad. Not mess with a material structure, like I thought was possible.

All kinds of new problems have emerged. All related to masking and alpha, which is the weakest aspect of the XPression.
#XPression

I think there might be a way through scripting to modify a material, but I am not knowledgeable enough to help you there. The approach of mating two quads in the scene, one for the photo and one for the gradient is quite doable. If I can help with that I'd be glad to. As far as your new problems with masking and alpha, I don't quite understand what issues have arisen, but I think you can do it with two quads as I described.
#XPression