Materials Help!

Hello. I am fairly new to Blender, although I have grinded my way through many tutorials by now and have a project underway ( http://blenderartists.org/forum/showthread.php?t=191489 ). I have what I hope to be a simple question.

I have created a single mesh, and used a UV mapped image to texture part of it, and now I need the rest of it textured with Blender materials to make it translucent. The concept is basically a tank with energy shields.

I notice that when I select the faces that I want translucent with RayTransparency (or anything for that matter), it also effects the UV mapped faces -_- How do I make the Blender materials only effect the faces I choose? Also, I’d like a single mesh to be my first choice, but I tried it with separate meshes and still found the same problem. I realize this is probably something I have yet to learn, so that’s why I’m here!

Thanks.

Kind of hard with that description to tell what you are doing exactly. Also are you using 2.49 or 2.5?

Pictures would help, more descriptions and a blend file uploaded or linked someplace is even better.

To be specific, I have a single mesh which I need only specific faces to be translucent, but it seems even when I have only those faces selected, the materials settings will still effect the entire mesh. How do I create a single mesh, and have materials effect only the faces I want?

I am using 2.49, and I made a crude example in a video using a model from the 1997 version of the game we are remaking.

Click here to watch

Thanks for the video.

Have a read here:

http://wiki.blender.org/index.php/Doc:Manual/Materials/Multiple_Materials

Hmm. Thanks. I read through but it seems I couldn’t figure it out. I understand that I should be assigning the material to the faces I want, but even then, they still got assigned to the other faces in the mesh also. Do you think you could just tell me what to do directly, or even give me tutorial with a video example if you’ve found one already? I have searched for a few days now to no avail. Thanks.

I’m new too, but i am pretty sure that you have to select the faces you want to be translucent and then press F9 to go into Editing. On the far right of the bottom “buttons” menu you will see Vertex Groups written. Under that press new and then assign. This will assign the faces you have selected to their own vertex group. Then to the right of the buttons you just pressed is a materials section. press new and then make it translucent. Should only effect those faces.

I am fairly new to Blender,so don’t take what i say as gospel. Aside from that, i am pretty sure this is the way to go about what you are trying to do

The reason I had you read it is because, well, it can be confusing and tricky. I thought it would be better to have you just read it. You really need to get your head around the entire concept.

  1. If there are no materials assigned to an object and you press “New” in the materials tab, it also asigns one material index. There has to be a material index for there to be a material. But it is two things. So for example you could have 5 materials and only one material index. You could simply select and try different materials on this one index. The index is the faces you assigned to it. You could also have two indexes and one material used on both.

Does that make sense?

  1. So you not only have to make a new material index, You have to make sure you have the new material also assigned to the material index. You do that in the materials tab. The arrows cycle you though the indexes and you can assign a different material to each. Make sure you assigned an index to the faces and also that you have given it a new material.

Also you have to hit “New” before you assign the faces to the material index otherwise you are just assigning them to the same index. That won’t work. You have to create a new one first.

Just remember these are two different pieces of data. They are separate. It is confusing but also very simple. And it is a flexible system that allows you to swap out materials to different indexes without there being a link.

The index is only data that says where you want it. The material, separate, is what you want to put there.

Hope this makes sense.

If not, read it again and keep experimenting until you get it.

Thank you guys. Between you both I’ve figured it out. I appreciate it alot. Consider this issue resolved. Hope it helps someone in the future.