clear or translucent material turns black in material editor

[wgc2005]

Hi-

I'm working on a clear plastic tube but want to make it translucent white. When I change the difuse material settings to make it totally transparent, the preview turns black and the object renders black! when I make the transparency setting mid or light gray, the material also renders gray, not white. The refraction layer doesn't seem to matter even if I remove it. the diffuse color is white or very light grey.

I know there's something simple going on here, but don't have the manual in front of me, and can't find tutorials at the moment.

1 or 2 quick things to check?

tia!

[wgc2005]

Re: clear or translucent material turns black in material editor

bump

[BillyRaygun]

Re: clear or translucent material turns black in material editor

I have the exact same issue and would love to understand why this happens.

All I want to do is create a clear object with simple reflections. Not some elaborate glass material. Seems like in order to get the clearness, refraction is required.

Bill

[thomthom]

Re: clear or translucent material turns black in material editor

Check the manual on translucent materials. It recommends that you don't use 100% white or 100% black for the transparency level. Also, make sure you untick Double Sided.

[BillyRaygun]

Re: clear or translucent material turns black in material editor

Thanks for the reply. Worked great.

[wgc2005]

Re: clear or translucent material turns black in material editor

Thanks all- I wasn't using 100% white or black, but I will have to try the double sided check.

In the meantime, I did a photoshop workaround.