yafray alpha channel problem

[brazilnut]

Hi,

I've been mapping alpha channel human figures onto planes and inserting them into my scenes. All works well and they cast shadows correctly using the internal renderer. When I use yafray, the entire plane casts a shadow. Does anyone know if there is a way around this problem in yafray? An alternate idea, as was suggested by Yellow, is to import a vector tracing of the image and use it as a plane. This solves the shadow casting problem, but doltishly, I cant get my image to perfectly align. When I try the uv-map window the simple traced plane seems to be made up of hundreds of faces. Any ideas as to what I'm doing wrong?
Thanks

[enricoceric]

I had the same problem, this is a known issue with Yafray and it seems that there is no plan to solve it up to now.

[yellow]

"This solves the shadow casting problem, but doltishly, I cant get my image to perfectly align. When I try the uv-map window the simple traced plane seems to be made up of hundreds of faces. Any ideas as to what I'm doing wrong?"

If your images have alpha, do they need to perfectly align?

If you were to render out your vector planes as an image, with no textures and then open it up in gimp and use it as a template to create image maps that you can probably scale and position more accurately in gimp rather than Blender that might get you image maps that fit better. i use that technique to make dirt maps for whole brick walls where i want to add graffiti, paint marks, rough areas of brickwork etc.

[brazilnut]

Thanks, Yellow, you are quite right, they don't have to line up perfectly. This , pretty much, is how I have solved the problem. Is there any way of reducing the hundreds of faces on my plane that has been imported as an svg?

[yellow]

brazilnut:

alt j might reduce the number a bit.

[brazilnut]

Hi Yellow,

I gave it a try, but still hundreds of slices. Guess I'll have to learn how to trace images with beziers in Blender for better results.