Is there any way to get something like the eyelashes in the picture below to look like the black around them has vanished? I watched a tutorial about doing something like this (this is the one in question). But since it’s an older version, I’m not sure if anything has changed between updates. If it has, is anyone willing to tell me (and for posterity, other newcomers unfamiliar with Cycles) exactly how to do it in a version of 2.7? I have 2.75 for those wondering.
You are close in your image. Swap the Transparent node in the Mix Shader’s factor, with the Image Texture node.
The factor, or fac is what determines what parts receive shader 1 (transparency) or shader 2 (diffuse), so you want the determining “factor” to be the alpha values in the image.
By the way, I’m new, so my apologies if your question is answered before this is posted.
It’s hard to see with the overlapping nodes, but from the flow of the node connectors it seems the Transparent shader is connected to the Fac input and the Alpha is connected to the top shader input of the Mix shader.
