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I would like to have my object transparent, with a color only on the edges, would someone know how to do this? I am starting with the nodes, if anyone can help with some guidelines I would really appreciate ;-)

EDIT:

I was looking for something like the hand in Kinectimals :

enter image description here

Thanks

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    $\begingroup$ Please specify what engine you are using. $\endgroup$ Commented Apr 12, 2015 at 23:13
  • $\begingroup$ @cegaton : there are 7 upvotes for the engine, and you erased my edit :) Didn't they want to know if it is a mac/pc? Or the version of blender? Otherwise, I don't know what they refer to for the "engine". $\endgroup$ Commented May 11, 2015 at 20:51
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    $\begingroup$ @Paul Engine refers to cycles or blender internal. The computer OS or blender version will not make a difference for this answer. The render engine will. The answer I wrote works on Cycles. $\endgroup$ Commented May 11, 2015 at 21:19

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EDIT:

Here's an example using layer weight/fresnel to control the transparency:

enter image description here

So how does it work?

The Fresnel value on the Layer Weight controls the mix of emission and transparency.

enter image description here

But you can see right through the mesh at the back side of the object. So you need to limit the rendering to only the part of the geometry first seen by the camera, and make the back faces transparent. That's what the Light path node and Transparent depth is for.

enter image description here

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    $\begingroup$ Wow, thanks. It looks good. I was looking for something like the hand in Kinectimals : vgchartz.com/games/pics/kinectimals_19745.jpg $\endgroup$ Commented Apr 12, 2015 at 23:22
  • $\begingroup$ Is it possible to use the 'backfacing' output of the Geometry node as an alternative to that Light Path node? Maybe it gives a similar result at slightly less computational cost $\endgroup$ Commented Dec 4, 2017 at 5:59
  • $\begingroup$ @R.Navega please use the big blue "Ask Question" link at the top of the page for new questions. $\endgroup$ Commented Dec 4, 2017 at 14:44
  • $\begingroup$ Let me rephrase: I affirm that 'backfacing' should have the same result as that Light Path factor, but directly plugged to the Mix shader factor. $\endgroup$ Commented Dec 5, 2017 at 22:33

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