Step 1 Make 2 copies of the same object (here, head from a Mike model imported from poser).

Step 2 Keep one of the faces with mapped colors (texture map from the mike model) Replace the material of the other object by a procedural material. The two objects are kept in separate layers

Step 3 Open the material summary and edit the transparency of the texture map for the face Bring transparency to 100% Turn 'variable transparency' on Select 'Edit function' in the pop up menu of the function preview (right click on the preview)

Step 4 In the Edit Function panel, select 'mapped values' Load a picture of your transparency map. The transparency map has to have the same dimension as your texture map for the face. In an image editor, use white for the areas your want to keep and black for the areas you want to mask. Use the little white circle (top right corner of the transparency map image preview) to inverse the image if necessary. The preview of your material should change automatically.

Step 5 Remove the unnecessary remaining elements of your transparent model (for the head, the eyes, the neck and the inside mouth had to go). Move your transparent object over the other one and TADA!, you end up with a piece of skin sticking to a metallic head.

Thank you, I am going to go off and try this now. Sharen:)

Notes: - Repeat this as many times as you need if you want to add other parts of the face - The material editor assigns the same name to the same materials when you import the same figure twice. You will have to play with material names in order to have multiple pieces of the same face. The easiest is to save the piece as a separate material as soon as you apply the transparency map. For my example, I had a 'skin' directory in my material files, with a copy of the original skin, and separate materials for each eye piece, for the mouth and for the forehead. - I noticed some artefacts in volumetric atmospheres. If you move the pieces too far apart, the 'transparent' part of the face may appear faintly like a ghost image. - If the objects overlap exactly, only one of them will be visible, no matter how your transparency maps are made. You will have to shift the objects a little in order to make them appear. I hope you have fun when trying this :)

Wow, this is very intriguing. Thank you for sharing this technique! And up 'til now, I only ever have used transparencies in Vue for plant materials and glasss, etc.... Would you mind if I put a link to this page in the tutorials sction here? This is a really awesome technique, with alot of possibilities. :)

Yes, thank you for sharing this....this is fabulous. Can't wait to show you what I come up with, it won't be like yours but at least I will give it a try. Sharen:)

This is good stuff! Thanks for sharing it with us. :D Rich

Mike: I can make a version of this as a full html tutorial and put it on my site. That would make a more stable place to link to from the tutorial page.

heyas; but when you're working on it, dont move the heads apart, import them on top of each other, just separate them on different layers. (you can turn one invisible if you need to). that should work better than trying to place two separated ones exactly on each other. very cool, thanks for showing us this :)

OK, agiel. I don't have to do it, but if you're going to make this into a html page, please link to it in the tutoriasl section. This is great stuff! :)

Excellent, and thanks!

Bloodsong: That's right. I separated themto make the tutorial more clear. It is better to leave them superimposed and separate them slightly at the end.

Very cool technique! :)