9.1 Why don't I see a shadow?

In Blender only spot lights can produce a shadow. Also put ON the option DisplayButtons->Shadow to enable shadow rendering.
Best shadows are produced when you put the Lamp "ClipSta" value as high as possible.

9.2 What is the OSA button?

The OSA button controls whether to use oversampling (also known as anti-aliasing) or not. Oversampling improves the quality of the rendered image. With the buttons below ( 5, 8, 11, 16 ) you can select the level of oversampling where 16 means best.

9.3 How to make an MPEG movie?

Mpeg movies can't be written by Blender. The most common utility for this is mpeg_encode, a free program that can be compiled for nearly all systems.

1. Get mpeg_encode
If you don't have mpeg_encode, use ftpsearch for a complete listing.
How to compile and install mpeg_encode is a matter of reading the docs and some experience in compiling software.

2. Setup the params file
Mpeg_encode needs a '.param' file, in which you indicate what mpeg_encode will do.
Here you find an example '.param' file adjusted for standard Blender JPEG output.
These are the required settings you need to adjust:

• OUTPUT
  The name of the output MPEG movie file.
  
• INPUT_DIR
  The name of the directory where the JPEG images are stored.
  
• * [0001-0150]
  The name of the first and tha last JPEG file. Only 4 digit numbers are allowed, following the standard Blender output file name.
  
• BIT_RATE
  If you want to, adjust the compression ratio with another value.
  

3. Run mpeg_encode
Save the params file for example as '/data/rt.param' and type in a shell:

• mpeg_encode /data/rt.param

9.2 How can I render an alpha channel?

There are two ways of getting alpha channels - either together with your rendering, by activating RGBA in DisplayButtons (F10) and saving to a format that can handle RGBA (eg, .tga). When you load the .tga file in your image manipulation app, you have the picture loaded with the use of it's alpha channel.

The other, complicated, way is to render scene once and after rendering finished assign the objects you wante the aplha for R = 1.0, G = 1.0 and B = 1.0 with emit = 1.0 and re-render the animation/still with only the pure-white objects visible.

Last updated 27-aug-99, xype|samo korosec