Currently, when the user drags in and drops an image, it is dropped in as an Empty. It’s useful visually as it automatically shows transparent images as transparent in the viewport.
PROBLEM
However, the problem with Empties is that they do not show up in renders.
To get around this, user can use Images As Planes instead, but transparencies are shown as black in the viewport. To remedy this, if the user was in Cycles:
- Change to Eevee
- Select image
- Go to Material tab
- Scroll down to “Settings”
- Twirl it down
- Change “Blend Mode” to something like “Alpha Blend”
- Select another image
- Change “Blend Mode” to “Alpha Blend”
- Repeat 7,8 for every single image that’s imported (Imagine doing it for 100+ images… which is what I have to do for my next project)
- Switch back to Cycles
SOLUTION
There are several things that need to be addressed:
A. Allow renderability for Empty images.
B. AND/OR When drag-and-dropping in images to Blender, allow making it a Plane instead (with maybe an option to quickly change what material it’s brought in as).
- Have all images brought via Images As Planes automatically be set to “Alpha Blend”.
- Don’t make changing viewport transparent mode dependent on Eevee only. Currently, there doesn’t seem to be a way to change it other than to change the render engine.
- Allow changing of “Blend Mode” to propogate to all selected images so that it doesn’t have to be done one by one.