by Didik Wijaya

Ghost appears a lot in movies, from Ghostbuster, Casper, to Harry Potter series. Usually ghost in those movies has transparent look, also has some blurry glow effect around them. In this tutorial, you will learn to create material for transparent ghost effect using 3ds max, You will also add blurry rendering effect to achieve more realistic effect.

1. First, you need 3D model. Actually you can use any 3D model, but in case you don't have one, you can download here. This is Slimer 3D model, ghost character from Ghostbuster The Movie. After you open this file, try to render. Image below shows render result.

2. Slimer 3D model already has Multi/Sub-Object Material applied. I don't discuss about this material type here. If you want to read more about Multi/Sub-Object material, please look at texturing a duck tutorial

Open Material Editor. In Multi/Sub-Object Basic Parameters click button right next to green color material

3. In Blinn Basic Parameters, activate Self-Illumination. This option will make object surface much brighter. Then in Extended Parameters, make sure you use Falloff=In. Change color box right next to Filter to pure black. Enter Amount=100. Try to render. You will see effect of Falloff. The middle of object is now transparent (Falloff=In).

4. We will make object rim brighter. Open Maps rollout. Click button right next to Selft-Illumination. In Material/Map Browser choose Falloff. In Falloff Parameters, change white color box to pale green. This will reduce brightness a little bit. Then, in Mix Curve rollout, there is a graph that controls the transparency. Click Add Point button, and click in the middle of graph line. Right click this new point and choose Bezier-Smooth. This way you can create smooth curve by adjusting Bezier handle. Move point and modiy bezier handle until you have curve like image below.

5. Image below shows rendered result so far.

6. Next step is adding glow effect. Usually I will use Video Post to add glow effect, but in this case I will use Blur effect instead. I am planning to use dark bitmap background. Lens effect glow in Video Post will make background image much brighter. I want to avoid this.

From top menu, choose Render>Environment. Click tab Effects. In Effects rollout click Add button. Choose Blur.

Go to Blur Parameters rollout. In Blur Type tab, use Pixel Radius=5. In Pixel Selections tab, deactivate Whole Image and use Luminance. This option will make shiny areas of image blurred. Enter Brighten=100, Blend=50, Min=80, Max=100 and Feather Radius=15.

7. Go back to Environment tab. In Common Parameters, click None button and choose bitmap image you want as background. You can use spooky and dark background image. Then render. Image below shows final render result. Note: If you use only black color background, blur effect will not enhance rendering much.

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