Second Life Forums Archive - problems exporting targa w/ semi transparent areas on Photoshop 8 for MAC

frank Foley

Registered User

Join date: 5 Feb 2006

Posts: 45

02-23-2006 18:34

I've been trying to export a Targa file from Photoshop CS w/ semi-transparent areas (20% opacity) to bring into SL as a texture. The only way I get any kind of transparency in the targa file is to select the areas taht Iwant transparent and then add an alpha channel as teh selection. But this area is completely transparent -- no drop shadow, no 20% opacity, nothing.

Anybody know how to get PS for Mac to export a targa w/ semi-transparent areas? I've had tons of PC people on SL showing me how it easy it is for them to do all day!

Thanks

Reitsuki Kojima

Witchhunter

Join date: 27 Jan 2004

Posts: 5,328

02-23-2006 18:37

Try this forum: /109/1.html

_____________________

I am myself indifferent honest; but yet I could accuse me of such things that it were better my mother had not borne me: I am very proud, revengeful, ambitious, with more offenses at my beck than I have thoughts to put them in, imagination to give them shape, or time to act them in. What should such fellows as I do crawling between earth and heaven? We are arrant knaves, all; believe none of us.

frank Foley

Registered User

Join date: 5 Feb 2006

Posts: 45

i was hoping for mac specific help, as i've been getting unhelpful advice from

02-23-2006 18:47

PC people all day

Ben Bacon

Registered User

Join date: 14 Jul 2005

Posts: 809

02-24-2006 00:02

Well, I'm just another PC person - but Photoshop is virtually identical on both platforms.

For what you are describing - try this to get you started: Don't select the areas first. Make sure you have deselected everything. Now create your alpha channel - it should end up being completely black. Now you can whatever you fill with white here will be completely opaque, and whatever you leave black will be completely transparant.

You can click on the channel named "RGB" to see your design and make your selection, then click on "Alpha 1" to see the alpha channel and fill the selection with black, white, or different shades of grey.

20% opacity is represented in the Alpha channel with (H0 S0 B20) or (R51 G51 B51). So pick that colour and fill your selection with it. (I often use HSB to pick colours for my alpha channels - H is irrelevant, S is always 0, and B is opacity from 0% to 100%) - Note that on many monitors, this grey looks like pure black, don't worry about that you can use the eyedropper or info box to verify that it is correct if your monitor is too dark.

Reitsuki Kojima

Witchhunter

Join date: 27 Jan 2004

Posts: 5,328

02-24-2006 02:50

0.o

Wow, is that needlesssly a pain in the ass. Paint Shop Pro you set up the opacity on the color image so you can see what your doing, then just click "save to alpha channel".

Anyhow, like Ben said... Photoshop between the platforms is almost exactly identical, with only very minor deviations (like the funky clover-key thingy macs have instead of... alt is it?) and such. That's why I suggested the design and textures forum... The majority of people there use photoshop, and "technical issues" is really more about second life bugs and stuff.

_____________________

I am myself indifferent honest; but yet I could accuse me of such things that it were better my mother had not borne me: I am very proud, revengeful, ambitious, with more offenses at my beck than I have thoughts to put them in, imagination to give them shape, or time to act them in. What should such fellows as I do crawling between earth and heaven? We are arrant knaves, all; believe none of us.

Ceera Murakami

Texture Artist / Builder

Join date: 9 Sep 2005

Posts: 7,750

02-24-2006 06:56

Get what you need? I am a Mac user, and I make transparent and semi-transparent textures regularly. As stated, a grey texture in the alpha channel makes whatever is in the tga save as being semi-transparent. The closer it is to black, the more transparent it is. Save as 32 bit TGA, and no compression.

Ceera Murakami

Texture Artist / Builder

Join date: 9 Sep 2005

Posts: 7,750

02-24-2006 09:04

If you want only part of the image to be semi-transparent, and the rest to be fully transparent or solid, use white for opaque, greys for semi-transparent, and black for fully transparent, all on the alpha layer.

Another important trick:

Let's say you have something that is supposed to have a fully-transparent area in it, like a keyhole cutout in a dress. If you just select the cutout area in your art layer, and use that to mask in your alpha layer, odds are you'll get a white edge around the hole. That is because your art layer most likely is anti-aliased around the edges, and has partially transparent pixels there. To fix this, fill the hole in the art layer with black. (I usually make a copy of the layer first, so I can go back to that version for other uses.)

_____________________

Sorry, LL won't let me tell you where I sell my textures and where I offer my services as a sim builder. Ask me in-world.

Vincent Parvenu

Registered User

Join date: 24 Jul 2005

Posts: 22

02-24-2006 20:52

There is a tga file that does all this hard work for you, you don't have to do any of that fancy stuff. Just replace the plugin for being able to save targa's, and boom you're done. I'll post the link to the other forums when I find it.

Simple as making your image, having all of the layers you want to be in the image visable, and saving it as a 32 bit targa. Bam, everything else is done for you. Nothing special.

Vincent

Ali Maltz

Just another RL escapee

Join date: 25 Sep 2005

Posts: 23

02-25-2006 16:50

From: Ceera Murakami

If you want only part of the image to be semi-transparent, and the rest to be fully transparent or solid, use white for opaque, greys for semi-transparent, and black for fully transparent, all on the alpha layer.

Another important trick:

Let's say you have something that is supposed to have a fully-transparent area in it, like a keyhole cutout in a dress. If you just select the cutout area in your art layer, and use that to mask in your alpha layer, odds are you'll get a white edge around the hole. That is because your art layer most likely is anti-aliased around the edges, and has partially transparent pixels there. To fix this, fill the hole in the art layer with black. (I usually make a copy of the layer first, so I can go back to that version for other uses.)

To avoid white haloing (and make the process much easier in general) there's a plug-in available (Mac and PC) that changes the way that Targa (.tga) files are exported. It takes the original transparency information from the Photoshop layers and produces a Targa with the alpha channel you need, halo-free. This same thing exists for PC, but with more PC users out there, it's easier to find someone to give it to you.

Search the texturing forums for Targa and Mac. If you have problems, let me know and I'll upload a copy somewhere.

EDIT: Scratch that. It's here.

problems exporting targa w/ semi transparent areas on Photoshop 8 for MAC
frank Foley Registered User Join date: 5 Feb 2006 Posts: 45	02-23-2006 18:34 I've been trying to export a Targa file from Photoshop CS w/ semi-transparent areas (20% opacity) to bring into SL as a texture. The only way I get any kind of transparency in the targa file is to select the areas taht Iwant transparent and then add an alpha channel as teh selection. But this area is completely transparent -- no drop shadow, no 20% opacity, nothing. Anybody know how to get PS for Mac to export a targa w/ semi-transparent areas? I've had tons of PC people on SL showing me how it easy it is for them to do all day! Thanks
Reitsuki Kojima Witchhunter Join date: 27 Jan 2004 Posts: 5,328	02-23-2006 18:37 Try this forum: /109/1.html _____________________ I am myself indifferent honest; but yet I could accuse me of such things that it were better my mother had not borne me: I am very proud, revengeful, ambitious, with more offenses at my beck than I have thoughts to put them in, imagination to give them shape, or time to act them in. What should such fellows as I do crawling between earth and heaven? We are arrant knaves, all; believe none of us.
frank Foley Registered User Join date: 5 Feb 2006 Posts: 45	i was hoping for mac specific help, as i've been getting unhelpful advice from 02-23-2006 18:47 PC people all day
Ben Bacon Registered User Join date: 14 Jul 2005 Posts: 809	02-24-2006 00:02 Well, I'm just another PC person - but Photoshop is virtually identical on both platforms. For what you are describing - try this to get you started: Don't select the areas first. Make sure you have deselected everything. Now create your alpha channel - it should end up being completely black. Now you can whatever you fill with white here will be completely opaque, and whatever you leave black will be completely transparant. You can click on the channel named "RGB" to see your design and make your selection, then click on "Alpha 1" to see the alpha channel and fill the selection with black, white, or different shades of grey. 20% opacity is represented in the Alpha channel with (H0 S0 B20) or (R51 G51 B51). So pick that colour and fill your selection with it. (I often use HSB to pick colours for my alpha channels - H is irrelevant, S is always 0, and B is opacity from 0% to 100%) - Note that on many monitors, this grey looks like pure black, don't worry about that you can use the eyedropper or info box to verify that it is correct if your monitor is too dark.
Reitsuki Kojima Witchhunter Join date: 27 Jan 2004 Posts: 5,328	02-24-2006 02:50 0.o Wow, is that needlesssly a pain in the ass. Paint Shop Pro you set up the opacity on the color image so you can see what your doing, then just click "save to alpha channel". Anyhow, like Ben said... Photoshop between the platforms is almost exactly identical, with only very minor deviations (like the funky clover-key thingy macs have instead of... alt is it?) and such. That's why I suggested the design and textures forum... The majority of people there use photoshop, and "technical issues" is really more about second life bugs and stuff. _____________________ I am myself indifferent honest; but yet I could accuse me of such things that it were better my mother had not borne me: I am very proud, revengeful, ambitious, with more offenses at my beck than I have thoughts to put them in, imagination to give them shape, or time to act them in. What should such fellows as I do crawling between earth and heaven? We are arrant knaves, all; believe none of us.
Ceera Murakami Texture Artist / Builder Join date: 9 Sep 2005 Posts: 7,750	02-24-2006 06:56 Get what you need? I am a Mac user, and I make transparent and semi-transparent textures regularly. As stated, a grey texture in the alpha channel makes whatever is in the tga save as being semi-transparent. The closer it is to black, the more transparent it is. Save as 32 bit TGA, and no compression.
Ceera Murakami Texture Artist / Builder Join date: 9 Sep 2005 Posts: 7,750	02-24-2006 09:04 If you want only part of the image to be semi-transparent, and the rest to be fully transparent or solid, use white for opaque, greys for semi-transparent, and black for fully transparent, all on the alpha layer. Another important trick: Let's say you have something that is supposed to have a fully-transparent area in it, like a keyhole cutout in a dress. If you just select the cutout area in your art layer, and use that to mask in your alpha layer, odds are you'll get a white edge around the hole. That is because your art layer most likely is anti-aliased around the edges, and has partially transparent pixels there. To fix this, fill the hole in the art layer with black. (I usually make a copy of the layer first, so I can go back to that version for other uses.) _____________________ Sorry, LL won't let me tell you where I sell my textures and where I offer my services as a sim builder. Ask me in-world.
Vincent Parvenu Registered User Join date: 24 Jul 2005 Posts: 22	02-24-2006 20:52 There is a tga file that does all this hard work for you, you don't have to do any of that fancy stuff. Just replace the plugin for being able to save targa's, and boom you're done. I'll post the link to the other forums when I find it. Simple as making your image, having all of the layers you want to be in the image visable, and saving it as a 32 bit targa. Bam, everything else is done for you. Nothing special. Vincent
Ali Maltz Just another RL escapee Join date: 25 Sep 2005 Posts: 23	02-25-2006 16:50 From: Ceera Murakami If you want only part of the image to be semi-transparent, and the rest to be fully transparent or solid, use white for opaque, greys for semi-transparent, and black for fully transparent, all on the alpha layer. Another important trick: Let's say you have something that is supposed to have a fully-transparent area in it, like a keyhole cutout in a dress. If you just select the cutout area in your art layer, and use that to mask in your alpha layer, odds are you'll get a white edge around the hole. That is because your art layer most likely is anti-aliased around the edges, and has partially transparent pixels there. To fix this, fill the hole in the art layer with black. (I usually make a copy of the layer first, so I can go back to that version for other uses.) To avoid white haloing (and make the process much easier in general) there's a plug-in available (Mac and PC) that changes the way that Targa (.tga) files are exported. It takes the original transparency information from the Photoshop layers and produces a Targa with the alpha channel you need, halo-free. This same thing exists for PC, but with more PC users out there, it's easier to find someone to give it to you. Search the texturing forums for Targa and Mac. If you have problems, let me know and I'll upload a copy somewhere. EDIT: Scratch that. It's here.

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problems exporting targa w/ semi transparent areas on Photoshop 8 for MAC