transparent clothes in ps elements

Does anyone know how to make transparent clothes using photoshop elements? I have no problem with the alpha layer. I have trouble just making a layer in ps elements look transparent after i convert to SL. For example, if I'm making a shirt, I set the opacity, say at 50%, but when I convert the .psd file to .tga, it looks like the opacity is at 100%. In other words, not transparent at all. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks!

First, there's no such thing as an alpha layer. It's an alpha channel. Layers and channels are entirely different things.

Second, if you're not seeing the transparency in SL, it's because your image does not contain an alpha channel. You seem to be confusing layer transparency with master image transparency (alpha channel transparency). There's a huge difference there.

To solve your problem, read the stickied thread at the top of the forum, entitled "Transparency & Alpha Channels: The Definitive Guide".

Though iirc, it's possible to force PSE to do the channel thing, and get a targa w/ a real alpha out of it, it's more trouble for me than just saving it as a 32bit png and then using graphic converter to make it a targa from there.

I disagree. Sure, it's a roundabout methodology since PSE does not offer direct viewing or editing of channels, but still it only takes 2 seconds to produce the alpha channel you want. Simply make a layer mask, paint your transparency onto it any way you want, and then save the mask to alpha. It's really the same thing you'd do in PS or PSP anyway; you just don't get to see the mechanics of it as clearly.

I'll never understand why some people feel it's a time saver to go the third-party-converter route. Maybe it's just because people are used to using PNG for web graphics; I don't know. It seems to me it's an awfully big waste of time to save in an unusable format, fire up another program, open the file, convert it to the right format, and then re-save it. That's a whole lot of unnecessary steps, not to mention the extreme possibility for artifacting in the conversion.

Again, layer mask to alpha channel is just two steps, three at the most, and it only takes a second or two.

Thanks, but I did it by simply creating an opaque layer and then merging it down into a blank layer. Then I saved it and the result was transparent in SL. My mistake was that I was trying to save the layer with opacity directly.

heh my strang workarounds cause I am wierd and use macromedia stuff (still that has not been updated yet)

I save it as the native file for the program and open it up in gimp and add the channel there. Not sure how this will work with semi transparent clothing though. I"m sure there is an easier way to do it but everything I do seems to be round about so if all else fails open it up in gimp add the channel there and save it as a tga there.

(again I always have strange fixes for stuff but they work..)