Paintshop Pro 8.0 (or HELP!!!!)

Ok, I'm useing Paintshop pro 8.0 and trying to make a tattoo, and various other things that require transparency. I read the little read-me for the palettes and went into paintshop, designed my little tattoo, went to make an alpha channel... I cannot figure out how to make the alpha channel. I checked the manual, it tells me that alpha channels exist, and other neat info, but not how to make one. Please help before I start pulling out my hair in game too.

select the area you want to be the alpha, then goto the 'selections' menu and select save to alpha channel.

is that still true for 8? I use 7.0 and that's how I do it, but I seem to remember that 8.0 does it slightly differently. ??

Zana

oops your right theres an extra menu,ok so it should go

Selections -> Load / Save -> Save Selection to Alpha

my humble apologies

thanks guys, got it, my tattoo finally works without turning my torso white ^^

okay now that you got it, can you help me?

LOL...

Lets start off with erasing the backgound...what next?

If starting from scratch ...promote layer to a Raster Layer

Remove un wanted back ground untill you see checker board

Go to top menu and pull down Layers

Find New Mask Layer

Select New Mask Layer and then select From Image

Brings up a seperate box...in that box

Click Source Opacity

then Click ok

Now Open Layers pull down from top menu again
and select View Overlay ....on my pc it shows up red its dependent on what you set your mask color to show up to but its semi transparent.


Next to save to Alpha Channel

Open Pull down menu Image...near the bottom it says delete Alpha Channel....click this and respond yes till all prompts go away.

Then Pull down Layers Menu again and click

Load/Save Mask....then select save to Alpha Channel

once done answering yes to the prompts you have now created and saved a mask to the alpha channel.

The only thing left to do is save it as a .TGA file. I wont insult your intelegence and explain to do a save as routine.

Hope that helped

Shadow

what Shadow said. I have written a bit of a tutorial on alpha-masking in PSP which I have on a notecard in world if anyone wants it. Just IM me and I'll drop u a copy.

Additional note.

If you are unsure that you have saved the alpha Channel when you do it do a second save as ..as a .psp file..this will preserve the current steps you have taken thus far.

Then open the .tga file

Goto Layers

Load/Save Alpha

Load Alpha

and wala...it should go back to having a clear background when you say yes to the prompts.

You have now checked your saved .tga file for the alpha you have saved. If you want to see the red or whatever color just click on the mask layer and then view mask....this is the best method to check and see if you have saved the mask correctly.

Soon as I get Adobe Acrobat where I can make my own .PDF files I will start writing tutorials and putting them up on SLvisions for people.

Unfortunately after that bug a couple weeks ago I am still recovering textures and such to get back on track.

Sincerely, Shadow

Sooo, now that you have helped me through that, I have another little question. Can I make some parts transparent, but not other? For example: If I were making a door with a stained glass window, is there a way to make the window transparent but the door remain solid. Or do I have to do it as 2 seperate prims in-game?

Lily one texture will do it.

Stained glass though..you mean you want the windows "partially" transparent and the door sections "totally" solid.

I have used the save selcections to alpha channel with Paintshop Pro but end up with "total" solida and "total" transparency.

I much prefer Photoshop where i can create a black and white image and paste this into my texture as an alpha channel.

The reason I like this is that I can paint the alpha channel to how I want it.

Black means "total" transparency
White means "total" Solid

Shades of gray mean "partial" transparency at any level between black and white.

I can also blur the black and white edge to have a gradual change in transparency.

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This ability works great with Text..

On the tshirt template I go to the black and white alpha channel and add some gray text around the chest area and you have some seethru words on your tshirt front....very cool.

/em looks at her brand spanking new copy of psp 8.0, looks at her empty wallet, looks at photoshop. Coughs delicately.

Whisper there is a way to do it, it will just require a little further explination than I have time for here on the threads.

But I can give you a quick example of what you can try ...


#1 copy the stain glass windo sections to a new layer. IE use your Selection Tool and the shift Key to select all the panes of the window if they are square and then copy them and the Ctrl+L to a new layer.

Move them over the original position

Switch to Majic wand select the outer area on the new layer it should then outline the windows. Go to Selections invert selection then select the orginal layer and delete out the orginal stain glass.

On your new layer with the layer box open use the opacity slider to change the opacity of the Stain glass.

Now make a new raster layer fill with black, Cut out the holes where the stain glass is. Hide the orginal door / window frame layer at this point.

Following the afore mentioned steps for an alpha make an alpha channel and save it to alpha channel.

Delete the black layer and make the door/window frame visiable again and merge the stain glass and door/window layer.

You have now created a door or window with solid wood parts and alpha stain glass window. Hope that helped I am sorry I didnt have time to write it out step by step as per the commands but i am at work and loading PSP right now would shut my system down with all that I have going on.

Shadow.

thankees, i'll give it a try. ^^

Hey,
I have white borders around my tattoos. I remember reading what caused it and how to fix it, but I cant seem to find that information. Anyone know?

Random simple find out what color your avatars skin is.

Then in PSP create a new layer put it under the transparent lmage of where the tatto is...even with the alpha employed if you save the file to .tga with the skin tone back ground when you put it on your avatar the skin colored fade will blend into your avatars skin.

wala no white ghosting. Same principle can be applied if the tatoo is solid black just use a solid black background.

Hope that helped

Shadow

Gosh I really need to check replies more often. The white edges are a pain and there is a simple answer (hopefully). I assume you are useingthe magic want to select what you want to delete and/or send to alpha channel? You need to set feathering to zero, and tolerance to 1 or zero. otherwise it will shade the edges of you selection creating a lighter area that will show as white when you load it into the game. Well it will show as white or whatever color you use for filler. I try to use the opposite end of the color range than what i am working on (i.e. if the clothing is red I use green) that way I can select useing the modify selection --> choose colors command, without worrying about bits of my creation being accidently selected.