Let me see if I can help.
Sitting at lunch at work so I don’t have PS in front of me but here we go…
First, you will need to have the layers tool panel open.
Hopefully you have a layer that is of the image you want only with a clear background. If not, make a duplicate layer (main toolbar, layers, duplicate layer) Then, turn off the background layer (click the eye next to it in the layers panel) Next, highlight the new layer in the layers panel in order to select it, then erase what you do not want. Clear will show up as a gray check pattern.
Keeping that layer highlighted, go back up on the main toolbar and make another duplicate layer. (Another method for doing this step is crating a layer mask but I’ll let someone proficient in masks describe that way.)
Now the new duplicate layer should be highlighted. Go up to the main toolbar, adjust, brightness/contrast… you want turn the brightness up and the contrast down… repeat till you have an all white image. Make it as white as it will go. (unless you want translucent
but that’s a tale for another day.)
Now select the marquee tool (the dancing line box) and drag it over the whole image and click copy.
Go to that layer in the layer box and click the little eyeball on that layer to turn it off.
Now, also in the layers box, click the channels tab.
At the bottom there is a button to create a new layer. Click that. You should now see a layer called Alpha at the bottom.
Paste the copied image into the alpha layer.
You now should have your white image on a black background.
Still in the Layers box Turn on the RPG layer. Now you should now have the original image with a red haze where it should be clear. You might have to center up the alpha layer to your image. If not, make sure all the appropriate layers are either off or on.
Crop and resize your image if needed.
Now, SaveAs, TGA. A box will come up, select 32 bit and you should be done.
There are loads of Tutorials out there on the web that you might want to look into that also will have helpful screenshots to follow along with. Just do a search for Photoshop 6 tutorials.
Hope this gets you started, Alphas are a blast. If you still have problems just drop me an IM in-world and i'll see if I can help.
KX
