Alpha Channels

Dumb question coming..laughing allowed..

I cant afford photoshop, and I have tried to find Paint Shop Pro, with no success...can someone please either give me link to download Paint Shop Pro..OR..tell me how I can make easy transparent textures...not only transparency, but bieng able to cut out other pictures and lay them on transparent textures..

so, in all honesty, I found Paint Shop Pro 9 and downloaded it, but I coldnt use it, so I deinstalled it..

I need some somthing easy, so I can cut photos out and lay them cut on transparent textures..thats all..

Thankyou for your help

Life isn't easy .... LOL. For the really simple things you seem to have in mind, though, why not just get a copy of Gimp (it's free). Whether you make your images as TGA files -- with an alpha channel -- or as PNG files, that's probably the best option.

BTW, I do hope you are cutting out portions of your OWN photos or ones that the photographer has given you permission to use. Please don't just grab photos off the Internet, mess with them a bit, and bring them in world.

I use GIMP for all my texture efforts. But, I cannot say it's an easy program to learn.....it's very much up to anything you want or need to do for textures in SL. It's just not that easy if you have little or no experience in imaging editing/texturing making. A program that will do what I think the OP is wanting is Paint.NET. It's free and it's a little easier to use than GIMP (not nearly as powerful but it can handle layers, alpha channels and save to TGA format).

Google "Paint.NET" for the free download.

I'll also mention GIMP. It has all the features of PhotoShop, and is free software.

I'll also admit that its not that easy to learn, but then any full-featured image manipulation software is going to have a learning curve.

- Ace

Thanyou very much for your replies..I will try GIMP..I have quite alot of experience and worked on Photoshop for many years before I had a bad fire in my apartment complex and lost nearly everything I own....My computer and ofcourse Photoshop were not insured so I lost them completely..

And Rolig,,,yes, they are my own photos, I am not a thief and understand copyright issues, but I know you were just giving me helpful info..

Again, thankyou to all.

if your more used to photoshop, the interface of the gimp may throw you for a loop (it does some, and some like me have no issues with it)

but there is another version called gimpshop, which is simply the gimp in a photoshop like interface

just fyi

I'd like to second the suggestion of Paint.net. Getting a texture with transparency is as easy as making it and saving it as a TGA file in Paint.net... it's all you need to know.

If you have used Paint, and understand what layers are, you should be able to pick up Paint.Net in no time at all.
Cali

The free Serif corporation program Photplus should do what you want.

since im mr gimp i never got into serif photo +, but i absolutely LOVE draw +, the free version (which is really outdated now) is still super powerful, including animation

btw draw + is a vector package, like corel, inkscape, or adobe illustrator, my only gripe with it (only using the free version, dunno about the newest version) is that it doesnt save in a standard format like svg, but it does export to png and bmp

paint.net is also a great program, my only gripe about that is, the last time i used it, it did not naturally support PSD format, you can get a plugin for it, but it requires digging tru a pretty hefty list and manually installing it

psd format is great because it supports layers (among many other things) and no matter what program you use for image editing, i highly recommend using PSD format right up to the point where your ready to save to png or tga for uploads

I have since downloaded GIMP (free) and have learned it in about 2 days, since its very si´milar to photoshop and I have alot of experience with PS, GIMP is very easy to use and has fullfilled all my wishes so far.. I have saved all my textures as TGA files and have successfully made many shadows and lighting schemes as well as transparent textures of photos I have made..

SPECIAL THANKS to Almia Thaler, you are an amazing artist and I thankyou and apprecitae you so much for your help inworld..

Thankyou as wll for all the posts, I have also looked at Paint.net, but so far GIMP is so fun, Im addicted to it and dont need anything else..Some say there is a learning curve to GIMP, that hangs from expeirience I ´guess and after working on Photoshop for many years until a fire destroyed my every thing I owned, GIMP is close and fun to use..

THANKS AGAIN

Sayden Westland from PENDULUM SCULPTED FURNITURE.