Paint Shop Pro Photo XI

okay, please bear with me, total newbie to this and learning as I go!
I have scoured the forums and am pulling my hair out.
I am trying to create a texture to upload to SL using PSP Photo XI. Although I have read nearly every tutorial and tip/trick in the forums, I am stilll very confused. I seem to not have the ability to 'paint' the desired selection for transparency in the mask layers, I can only choose the opacity for the entire texture.
Also,I am having difficulty with the alpha channel now. Although the image appears as I want it to in PSP Photo, when it is saved and I attempt to upload I get a completely transparent image.
I have had one semi-success in 4 days, unfortunately RL intruded and I was not able to immediately repeat my success to remember what I was doing, and every attemt since has been a dismal failure.

Does anyone have any experience luck with this particular program, and can point me in the right direction???

Thank you!

I'm not sure what you're asking, Gaelyn. By "mask layers" do you mean layer masks? What exactly happens when you try to paint on one?



If that's happening, it's because your alpha channel is completely black. Any part of the alpha that is black will cause that same same part of the texture to be transparent. Any part of it that is white will cause that part of the texture to be opaque. Any part that is gray will be somewhere in between (translucent).

Keep in mind, PSP won't automatically show you the effects of the alpha channel in the image. So the notion of "the image appears the way I want it to in PSP" is irrelevant. The layer transparency you see inside PSP has nothing to do with the alpha transparency SL is going to use. In SL, the transparency will come from the alpha channel, and only the alpha channel, nowhere else.

The reason PSP doesn't show the alpha channel as transparency is simply because it doesn't know that that's what you want to use the alpha channel for. You see, while Second Life happens to use the alpha channel only as a transparency map, another program might use it for something completely different. It's just a data map. Instead of or in addition to transparency, it could store information about reflectivity or specularity or bumpiness or even your last year's tax return. PSP is smart enough not to make any assumptions about what you might be planning to use any particular alpha channel channel for. All it does is store it, so that the destination program (which in this case is SL) can use it however it wants.

If you want to see the alpha channel data act as a transparency map inside PSP, you must copy that data to something PSP actually does use as a transparency map, a layer mask. Put all your layers in a group, apply a mask to the group, and then copy the alpha channel to the mask. Instantly, you'll see the black areas of the mask turn the corresponding areas of the image transparent, the white areas turn it opaque, and the gray areas turn it translucent.

But remember, the mask itself is not the alpha channel. It's a completely different item that happens to use similar data in a similar way. Masks of this type only exist within paint programs, so that's they only place they work. SL has no idea what masks are, or that they even exist. It only knows what channels are. So, while in your paint program, you can use a mask to display transparency, the only way to have that transparency be usable by SL is to have it stored on the alpha channel.

This is why in programs like PSP, which unfortunately do not let you edit channels directly like Photoshop does, the best way to make a transparency map is by first creating it as a mask, and then copying that mask to an alpha channel. Then you remove the mask, since SL won't be using it anyway, so you don't end up with artifacts from the duplicate data.

Without knowing exactly what you've been doing, it's hard to know how you ended up with just solid black on your alpha. I'm betting that what you did was when hit the New Mask command, you probably hit the Hide All option as well. Then, without making any changes to the mask, you copied it to alpha, and left it at that. If that's the case, then the step you missed was to paint white on the parts that you wanted to be opaque.


I'm sure all of this probably sounds a lot more confusing than it actually is, given the way you're probably looking at it right now. If you're really having trouble understanding, and you'd rather work purely with what-you-see-is-what-you-get, then I'd suggest using the PNG format instead of TGA. PNG supports simple transparency, which means you don't have to make an alpha channel. It's less powerful to work that way, and it can be considerably more time consuming when making complex imagery, but it is more intuitive in the beginning.

ive been trying to make tat in paint shop and im having the hardest time...im about to commit av suicide,...lmao... well if you have any tut links that can help ill like.. iono.. but it would prob be great ...

There is a tutorial for paint shop alpha transparencies out there somewhere, but it was so confusing and also had an error in it for the newer versions. i always used version 7 until lightning got my PC and now im on version 10. And a lot has changed lol
But basically, once you get the image just as you want transparencies and all, You have to click on Layers at the top and create a new mask layer from that image. Then click on layers again and click load/save mask and save it to an alpha channel. then when you save image for good save it as a .tga file. you know when you save theres a drop down box ? if you save it as jpg, the transparent part will save as white, not transparent.

ok scratch all that lol
Here is a webpage tutorial i found with pictures that is right. wahoooooooooooooo
hope this helps
http://www.sluniverse.com/kb/article.aspx?id=10190&cNode=3I5O3Q

Just a suggestion for those using the CS suite. If you want to see in real time how the transparency will look, use fireworks to view your work because it shows the transparency instead of having to guess at your alpha settings like you do in Photoshop. Also, if you don't mind swapping between the programs (which now isn't all that bad with CS) don't set your transparencies in PS.. save the file and open it up in fireworks and set them there.. save as a PNG and bobs your uncle.. away you go.

Then again, thats just my opinion and I am currently being dragged kicking and screaming into the photoshop world which i've always avoided like the plague lol. I'm a relative noob with PS and an instructor for Macromedia and now that the two have merged.. I R crying lmao.

Tempest, if you're going to use PNG anyway, then there's no need to bother switching applications. Photoshop will show you PNG's simple transparency just like every other program in the world.

And if you'd prefer to work with a real alpha channel, there's still no need to switch back and forth. Photoshop can show what you're doing in real time just fine. As I said earlier, you just need to work with something that Photoshop knows for sure is a transparency map, since alpha channels can have all kinds of purposes. A layer mask works perfectly for this. Simply put your layers all into a group, apply a mask to the group, and paint your transparency onto the mask. Any area you paint with black will disappear from view, and any area you paint with white will remain opaque. Any place you paint gray will become translucent. If it helps, think of the black paint as your eraser while you're working, and think of the white paint as the eraser's undo button. You'll see the transparency in real time as you work, and you'll have total control over what you're doing, via Photoshop's immensely powerful array of painting tools, filters, etc. When you're done, simply ctrl-click the mask to select it, hit the Make Channel From Selection button at the bottom of the channels palette, and you're all set.

This stuff really isn't rocket science. People have a tendency to way over-think it, and make it much harder than it actually is.

In any case, there's never any need to "guess" at alpha settings or anything else. There is an exact science throughout all of it. You just need to learn a little bit, so you know enough about to understand what you're doing, and what you're looking at.


I don't mean to belittle your pain, Tempest, but isn't it a little late to still be kicking and screaming about the merger. It's been what, three years already?

after 4 days of battling the PSP photo, my SL hubby gave me his copy of Adobe 7.0
So I upgraded it to the 7.01, and have not had a problem since- making the textures I need is now so riiculously easy it makes me want to cry.

I am still struggling with PSP Photo for other applications, but I much prefer the Adobe for quick, effortless, painless transparency textures.