Alpha channels in Photoshop 8

After reading everything, and I mean everything, available in this forum and other websites about making clothing with Photoshop 8 I finalllllllllllllllllllly figured out the alpha channel thing - or so I thought.

Now everything I make that has an alpha channel is sheer. Made for some interesting clothing but not quite what I was looking for lol. I made sure all my layers were 100% opaque and filled but everything is still sheer.

Also if anyone has any special pointers about PS 8, I am more than appreciative!

Thanks!

On the alpha channel on (channel tab, not the layer tab), solid black makes it 100% clear, while less then black makes it see thru..

So Alpha does not have much to do with layers, but everything to do with channel tab. Paste a black and white copy of your picture (white keep, black make invisible) into a new channel. That will become your alpha mask.

Thanks but I do realize alpha has to do with channels. And regardless of what I do in channels or layers, my clothing is still sheer. There may be something obvious that I'm overlooking and I'm hoping someone will nudge me in that direction. Thanks again

Just make sure you fill with 100% black, if less then it will be sheer, as black means invisible, blackish means seer (lol)...that is all I can think of that would make it sheer instead of just invisible..

I think you mean fill with 100% white, don't you? I assume you want opaque colour, not transparent?

White = 100% opaque
Black = 100% transparent
Gray = translucent. The darker the gray, the more transparent, the lighter the gray, the more opaque.

By "sheer", I assume you mean translucent. If this is the case, it can only be caused by having a shade of gray in your alpha channel where you should have white or black. Make sure that anything you want to be opaque is painted totally white (no gray wrinkles, no details, just a solid white mass), and that anything you want to be invisible is completely black.

Just in case someone else has the same problem, Cross Lament helped me figure this out in the game last night and FINALLYYYYYYYYYYYY it works!!! I really thought everyone was lying about this alpha channel lmao. j/k

But what she told me to do is make sure I used a white fill in the alpha channel on the parts that are to be opaque! Mine kept turning out grey for whatever reason!!!! I knew I was close just couldn't figure out the last piece. Thanks so much for everyone's help and all the tutorials. I am hyped!!!

Glad you got it worked out, Jana, but one thing puzzles me. Please help me help others by explaining something if you can.

What were Cross's magic words that helped you understand where all the tutorials and advice from others (including myself) had failed? From my point of view, what I said in my previous response on this thread explained it pretty thoroughly, but I have to allow for the possibility that I just see it that way because I already understand how alpha channels work. Perhaps from the point of view of someone who doesn't already understand there was something I didn't explain clearly enough?

Please let me know. This is important to me. I'm working on a tutorial site for all things SL, and I'd really like to know where my explanation was lacking. I realize it was very brief, but I thought that given your situation it would be enough. Please explain why it wasn't if you can.

Thanks a bunch,

Chosen

The difference for me was when I described the problem, she told me to FILL the alpha channel with white to make my item opaque. I knew it was supposed to be white, not grey but had no clue how to make it white. Never really thought about the alpha in the same way i do regular layers I guess.

Conceptually I could have told you all about alpha channels a month ago or more. Mechanically, I needed help ))

Thanks to all again!