Transparency and Alpha Channels: The Definitive Guide

Reading this ... think it'll be the first thread I subscribe to.

I'm wondering what version of Paint Shop Pro you are useing?
My version (5.01) does not have the same icons you mentioned. If you have a preferred
program perhaps I'll have to upgrade.

I just found an update to ver. 5.03 but it seems to be the same.

The versions I tested on were 9 and 10. As I recall (been a while since I've used 9), the menu item names may have been slightly different in each, but there's enough similarity between the two versions that the tutorial makes sense with both.

As for version 5, a quick Google search pointed me to this site. Check out the "Masks 501" tutorial. It should be able to fill in the blanks for you, at least for menu items and commands.

That having been said, I'd highly recommend upgrading. Version 5 was what, 1998? I'm guessing on that date (half way between version 1, 1992, and version 10, 2005), but if it's anywhere near acurate, I'm a little suprised it's even stable under XP. I'm sure it must have been written for Windows 98 or 95. In any case, a lot has changed in the last 7 or 8 years, so upgrading to a modern program would be well worth your while.

Of course, I always recommend Photoshop over anything else, but if you happen to like PSP, the upgrade is only $59. If money's an issue, The GIMP is totally free.

Woohoo! Thanks so much. I finally get it.

You have to do a seperate alpha channel, it wont use the photoshop alpha =/.

But, on OS X there is a work-around.
You can safe as TIFF, open in preview.app, export as tga.
Works great, and then there is no halo around the border from masking.

Many thanks to Robin Sojourner for pointing me to Solidify.

Useful alpha trick; this action will make a TGA file using whatever is currently visible in the image; the end result is like the "auto alpha" feature in Photoposhop 7.0. It requires a free plugin, Solidy, from Flaming pear. This can be downloaded from here (under "Free Plugins".



Easy halo-free TGA export action (a.k.a Photoshop 7.0 style)

1) duplicate the image, select "duplicate merged layers only"
2) select (ctrl-click) the layer (there will only be one layer in the new image)
3) save selection as an alpha channel
4) deselect
5) run solidify-A
6) save as a 32 bit TGA file.


Steps 2-4 create the alpha channel, step 5 converts the image so all pixels are 100% opaque which avoiding the matte-onto-white problem Photoshop normally has.

(tested on Photoshop CS2, Windows version)

You are most welcome, Nepenthes!

And I like the bit about using Duplicate Image as the base for the .tga. Very slick! I'll have to start doing it that way myself.

If I may, I'll just add a couple of things to your description, for people who aren't as familiar with Photoshop.

In step 1, go to Image > Duplicate. The choice to "Duplicate Merged Layers Only" is a checkbox in the dialog that pops up there. (By the way, this doesn't mean that PS will only duplicate the layers that are merged; it means that the duplicate image will merge everything into a single layer. In other words, it takes all the visible layers, merges them (retaining all transparency values,) and creates a new documet with just that one layer.)

In step 2, if you are working with PS CS2, you need to Command/ctrl click on the layer thumbnail. Command/ctrl clicking anywhere else will add the layer to a selection of layers, not select the layer pixels. Pre PS CS2, it doesn't matter where on the layer you click.

And yes, this works on both platforms, and (as far as I know) all versions of PS back to PS 3, when Layers were first introduced.

As I keep saying, making a .tga with a true Alpha is just as easy as using the broken 7.0 plug-in, and has the advantage of creating files that don't have compatibility issues with anything. (For those of you who don't think that it matters, because the "rules" in SL allow it and will never change, I'd like to point out the changes in Lighting and Prims that are coming up in 1.9. These will "break" all the lights and scripted lights currently in world, but the new lighting is so much better that it's being done anyway. The Lindens do change things, in spite of what it does to some content. So you might want to seriouosly think about changing your workflow now, to avoid problems later. Especially when changing is completely painless! )

this may be a stupid question, but if you intend on making a garment that is completely opaque, do you need to create an alpha channel?

Hi Keitaro! There are no stupid questions.

It depends on what kind of garment you want to make.

If you are making something that isn't going to use the maximum slider values on the whole "garment," in other words, something like a shirt, where you'll want a neckline, then it's best to use transparency for that. (The sliders kind of fade out, instead of giving you a nice clean edge, so they are less than ideal for many garments.)

However, if you're doing something like a pair of pants, or gloves, or stockings, or something that uses every bit of the garment, then no. In that case, it's better to ignore the Alpha and load as a 24 bit .tga, because it's a smaller file that is read more quickly, and never has Alpha sorting issues.

Hope this helps!

The answer is - it depends. If you really mean completely opaque, say a pure blue skin colour, or green or whatever, then no.

If you're talking about making (say) a T-shirt the answer becomes more complex. The parts you show are (at least for your example) opaque. But they must be built on the UV map (the "clothes template" and there are places on the map you won't want to have material showing.

IF the sliders for sleeve length, crop height, neckline etc. do the job well enough for you, then you don't need the transparencies. Sleeve length tends to be pretty good, but the shape for the neckline isn't that close to T-shirt neck shape from what I remember so you might want to force that - at which point you'll need an alpha channel. If you make something V-necked (polo shirt say, or shrug) you will definitely need an alpha channel even if the rest of the design is a solid texture - the sliders just won't give you the shapes you need.

Hope that helps!

I got the transparency down pat ty for all the help but what about when i am trying to make something that is see through it keeps coming up wit ha white back ground even though it shows in photoshop as transpaerent.
Am i missing something here?

Here's a repeat of the third question in the FAQ section:

How come the transparent areas of my image appear white in SL instead of transparent?


I'd be willing to guess you probably were saving your images as 24-bit instead of 32-bit. Make sure ALL images that need transparency are ALWAYS saved as 32-bit TGA, and that those that don't need transparency are saved as 24-bit TGA.

Also, if you're using Photoshop 7.0, make sure to ugrade to version 7.0.1 via the free patch from adobe.com. Further details on this are also in the FAQ section.

I've found that my copy of PSP (v won't save tga files with an alpha channel. It'll save as tga, but it strips out the alpha channel. My workaround is this:

- Do all my work in PSP, save work in progress as a pspimage file.
- When I'm finished, save as png.
- Load that png file in Gimp, and save it as tga.

It may not be ideal, but it works.

sorry i will try again. I made a see through skirt wilth splits up the side. With the alpha channel the sides are fine and i saved it in 32 bit TGA but now i want the skirt to be see through. If i cut around it in the alpha channel it causes it to have the white background so a red see through skirt becomes a pink skirt and if i dont cut around it in the alpha channel it disappears altogether.
how do I get the silk to show as see through.
Also i gave the same psd file to a friend who saved as tga and the skirt became see through but then the grey showed up in sl. What the?
Thanks
Clown

I'm not sure if it's something I'm doing or what, but here is my problem:

I am using a PC, not a Mac, and using Photoshop Elements. I do not know what version. Clicking on Help -> About Photoshop Elements does not show me a version number. It came with my computer.

I have attempted to follow the tutorial for Photoshop Elements, until I get to Select -> Save Selection. My version of Photoshop Elements does not have that on the menu anywhere I can find. It has the Select menu, but Save Selection is not on it anywhere I can find.

What am I doing wrong?

P.S.: If it turns out that I am using a version of Photoshop Elements that cannot do alpha channels, could you please make that clear in your tutorials? Would save people a lot of time and frustration.

OK....Here's a clarification for all newbies like me and also shows just how exacting an art writing a tutorial can be.

Usually the person writing a tutorial is an expert on the program...with hours and hours of use behind them. This unfortunately is a double edged sword because MINOR steps and results that the writer knows as well as breathing, also lead him to unintentionally leave these things out.

Case in point: I just spent an hour trying to figure out what I was doing wrong while following the PS Elements tutorial to make a background transparent on a texture. The step about painting the "new layer" black or a dark color would not work. The layer stayed transparent. There WAS a ghost image of the same item that was on the primary layer showing up in black...but the layer still stayed transparent besides that. After failed attempt after attempt...it finally dawned on me that, "welll, maybe they MEAN that just that ghost image is supposed to color and the rest of the layer is SUPPOSED to stay transparent!" (You see...the way my mind works is that I know black is not transparent...but thought that the super mojo magic of the ALPHA CHANNEL somehow used that when it was applied to an object and BECAME transparent at that point).


ANYWAY, a simple mention that the ghost image is all you would see colored would have saved ounces of frustration for me.

Thanx much, though, for the rest of the tutorial...it DID get me to my destination eventually and that's what I needed

Sorry it took me a while to get to these replies.


I'm sorry, but I'm gonna need you to be more clear about exactly what you're doing. I don't understand what you mean when you say "cut around". What Photoshop tools are you using? What's your exact process here? How are you defining the word "cut"?

To make the skirt semi-transparent, paint the appropriate area gray in the alpha channel. As stated in the first post, on the alpha channel black=transparent, white=opaque, and gray=semi transparent. The darker the gray, the more see-through it will be.



Sorry about that. I thought I had written that the tutorial had been tested for versions 3 & 4, but I guess I left that out. I've now made the correction. It sounds like you must have a pretty ancient version if it doesn't even give you a number, or perhaps it was something scaled down since it came bundled with your computer. Some computer companies do stuff like that with pre-installed software. Dell's version of Power DVD, for example, is missing all kinds of features. I don't know why they do that, but I'd imagine it has to do with their cost.



The missing step was to deselect. Without turning off the selection, you probably had the marching ants outlining your "item" the whole time, which was why you couldn't paint anywhere else. I've added a deselection step to the tutorial. Thanks for pointing out the problem.

For what it's worth, I don't think it was a case of my being "too familiar" with the process to be mindful of minor details since I try very hard to write tutorials that will make step-by-step sense to beginners, and usually I'm successful at that. It looks to me like it was a much simpler error; I just plain forgot to write that step. If you take a look, the deslection step is present in the other tutorials in the same post. Sorry its absense in the one tutorial you needed caused you such a headache.

See? Now I feel like a complete dillweed You've done a great job putting together these tutorials all in the spirit of mentoring people along and I know it's no easy task. Thanx for the help!

Don't feel like a dillweed. It's important to get feedback about what's unclear so that each tutorial can be as newb-friendly as possible. I'm the dillweed here for having forgotten to put in that deslection step in the first place. I shudder to think how many new PSE users were having the same problem as you, but didn't speak up. Thanks again for bringing it to my attention.

Printouts for those of us who have physical movement limitations and problems using more then one program at a time. I really need to be able to print out the directions for doing alpha transparancies especially. Textures i don't have a problem with but alpha and I have had heated words. So much to the point that i spend money on clothes in SL or make in SL without the unique lil buttons and stuff i would love to add. For some people with disabilities in general things like the build tool don't work for us because of its design. I have no problem working in Jasc or SL but i must do either or. Hence having the printed version. If anyone has a printable copy please let me know and i will send u my email address. Also exactly where are templates to be downloaded to. SL gives u downloads but does not say where to put them. That may be part of my problem. Robin thanks for the addy to here appreciate it (don't forget purple pants)

Hi Em. Forgive me for aking this if I'm not understanding something about what your disabilites might prevent you from being able to do, but is there any reason you can't print the tutorials directly from your browser? Every web browser does have print capability. If your computer is capable of viewing these forums, it's capable of printing their contents.

Granted, the forums are not ideally formatted for print so the results won't look as pretty as something like a Word document, but they're certainly printable. In the upper left hand corner of your browser, click on the word File, and then on the word Print. The Print dialog window will open. Select whichever options are appropriate (which printer to use, number of pages to print, etc) just like you would when printing any other document, and click OK. Printing will begin.

As for your other question, where to put the templates, you can put them wherever you want. I recommend making a folder for them in MyPictures, but you can put them literally anywhere on your hard drive, on a CD, on a Flash drive, a Zip disk, whatever location makes the most sense to you. Put them anywhere you like. Then, to use them in your paint program, just click on the word File at the top of the screen, and then click on the word Open. The Open File dialog window will pop up. From there, simply navigate to wherever you chose to put the template files, select the one you want to use, and click Open.

Ok got all the stuff copied that i needed and then some but it was a method i should have realized would have worked like copying an email kinda thing. Was too obvious a solution. I never did find out what Elements 4 were and if they applied to Jasc. Paintshop

Glad you worked out the printing issue, Em. To answer your question about what "Elements 4" is, it's a program. The full name is Photoshop Elements 4 (also referred to as PSE). It's Adobe's low end version of Photoshop. For a comparison, PSE is to Photoshop as WordPad is to Word. It's simply a scaled down version of the program, which has the advanced features removed.

PSE is an Adobe product, not a Jasc product, so it has nothing to do with Paintshop Pro (PSP). Incidentally, PSP is also not a Jasc product anymore, just so you know. There are no more Jasc products since the company was bought by Corel in 2004. Paint Shop Pro is now a Corel product.

Can someone clue me in on how to do transparency and alpha channels with Jasc PSP..
Im using 9.0....and having a rough time with the templates that SL gives out. I dont have a clue and need a few pointers on how to I thought you could throw it on a canvis and change to RBG and your set.. guessed wrong >.<

Taylor, there's a detailed alpha channel tutorial for PSP in the second post in this thread. Just scroll down past all the Photoshop stuff, and the next heading you'll see will be Paint Shop Pro. The tutoral's written for version 10, but 9's not that different. If I remember correctly, the names of certain menu items are slightly varied between the two versions, but it's close enough that you should be able to follow it. Read the tutorial, follow the steps, and then if there's anything you don't uderstand in it, come on back and ask.