Transparency and Alpha Channels: The Definitive Guide

I want to thank you so much for all the information that you have shared with me. While I am still not able to make any transperancies yet, I do think that I am getting closer and closer to being able to do so. Since I can not see the channels in PSE4, I have downloaded GIMP to look at each file that I have made. I did as you mentioned above and copied the layers into a new file. When I looked at it in GIMP, it showed that I still had an alpha channel. I also could not find a way to delete it, though I did delete one alpha channel while in PSE4, then saved the new file. I am sorry if I am a pain or a pest, just trying to learn the best I can. By the way, in order to copy, while on the layer I needed, I selected all, then copy and then went to new file and selected paste. Is that the correct way to do it?

Once again thanks so much for all that is being shared on this forum. Believe it or not, it has been a great help to be, it's just a matter of my brain coming in contact with what has been written, then I am sure I will see the light.
Kat

No worries, Kat. You're certainly not a pain or a pest. I'm sorry to hear you haven't gotten it figured out yet. You're a little handicapped by PSE since you can't actually see what you're doing with the channels like you could in Photoshop, and with that being your first experience with all this, I guess it's not surprising that it's taking a bit to learn it. This stuff is less than intuitive for most people as it is, even with a full tool set. Sooner or later it just kind of clicks, and then you go "Oh duh!"

Your method of copying the layers is fine. Alternatively, you can drag layers from one document to another. Holding shift while dragging will ensure that the copies will be centered in the destination document.

I want to thank you so much for all the infortmation you have given me. I have downloaded a 30 free trial of CS2. I am still not having any luck making transperencies. I did notice that there are four channels in the CS2 version I downloaded. Red, Green, Blue and RBG (which is located above the other three and can not be deleted).I will keep working at it, but so far I get eithre a white or black backfound. I am following the steps listed in the first post on this tread: Adobe Photosho - Method 1.

Thanks for all the support and aid offered on this forum.
Kat

Basically what it'll look like in PhotoshopCS2, in your layers, you'll see your color "image"
When you switch your tab to channels, your color "image" will be in the rgb, red, green, and blue channels.
The bottom channel with be a black and white gray shaded thumbnail, and that's where your transparency alpha will be. (and it's called alpha)

Make sure to save it as a targa 32 bit image to retain that.

Reload that, switch over to channels, and see if that bottom gray shaded black n white alpha is still there. If it IS, then the alpha has been saved and retained successfully.

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Question concerning the above. I am using CS2 trial version and when I select the channel tab, there are four channels selected. I have read that transparencies will not work if more than 4 channels are present. I can not select only the red, green and blue channels. I still get the GRB channel also. Does the RGB channel count as one also? Thanks again.

RGB isn't a channel, Kat. It just shows you what the Red, Green, and Blue channels look like when they are combined. That's why it's called RGB.

Thanks Robin, and all the rest that have posted great information here. I know I must be doing sometihing wrong as I still am not able to make simple transparency. I have printed this complete thread and keep going back and reading over it again and again. I am trying to find what I am doing wrong, but I guess it would help if I knew what I was doing right . At least I have plenty to read when I get home from work each evening. Take care all, and may you day be filled with joy, peace and happiness.

Ok, I just made my first transparency using PSE4 and it was by mistake, hehe. I was making a TShirt for a friend and it ended up being transparent. I then went back and worked on making the object I had been working on transparent and wow, it worked. Don't know what it is that I am doing different that is causing it to work now, but hey, I will not complain, hehe. Thanks for all the wonderful support in helping me learn. All I need to do now is remember what it is that I am doing, hehe. I am so very happy now, no words can express it. Thanks again so very much to every one, and may your Valentines Day be the best every.
Kat

I went to create a simple tattoo using paint shop pro 11 the other day and when i saved it to targa format the image's transparency turned to white-i could not for the life of me figure out why and resorted to downloading gimp and another program to try and they all reasult in the targa's transparency to show as white when saved. I know im creating the texture correctly-but there must be a setting on the original image file i have set wrong or something on my pc itself to cause this; i hope someone knows of this problem and how to fix it;

Glad to hear you got it, Kat.

Derry, if you're losing transparency it's either because your image does not contain an alpha channel, or else it has too many channels. Be sure to delete any pre-existing alpha channels so that only the one you created yourself remains, and make certain to save as 32-bit TGA. If you save as 24-bit TGA, the alpha channel will not be included.

ive checked for multiple alpha channels,and deleted the channels in the bad targa file and started over again; I also created a new file, pasted a tube onto the background and tried to create a new fresh targa with transparency;none of this worked; i even opened up a new transparent background image in photoimpact, saved it in targa format and tried opening it up in psp but it appears with a white background; it seems to be something on my pc that is affecting both gimp and psp; I don't want to resintsall windows, hope someone has heard of this and has a fix;

The "transparent background image" from PhotoImpact won't do you any good. Transparency in TGA files comes from the alpha channel, and nowhere else. There's no such thing as a background or a forground or a layer or anything else in TGA. If you're a TGA, all you know is channels. Nothing else exists.

Also, you do realize PSP won't display alpha transparency natively, right? The reason is the alpha channel doesn't always have to mean transparency. Depending on what application is reading the file, the channels could mean anything. In SL, and in most video programs, the first three channels in a TGA mean color, and the 4th means transparency, but it doesn't have to be that way. PSP, like any good raster editor, makes no assumptions about what that fourth channel means. In other words, if the alpha channel is present, you've got your transparency map in place, and SL will recognize it, but PSP won't display it as transparency. Don't assume it's not there just because you can't see it, if that's what you were thinking.

The important question is what does the image look like when you go to upload it to SL. In the SL preview window, can you see through to the checkerboard under the transparent parts. If you can, then everything's the way it's supposed to be. If you can't, then you're missing a step somewhere. Follow the tutorial word for word, exactly as it's written without changing a single thing, and you'll get it. Then follow that same exact procedure for all your other transparent images.

doh

i feel dumb
i uploaded the pics to sl and they were fine
thanks Chosen

and to save you the time of posting again.....

For the love of God, Upload Your texture to SL to see if it is transparent before you post here saying it is lost...

giggles



I'd like to thank Chosen and Robin and Everyone else here for sharing all their knowledge and time by helping other peeps with these tutorials ;
it is much appreciated!







Beware of he who would deny you access to information, for in his heart, he dreams himself your master

Hehehe, Derry.

Glad you got it worked out.

I have tried all of Chosen's methods step by ste to the letter as far as I can tell and I still end up with the white halo around the edges of my textures with alpha. I am at a loss as to why they are still there. I am using PS7 and for the life of me I can not get the halo to be gone. Everyone else in the forums seems to be able to get it to work. What can I be doing wrong? Can someone help me or am i doomed to have the halo effect for eternity????

Sounds like that's your problem right there. Upgrade to 7.0.1 via the free patch from adobe.com. 7.0 had a serious flaw in it's TGA saver utility.

the update installer says it cant find Photoshop 7.0 in the adobe Photoshop folder in program files, yet its there. Any ideas as to why?

Not sure on that one, sorry. Is PS installed to a non-standard directory?

You might also want to try the individual component updates if the full package update won't work, specifically the TGA saver. You'll find those on the adobe website as well. I think the installation for those is a bit more manual.

While I am making progress, I made my first Bikini yesterday, there is still so much to learn. The day before I made 3 Teddy Bear T-Shirts. This forum has been a great help to me and I am glad that it is here for all of us to use and learn.

Ok, now for another question. I want to make several of my garments see through. I am not sure, but I thought that had been mentioned in the thread, but have been unable to find it as of yet. I know that I am just missing a step or two and will go 'duh' when I find what they are.

Take care, and may you all have a super day.
Kat

In the FAQ section (first post in this thread), take a look at the part entitled "How do I make part or all of an image translucent, as opposed to fully transparent?". What you want to do is make the translucent parts gray on the alpha channel. The darker the gray, the more see-through it will be.

Am also having a slight problem - have made a t-shirt template based on Robin's excellent design, have done all the layers etc and redefined the alpha channel - it has a v-neck so I had to change it.

When I upload the image, it looks *exactly* as I would expect in the preview, all the bits that should be transparent *are*, but when the final one displays after upload it's just totally blank.

Would be really grateful if anyone has any suggestions as to where I'm going wrong.

Thanks in advance.

I hate to say it but I've been almost lost on the entire thing since following this thread.

My knowledge is basic, I'm using Corel PSP Photo XI and it has thus far every element and such contained herein this thread. I may need the dum dums version of this, I can get the alpha channel to work but when I make new layers for my other images to layer overtop the mask for transparency I get a totally blank image. However when I open the same file it shows as if the finished product was there, but going back to editing or uploading into SL it becomes blank again. Am I missing something? Is there a dummed down version of all this to help simplify it for a complete PSP n00b?

Hi - folks, just to say - please ignore my previous post, looks it like it was some sort of problem with my hardware as I've managed to upload the design now.

Thanks again and sorry to be a pest !

That's weird. It's completely blank? Just a plain white canvas with nothing on it? I've never heard of that happening before.

I can think of two possible explanations. One would be if your T-shirt were completely white with no detailing whatsoever except for the alpha transparency. If your TGA weren't saved properly, then it would appear to be nothing more than a blank canvas. However, since you say you're using Robin's template, that's probably not the case.

Second, and this totally a guess, would be a botched upload. Maybe something went wrong, and internet hiccup or something, while you were uploading the file. Have other images you've uploaded worked okay? If it's worth an extra L$10 to you, try uploading it again, and see if it works this time.

If you can't get anything to upload properly, uninstall and reinstall SL because there's something wrong with your copy. If it's just that one image that's the problem, and a new upload doesn't solve it, then it's got to be either you made it wrong or maybe it's corrupted somehow. In either case, the answer would be to make it over again.

It is really odd that you say it did display properly in preview. I'm leaning toward the botched upload theory on this one. I'll be curious to hear if and when you get this resolved. Let me know what happens.



Sorry you're having a hard time following things, Zuriel. The tutorials do assume you already have a basic working knowledge of your software of choice. If you're brand new to PSP, I'd highly recommend you start with something far less difficult than texturing for 3D to learn the program. As I often say, learning to use a digital raster editor is not a small task, and neither is learning to texture. Trying to learn both at once is almost always a formula for disaster.

I realize that's probably not the answer you wanted to hear, but it's the only responsible one I can give. Take a little time learning PSP itself by doing 2D projects. There are lots of resources on the web to walk you through this. Read and follow as many 2D tutorials as you can until you feel you have a really good level of comfort and fluidity with using the program. Then, and only then, return to your texturing efforts. I think you'll find that probably 99% of the questions you thought you'd had will have vaporized by then. Of course, you'll have all kinds of new questions at that time, but they'll be focused on the intricacies of texturing instead of on "how do I make the program do ______".

As for your actual question in the here and now, I'll do my best to answer it, but I can't stress enough what I said above. Slow down, take a step back, and start at the beginning instead of the middle. Crawl before you walk.

By your description of what you're doing, you're putting new layers on top of older layers that have been masked, and you're wondering why the new layers don't have the same transparency. If that is indeed what you're doing (a little hard to tell if I'm reading you right), then the answer lies in the nature of layer masks. A mask only affects the individual layer to which it is assigned, not all of them. If you want a single mask to affect more than one layer at a time, the simplest thing to do is to put all the layers into a group, and assign the mask to the group node, not to any one layer. Be aware that any layer that is not in the group won't be masked, so make sure you move any layer you want affected into the group, and put any layer you don't want affected outside the group.

Another way to do it is to copy the mask, and manually assign a copy to each individual layer you want to affect. That's not the most efficient way to go, but sometimes it's necessary, depending on what you're doing. In most cases, you'll find the group mask method is best.

Good luck. I hope this was helpful.

Hahaha. Too late. Why couldn't you have said that just a few minutes earlier, you big pest you?


Glad it's working now. I figured it was most likely just a bad upload.


You're not a pest. Don't worry about it. Ask whatever you need to ask.