My top alpha channel tip.

Since there's quite a few asking about them at the moment, I thought I'd share my top alpha channel tip for getting rid of white fringe in PSP, especially with clothes.

"Start with the alpha channel."

... by making a plain version of what you want on a transparent raster layer. Make another layer, then make a mask layer (from source opacity) in that using your plain template.

Save your mask to the alpha channel, then hide the template layer.

In the raster layer(s) of the mask group, texture and decorate as you want, starting with a flood fill in a base colour on the raster layer.

Save the file.

Delete the mask layer so you just have what you painted onto the raster layer.

Save as a TGA file.

This should eliminate white fringe as the colour extends over the boundaries of the visible area of the alpha channel.

It's also very handy for making several versions of things that are the same shape, like bikinis. I only hope it made sense - I'll supply an example if it doesn't.

Another, somewhat simpler method is to create your alpha channel then go back and extend the boundry past the alpha channel. What is under the alpha will not be seen so sampling a border color and outlining the subject can be a quick and easy fix Using the color replacer tool around the edges can preserve detail while eliminating those pesky white pixels too.

Even easier is to start out right to begin with. Start with a white backgound then using a brush with anti -alaising turned off, the hardness turned to 100, steps turned to 100 and opacity at 100 as well (or turn you color depth down to 2 bit color). Draw the shape of the item , lets say a bikini bottom, in the darkest black. Create your alpha channel and save the image as a .tga, naming it "Bikini Base" or some such so it can be used again. Reset everything back to normal and create your bikini fabric in the black area and be sure to "bleed" the color past the edges. Save it under a different name or you will mess up your base. Whenever you want to make a new bikini bottom, all you have to do is bring up the bikini base file and change the black area.