Alpha Channel Blues

ok, i have made several clothing items n the past and somewhere now I am brain farting... my clothes are showing the white backgrounds of the "appearance" templates in appearance mode. I'll post a pic... am i supposed to click the alpha channel so it shows in PS or leave it unchecked? Does that make sense?

The picture is still not showing; but the answer remains the same.

You need to have exactly one Alpha Channel. Any more (or any less) and you'll have problems.

As long as you have that one Alpha channel, and save the image as a 32 bit .tga, you should see your transparency correctly in SL. (There are lots of fine tuning tricks besides that, to eliminate "white halos" and things, but that's the basic answer.)

Also remember that the image will sho wexactly as you save it: be sure to hide the templates before you save the image as a targa!

I've uploaded countless skins only to realize i'd left the grids on.

Also make sure the Alpha Channel is on when you save.

How many times have I saved and bulk uploaded textures that I had forgotten to turn the Alpha Channel on.

Keith, what do you mean? I've never turned the Alpha Channel on. In fact, since I make 'em by command/ctrl clicking the layers and Saving Selection, half the time I don't even look at them. But I've never had any problems uploading things to find that they weren't transparent.

So, ummmm, could you please explain? I think I'm missing something here. (I don't even know how to turn one on, except to make it visible, so it shows up as a red mask, and I know you don't need that to upload successfully.)

cmd-ctrl clicking the layers...I smell a mac user <grin>

Seriously, is there an alpha trick here I'm missing?

Helloooo Robin,

I’m running PS 7.0.1. When I save a 32bit alpha and the Alpha Channel isn’t active when I save (eyeball in the box and red haze showing) it will save it as a 32 bit but none of the Alpha will be there. I’ll get my background color instead of the transparency but it will still behave as a 32 bit with flicker issues and such.

I wonder if it could be different because of how I create my Alpha Channel. I make them manually vs let PS make them for me. Normally when I’m making something like a window, I will be using many layers, not just for the window itself, but also for the alpha. The frame, glass, reflections, smudges, drapery, are all individually desaturated and their brightness adjusted to how I want them. I have found letting PS do it just doesn’t give me the control I want. Once happy, I save a backup then flatten what could be 3-10 layers that will make up the Alpha and then copy and paste it into the Channels tab as the Alpha Channel.

Ohh the mystery mounts… Why do I feel a night with Robin experimenting with 32bit textures coming…

Oh, and I’m sorry I gave you my cold, lol. Didn’t know you could do that via SL.
Hugs
KX

Wow, Keith, I didn't know that. You don't need to do it in CS or CS2. (I didn't have SL yet when I was using PS 7.) Yeah, experimenting might be good.

I don't exactly let PS make the Alpha; I make it myself, but I do it by command/ctrl clicking on the layers, which makes perfect alphas without any other work. When I have more than one layer (and I almost always do,) I hold down the Shift key while I do this.

Yeah, Denrael, I'm on a Mac; but I know for a fact this works on the PC, too. Contol click on the layers, and Save Selection as Alpha 1, and there you go.

Now, it's true that this method doesn't account for layer opacity. (Pixel opacity on the layer, yes, but not the overall opacity of the layer itself.) So, if you are using various levels of layer opacity, you'll have to save each layer, adjust the Levels, and then collapse the Alphas, like Keith says, or do what I do in CS2; Select all the layers by holding down the shift key, then hold down Shift+Option+Command and tap E on the Mac, or Shift+alt+ctrl and tap E on the PC to make a composite layer. Get the alpha from that by using the Command/ctrl and click on the thumbnail trick, and it's all set. (Only CS2 allows selection of multiple layers; in earlier versions, you have to link them all first, I think. I don't have an earlier version to test it on any more.)

But I didn't know that you ever had to have the Alpha showing, in any version of PS, to make it work properly. Wow. Ummm, Keith, have you considered upgrading? There are TONS of SL specific advantages to having PS CS2.

And I got my cold from you? I thought that Angel gave it to me!