Black Clothing

Hi..was wondering if anyone could help me with this. When making any black piece of clothing...then flooding the background black. It takes away the pixcels in the garment
I have heard people speak of making the background color another shade..but then its not transparent. Thanks for any help on this.

Not sure what you're talking about. Perhaps screenshots to illustrate your problem?

I think i know what your talking about, believe it or not as im new to all this!

I work in PSP however....

After i have created my mask layer, and saved it to an alpha channel, i then have to delete the mask layer - dont know why!

I then have to create a new raster layer (a whole new layer) and fill that black. Then this whole layer must go behind your work. Do i make sense? lol.

You dont fill the background of your work black... its a whole new layer that gets filled black, and placed behind everything....

hope this is what u meant... and most of all, i hope it makes sense, haha.

If I'm reading you right, it sounds like you're working all on one layer. Put the background on a separate layer, and then it won't be able to affect the garment layer at all.


What paint program are you using? By the sound if it, I'd guess Photoshop 7.0? If that's the case, upgrade to 7.0.1 immediately via the free patch from adobe.com. Version 7.0 was highly flawed in the way it handled transparency in TGA files.

The transparency in your image should not be dependent on layer transparency at all. It should be coming from the alpha channel, and nowhere else. To learn all about alpha channels, what they are, how the work, how to use them, read the Transparency Guide, stickied at the top of this forum.

Thank you so much for your replies..and sorry i wasnt more precise in what I was asking. Scott you helped me tremendously...thank you so much. I use PSP..and yes..when I would go to add the mask..if there were any Blk pixcels in my clothing layer..they would dissappear..and leave open spots. One more question..I have read all through the forums in trying to find answers to my questions. The one was also on the lil white lines around the clothing...like a halo. They said to use a similar shade of background to the color of your garment. When I try that tho..the background isnt transparent. Any help on this issue would be appreciated..thanks so much.

I really am new to all of this so ill just tell you exactly what i do... i got some of this off a sticky 'the difinitive guide to alpha channels' and a lot of pulled out hair later.. i figured this....

right, this really nearly cost my computer its life....

i use psp9 and the brilliant chip midnights templates.

just open up the upper boddy template... we will make a demo thing...

you have all those layers on the right....

create a new raster layer, and paint a black 'boob-tube' or something simple, add another raster layer if you wish, and draw a red squiggle on a tit or something. oh, and complete the back of the boob tube. Now were done. now you have to right click raster 2 and merge it with raster 1.

the trick now is, all your layers are merged... lovely. now you have to merge your final complete layer with the Shaded grid layer. (only that layer will work for some reason)

the shaded grid layer is above the background layer if im correct... so now all your work will be called 'shaded grid layer' above the background layer. Now, create a new mask layer - show all....

A group will now be there, youre shaded grid layer, and your new mask layer.

CLICK ON THE BACKGROUND layer so the red cross is through it, and keep it like this forever now. now choos black as your paint brush color. Make sure youre now working on the mask layer.... now wherever you paint (with the black), grey and white checkers should appear as you remove what you DO NOT WANT VISIBLE. that means its transparant. so remove all the areas you dont want. done

now go to layers, save mask to alpha channel... give it any name, press ok. now go straight to your mask layer and delete it - IT WILL ASK IF YOU WANT TO MERGE IT- SAY NO. just delete it.

now create a raster layer and paint that entirely black, always black no matter what colour the garment (this is for the halo problem) and move this layer down so its under the 'group, and above the background layer. keep the background layer with the red cross in it.

cross off all the other seam layers etc so ur just left with your boobtube. save as targa. done. upload and check out preview.

ps, when you delete that mask layer, your grey white transparant checker things will dissapear, ignore this.....

when you create your raster layer for the boob tube and the raster layer for the squiggle, they should be on top of eachother, the raster layers.... so you merge down...

you will right click raster 2 merge down, and you wil just have raster 1.

you must drag raster 1 above the shaded grid layer, in order to merge down, so that everythings now called shaded grid layer.

sorry if im explaining each step so so precisely but i have no idea how well you know psp, and im just explaining it how i would have liked it to have been explained to me. Its so easy when you know how.

the last raster you create here that you put under the 'group - which is called now the shaded grid layer' and above the background layer is what should cure all the halo problems... also i think the whole trick really which i could have said in the beginning really was to make sure the BACKGROUND layer is red crossed.

let me know if this helps
s

Thank you so much Scott..for making this very easy to understand. It worked very well..big smile. Was so nice of you to take the time to explain all of this.