Semi- transparent alpha problem

I am at an impasse. I have tried everything I know. I have read and reread Chosen’s and Robin’s alpha guides and still can’t get my alpha to work properly.

I am trying to make a skirt with a gossamer layer on top of the main skirt. This overskirt hangs an inch or two below the bottom of the main skirt and has on it lace patterns.

I made the skirt using several layers. One for the main skirt, one for the gossamer layer and two for the lace designs. I set the opacity at 10-15% on the gossamer layer and < 100 for the lace.

When I Ctrl-Shift Click on the various layers to make the alpha I get a solid white outline for both skirt layers. When I upload the image, the gossamer layer that hangs below the colored skirt is solid white, no transparency.

I thought that if I set the opacity to less than 100% in Photoshop, I would get a semi-transparent alpha? I am not getting that. Since I was using multiply and screen layers for shading, I thought maybe they were the problem. Turned them off and, still the same result.

What am I doing wrong? I am using Photoshop CS2.


Jen

Hmm, it sounds like the problem you're having is due to the fact that you used layer opacity settings to create your semi-transparency. Photoshop ignores layer opacity settings when it makes selections. Here's what I might suggest as a simple (if not elegant) solution. Take all those semi-transparent layers, copy them to a new set, and then flatten the set into a single layer. The new flattened layer will be at 100% opacity, with the transparency values from the various compentents baked in. Make your selection from that layer, and save the selection to the alpha channel. It should work.

For a better (but less simple) solution, I'd suggest ditching the layer transparency altogether, and replacing it with masks. For example, you said your gosamer layer is at about 15% opacity. Change it to 100% opaque, alt-click the thumbnail to select, and then put a 15% dark gray mask over it. Visually, the effect will be exactly the same, but functionally it will read quite differently. When you make your alt-click selection to copy to the alpha channel, do it on the mask thumbnail instead of the layer thumbnail. You'll end up with a selection that is 15% opaque.

In the future, I'd suggest always using layer masks for inter-layer transparency instead of using layer transparency settings. It's not as fast, but it does allow for more control, and more importantly, it will prevent the problem you've described.

The moral here is Photoshop has a million ways to create any given effect, but not all those ways are compatible with every desired end product. Layer settings opacity and aplha opacity don't mix.

Thank you for your advice Chosen. I tried it but all I got was a white floor length skirt, below then normal skirt. I can see the alpha looking grayish rather than white. However, when I uploaded the file and checked it in preview, all I got was the skirt described above.

Jen

Jennifer, maybe I'm misunderstanding what you're trying to do. I thought you were using Photoshop to create the appearance a multi-layered skirt. Now it sounds more like you're talking about actual seperate skirts. Are you wearing a prim skirt and a "real" skirt? Or by "white floor length skirt below the real skirt" did you simply mean you're seeing a white backgount? I'm a little confused.

If you are wearing more than one skirt at once, be aware you're gonna have alpha sorting problems. Parts of the skirt(s) will appear and disappear as the camera angle changes.

If you're talking about a white background, there could be several causes. Do you perhaps have more than one alpha channel in the image? The skirt template does come with one already in it. It's always best to get rid of that one as first step when making a skirt.

If it's not that, then I'm not sure what's going on. If you've got black space in your alpha, you should be seeing invisibility in that space in SL. Maybe outline exactly what you're doing, step by step, and I can pinpoint the problem.

You checked the 32-bit option instead of the 24-bit option while saving the TGA file, Jennifer? Its a very common oversight.

Ooh, good catch, Cottonteil. Can't believe I didn't think of that. Yes, extremely common.

I am talking about Photoshop clothing. I am making a skirt that is comprised of a main layer with color. Over that layer (skirt) is a thin gauzy or gossamer over skirt that is almost completely transparent and has lace designs worked into it. The hem along the bottom, which hangs slightly below the main (color) skirt also has a lace design.

To create the alpha I CTRL clicked on the outer skirt them SHIFT-CTRL click the inner skirt. That was the original question. It came out with the gossamer skirt hanging below the main skirt solid white.

I then tried your techniques. I use only the gossamer layer. I hit CRTL to get the selection. I then hit ALT – Add Vector Mask and get the mask. I double click on the vector mask square and add 10% gray opacity. The skirt icon is white in a black field.

When I upload the file and go to SL’s preview, I see my skirt, color and white helm and, below this is a white full length skirt.



(Two hours later)



Ok, I got it to work using the flatten transparencies approach. I still don’t know why the mask didn’t work. But it did just now, and guess what? I don’t like how it looks. LOL I will use the skirt with out the over layer.


I will leave the stuff above in case someone else has this problem.

Thanks for your help Chosen.

Good point but, yes I had.

Don't you hate not being able to post pics here in the forums anymore? It'll save so much time explaining in words.