This file will end your Photoshop alpha channel woes

Okay, I have the actions ready. You can get them here. (Clicking that link will start the download, so be aware of that.)

Instructions are included in the folder.

So all of you Photoshop Users can now make Alpha Channels from your image transparency with a single mouse click. It doesn't get any easier than that.

I've also included instructions to eliminate the White Halo.

And, for those of you who find even that too difficult, I've decided to post a separate package that includes Actions that use the Flaming Pear plug-ins to eliminate the halo here. This pack is exactly like the other one, with the addition of two actions that use those third-party plug-ins. (You don't need both; if you have the plug-ins, just download this one.)

If you don't have the plug-ins, but want them, you can get them in the "Free Plugins" package on the Download page of Flaming Pear.

So, in one click, you can build the alpha from the layer transparency, and make a layer that will eliminate any white halos. If that doesn't satisfy you, I'm not sure what will!

Robin, that is awesome you did those actions! For those who don't want to tackle how to use the alpha channel, tricks like this plugin and now Robin's actions can really be nice.

However, as Chosen and Robin have both given full explanations of, I would not use this plugin or need Robin's actions.

But, is it wrong to use automatic methods like this to get your alpha channel? NO. (ducking from slaps from Robin, Chosen and others). If you use it and it works and you never have any problems, then by golly, you go for it!!!

But let me give you this analogy: It's kind of like turning your camera on in 'Program' mode, letting the camera decide the exposure and focus point for you. That may work great for 90-95% of your images, but Program won't have a clue for the complicated composition. There are a lot of 'professional' photographers who don't know how to use their cameras other than in program mode. It's crazy, but they've learned to work with automatic's strengths and weaknesses, and people pay them a pro rate for it--however then never seem to get the more complicated/technically challenging images.

Same thing with any automatic alpha channels. This plugin can obviously do wonders a lot of the time, and frankly, for most average designs, it will suffice. But Robin and Chosen have already outlined the 'cons'. The bottom line is that if you really want to get into complicated clothing or detailed building textures using various levels of opacity, then you need to learn how to use the alpha channels.

Once you learn to use the alpha channels, you'll never go back.

Trust me

Blaze,you've got some good points, but there is one inescapable fact that compells me to keep warning against using embedded/automated alpha. It's not as simple as does it work okay for some, most, or even all images for a certain person. The real achilles heal here is compatablility. Files with embedded alphas are incompatable with most other programs, and as I keep saying, it's somewhat miraculous that SL can even read them. Most programs can't. SL's ability to do it could change at any time.

Here's the deal. Channels, including alpha channels, are a standard that have been in place, completely unchanged for decades. It's one of the few examples in computing of something that was gotten right the first time, and it's been the core of all digital imagery ever since. There's not a graphics application on the face of the earth that doesn't understand what channels are and how to construct images from them. It's been that way since the dawn of graphics, and it will continue to be that way probably forever.

Embedded alphas on the other hand are the result of an experiment by one company in one product. The experiment was deemed a failure and was then abandoned very quickly. Because that abandonment happend so fast, there was never been a need for other programs to learn to use embedded alphas, so most of them can't. As time marches on, and the relatively few files in the world that have embedded alphas become more and more diluted in a sea of proper files with real alphas, what few programs can use the embedded ones have even less and less reason to continue to support them. And as these programs become more and more sophisticated with new features, all designed to take advantage of real alphas, it can easily be argued that there's real incentive not to support the oddball embedded alpha files. It's a relative waste of effort to keep working something so obscure (and in many people's eyes, "kiddified" or "unproffessional" into the display system.

So, to those who continue to use embedded alphas despite the repeated warnings from proffessionals in the graphics industry, be prepared for the fact that the day may come when your images no longer work in SL.

And by the way, if you're wondering just how bad the damage can be, here's an example of one of the ways in which an embedded alpha can be misread: .



This image of a Star Trek combadge was created in Photoshop 7.0 using the TGA saver this thread is talking about. It started out with a with a transparent background, but after opening it in a program that doesn't understand embedded alphas (PS, it looked like what you see here. Half the transparent area turned white, and the other half got covered in lines extruded from edge pixels from the opaque part of the image. Once that happened, it was all over. The TGA file would not open properly in any program including PS7 from then on.

My hard drive is full of pictures that developed this exact same problem after having been opened in various programs that don't support embedded alphas. Each was created using the exact same saver utility that this thread is talking about, and each became corrupted the moment it was read by another program. For comparison, it's worth noting that none of my other images have ever been corrupted, only those with embedded alphas. Also, I should mention that not all my images with embedded alphas have had this happen, only some of them. I don't know why some continue to function while others don't, but I don't really care. There's an obvious pattern here, and the obvious common thread is the embedded alphas.

Okay, so one might say, "No big deal; this kind of damage looks easy to fix, right?" WRONG.

If you're still in PS7 mentality, instinct tells you to just erase the backgroud again and all will be good again. Well guess what. That doesn't work. Erase it a hundred times, and those weird lines and white space will be back again as soon as you close and re-open the file.

If you've accepted that PS7 thinking isn't gonna cut it anymore, meaning you're finally willing to use real alphas now, then instinct says just go back in and give the thing a real alpha to mask out the damage. Well guess what again. Those embedded alphas are in there to stay, and they don't always like sharing the rent with real alpahs. In my experience, giving the image a real alpha after it already has an embedded one has no guarantee of success. Sometimes it works; sometimes it doesn't, and I've never been able to determine any rhyme or reason as to why or why not. It's a crap shoot, and that's that.

Even when it does work though, it means you've just done exactly what you tried to avoid by using the automation in the first place. In other words all you did was put off until today what you could have done yesterday. But, what would have been a 2-second job while you were first making the file can take significantly longer when all you've got to work with is a flat TGA with wonky lines all over it.

Okay, so now maybe one might say "No big deal; I still have all my original PSD's and I can make new TGA's from those." Well, great. You can output new TGA's with real alphas that won't get corrupted, and you WILL have success, but guess what AGAIN. You're still doing work now that you should have done before. Even if it only takes you a few seconds per file to make the alpha and output the new TGA, multiply that by all the potentially corruptable TGA's you've ever made, and you've probably got a ton of work on your hands.

Alright, now one might say "Well, I've been uploading these embedded-alpha TGA's to SL forever and SL reads them just fine, so what's the big deal?" Well, the big deal is what I said back at the beginning of this post. There's no guarantee whatsoever tha SL will continue to read these oddly coded files in the future. It could easily stop reading them next year, next month, next week, or even tomorrow. Every time you make a file without a real alpha, you're rolling the dice on whether or not it will work with SL. So, wouldn't it make sense just to start using real alphas now rather than wait for things to go wrong?

Believe me, I don't own any stock in the alpha channel market. I don't profit in any way by telling people to use real alphas. In fact, as a texture artist, I'd profit more if things did go wrong for other people because I'd be the one holding all the uncorrupted textures. So why am I so adamant about this? I just can't stand to see people having problems when I know how they can prevent them. Embedded alphas cause problems, plain and simple. Real alphas are the prevention for those problems. Use them.

Anyway, Blaze, for what it's worth I do agree with you philosophically that there is nothing "wrong" with using automation to create transparency or anything else, as long as the automation works reliably. However, since in this case the automation is not reliable, I have to disagree strongly on technical grounds. Technically, there is a lot "wrong" with alpha channel automation. To anyone who uses it, unserstand that you may be doing so at your own peril. The process is riddled with problems, which is why Adobe abandoned it.

Now, can this thread please die already?

Bump.. cuz i had a hard time finding it again!!

This is awesome file!

I switched back to the standard file, based on Chosen and Robin's recommendations. With Robin's action file it really is just as easy for the user do it either way, and if it's better for the future/other programs, then why not?

Embedded alphas are the devil.

Don't use them if you can help it.

Rather, use Robin's posted technique and actions -- there's a reason we all listen to Robin and Chosen, and it's not cause they lead us astray.

I don't get what is so hard about ctr clicking the thumbnail of the layer you want, then going to channels and clicking create new alpha.... Just make you image a little bigger and then once its selected you can go to select > contract and pull it in a pixel or two to prevent any white around the edges.

It would be nice if SL took PNG's with alpha. I got to make a FPS level with renderware and for alpha's you just made what you wanted in PS then save as PNG and the alpha is just there when you bring it into the engine.

Anyone want to post a link to where it can be downloaded? Cheers!

Before you try using this file Neil, I suggest you read Chosen Few's comments 5 posts up as well as Robin's post a little further up. They explain very well the problems with using this redundant file.

Does anyone know where I can still get this file. I'd like to try it out.
Thanks

Anychance I can still get this file anywhere?

Oh god, this again?

Trust me, Denrael, you don't want this file. Without rehashing it all again (you can read through my previous posts in this thread for all the details), let me just warn you by saying if you put this file on your computer, you might as well take the $600 you spent on Photoshop, crumple it up, put it through the shredder, light it fire, and take a dump on it, and feed it to herd of rabid goats.

You have Photoshop because it's an extremely powerful raster editor. Let it do its job. Use it properly to do the things it's meant to do.

That includes making alpha channels. It takes literally two seconds at most to make any alpha you want, and they always work. That results of that automated crap always look terrible, and they almost never work with any other programs besides the F'ed up version of Photoshop you'll have after installing the file.

In other words, don't mess with it.




Now, for the love of all that is decent and holy in the universe, can we please stop dredging up this thread?

Chosen, LOL
A line from Men in Black shall sufice here. "A person is smart. People are dumb, stupid, panicky animals, and you know it."
They are also lazy. I say let them use it. They won't make any real money and will have inferior stuff to boot.

Merry Christmas, everyone!

Does anybody here know Fallingwater Cellardoor ? I think it would help if she edited the content of the original post -- so that even if people stop at that post (which looks like is what's happening), they still know that embedded alphas are the recipe for trouble.

After this is done, we could ask the moderator to lock the thread.

Looks at her $$$ in Paypal, and under the tree for all the stuff she bought grasiousty of SL$... Mmmmh nope, doesn't apply to me!



After what you called (us) me? Mmmh nope. Don't think so.

Just look up at Chosen's thread. I was responing to him. I think you and Fallngwater are talented. Nephilaine linked to this thread again. She makes awesome stuff. Its all about the anount you want to learn. Learning alphas allows you to use them anywhere. Using the plug in allows you to learn about the plug in.

Happy New Year. (where you believe me or not)

i cant save tga foles as transparents it greays out the box i am supposed to check to save it HELP HELP HELP HELP HELP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

No offense, but did you really have to move this thread back to the top by responding to it with a question that doesn't have anything to do with the file it's talking about? Man, this thread is like Jaws . "Just when you thought it was safe..." there it is again.

Anyway, to answer your question, see the big orange stickied thread at the top of the forum, the one that says "Transparancy & Alpha Channels: The Definitive Guide"? Read it. Then, if you have further questions, ask away (but not here; please let this thread die).

I actually have read this post in its entirety and I still want the file. So can somebody post a link to it please?

Oh god, not again.

Hello all - I've tried 3 written Photoshop tutorials on creating alpha channels, and the video, but I get stuck at one step. When you get to the point where you create your alpha channel, It's supposed to be all black. Mine isn't, it's all white. Even if I spend 45 mintues erasing around the item. I tried painting the alpha black, but then I don't get to see the marching ants. I have been round and round for the last few days trying this to no avail. I'd dearly love to make a little something for my partner and (his friends) for a wedding on Sunday for which he is a groomsman. Please, any help on this would be greatly appreciated. Thanks very much. -Victoria

Does anyone have the OS X version of this for PS CS2? Thanks! -V

Darien starts to ask for the file, but a stern look from Chosen causes her to rethink her actions. She runs off, empty handed...

Love this file, my friend wants it!

anyone know where i can find the zip?

For those of you who said this is bad, pfft i been using this for about 2 years and my clothes files come out perfectly and it saves me a huge amount of time!

Hiya, dredging up this forum again, sorry Chosen, but with good reason lol. I don't need the file, i actually need the 'original' file, because due to loss of brain i can't reinstall my PS, gah!!

Anyone have the original file, please help!



Talk about...omg i messed up my photoshop with the dang file and now i need it fixed, grr!