From: MadamG Zagato
try this download which works for me
Oh god, not that f$#$#@! plugin again! For the umpteen hundredth time, that thing causes soooo many problems, including but not limited to the following:
* It often causes artifacts in the image which are 100% impossible to remove after the fact.
* Instead of creating a proper alpha channel, something which would be recognized and understood by all graphics programs on Earth, it creates a unique element called an embedded alpha, which 99% of all graphics programs cannot understand. It's only by an extreme coincidence of time that SL can read them. SL happened to be in pre-release development during the 3-month period when Adobe was experimenting with embedded alphas. Virtually no program made before or after that time will read embedded alphas. Only those programs whose developers fell into the trap of assuming Adobe's experiment would work can understand the embedded alpha coding. The experiment was a dismal failure, which was quickly abandoned by Adobe and every other developer. You should absolutely abandon it yourself.
* Images created with embedded alphas are, for whatever reason, extremely prone to irreversible data corruption, especially if you try to open them in programs that don't understand embedded alphas. I've got quite a collection of PS-7.0-era images that turned all kinds of screwed up after they were opened in later versions of Photoshop. The only way to fix them is to recreate them from scratch.
* People who use that plugin think it's a time saver. It's not. For anything beyond the simplest of transparency schemes, it actually takes much longer than would proper alpha work flow. What it really is is not a time saver but a thought saver, a way that people who don't want to learn to use alphas can convince themselves they don't have to.
Alpha methodology is the basis behind how EVERYTHING in digital imagery works. If you ever want to use layer masks, the exact same rules apply. If you ever want to get into more advanced types of texturing such as bump-mapping, reflection-mapping, specularity-mapping, etc., etc., etc., all of which will be in SL one day, you absolutely will need to understand the alpha mapping process or you'll be left in the dust. Heck, even things like simple 2D light mapping and texturization in Photoshop (and all other paint programs) rely on alpha methodology, as do dozens of other effects. Photoshop brushes are based alpha maps as well. Even the very colors of the image itself are controlled by the same kind of mapping (you just usually don't need to think of it in those terms, but it is what is happening, just the same).
To all reading, do NOT sell yourself short by refusing to learn how alpha channels work. It's childishly simple once you absorb its most basic principles, and it always works. Embedded alphas may seem like an easy way out at first, but trust me, they're the wrong way to go. They were abandoned after just 3 months for good reason.
(By the way, no offense intended towards you personnally, MadamG. This subject just happens to be one of my hot buttons.)
From: Shippou Oud
The darker the gray, the less see threw it will be, the lighter the gray the more see threw it will be.
You've got it backwards. The darker the gray, the more see-through. The lighter the gray, the more opaque.
White represents complete opacity, black is complete transparency (zero opacity), and the entire grayscale runs in between. It all follows the same logic. If the gray is dark, it's 'mostly black', so it's mostly transparent. If the gray is light, then it's 'mostly white', so it will be closer to opaque.
All of this, by the way (both responses to both quotes) is covered in the transparency guide at the top of the forum. Shippou, if you haven't read it already, please do.