Quick question...

I'm not sure if I should put this here or on the alpha channel discussion, so I'm putting it here. Feel free to correct me if I am wrong.

I am new to SL and have fallen in love with it. I have searched and searched for particular items to wear, but didn't find them. So, I decided to try and make them. Now I'm very much enjoying the challenge of learning a new process for my program, I use Photoshop CS, and thought I was fairly knowledgeable. I have learned differently!

When I create a texture, in this case I am starting with a bikini, I follow the guidelines for the alpha channel creation, save and test it out in SLCP.

The bikini has color, but the rest of the upper body turns white. Is this how it is supposed to look? Or have I completely mis-understood the directions.

Thank you very much for any help.

Alpha layer mask. Or, if you were using GIMP, I'd say color to alpha. I'm sure there is a Photoshop equivalant. The clolthing textures must be saved as 32 bit.

Are you sure you saved the file as a 32-bit TGA for upload? Even if you make the alpha channel correctly, a 24-bit TGA will not show the transparent areas.

I double checked the file and I have saved it as a 32-bit file. I've followed the steps four times with the same result each time. Hmmmm......perhaps I'm just missing something.

A 32 bit texture can contain completely opague oapgue textures. The reverse is not true. I think you may be missing something in the save process. I am in no way experience in PS so my take may require some interpatation. If you have any background visible at the time of the save or merge that is not 100% transparent it will be merged into the texture when you save it. For instance, GIMP's default background it white. You made your texture to your satisfaction and decide it's time to save and upload it. IF you forgot to either delete that background or hide it it will be saved as part of the texture........32 bit or otherwise.

This may be kind of obvious but, even though I have Photoshop CS on one of my PCs, I prefer to use Photoshop 6.0 on my ancient Mac, and just yesterday I had a problem saving a semi-transparent alpha because the colour I used to do the fill was solid black where it should have been grey - like R 150, G 150, B 150 for instance.

It took a few attempts for me to cotton to this since I rarely make semi-transparent alpha channels and I never gave much thought to the fact that the fill colour is black. Am I thick or what?

Are you by any chance using 100% white as a fill colour? I'm not even sure that this would still be relevant in the later version of Photoshop since I avoid working on that PC like the plague.

Check your alpha channel. There should be just one.

And the parts you want transparent should be black in that one and only alpha channel. Save as 32-bit TGA and you're good to go.

ETA: It shouldn't make any difference what color you use for your layer mask. Just select it and then Save Selection. Your alpha channel should work fine.

I thank everyone for your help, I'm still doing something wrong as the body comes out white. I'm going to a friends house for the holiday weekend and I'll have her look at it and watch so I know exactly where I am going wrong.

Thank you again, I greatly appreciate the help.

Save it as PNG, and look at it in another program, and make sure the transparent bits come out transparent where you expect them.