Help Much appriciated!!

Hey peeps!!

I am kind of new to the clothing making business.
1 question, I am using GIMP,

When i am done with a shirt, i erase the areas around it, use an alphachanel and a invisible layer. But when i save it and upload i still get the colored area around the shirt, So it doesnt come up short sleeved in sl like my texture should be.. The white ugly collar and sleeves..I am so sick of them im gonna barf...

What am i doing wrong?


With Love
M

Export it as a PNG and make sure you are saving transparency values. I'm not sure the specifics with GIMP, but it won't save alpha data by default. (And of course, if you are saving it as a JPG, it will never have alpha saved).

Have you read the sticky thread on Alpha Channels and Transparency at the top of this forum? If not, take a little time to do it. Transparency is a tricky topic. If you try to use a cookbook method without understanding why it works, you're likely to get frustrated sooner or later. That sticky is a good place to start learning. You might also try Robin Wood's studying tutorial at . She uses Photoshop for her examples, but the concept is the same no matter which program you use.

What do you mean by "invisible layer"?

As far as GIMP goes... save your original file as an .XCF file (that's the GIMP extension) and then do a "Save A Copy" to a .TGA file. GIMP will say that TGA files can't handle layers; select "merge the visible layers". Then it will pop up a window for RLE compression; uncheck that box.

Thanks, but i just needed the quick solution.
But i cannot figure it out, i tried saving it to png....still nothing...

Thanks so much, will try that one.

That's mainly because there isn't a "quick" solution. lol

When you choose save, save a copy or save as when saving to TGA format and your image has transparency or layer (or both) you will get a pop stating that TGA can't handle offsets, layers, etc (as said earlier in this thread). You will have two choices. Flatten the image or merge. The default is merge and is selected for you.....but to be on the safe side check to make sure. You don't want to flatten the image if you are making clothing for your avatar as that will replace any transparent area with the back ground color currently set as your background color (normally white unless you have changed it during your imaging session). Click okay and then the next pop up asks if you want to compress the image..........uncheck the box that is selected and click save.

That's about as quick and simple as it gets.

Edited to add:\

Have only the layers you want showint to make up your clothing item visible. The merge option will merge only the visible layers. If you still have layers visible that are not part of the clothing item such as the template you used, turn them off.......or they'll be merged too and show up on the saved image......and on the clothing item when you upload it.

Thanks so much,

There is a quick solution after all

Hope you all have a nice weekend,

Cheers

Yay! Quick and easy for fixing this problem. Do you understand why it works, and what each of the options in Peggy's great response means? Knowing which buttons to push is a great relief, but understanding what they do is the important lesson. I know it's more fun to dash into the next design challenge, but I do encourage you to read through that sticky thread about transparency that I recommended earlier.