Help! Alpha Channels Hate me!

I've been trying for several days to get an alpha channel to work for me using PS7 which I am new too. I've followed several of the tutorial but my image always ends up with an actual black background. Can someone tell me what I may be doing wrong, before I pull all my hair out. lol

*Yes I am using photoshop 7..sorry I didn't specify better. Gonna try these things to see if I can't get it to work. Thanks for your help everyone! I'll probably be back.lol

Before saving to .tga, you must save it to an alpha channel.

If you did save to a channel, then before you save to .tga, go to options and set it to 32 bit uncompressed.

SL is not capable of resolving compressed images.

Side note: ....are you uploading and seeing the black background? or is this the view from you hard drive?. Remember, any alpha image saved to your drive will appear with the white or black background.

Hope this sheds some light

In PSP, alpha channels are created as MASKS, then you use SAVE MASK TO ALPHA CHANNEL. In PSP 8 and 9, you find this choice under LAYERS from the top menu. I havent used 7 in a while. I'll download 7 and check to see if it works the same. Brb...

edit: ok. In PSP 7, the MASKS options are found under MASKS on the top menu. You would choose MASKS / NEW / FROM IMAGE. Then you would have a choice of what parts of the image you wanted to create the mask from.

This choice requires some thought and, usually, preparation of the source image beforehand. One way to do it is to fill the areas of your source image that you want to be transparent with black, then use the option ANY NON ZERO VALUE. Black is color 0 and this option will MASK any area that is black. This choice works good if your image has no solid black in it.

In PSP 8 and 9, you can use the BACKGROUND ERASER tool to make the background of your image transparent and then use the MASK option SOURCE OPACITY. I couldnt find a background eraser tool in PSP 7. You could use the plain ERASER tool, but it would be more difficult.

In PSP 7, after you create a MASK, you can use MASKS / VIEW MASK to get an idea of what you have masked. The masked area should appear red.

You must convert the MASK to an alpha channel using MASKS / SAVE TO ALPHA CHANNEL.

Then save the image as a TGA (Truevision targa).Make sure to check OPTIONS on the SAVE box and choose 24 bit UNCOMPRESSED. Agree to the warning that the image will be saved as merged. Thats ok.

I tried these steps and was able to see the alpha chennel when I uploaded the image to SL.

I hope this helps. Consider an upgrade to PSP 8 or 9, though. They're better programs.

When i go to save my design the option to include alpha channels is grey. Any ideas?

Make sure you are working in 8 bit RGB, make sure there is only one alpha channel - I can't think of much else. I'm pretty sure someone else here can help if this doesn't

Actually, I believe Nakia is using Photoshop (PS), not Paint Shop Pro (PSP).

Did I misread your post? Youre usin PhotoShop, not PainstShop Pro? Sorry. Cant help with that one. Heh.

Try looking at this page...6 steps...easy to do.

http://www.sluniverse.com/kb/article.aspx?id=10199

Hope this helps!

- Calix

Nakia, the problem you're experiencing is due to the fact that you're using Photoshop 7. Version 7 behaves differently from all other versions of Photoshop. It was a failed experiment by Adobe, which they quickly abandoned after it didn't work very well. To solve the problem, go to www.adobe.com and download the free 7.0.1 update. Once you've installed it, you'll be able to follow all standard alpha channel tutorials. Until you do that, you'll keep having problems.

For what it's worth, most of us in the graphic community really wish it were possible to turn back time, and stop Photoshop 7.0 from ever having been published. It confuses soooooo many people. For more info on what's wrong with 7.0, see the FAQ section of "Transparency and Alpha Channels: The Definitive Guide", which is stickied at the top of this forum.

Yep, upgrade to 7.0.1 and i bet your problem will be solved. Like Chosen said, I wish 7.0 never happened. You are not alone Nakia--I'd guess that 70% of us are members of the '7.0 threw me for a loop Club'

The good news is that it's easy to fix.

Links to the updates:
Photoshop 7.0.1 Update for Macintosh

Photoshop 7.0.1 Update for Windows