Help: Photoshop CS3 Invisible Background?

Hi there,

I'm working on a new shirt, and I just went from Photoshop 7 to Photoshop CS3.... Problem I'm having is that I'm trying to erase the background (Like I always have done) and then save it as a 32bit TGA file.... But in CS3 when I do this, and then reopen the File the background has gone back to White instead of the Transparent grey/white checkerboard.

Anyone able to tell me why this is happening?

Thank you!
-SB

Are you creating an alpha channel? Photoshop 7 handled transparency different than any other version of Photoshop before or since and sure has created a lot of confusion for those that started out with it... If you want to do it the way you have been (erasing the background and no alpha channel) then you would want to save as PNG instead. Although, learning to use alpha channels in my opinion will give you more flexibility in the future. To learn to use alpha channels, start out by reading the stickied thread at the top of this forum.

Right click on the thumb nail of your clothing in the layer palette, select pixels, then click on the channel tab and at the bottom of that is a coloured square button with a circle in it... click on that- that makes your alpha channel. Just save out as a tga file (32 bit for the alpha channel to be included) and that should make your background transparent

If you really want to erase the white in a background layer and make it transparent, you have to convert it to a normal layer first. Right click on the layer's icon in the Layer palette and then select "New Layer from Background...", (or just double-click on it) and select OK. When you erase on the changed layer, it goes all checkerboardy, the way you want it to.

HOWEVER ......

.... Betty's right. Erasing pixels to make transparent areas in a layer won't create transparency in the final image you upload to SL as a 32-bit TGA file. To do that, you have to actually create an alpha channel. Don't expect any version of Photoshop except for the old, flawed version 7.0 to work the way you are used to. Read the Alpha/Transparency sticky at the top of this forum CAREFULLY to understand how to create transparency with an alpha channel.

flawed or not, at least 7.0 made it easy.

Thanks for the replies. i'll.... see if I can figure it out.

-SB