Second Life Forums Archive - My Tattoo designs glow!

VooDoo Bamboo

www.voodoodesignsllc.com

Join date: 4 Oct 2006

Posts: 911

12-03-2006 04:43

Ok I have been busting my butt attempting to learn how to do tattoos here in SL since I do them in RL. I know PS rather well but I seem to be stuck on one part. I have been reading all these tutorials on SL and on the net but still can not seem to find a answer that really takes it step by step.

The part I am stuck on is I get this white glow around all my tattoos. I have seen this talked about however I still don't get how to get rid of this...

Could somebody please post a step by step answer? I really want to figure this out as this seems to be the only part that is getting me.

I am even willing to pay somebody to take me through these steps 1 by 1.

Thank you!!!!!

Jennifer McLuhan

Smiles and Hugs are Free

Join date: 22 Aug 2005

Posts: 441

12-03-2006 05:49

Have you tried using a background color the same as the tattoo and letting your alpha take care of separating the tattoo from the background?

Jen

Echo Dragonfly

Surely You Jest

Join date: 22 Aug 2004

Posts: 325

12-03-2006 06:07

Follow these insructions, and get the free flaming pear solidify plugin mentioned. Works perfectly.

From: someone

Originally Posted by Robin Sojourner
There are a number of problems with it, which is why Adobe abandoned that particular way of handling .tga files very quickly.

The Big Three, which come immediately to mind;

1. When you use that plug-in, your alpha channel is pre-multiplied, which makes it invisible and un-editable. If you decide that you want to change something about the image transparency later, you can't do it, unless you saved a backup Photoshop file. (Something which I always recommend you do anyway; but sometimes things happen to saved files. This plug-in eliminates one safety net.)

2. Pre-multiplied alpha fades to black, not white, so you are getting black halos, not white ones. They aren't as noticeable in ordinary circumstances; but that doesn't mean that they aren't there. If you use an alpha channel, you can totally eliminate any halos.

3. Not all programs can correctly read files with pre-multiplied alphas. In those cases, the areas that you expect to be transparent will show as black, and it might be extremely difficult to extract your image from that black background. There was a whole thread about this recently in a different graphics forum, but I can't find it at the moment.

Given all of this, and the fact that you can make a real alpha channel in three or four mouse clicks, without ever opening the Channel palette, it makes sense to make real alphas.

I've said it dozens of times, and will probably say it dozens more. You don't need to edit alpha channels to have them. All you have to do is be able to hold down a key or two with one hand, and click with the other.

1. From any multi-layered image at all, no matter how it's constructed, if you hold down Shift+Alt+Ctrl (Shift+Option+Command on a Mac) and tap the E key, you'll make a composite layer, with your whole image on it, including all the various kinds of transparency etc. (NOTE: if you are using a version of PS prior to CS2, make a new layer first, and select it before you use these keys, so the composite will be made in that layer. CS 2 makes a new layer automatically.)

2. Hold down Ctrl/Command, and click the thumbnail image for that composite layer. That selects the opaque pixels, according to their opacity. (Totally opaque are totally selected, 50% opaque are 50% selected, 0% opaque are not selected at all.)

3. Go to the Select menu, and Save Selection. Your alpha channel is made. You don't need to look at it, edit it, or interact with it in any way.

4. (Optional, but highly recommended.) If you want to totally eliminate any halos, just run the free Solidify filter from Flaming Pear on that composite layer after you've made the Alpha. Single mouse click, no chance of halos, no touching of the Alpha channel.

If you don't have layers in your image, it's even easier. If you have a mask, just do steps 2 and 3 above, but click on the Mask thumbnail, not the Image thumbnail, in step 2. Hold down the shift key and click the Mask to disable it, after you've made the alpha but before you save the .tga, and you'll not only have no chance of halos, but a backup of your image, saved in targa format on the SL servers.

If you don't have a mask or layers, then just do steps 2 and 3, and then run Solidify.

The thing is, there are problems with the old 7.0 plug-in, and making an alpha is extremely easy and requires no editing of alpha channels at all!

I'm not telling you that you have to switch methods, Lo. You're a grown-up. Do whatever you think is best for you.

I'm just interested in people making an informed choice. Here's the information. Everyone can now choose to do whatever they like with it.

_____________________

Creativity represents a miraculous coming together of the uninhibited energy of the child with its apparent opposite and enemy, the sense of order imposed on the disciplined adult intelligence.
Norman Podhoretz
......................
If quizzes are quizzical, what are tests?

............................
Do illiterate people get the full effect of Alphabet Soup?

Infiniview Merit

The 100 Trillionth Cell

Join date: 27 Apr 2006

Posts: 845

Thank you

12-03-2006 17:24

Hey thanks for the Flaming Pear link.

I just spent the last few hours experimenting with those new plug ins.

_____________________

http://slurl.com/secondlife/puea/126/10/60/

Chosen Few

Alpha Channel Slave

Join date: 16 Jan 2004

Posts: 7,496

12-03-2006 18:32

See the big orange sticky at the top of the forum, entitled "Transparency & Alpha Channels: The Definitive Guide"? Read it.

What you're asking is in the FAQ section. I'll excerpt the relevant portion for you here, but I strongly suggest you read the whole thing, as there are many other tips and informative points that will save you a lot of aggravation.

From: Chosen Few

Why do I see a white halo around my partially transparent images in SL?

This is a very common problem caused by what’s know as anti-aliasing, which is the computer’s way of smoothing the appearance jagged edges by combining colors along diagonals or curves lines. Just like with any other image element, the pixels where black meets white in alpha channels get anti-aliased so that they appear to blend smoothly together. This anti-aliasing results in gray pixels, which end up translating to a semi-transparent outline around the opaque parts of the image.

How this results in a white halo is pretty simple. If there’s white space (or blank space) surrounding the opaque parts of your image, those anti-aliased, semi-transparent edge pixels end up combining their coloring with the white around them. They become so lightened by the process that they appear to be a halo.

The way to avoid the halo ranges from very, very simple to slightly complicated. The simplest thing to do is just to give your images a dark background. Technically this gives you a dark halo instead of a light one, but dark halos are usually undetectable in SL. Most of my tutorials include this method, since it’s the easiest to explain, and the most universally applicable for all situations.

Other methods include bleeding the coloring of the opaque areas into the transparent areas. This is visually superior to the dark background method, but a little more complicated to do. Photoshop users may wish to view Robin Sojourner’s wonderful video tutorial on her website, showing how she eliminates the halo by using a Gaussian blur filter. There are also 3rd party plug-ins for Photoshop that can be useful for this, my favorite of which is a filter from Flaming Pear called Solidify. At the time of this publication, Solidify is available for free on Flaming Pear’s website in their Free Plugins package.

_____________________

.

Land now available for rent in Indigo. Low rates. Quiet, low-lag mainland sim with good neighbors. IM me in-world if you're interested.

My Tattoo designs glow!
VooDoo Bamboo www.voodoodesignsllc.com Join date: 4 Oct 2006 Posts: 911	12-03-2006 04:43 Ok I have been busting my butt attempting to learn how to do tattoos here in SL since I do them in RL. I know PS rather well but I seem to be stuck on one part. I have been reading all these tutorials on SL and on the net but still can not seem to find a answer that really takes it step by step. The part I am stuck on is I get this white glow around all my tattoos. I have seen this talked about however I still don't get how to get rid of this... Could somebody please post a step by step answer? I really want to figure this out as this seems to be the only part that is getting me. I am even willing to pay somebody to take me through these steps 1 by 1. Thank you!!!!!
Jennifer McLuhan Smiles and Hugs are Free Join date: 22 Aug 2005 Posts: 441	12-03-2006 05:49 Have you tried using a background color the same as the tattoo and letting your alpha take care of separating the tattoo from the background? Jen
Echo Dragonfly Surely You Jest Join date: 22 Aug 2004 Posts: 325	12-03-2006 06:07 Follow these insructions, and get the free flaming pear solidify plugin mentioned. Works perfectly. From: someone Originally Posted by Robin Sojourner There are a number of problems with it, which is why Adobe abandoned that particular way of handling .tga files very quickly. The Big Three, which come immediately to mind; 1. When you use that plug-in, your alpha channel is pre-multiplied, which makes it invisible and un-editable. If you decide that you want to change something about the image transparency later, you can't do it, unless you saved a backup Photoshop file. (Something which I always recommend you do anyway; but sometimes things happen to saved files. This plug-in eliminates one safety net.) 2. Pre-multiplied alpha fades to black, not white, so you are getting black halos, not white ones. They aren't as noticeable in ordinary circumstances; but that doesn't mean that they aren't there. If you use an alpha channel, you can totally eliminate any halos. 3. Not all programs can correctly read files with pre-multiplied alphas. In those cases, the areas that you expect to be transparent will show as black, and it might be extremely difficult to extract your image from that black background. There was a whole thread about this recently in a different graphics forum, but I can't find it at the moment. Given all of this, and the fact that you can make a real alpha channel in three or four mouse clicks, without ever opening the Channel palette, it makes sense to make real alphas. I've said it dozens of times, and will probably say it dozens more. You don't need to edit alpha channels to have them. All you have to do is be able to hold down a key or two with one hand, and click with the other. 1. From any multi-layered image at all, no matter how it's constructed, if you hold down Shift+Alt+Ctrl (Shift+Option+Command on a Mac) and tap the E key, you'll make a composite layer, with your whole image on it, including all the various kinds of transparency etc. (NOTE: if you are using a version of PS prior to CS2, make a new layer first, and select it before you use these keys, so the composite will be made in that layer. CS 2 makes a new layer automatically.) 2. Hold down Ctrl/Command, and click the thumbnail image for that composite layer. That selects the opaque pixels, according to their opacity. (Totally opaque are totally selected, 50% opaque are 50% selected, 0% opaque are not selected at all.) 3. Go to the Select menu, and Save Selection. Your alpha channel is made. You don't need to look at it, edit it, or interact with it in any way. 4. (Optional, but highly recommended.) If you want to totally eliminate any halos, just run the free Solidify filter from Flaming Pear on that composite layer after you've made the Alpha. Single mouse click, no chance of halos, no touching of the Alpha channel. If you don't have layers in your image, it's even easier. If you have a mask, just do steps 2 and 3 above, but click on the Mask thumbnail, not the Image thumbnail, in step 2. Hold down the shift key and click the Mask to disable it, after you've made the alpha but before you save the .tga, and you'll not only have no chance of halos, but a backup of your image, saved in targa format on the SL servers. If you don't have a mask or layers, then just do steps 2 and 3, and then run Solidify. The thing is, there are problems with the old 7.0 plug-in, and making an alpha is extremely easy and requires no editing of alpha channels at all! I'm not telling you that you have to switch methods, Lo. You're a grown-up. Do whatever you think is best for you. I'm just interested in people making an informed choice. Here's the information. Everyone can now choose to do whatever they like with it. _____________________ Creativity represents a miraculous coming together of the uninhibited energy of the child with its apparent opposite and enemy, the sense of order imposed on the disciplined adult intelligence. Norman Podhoretz ...................... If quizzes are quizzical, what are tests? ............................ Do illiterate people get the full effect of Alphabet Soup?
Infiniview Merit The 100 Trillionth Cell Join date: 27 Apr 2006 Posts: 845	Thank you 12-03-2006 17:24 Hey thanks for the Flaming Pear link. I just spent the last few hours experimenting with those new plug ins. _____________________ http://slurl.com/secondlife/puea/126/10/60/
Chosen Few Alpha Channel Slave Join date: 16 Jan 2004 Posts: 7,496	12-03-2006 18:32 See the big orange sticky at the top of the forum, entitled "Transparency & Alpha Channels: The Definitive Guide"? Read it. What you're asking is in the FAQ section. I'll excerpt the relevant portion for you here, but I strongly suggest you read the whole thing, as there are many other tips and informative points that will save you a lot of aggravation. From: Chosen Few Why do I see a white halo around my partially transparent images in SL? This is a very common problem caused by what’s know as anti-aliasing, which is the computer’s way of smoothing the appearance jagged edges by combining colors along diagonals or curves lines. Just like with any other image element, the pixels where black meets white in alpha channels get anti-aliased so that they appear to blend smoothly together. This anti-aliasing results in gray pixels, which end up translating to a semi-transparent outline around the opaque parts of the image. How this results in a white halo is pretty simple. If there’s white space (or blank space) surrounding the opaque parts of your image, those anti-aliased, semi-transparent edge pixels end up combining their coloring with the white around them. They become so lightened by the process that they appear to be a halo. The way to avoid the halo ranges from very, very simple to slightly complicated. The simplest thing to do is just to give your images a dark background. Technically this gives you a dark halo instead of a light one, but dark halos are usually undetectable in SL. Most of my tutorials include this method, since it’s the easiest to explain, and the most universally applicable for all situations. Other methods include bleeding the coloring of the opaque areas into the transparent areas. This is visually superior to the dark background method, but a little more complicated to do. Photoshop users may wish to view Robin Sojourner’s wonderful video tutorial on her website, showing how she eliminates the halo by using a Gaussian blur filter. There are also 3rd party plug-ins for Photoshop that can be useful for this, my favorite of which is a filter from Flaming Pear called Solidify. At the time of this publication, Solidify is available for free on Flaming Pear’s website in their Free Plugins package. _____________________ . Land now available for rent in Indigo. Low rates. Quiet, low-lag mainland sim with good neighbors. IM me in-world if you're interested.

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My Tattoo designs glow!