Does anyone use Paintshop pro?

Seems like all the tutorials are with Photoshop. does anyone use Paintshop pro. a friend on his computer and me on mine were both using Paintshop pro him version 9 and me the last version X (aka 10). both were having trouble with getting the transparency to take when making clothes. We did not have a problem with creating textures and objects with transparent backrounds but when it came to clothes even saving our already finished clothing to a paintshop pro file the transparency did not show the background was white.
what are we doing wrong?
we went through the right process the same basically as we do when creating transparent backgrounds for objects when saving to the alpha channel and then creating a tga file and even saving it first to a paint shop pro file?
can anyone help us or send us to a place on SL where there is a tutorial on doing clothes using Paintshop Pro? I have the great book of knowledge Judy Brodie put out but that was with i think Paintshop Pro 7 or some earlier version. that helped some. however the saving part i think was done on an older version so was not much help so could anyone help? thanks.

Here's how to do alpha channels in PSP 10. I'm a Photoshop user, so my PSP tutorials are nowhere near as detailed as my Photposhop ones, but this should get you through. I have PSP just so I can do tutorials on this forum. Beyond that, I never use it.

By the way, if you want to be able to follow all the thousands of Photoshop tutorials that are on this forum and on the rest of the web, and you can't afford Photoshop (which is worth every penny and then some if you can), you might want to consider GIMPshop. It's a plugin for the GIMP that makes its interface look and work like Photoshop's interface. Both the GIMP and GIMPshop are totally free.

Anyway, here's the PSP 10 tutorial:

1. In Photoshop, you can edit channels directly, but in PSP. you have to use a tool called a mask as a proxy for what will in the end become the alpha channel. To create a new mask, go Layers -> New Mask Layer -> Show All. A new layer group will be created, at the top of which will be your new mask layer. Make sure all other layers are in the group and below the mask.

2. On the Layers Palette, select the mask layer and make sure the little Mask Overlay Toggle button at the top is turned off. The Mask Overlay Toggle is directly to the right of the Link Toggle. It looks like a tiny picture of a theater mask. When it's off it's gray; when it's on it's red. Just so you know, turning it on can be useful so you can exactly what is happening with the mask itself, but you'll have a more WYSIWYG feel with it turned off.

3. At this point, your mask will be all white (no transparency yet). On the mask layer, start painting the areas you want to be invisible black, and you'll see the checkerboard show through in those areas. Any areas you want semi-transparent, paint gray. The darker the gray, the more transparent; the lighter the gray, the more opaque. The areas you want completely opaque just leave white.

4. When you're finished, go to Layers -> Load/Save Mask -> Save Mask To Alpha Channel, and then delete the mask (DELETE it, do not merge it) by right clicking on it in the Layers Palette and selecting Delete. If you need to edit the alpha later, go Layers -> Load/Save Mask -> Load Mask From Alpha Channel.

5. Save your file as a TGA and you should be all set. It seems there's no option to choose bit depth at the time of save. If an alpha channel is present, the file is automatically saves as 32 bit. If not, it's automatically saved as 24 bit.

And here's my standard explanation of how channels work, in case you need. It sounds like you know this already, but I always like to be thorough.

[U][B]Color Space & Channels[/B][/U]
Images designed to be shown on a color screen exist in what as known as RGB color space, meaning they are comprised of the three primary colors, red, green, & blue. The relative brightness of each of these primary colors in each pixel determines each pixel's actual color. For example, a pixel comprised of equal values of red and blue without any green would appear to be purple.

When taken seperately, the individual values for red, green, or blue for the whole picture are represented by a grayscale image called a channel. In an individual channel, white represents the maximum possible concentration of color and black represents the absense of color. Shades of gray represent amounts of color that are less than the maximum. The darker the gray, the lesser the concentration of color. The lighter the gray, the more color is present.

[U][B]Channels & Transparency (Alpha Channels)[/B][/U]
Images that have transparency have the same three primary color channels and also have a fourth channel, called Alpha, which represents opacity. In the alpha channel, white represents comlete opacity and black represents the absense of opacity (transparency). Shades of gray represent semi-transparency. The darker the gray, the more transparent. The lighter the gray, the more opaque.

So, for example, if you are making a bikini top for your avatar, the alpha channel would be white in the shape of the bikini top, and black everywhere else. The white part makes the bikini top 100% opaque so that you won't be able to see through it when it's on the av, and the black part makes the rest of the image invisible so that there appears to be nothing on the av's arms, stomach, etc.

tip use psd (photoshop) file format, i havent had the pleasures of the new versions of psp but in version 6 i have never gotten a psp file to save right

heh course i havent tried hard since the gimp and photoshop wont read psp 6 files