Could someone please help me?

Hey I know this is probably a stupid question but I couldn't find the answer to it easily so I'm reaching out to all of you right now. I've put together a tattoo pattern and everytime I save it I make sure that all of it is transparent. There are five transparent layers to it for each separate pattern that I've placed. Well here is the problem after I save it it still shows as transparent then the second I try to upload it it turns to a white back ground. And of course then when I check it on PS it's no longer transparent. Like I said in my last stupid question thread lol I'm still fairly new to PS kinda amazed at myself that I've been able to do photos and stuff correctly, but this multilayer transparency is giving me a headache. Could someone please please give me a helping hand.

Did you read the Transparency and Alpha Channels article that is stickied at the top of this forum?

I did read it, I guess I'm looking more fora photoshop for dummies. I just re read it and well maybe I know what I did wrong but that whole Alpha thing is what's getting me stuck in the explination. I can switch to save at 32 bit easy enough but how exactly do I know if the tattoo patterns are alpha. LOL I guess I make as much sence to you guys as I am to myself right now.

The areas of transparency are determined by a single alpha channel. This is not a layer. Transparent areas on layers will not make it transparent in Second Life. Transparency on layers simply allow pixels on lower layers to show.

Have you created an alpha channel? In photoshop there is a tab for layers and next to it is a tab for channels.

It should be white where your tattoo pattern is and black on the rest.

Instructions for creating the alpha channel are in the guide stickied above.

Well I ended up figuring it out on my own half the things that were in that sticky I didn't need to do or in actual terms COULDN'T do beings my version of photoshop doesn't have some of the things that they were talking about but thanks a lot for listening and reading my stupid question of the day =-) Have a great time everyone.

See that's the part I don't have is a channels tab. At least not where it is being said to be. I have yet to find where the channels are. But the ctrl click and shift ctrl click got me to where I needed to be. Again I thank you kindly for all your help. And I hope you have a wonderful day/night.

Wolf, I'm probably going to get slammed a little for my method of doing things that require alpha channels. And I do not use Photoshop.............GIMP is what I use so you might have to search a lttle for specifics on how to do what I do.

First thing I do is open a file new file. Define it's deminsions in pixels and then for the background color I choose "transparency". That opens an image editing window that is 100% transparent (no colors, only alpha). Then I open the image I want to edit as a layer from that imaging window above that layer. When you do any cutting to get the results you want for your tattoo you cut out the unwanted background and your layer containing 100% alpha is shown through as the background. When you are finished editing the layer you want to edit merge the layers. Your alpha channel is there.........your edited image is there. Simple process and no confusion of adding an alpha channel to an RBG layer.

Try it...........and figure out the more complicated stuff later.

Hi Peggy,

Your method won't work in Photoshop. If it did, then Wolf wouldn't have been asking this question.

I have no idea what the GIMP does, since it only runs on a Mac in X11, and I don't run X11. But Photoshop flattens transparent images onto a white background (or whatever color background you have prepared for it; but if you don't prepare one, it gets white.)

The only thing that will make a PS .tga image transparent in Second Life is an Alpha Channel.

It's not optional, I'm afraid.

Also, alpha channels aren't added to RGB Layers. If that's what people are thinking, it might explain some of the confusion, so thanks! The little black and white things that block some of a layer aren't Alpha Channels at all; they are simply Layer Masks.

They will show in the Channel Palette if you happen to have that layer selected, but their name will be in italics, to show that they aren't channels. If you select a different layer, they will vanish from the palette.

Alpha Channels show *only* in the Channel Palette, and are applied to the entire document, not to any specific layer.

Wolf, if you don't have a Channels Palette, then you must have some version of Photoshop Elements. All other versions of Photoshop have a Channels palette, and always have had. There are separate instructions for making alphas from PSE in that sticky, but you might not have understood that PSE means Photoshop Elements. (I'm not good at speaking in Initials, myself.)

If you're not in PSE, then go to the Windows menu, at the top of your interface, and choose Channels from the list. That will make the Channels palette appear. (It's usually grouped with the Layers palette, but you might have closed it at some point.)

You might not need to see the Alpha channel for your daily workflow, but it's really handy to be able to take a look at it. For one thing, if you have more than one Alpha Channel (and you can have tons of them) the .tga file won't know which you mean to use, so it will substitute a totally white Alpha. Which means that you won't see any transparency in SL at all. (But you will have the Alpha-sorting issues we all know and .. ummm . . love?)

Hope this helps!