Alpha Channel In Photoshop

[Brundabad]

Hello everyone,

I have got the problem, that I have no idea how to make a good Alpha Channel in Photoshop.
I want my server logo to look transparent in the login screen (and also other custom interface files) but everytime I try just to invert the file, it looks really ugly with white edges and stuff like that and of course no transparency at all.

An yes, I already googled it several times, but without any gratifying result.

Does anyone know a site where it's explained, or maybe someone could make a short tutorial (if its way too easy and I am just not smart enough ;P)?

Thanks for your help


P.S. If there are sentences wo don't make sense, its because I'm Swiss and my english isn't perfect. So please have indulgence.
And yes, maybe its in the wrong section. I just didn't know where I should to open this thread.

[Twilight360]

Originally Posted by Brundabad

Hello everyone,

I have got the problem, that I have no idea how to make a good Alpha Channel in Photoshop.
I want my server logo to look transparent in the login screen (and also other custom interface files) but everytime I try just to invert the file, it looks really ugly with white edges and stuff like that and of course no transparency at all.

An yes, I already googled it several times, but without any gratifying result.

Does anyone know a site where it's explained, or maybe someone could make a short tutorial (if its way too easy and I am just not smart enough ;P)?

Thanks for your help


P.S. If there are sentences wo don't make sense, its because I'm Swiss and my english isn't perfect. So please have indulgence.
And yes, maybe its in the wrong section. I just didn't know where I should to open this thread.

Use DDS Converter - .

[Truth1010]

Originally Posted by Twilight360

Use DDS Converter - .

Not sure how this program has anything to do with what the OP was asking.

As an answer to your question, you need to load the image you are trying to add transparency to with photoshop. Then in the channels area on the right (usually) a button at the bottom will allow you to add alpha.
Black = Not shown / seen by the game.
White = Full visible
And shade of grey in between will change the transparency to what you want, lighter grey = slightly transparent.
darker grey = almost invisible.

And make sure you are only adding alpha to the actual object/icon, otherwise the "background" will also be shown through alpha.

[Brundabad]

Originally Posted by Truth1010

As an answer to your question, you need to load the image you are trying to add transparency to with photoshop. Then in the channels area on the right (usually) a button at the bottom will allow you to add alpha.
Black = Not shown / seen by the game.
White = Full visible
And shade of grey in between will change the transparency to what you want, lighter grey = slightly transparent.
darker grey = almost invisible.

And make sure you are only adding alpha to the actual object/icon, otherwise the "background" will also be shown through alpha.

Thanks for the explination, already tried this before and I knew the thing with black and white (thanks anyways ;P)... so is it right, that there is no way to transfer the transparency from the file to the alpha layer?
It needs to be done manually?

Here's what I mean:





For me its just really hard to believe that this alpha layer is made manually :/

[Twilight360]

Thing is with that tool you do not have to worry it will automatically save it as it was, even after changes.

[Brundabad]

Originally Posted by Twilight360

Thing is with that tool you do not have to worry it will automatically save it as it was, even after changes.

Uhm ... I think this has nothing to do with my question. Maybe you didn't read my thread properly.


So please, if you want to help me, write something about alpha layers ... not DDS converters.

Thanks anyways for your responses, they might be well-meant

[Twilight360]

Just stating you wouldn't have to worry about any alphas if you are using it, it is simple to use that is why i stated why go threw the trouble, get carried away by that if you can instantly change and then convert it back to the dds, bam your done.

[Brundabad]

Originally Posted by Twilight360

Just stating you wouldn't have to worry about any alphas if you are using it, it is simple to use that is why i stated why go threw the trouble, get carried away by that if you can instantly change and then convert it back to the dds, bam your done.

By the way ... interface files are all *.tga files, and the logo is a *.bmp file.
So why should I need a dds converter? I was never writing about armor or weapon alpha layers. o.O

[Truth1010]

Ah, i think your problem lays there. I didn't check the file types of what you were using. I believe .bmp doesn't recognize alpha channels, or at least through the game. The alpha you had set in your example would make your logo "fully visible" so if you were to make it 50black, 50 white. Then it would be half transparent.

Unfortunately, there is no other way i know to make a working alpha channel, other than to manually add it yourself. I've never seen, or found a use for any programs to do this for me, as it's a 30 second job, 90% of the time... And I'm not even close to being a Photoshop/GIMP expert.

Just gave it a quick go myself, and it seems that with both .bmp as the file format, and .tga, the logo files don't / wont appear transparent at all. You can try different formats if you like, just change the file format in hex for your game.exe file (choirock.bmp in my case, maybe sonovlogo.bmp in yours)

[sominus]

Make your desired logo with soft edges and all that (you could use Outer Glow or something).

When you logo is finished, save a copy of the file (just in case).

Now, merge all the Layers, except the background. (keep the black background away for now).

You'll have 2 layers, the merged logo (with transparent background), and the black background.
Make a copy of the logo layer (Ctrl + J).

With the new copy of the logo, press CTRL + U, and raise Lightness to the maximum (it sould look all white).

Now go to the alpha channel (Alpha1), and paint it with Black color (absolute black RGB: 0,0,0).

Now, go to the logo layer copy, that you turned all white, and press CTRL + A and CTRL + C to copy the layer content.

Go back to the alpha channel (Alpha1), make sure you have it selected in the list.
And go to Main Menu > Edit > Paste Especial > Paste in Place

Your all white logo should be on the alpha channel now, with soft edges and all that.

Finally, un-mark the alpha channel (the eye icon). Delete de white logo layer copy. Merge the logo layer with the black background layer. And save the file.

Import your logo to shaiya, and it should look with soft edges and transparencies.

[Brundabad]

Originally Posted by sominus

Now, merge all the Layers, except the background. (keep the black background away for now).

Oh my *** ... this was what I was looking for!
Thank you so much, sominus, it finally worked. I just made a logo in photoshop and it looks great in the login screen.

I always merged all the layers together, so there was only the background left. Of course it didn't work like that ...

I just never noticed that its that easy!

With the response of sominus, I'll close this thread for more answers (don't need them anymore )

[wallerus]

From another thread I helped on with the same issue. For you if you still may need it to help clear up some things, and for any others that may want to use it in the future.

Originally Posted by wallerus

What you'll need:
Adobe Photoshop, or your choice of editor.
The files you want to change, for this I'll use the recently released since it's readily extracted and has .PSD files to make it even easier!

Step 1. Open your desired file(s) in Photoshop
Step 2. Select "Rectangular Marquee Tool" and select the whole file.

 Spoiler

Step 3. Edit > Copy Merged.

 Spoiler

Step 4. Channels > Create New Channel

 Spoiler

Step 5. Edit > Paste Special > Paste into place
Step 6. Disable the View of RGB, Red, Green & Blue layers and select your Alpha Layer.

 Spoiler

It will look something like this:

 Spoiler

This is how it will look regularly if you open up a Targa file from in-game.

 Spoiler

Alpha Layers work with White, Grey & Black only and this is how we set the transparency and it works like this:
Black (000000) = 100% Transparent
Grey = 1-99% Transparent
White (ffffff) = 0% Transparent

Depending on how transparent you want it you'll have to decide by using a grey color and using the Paint Bucket with 255 Tolerance. You'll want to keep the background Black otherwise it will show in-game as a white, this is why we keep the Pasted Layer selected like and only fill this with white/grey.

As I said, you just need to watch a few videos on YouTube to understand, it's very simple.