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Alpha Transparency and me
SeñorAmor
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Hi folks. Not sure if this would be better placed in Artists' Corner, but I've heard scary, bad things about that place, so you get my question. :P
I'm working on some images with solid backgrounds, on top of which, the original artist did his/her work. Any anti-aliased lines in the original work, blends perfectly with the background.
I would like to make the background transparent, but use an alpha transparency so any anti-aliasing in the picture becomes partially transparent as well.
I am currently at an impasse. I cannot figure out how to get the alpha transparency to work without initially starting with a transparent background. I'm sure there's some way to do it, however it eludes me.
I have access to both Paint Shop Pro and Photoshop, but I feel much more comfortable using PSP. If anyone could help me out, I'd be eternally grateful. For reference, here's one of the pictures I'm using:
I'm working on some images with solid backgrounds, on top of which, the original artist did his/her work. Any anti-aliased lines in the original work, blends perfectly with the background.
I would like to make the background transparent, but use an alpha transparency so any anti-aliasing in the picture becomes partially transparent as well.
I am currently at an impasse. I cannot figure out how to get the alpha transparency to work without initially starting with a transparent background. I'm sure there's some way to do it, however it eludes me.
I have access to both Paint Shop Pro and Photoshop, but I feel much more comfortable using PSP. If anyone could help me out, I'd be eternally grateful. For reference, here's one of the pictures I'm using:
SeñorAmor on
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(talking photoshop here)
1) Make the background all the same color.. or not.. It only matters a little for the color of the edges.
2) Create a fourth channel in your image, name it alpha.
3) Color in the fourth channel, realising that this 'color' represents the transparancy of the image. 255 being invis, 0 being visible. (usually)
4) Save the image as a targa or (I think) png. Enable the alpha channel when saving it.
5) ...
6) Profit!
I'm not really following you, sorry. There's no way of saying, "Hey, take this nice pinkish background color and set it as the alpha channel" is there?
Are you sure you want to use the alpha channel? Is this a texture for a game or some such? If you are planning on putting this on a webpage, then you want a transparant gif, which uses a certain color as 'transparant'.
To explain the alpha channel a bit more: It is quite literally another color. RGB+Alpha makes RGBA. You have to paint alpha seperately (shows up as black and white), but when it is exported, then it makes that black/white transparant/not transparant.
Here are a couple sites that can probably help ya out with PSP.
http://www.sluniverse.com/kb/Article.aspx?id=10190
http://www.thebest3d.com/pdp/tutorials/psp7/index.html
Yes, but because her skin color is the same as the background, she will be transparent as well.
easier way - photoshop
double click layer to make it not "background"
magic wand select the pink area
press delete
save for web
save as a gif or png with transparency. Mess around with the settings there and you should get what you want.
(if you read the rules, the AC isn't that bad a place)
you could probably get a similar effect simply using the magic wand tool
wow, you can just drag and drop an image from the browser to save it or open in a image editor, neat
At night, the ice weasels come."
Transparent GIFs + antialiasing are a minor nightmare because, as others have pointed out, a pixel is either transparent or not. This means if you want outer edges to be antialiased, you have to put the image against a background of roughly the same color as the intended target background, let that background bleed into the edges, and then make the outer, solid part of the background (away from the edges) transparent.
The alpha channel solves this problem by allowing pixels at the edge to be (0-255) transparent, meaning you can antialias/ease the edges of a picture without having to know what kind of background you're going to put it on.
Now the problem is, if you only have a one-layer bitmap image and you want to get rid of that pink background and replace it with transparent, but the edges of the image are antialiased, you're going to have a problem getting rid of all the pink. The solid pink stuff away from the edges is easy - the magic wand will get that. The pink that is blended in with the antialiased edges is a bee-yotch for you, though. For that, you might need to do some spot correction with the border select tool and the airbrush, or edge feathering, or something like that.