Per Pixel, Alpha Blending, .tga's

Tutorial

Thursday, December 22, 2005 by Klatuu Berada | Discussion: WindowBlinds

Is there a tutorial anywhere to learn the mechanics of using .tga's
for per pixel alpha blending? (not sure I even phrased that correctly,
but you know what I mean)
4 Reply 14 Referrals
scorpio-logic
Reply #1 Thursday, December 22, 2005 11:12 AM
Cavan pointed out to me a while back that it is unnecessary to start out with .tga formatted image. Using the .png will get you going, and importing the image to SkinStudio will convert the image, if you have the option under "Tools>Preferences-Editing>Image Editors" here you'll see at the mid-bottom of the window is a check box and the option: "Convert TGA files to PNG before using image editors". Check this and you can use any image editor that handles transparency for this purpose. The rest is all in experimentation. An easy way to see how this works is to make a BMP with "majik pink", which will also make transparency. Import this image to SKS, right click on the image in the right-hand "Sections" menu and click "Add alpha channel". The image is now a TGA. Now, if you are never satisfied with the first image, like me, double-click that image and your image editor pops up (you can assign this under Tools>Preferences-Image Editors) and you now no longer have a "majik pink" image, it has now changed the color to white. BUT! You are now working with a PNG. Most editors I have worked with have the ability to assign a "tranparent color". As I said, a little experimenting and you'll ready to roll. This does not help you with per-pixeling. This you'll do by assigning "opacity". With GIMP, this is done with the "Layers" dialog. I do not have Photoshop or other nice proggie, so bear with me.

I am sure I didn't cover everything, and I am buzzing on my morning dose of highly caffinated columbian beans, so I may have missed something or esplained in a round-about way. I think I covered the base, though: don't start with TGA, use PNG. Is easier.

Happy Skinning!

Posted via WinCustomize Browser/Stardock Central

Koasati
Reply #2 Thursday, December 22, 2005 11:37 AM
I wouldn't use BMP with magic pink to convert to TGA. Nor would I use a transparent color, in a PNG. There's a big difference between one color transparency, and per-pixel translucency.
Just start with a translucent PNG, and import it into SkS.

Klatuu Berada
Reply #3 Friday, January 6, 2006 11:50 PM
Thanks Guys!

scorpio-logic
Reply #4 Saturday, January 7, 2006 3:48 AM
See, I knew if I said something really absurd, Koasati would help ya out! Took ya a while to get back to see what answers ya got though. Happy skinning!

BTW, Koasati, I found out the hard way about the nice things you can get with png.

Posted via WinCustomize Browser/Stardock Central

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