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Partially transparent/partially solid HUD image?

by Rodney (OldRod) Burns · in Torque Game Engine · 03/14/2003 (1:31 pm) · 2 replies

Does anyone know if it's possible to make a graphic image using Paintshop Pro 7.04 that will show up as follows:

A rectangular frame that is solid (ie. non-transparent) with an interior area that is 50% alpha.

Does anyone know if that's possible with Paintshop? I think Photoshop can produce such a file, but I don't Photoshop :(

*edit* I just found out a .png file will work after all, so it doesn't have to be a .tga like I first thought.
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Torque Owner Kirby Webber
#1
03/14/2003 (2:22 pm)
Nope.. *.png's are fine. Just use image masks to create an alpha channel with the attributes you want and then apply it to your image.

Here's how I do it:

Create a secondary copy of the image and "colorize" it with a saturation value of zero. (this will make it all gray wihout having to actually "greyscale.)

In the copy on the image, change the color values (in shades of gray) to your needs. Whit is perfectly opaque, black perfectly transparent, and the shades in between represent the varying levels of opacity.

Once you have the image how you like, click on mask-> create new mask-> from image -> select "source opacity".

If you did this right, your image now appears semi-transparent, much like it will in the engine.

Now click masks-> save to alpha channel and save the alpha channel. Once that is done click on masks-> delete.

You'll be asked if you want to merge the mask into the layer... click "no".

Now open the image you want to actually use and click on masks-> load from alpha channel and select the copied image from the drop down list. This will apply the alpha channel of the image you just made into the image you want to use.

Now click on masks-> save to alpha channel, and do as you did before, finishing with deleting the masks, and clicking "no" to the merge.

Now save the file as a *.png. PSP will give you a message telling you that only one alpha channel will be saved, blah, blah, blah... click okay.

...That's all I got to say about thayat! ;-)

Hope this helps.

Torque 3D Owner Rodney (OldRod) Burns
#2
03/14/2003 (7:43 pm)
Ok, I'm having a problem :)

Quote:Create a secondary copy of the image and "colorize" it with a saturation value of zero. (this will make it all gray wihout having to actually "greyscale.)

When I do this, nothing happens. Do I need to adjust the hue too?

I'm selecting Colors\Colorize and setting saturation to 0. I see no change in the image when I do this.

Also...

Quote:Once you have the image how you like, click on mask-> create new mask-> from image -> select "source opacity".

If you did this right, your image now appears semi-transparent, much like it will in the engine.

It's not appearing semi-transparent when I do this. May be related to the other problem, not sure.

Thanks for the help but I just can't get it yet :)