Painting question

[Hornit 3]

I use Paintshop pro currently and I am really getting the hang of this. My question involves alpha channels. Right now the only way I know to do an alpha channel is to get the bitmap the way i want and then use dxtbmp to generate the alpha greyscale image, and I then edit it to have the reflectivity I want. If i then want to re-edit the non reflective bitmap It seems I have to redo the alpha channel every time. There has to be a way to save the alpha channel, but I just dont see that yet and haven't asked the question. I am guessing it has something to do with layers but im just not sure. If anyone could help out it would be great!Thanx,Hornit

[Guest Bob_Jones]

Hi,open the bmp with Image tool, convert to 32 bit, then save it as targa (tga), the alpha will then be embedded within that tga file.Open the tga in PSP and save as *.psp/*.psd, this will stop the tga file becoming corrupted, do all the painting work on the *.psp/*.psd then copy/paste to the tga, save and reconvert to bmp thru Image tool.Regards,Bob

[Hornit 3]

THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!!!! :)Hornit

[Guest]

So Hornit if your getting good at this any chance of painting the piper arrow in a flight safety livery?Thanks in advanced.Kilstorm

[1mikel151 71]

Hey bro, what I do is once I import the extended BMP w/ alpha into DTXBmp, I then export the alpha channel to another folder. Go and do my regular painting and whenever I am ready, just import the alpha back into the DTXBmp and then save in 32 bit. I use IMAGETOOL to convert to DXT format. the 4 small arrows under the alpha window control these functions. I have tried both ways and get the same results, I find this way saves me a step or two.Regards, Michaelhttp://mysite.verizon.net/res052cd/mybannercva1.jpg