Creating pics with transparency (JPEG, PNG, etc..)

[HardcoreKiller]

Gordon,

What program/method did you use to create the pictures and backings?? I would like to start doing that too. I have a really cool mushroom I want to display...

Example:
Smiley.png and Smiley2.png

I see it is necesarry to create the backing so the pic looks "transparent" over the visual. I would like to do this for pics of girls/promo pics. Maybe even have them fade in and out randomly at specific intervals? (another vis idea)...

-Hardcore

[Rovastar]

Shader blend commands they are in the docs.

Look at the examples of some scenes that have transparent layers in them e.g. skins of tunnels, watermorphs, etc and you will see how it is done.

[HardcoreKiller]

Rovastar,

I did do some reading and am making the pics manually...

But it seems there are 2 JPG or PNGs for each "transparent" pic. Did you use MSPaint or something to make them?

-Hardcore

[Chris]

You create the 2 pictures - one ending in an 'a' and the other a 'c'

The 'a' one is black and white - it tells which parts of the 'c' one are drawn. White parts are drawn, black parts are transparent.

When you load the picture use a ? in place of the a or c as in:
strcpy(img.filename,"snowman_?.png");

Creating the pictures in mspaint would be possible but a bit tedious. Create your colour texture first with and save with a filename ending in "c" , then blackout all the bits you want transparent, then fill in the rest with white and 'save as' "a".

Photoshop or Paint Shop Pro are much more powerfull, or if you want a free alternative try the GIMP - open source graphics program that's quite good.

[rabidhamster]

Yep. thats basically it. I posted in another forum how i tend to do it that may help you. I assume you have an image on a black background. Here's a quick run-down (i use PSP7):

* Save your image at the right size (128,256,512,1024 or 2048 in width and height - eg. 1024x512) as image_c.png/jpg/whatever
* Convert it to greyscale
* Use 'levels' in PSP (with the input sliders) to make the image mostly black and white - with the white bits the ones you want showing.
* Use gaussien blur with a radius of about 5
* Use levels again with similar settings so you end up with virtually all white, but smooth edges
* save the image as image_a.png/jpg (the filename must be exactly the same apart from an 'a' instead of the 'c')

[HardcoreKiller]

[rabidhamster]

[Guest]