Custom Texture Transparency Trouble

[AMKalmar]

EDIT -----
(incase you don't want to read the whole page) If you know of a specific texture for a specific character that uses magenta for transparency please tell me.
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I'm making custom character textures. This is the first time I've had to deal with the Targa file type so I don't know how it differs from other file types. I am using Photoshop CS3 to edit the images.

I can't figure out how to make sections of the textures transparent. Right now I'm trying to make Dedede's beak disappear. I've read that it is as simple as painting it magenta. When I tried this his beak came out magenta. I've tried painting it black in the alpha channel. It came out black. No luck with both at once either.

This user talks a little about how to do it in steps 4 and 5:
http://www.smashboards.com/showpost.php?p=7410788&postcount=334
But that's for GIMP users.

It would be very helpful if you could post a link to a guide or explain how to do it. Thank you.

 

[SymphonicSage12]

you could just use gimp... >.>


EDIT: nvm, it says you can't in gimp.

 

[AMKalmar]

So... with indexed textures (+1 or +2) you can just paint things magenta. And for the normal textures I have to do something with the alpha channel. I just don't know what to do with the alpha channel. I've never used the channels tab until now.

 

[spiderjjr45]

Not everything can be made transparent. The Brim of Ness's hat, for example, cannot be made transparent. Alot of Mario cannot be made transparent either.

 

[AMKalmar]

Yeah, I saw a texture of Ganondorf where all but his head and hands were transparent (they can't be made so). Any explanation as to why? What's different about the images that makes them behave like that?

 

[AMKalmar]

I'm looking at the Ganon textures. All but the hands and some of the eye ones have at least a bit of transparency. All the transparency is done by painting black on the alpha layer like I tried. The only one that is odd is the body texture. It has a second texture in a folder called "10Gold_mask" that makes the gold on his armor reflect light. It's all black and the shiny parts approach white. I suspect he closer the shade is to white the shinier it is. The reason I find it odd is that the 10Gold_mask image is the one that handles any transparency for his body (it has black parts on its alpha layer).

When I open images with Preview (the standard image viewer on mac), the parts painted black on the alpha layer show up as transparent. But when I open the images in Photoshop I can see the coloured pixels behind the alpha mask.

I'm thinking in order to make textures transparent that don't already have transparent parts, I have to change something about how I'm saving the file, or perhaps it's just not possible (which would be disappointing).

I haven't seen any magenta anywhere. If you know of a specific texture for a specific character that uses magenta for transparency please tell me.