Transparant Spray Tut (Pics only..)

[Fujio]

I made this because I couldnt get it done reading the tutorial which Abe made. Nice tutorial though man, but maybe Im just not bright enough or something. Anyway, I made a whole bunch of screenshots while creating a simple spray. Its just to show you how to make the background transparant, which you can then apply to other things.

If you dont have the converter (.tga ->hl2 logo files) get it here
http://www.pixartist.de/hl2/vtex.rar

The attachments are the tutorials.
If you're stuck somewhere, or something is wrong, post it in the thread.

You may also share your opinion (critisize, or something like that ), just dont turn it into a flamewar.

 

[Fujio]

Another 5 pics

 

[Fujio]

Yet Another 5 pics.

 

[Fujio]

Last 2 pics

 

[BigWalnutZ]

In Pic. 12 I don't see how you guys are getting this black image. Mine was a transparent red, and it kept the gray background when I sprayed ingame. Do you have to stay on the alpha channel when saving, does hat make a difference? When I deleted the gray background it worked just fine in game. No screenshot, but mine is my avatar without the red/black gradient in the background.

 

[Fujio]

Well, You should read Picture11 more carefully, The big text.

There are 4 buttons there, the 2nd one from the right side is the "Create New Channel" Button. If you press that one, a black image will appear on the list with the name "Alpha 1" Once it appears, you are selecting it. (In your words, you are on it.)Assuming you have copied the other image, you press Ctrl+V and Picture12 Should be the result.

Edit:

When I deleted the gray background it worked just fine in game. No screenshot, but mine is my avatar without the red/black gradient in the background.

When you spray it ingame, do you only see the walnuts and the word "Big" ? Or do you also see a colored square behind it ?

 

[BigWalnutZ]

prior to deleteing the gray background, i had both the gray background and the "big walnutz" after deleteing the gray background it sprayed transparent as it should.

As for the alpha, I understand did all that but my alpha is a translucent red not black, is there a color i must change or is it because I am using v7.0? kinda looked like urs was v6...

 

[SubKamran]

Fujio, download CamTasia Studio trial, and make a video tutorial.

 

[Fujio]

Well.. if you have space to upload it I might do it

Im using Adobe Photoshop CS, the trial version.

added another pic, just to show you whats the alpha channel en what you have to paste on it, hope you get it.. gotta eat now.. back in 30/40min

 

[Fujio]

I think Im gunno do it tomorrow if Im gunna do it .. I used Camtasia before, but it looks FAR better now, especially how you can edit etc.. Gunno play some Showw2 now

 

[BigWalnutZ]

if ur not using photoshop cs (v8.0) and you are using v7.0 u don't need alpha channels

see post:
http://www.halflife2.net/forums/showthread.php?t=33684

 

[pixartist]

rofl my tutorial is MUUUUUCH easier and works perfect ^^

 

[Fujio]

Yes, your tutorial is indeed easy, for the advanced users around.

But to be honest, I dont really care. Im havnt made it to pimp with, I've made it to make it more easy for the not so advanced Photoshop users to make a transparant spray.

 

[OCybrManO]

What's so "advanced" about his method? There are only a few steps and they are very simple. Your process is much more complex and confusing than it needs to be to get the job done (for your target audience of "the not so advanced Photoshop users").

Which would you recommend to someone that doesn't know Photoshop... four steps that involve nothing harder than selecting the areas you want to delete or seventeen steps that involve basically those same steps plus extra steps that deal with layers, color overlays, alpha channels, etc?

 

[kevinb456]

sorry, have to disagree, me being a COMPLETE photoshop beginner, i found fujio's method far easier as it explains step by step, yes i could also follow the other tutuorial but it doesnt make it as easy. for exmple it says 'make a black background' but it doesnt say that you have to first make a new layer, then fill that layer black, then convert it to a background. just small things like that, may seem extremely basic, but make all the difference. i was, however able to understand it, just cos i pick stuff up quickly lol

EDIT: thanks ALOT for that tutorial! i can now do alpha channels correctly! i failed to do it following the other tutorial, mainly because it said you should put a black background on the image before you copy it into the alpha channel, but this didnt work - ut there is no need anyway as the alpha channel is created black int eh first place.

 

[John Romero]

I made this because I couldnt get it done reading the tutorial which Abe made. Nice tutorial though man, but maybe Im just not bright enough or something. Anyway, I made a whole bunch of screenshots while creating a simple spray. Its just to show you how to make the background transparant, which you can then apply to other things.

If you dont have the converter (.tga ->hl2 logo files) get it here
http://www.pixartist.de/hl2/vtex.rar

The attachments are the tutorials.
If you're stuck somewhere, or something is wrong, post it in the thread.

You may also share your opinion (critisize, or something like that ), just dont turn it into a flamewar.

so you made a tutorial because you couldnt understand another tutorial on the same thing? sounds to me someone just wants some attention. if your couldnt understand the other tutorial then how did you find out how to make the sprays in the first place?

i read through your tutorial and i see it is overly complicated just like the one from raiden.se which leads me to believe you just copied it. and put your name on it. im gonna write a new one which eliminates all the unneeded steps and i will give credit to the original tutorial.

 

[Fujio]

@OCybrManO

I find Abe's tutorial, very good and very clear, except for the part which goes about the transparant background.

I've just tried Pixartist's tutorial, but for text with a
transparant background only its even MORE complicated to do.

Omfg, its all about those extra steps ... those extra steps are there to elaborate on the subject.. which in this case is Transparant Backgrounds.

@ John
What the hell is up with you people ? It took me 4 hours to find out how it was done thats why I made this little tutorial for people so they dont have to spend hours on finding out like me.

Maybe for you, as an advanced user, its complicated. Maybe it is complicated and long. But either way, in my opinion its easier to get with pictures compared to the other tutorials I've read.(Abe's tut and Pixartist's tut) (Im talking about creating a text spray, with a transparant background, in particular the transparant background part.)

 

[Fujio]

If you want to create a text only spray with a transparant background, make the background the same color as the color of the text because it looks far better!.

I think, if you use an other color for each word, you can paint the background the same color and It'll look good too. I havn't tested this yet though. Im gonna do that later this evenin or tomorrow. Of course you can test this yourself too ;P

 

[Estevan]

ill make a video tutorial using camtasia studio. Using your method Fujio

 

[OCybrManO]

Here are some videos I just whipped up in a few minutes using the method I posted in another thread last week (and pictures of the corresponding results in-game):

making a spray from an existing 256x256 image

NOTE: The contracting of the selection area was to keep the black outline from being deleted; the feathering was to make the black outline fuzzy. You could also just use the eraser to remove the areas you want to be transparent instead of using the magic wand, but it can be a lot more time consuming.

drawing a spray from scratch

NOTE: Changing the background color served no purpose (because, in the end, I just deleted it) other than to demonstrate that the layer I was drawing on was transparent.

turning a TGA into a spray

putting the files in the correct folder

EDIT: I don't know how much bandwidth this host allows, so it might not last long. Oh, and I use Photoshop 7.

 

[Fujio]

Tried making a camtasia vid tut too, but it fuxed up my pc somehow so I removed it :\

OCybrManO, last time I used that method it didnt work oO and Im using photoshop 7.0.1 oO

But I'll give it a try, again.

 

[Fujio]

Doesnt work for me.

I create a new image.

256x256
RGB
Background

Type text, delete the background, save it as *.tga, convert it and put it into the correct steam folder.

What am I doing wrong ?

 

[OCybrManO]

I've tried text. It works fine for me. Are you saving it as a 32-bit or 24-bit targa? 32-bit includes the alpha channel (transparency) while 24-bit drops it completely.

 

[Fujio]

Yep, Im saving it 32bit

I recorded what I've done, its 1mb

Download here:

http://fujio0.**********/Photoshop/Naamloos2.WMV

Tell me what Im doing wrong