Lesson 10: Alpha Layer Transparency in GIMP
Materials Needed
- The GIMP
- 10 L$
What is The GIMP?
The GIMP is an image-manipulation program similar to Adobe's Photoshop, but it is free, open source, and much easier to use when creating alpha textures.
Can I learn in world?
Yes. I highly recommend the tutorial located here (you will need to click on "Classes/Seminar" to teleport). I did not make this tutorial, but found it and thought that I would link to it to augment my tutorial.
How To
1. [Image] Click on "File" and select "New".
2. [Image] You can choose whatever size/template you want for your image, but the most important thing is to expand (by clicking on the plus sign) the "Advanced Options".
3. [Image] Make sure that the background is set to "Transparency". This might require you to click on the drop-down arrow in order to choose this setting. Your new image will have a checkerboard background. This is good, the checkerboard indicates everything that will have a transparent portion.
4. [Image] Create your image that requires a transparent portion. As you can see, I chose to make an ornate window. You can get a copy of my GIMP-created window here. The base image that I used came from Flickr Creative Commons. Thanks Frazerweb.
5. [Image] Now is the hard part: saving properly. Go to File > Save As. In that window, you are going to type in the name of your file. I'll call mine "Window.tga". The most important thing to remember is to type in the ".tga" part. Also, make sure that you accept whatever pre-sets it asks of you with regard to saving.
6. Open Second Life and click [Ctrl] + [U]. This is where your 10 L$ is going to come in.
7. [Image] Navigate to where you saved your image and upload it. Notice in the preview that all of the transparent parts are still transparent (as indicated by the checkerboard pattern).
Ta da! That's it. Not too hard was it? If this was helpful to you, please remember that tips are happily accepted. Just tip the japanese-style donation box (called a saisenbako).
Also, if you've gone to all the trouble to download my window gimp file, why not just save yourself the time it would take to size the window correctly and just head over to the EduCube Headquarters where you can buy an already uploaded/scaled correctly window object for the same price you would pay to upload your own texture.
- The GIMP
- 10 L$
What is The GIMP?
The GIMP is an image-manipulation program similar to Adobe's Photoshop, but it is free, open source, and much easier to use when creating alpha textures.
Can I learn in world?
Yes. I highly recommend the tutorial located here (you will need to click on "Classes/Seminar" to teleport). I did not make this tutorial, but found it and thought that I would link to it to augment my tutorial.
How To
1. [Image] Click on "File" and select "New".
2. [Image] You can choose whatever size/template you want for your image, but the most important thing is to expand (by clicking on the plus sign) the "Advanced Options".
3. [Image] Make sure that the background is set to "Transparency". This might require you to click on the drop-down arrow in order to choose this setting. Your new image will have a checkerboard background. This is good, the checkerboard indicates everything that will have a transparent portion.
4. [Image] Create your image that requires a transparent portion. As you can see, I chose to make an ornate window. You can get a copy of my GIMP-created window here. The base image that I used came from Flickr Creative Commons. Thanks Frazerweb.
5. [Image] Now is the hard part: saving properly. Go to File > Save As. In that window, you are going to type in the name of your file. I'll call mine "Window.tga". The most important thing to remember is to type in the ".tga" part. Also, make sure that you accept whatever pre-sets it asks of you with regard to saving.
6. Open Second Life and click [Ctrl] + [U]. This is where your 10 L$ is going to come in.
7. [Image] Navigate to where you saved your image and upload it. Notice in the preview that all of the transparent parts are still transparent (as indicated by the checkerboard pattern).
Ta da! That's it. Not too hard was it? If this was helpful to you, please remember that tips are happily accepted. Just tip the japanese-style donation box (called a saisenbako).
Also, if you've gone to all the trouble to download my window gimp file, why not just save yourself the time it would take to size the window correctly and just head over to the EduCube Headquarters where you can buy an already uploaded/scaled correctly window object for the same price you would pay to upload your own texture.Labels: tutorial
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