A transparency trick...

[Crusard]

Hi everyone. I want to make an animation, where a tiled texture moves behind a mask to make some sort of smoke warp effect (ok, it's hard to describe). Here's an image showing what I mean:

http://cablemodem.fibertel.com.ar/rebellion/MiscSmoke.jpg

I can use a black layer and then erase the middle parts a bit to make it, but what can I do if, instead of a black background, I want it to be transparent?
Sort of like this:

http://cablemodem.fibertel.com.ar/rebellion/MiscSmoke2.jpg

Remember the smoke is a tiled pattern that moves in a diorection.

 

[apepp]

Hi Crusard!

Can you specify which software will be doing the animation? Will it be Flash, Imageready, After Effects, 3D program ie Cinema 4D?

Kind regards
Andrew

 

[jimoblak]

...and what is the resulting media for this animation? This is an impossible feat to do as an animated GIF on a web page.

 

[Crusard]

I'm going to be working with TGAs. It's for animations for a game mod.

 

[jimoblak]

TGA supports alpha channel transparency. Whether your game engine supports this is another matter. Most do.

In Photoshop, you can select the black and use that as a mask as a new channel.

 

[Crusard]

You mean use that layer as a mask? I'll experiment a little to see if I can figure it out. If I can't Ill post here. Thanks.

 

[Crusard]

Ok I can't seem to get channels to work. Can anyone advise how to make an Alpha channel, to work as an alpha mask for my image?

 

[Crusard]

*Cough* Help, anyone?

 

[jimoblak]

Select the black areas and save the selection. See the Select menu. It automatically creates an alpha channel. This will save in the TGA format.

 

[Crusard]

Ugh, sorry for the late follow-up, but once I got my Alpha channel, I can't get it to make any change to the transparency of my image...