Transparent spots tutorial!

Need help adding transparency to an avatar? Or maybe a blinkie? Your looking at the right tutorial! This is a very quick and easy effect that anyone with PSP8 can perform in seconds.

The first thing you'll want to do is pick out something to add this effect to. It needs to be simple (under 256 colors) and shouldn't have any feather (partially visible pixels). Wanna see what happens when you try this tutorial on an image with feather?:



o.o All of that green was supposed to be white/transparent, but the feather in the text damaged the font. So something like a pixel font, avatar, or sprite would work best. =P I'll be using a pixel font first.

You could do this a number of ways, but the way I'm doing it now works best for this tutorial. First take any size of image and flood fill it by selecting the 'Flood Fill Tool' (image above) with an annoying color that won't appear anywhere else in your image. I chose a bright, bright green.

Example

Type what ever you want into the green by using the 'Text Tool' (picture above). I'll be using a basic pixel font called 04b03. x) You'll have to squint to see my font since it's white.

Example

If there's as much green space on your image as there is on mine, go ahead and crop some of it off by using the 'Crop Tool' (picture above). You can get as close to the font as you want when you crop. I enlarged mine so you can see it better.

Example

^^ Now for the fun part. Go up to File> Export> GIF Optimizer.

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A pop-up should appear. Check the 'Areas that match this color' option. Click on the part of your image (the actual image, not the sample that appears in the pop-up) with the unusual color and it will automatically add that color into the color box by the 'Areas that match this color' option. You should also set the tolerance level to 1. Setting it higher isn't good for more complex images, such as avatars.

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You should have noticed the green (or whatever color you chose) disappear in the second sample that they gave you in the pop-up. ^^ This is very good. Click the 'OK' button and save your image. Now, when you upload it to your image host, the green will automatically disappear and it will be transparent, like so:



Now, if you're doing an avatar, find an image. Crop it to the right size then create the outline or border design for the avatar on a seperate layer from your avatar image. This should give you enough room for error. You can create a new layer by going to to Layers> New Raster Layer.

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Click 'Ok' when the pop-up appears and start making your border. ^^ I decided to use my Momo avatar as an example:

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You should be able to paint in the area you outlined for transparency with an annoying color that doesn't appear ANYWHERE else in your avatar. A pixel paint brush is the best to use (size: 1; hardness: 100) Again, I chose a bright green:

Example

Go back up to File> Export> GIF Optimizer and perform the exact same steps I outlined for you above. Remember, if you loose quality in your avatar after you're done exporting, it's because you used too many colors in it. 256 is the limit. You're final result should look somewhat like this:



If you have any questions regarding this tutorial or are unsure about something, feel free to contact me at dark_riku_765 on neopets.com