kirbol

Alpha channels in photoshop are actually usable for a lot of things, probably the most common combined layer transparency.

Basiclly, alpha channels are a masking technique. Imagine an alpha channel as a cutout you are using to airbrush/spray paint through. If you wanted a partial cutout you could use mesh or a patterned cutout etc etc.

One technique that is really nice about alpha channels is the ability to make tranparent from one layer to another. say you have 10 layers in an image and you wanted to cut through a shape from the top layer to the 6th layer down in one section, you could do that with an alpha channel rather than trying to clear the space on every layer from the top down. I'm no pro so I wont go and try to teach the technique, but I think those of you who understand what Im saying can figure it out.

The immediate application would be for 3d visual class animations... cut through the shadow knights helm to a blood red layer and shade it right and you can make it look pretty damn cool without going to some crazy headaches of clearing space.

Kirbol