Editing the Alpha channel with Gimp
 

If you're new to modding EQ graphics one thing that's going to drive you crazy is the Alpha channel. Have a read of the forums if you don't know what that is, but trust me, you will need to understand and edit it.

Fortunately, the latest version of GIMP has a decompose / compose feature that lets you get straight to the alpha channel of an image.

GIMP is available free of charge under the GPL licence, and can be downloaded from: http://www.gimp.org/windows/

To edit the alpha channel with GIMP:

• Open the image
• Go to the Image menu
• Open the Mode submenu
• Choose 'decompose'
• Select the 2nd option: RGBA
• Press Ok

Your image is now split into it's 4 component parts. Ignore the R, G and B channels, all you need here is the alpha channel.

Note: If at this point you get a messsage saying "No Alpha Channel available", you will need to create one. In the Layer menu, select Transparency and then 'Add Alpha channel'.

Anything black in the alpha channel will be transparent in the main image, and anywhere there's white the graphics will be visible. Shades in between can be used to fine-tune the transparency. Edit the alpha channel using any tool you like, you can even copy/paste from the RGB channels if that's easier.

Once you've edited the alpha channel for your image, you need to re-combine the 4 channels. To do this:

• Open the Image menu
• Open the Mode submenu
• Choose 'compose'
• Select RGBA
• Press Ok

You now have a new image, with the alpha channel properly set, ready to be saved into your UI.

Myx

PS. Meant to post this in the graphics tutorials section, any chance it can be moved?

Davids
 

for gaming on PC high definition graphics and sound system requires.

thanks myxiplx for sharing link here

To decompose in more recent versions you have to do this...

To edit the Alpha channel with GIMP:

• Open the image
• Go to the Colours menu
• Go to the Components menu
• Select Decompose