ALpha HUH??!?
 

Ok guys... I need some help. :P

I'm using PSP 7.0 (trial version). I recently figured out how to get a TGA file working correctly by setting up an alpha channel as transparent (or whatever the heck I did!)

But... I want to really understand this stuff so I can do it in the future without reference to a length "process" on how to do this.

Can you guys tell me:

1) What is an Alpha channel? (What does it MEAN? In laman's terms, please)

2) What is a MASK?


I'm sure there are other questions that will come up.. but I couldn't find very good definitions for either of these in the PSP help files. Can you guys help me out? :P

Heh, I have been using a bunch of different graphics files in my UI and want to condense them into fewer files. I did it recently, and actually got it to look exacly like I wanted in SidlWidl, but when I logged into the game, things were very messed up. =/

think of a mask as the masking tape and paper you would use to keep from painting a certain part of a car. That's the best way to describe it... I personally don't use masks, but instead use my pen tool paths that I saved to make the selection. Masks are mainly useful when you have alot of intricate work that you don't want to paint over.

Alpha 1 is the channel that gets added to the info in the TGA (or other format) that EQ uses to tell what should be showing and what shouldn't. Say, for example, that I want to have just a circle showing in a background image... if I don't set the Alpha 1 channel, it will add in all the stuff around a circle that I dont want. If I select the circle in my image editor and save that selection as "Alpha 1" then EQ will basically only recognize what's inside the selection.