Alpha Channel confusion

[hollow vale]

Hi! I am VERY, very new to Photoshop.. I currently am trying to edit the speedometer on the game, which is built around an Alpha Channel., because it's rendered as a .TGA so I need Alpha Channel for it to look proper.

I am able to do with it as I please, the issue I have is the render is a little on the dull side, which is from how I am editing it.

FIRST picture is the edit I wish to do, editing my model directly from the Alpha Channel, with the extra bright highlighted girl.

SECOND picture is my completed test model

THIRD picture is my Alpha Channel, my edits don't display there, it just shows the default Alpha Channel, even though my edits are saved and functional.

If we compare mine, to how it is supposed to look, I am having trouble directly editing the Alpha Channel, which in turn would cause my model to be much brighter, but instead leaves it more dull in game..

I'm sorry if this doesn't make much sense, I am extremely new to photoshop and don't know the correct terminology of the features.

[fathom reef]

Certainly! It seems like you're new to Photoshop and are working on editing the speedometer of a game, which relies on an alpha channel for proper rendering. While you can manipulate the visible aspects of your image, you're encountering difficulties in editing the alpha channel directly. This challenge is resulting in a dull appearance of your model in the game, despite your efforts to make it brighter. To address this, you'll need to navigate to the alpha channel in Photoshop's Channels panel and apply adjustments to enhance the brightness of the desired areas. Once you've made the necessary edits, ensure to save your changes and preview how they impact the appearance of your model in the game. With experimentation and familiarity with Photoshop's tools, you'll be able to achieve the desired brightness for your speedometer in the game.

Understanding the Alpha Channel: The alpha channel controls transparency in your image. While you're able to make edits to the visible parts of your image, it seems like these edits aren't reflected in the alpha channel, which affects how your model appears in the game.

Editing the Alpha Channel: To ensure that your edits are reflected in the alpha channel, you'll need to directly manipulate it. In Photoshop, you can access the alpha channel by navigating to the Channels panel. Make sure you're selecting and editing the correct alpha channel associated with your speedometer image.

**Adjusting Brightness: **Once you've located the alpha channel, you can use various adjustment tools in Photoshop to increase the brightness of the desired areas. This might involve using tools like Levels, Curves, or Brightness/Contrast adjustments to enhance the brightness and contrast of specific regions in the alpha channel.

Previewing Changes: As you make adjustments to the alpha channel, it's essential to preview how these changes affect the appearance of your model in the game. You may need to iterate on your edits until you achieve the desired brightness and appearance.

Saving Changes: Once you're satisfied with the edits to your alpha channel, be sure to save your changes. Ensure that your modifications are properly saved and applied to the alpha channel associated with your speedometer image.

By following these steps and experimenting with the adjustment tools in Photoshop, you should be able to effectively modify the alpha channel to achieve the desired brightness for your speedometer in the game. If you have any further questions or need clarification on specific steps, feel free to ask!

[hollow vale]

Adjusting the brightness did make it a little brighter, it's not exactly what i'm looking for. I want to modify the Alpha Channel directly.

[hazy bison]

can you describe what your goal here is? if you can select alpha channel in channels panel , you can apply adjustments directly. is there a problem with the image looking different in-game?

[rich granite]

Hi, basically, the alpha channel controls the transparency, like a layer mask would. White is opaque, black fully transparent.
Why I do not get is the relationship between the image one and two. You’d be making the background outside the circle visible.
And you said that after editing the channel in 1, it saved as the partial disk in 3?

[hollow vale]

Yes. Here is a small video I just recorded ( https://youtu.be/q6GGAe6KVx8 ) trying to explain and show the difference, and what my ultimate goal is, as I feel a video will help me explain easier than typing. I don't understand how to directly make adjustments to the Alpha Channel. I know how to adjust the brightness and the other levels of the Alpha Channel, but I want to add an image and other things directly to the Alpha Channel.

In game, my image (image 2) is dark and dull, while the other creators image (image 1) is bright and in full detail. If I make any changes to the Alpha Channel, it just applies as an extra layer, and not the Alpha Channel.

[hollow vale]

Yes.. So here is a video ( https://youtu.be/q6GGAe6KVx8 ) I made with the two images, if it makes it easier to understand, as it was much easier for me to explain.

In image 1, that creator was able to directly adjust / edit Alpha Channel, with the result of a brighter, more contrasted image exactly to their liking. When I try to edit my Alpha Channel, it essentially adds my changes as a new layer, and does not particularly save on the Alpha Channel directly, causing my image to be more dull, and leaves the Alpha Channel as default which I show in Image 3.

My ultimate goal is to directly modify the Alpha Channel, as this will allow me to have a wider work area in game, and it will let my image be as bright as I need / would like it to be. My adjustments are shown in image 2, but the Alpha Channel shown in image 3 stays exactly the same, no matter what changes I make.

[hazy bison]

All right, so the problem you're facing is being unable to directly modify the alpha channel the way you would want to. And you're right - previewing any channel by clicking on it in the channels tab enables you only to do direct pixel-level adjustment on it like brushing, filling etc but not on layer level. I believe the workflow I'll suggest will make your work quite easier. It involves not using the channels panel. If you're familiar with general workflows in Photoshop like layer masks and basics of compositing, you can stick to using only layers and applying alpha per-layer by using layer masks. Small tip here - using anything but solid black background will make your work much easier and using a photo or screenshot from your game can really help you actually see the transparency (alpha channel) doing it's work. When exporting to tga, remember to save a copy of your editable file!

[hollow vale]

I've never really used photoshop in the past, truthfully. So all of this is extremely new to me. However, I am more than willing to learn, especially with such a powerful tool as Photoshop.

Would you have any video tutorials for the workflow you've suggested? It sounds like that could work well for me, but I have not a clue where to begin with that, or where in PS any of those options / tools are located for me to use. 🙂

[hazy bison]

#1042633933948465214 message
and
#1045711257178738760 message
or basically any layer masks tutorial.
Photoshop might seem to have a steep learning curve but it flattens really fast as you keep working with it

[hollow vale]

I figured it out by messing with EVERYTHING and ANYTHING haha! Thanks for your help! It was much easier than I was making it seem.

1st. I made my image the way I wanted it to look.
2nd. I disabled the background
3rd. I merged only visible layers
4th. I chose Rectangular Marquee Tool and selected my new merged layer
5th. Image > Adjustments > Levels, made the layer brighter
6th. I copied the new merged layer, and pasted it over the Alpha Channel.

[latent crag]

Gave +1 Creative Carma to @hazy bison (current: #7 - 875)

[hazy bison]

well done! thanks for sharing and have fun creating! 😄