I've tried following the directions given in the Modmaker's Guide, so now I've got a .psd file with a bunch of layers -- although I gather only one or two of them actually matter.
One of those layers is a grey (180) silhouette of the ship, with a white inner outline, on a white background; one of them is a grey (64) silhouette, with white inner and outer lines, on a black background; and that second layer has been used to create an alpha channel.
Now comes the part I don't understand:
Quote:
Combine into one 32-bit image and save as a .png.
|
Okay, "combine"
what? Obivously I am
NOT supposed to just flatten the whole image, since the silhouettes used in the game are semi-transparent and have no backgrounds -- but they also don't have any alpha channels embedded in them, so it seems there are some extra steps going on besides merely "combining" everything.
I've tried Save As > .png… but when I do that, Photoshop (CS2, for reference) won't allow the alpha channel box to be checked -- and all I get is a flattened,
opaque version of whatever layers were visible before I saved. It is not in any way making use of that alpha channel I created.
What step am I missing here?
And while I'm asking questions, why does the instruction say "32-bit image"? All of the .png files in the game are
8-bit images -- or at least, that's what Photoshop says they are.