Any experienced wire frame makers out there?

posted on December 11th, 2009, 5:55 am

I seem to be having trouble closing the deal.  I am using Photoshop CS4 to make my wireframe.  I get to where I have all my pieces in line and the background is transparent.  From what I understand, from here I'm supposed to add an alpha channel which gives the image a black background and transparency, am I right?  I'm not sure how to do this or if I'm right but any help in the right direction is appreciated.

posted on December 11th, 2009, 6:04 am

Nope. Just leave the background transparent and don't worry about the alpha channel. Alpha channel is only used for ship glows.

posted on December 11th, 2009, 2:08 pm

Alphachannel is a layer that is by default 100% transparent. Usually textures with lightmaps would have a built in alpha. But if your layers tend to be black when unfilled than that is a problem.

I suggest Adobe Photoshop Elements 5.0. So far that I know of I never had alpha problems. I guess when I save it as 24-bit or 32-bit construction it automatically secures the alpha channel. But If I save in 16-bit then there is no alpha at all.

posted on December 11th, 2009, 6:46 pm

Ah, much obliged for the help.  I'll see if I can find Elements around here somewhere, if not my buddy will have it for sure.  It seems CS4 doesn't offer support for 24-bit transparent layer targas.