Creating transparent textures
by XenNetwork (view all articles)

unrated
a pretty simple tutorial on making transparent textures
by XenNetwork (view all articles)

unrated

This tutorial was made for ease. So i will try to make it as clear as possible with out any unecessery steps.
What you should know:
How to make basic textures
basic knowledge of photoshop
Im using Photoshop CS, im sure most photoshops lower then this will still work. On to the tutorial!
Step1: Open photoshop, create a new file(im using 512x512), if theres anything in the layer erase it, if you cant erase it, make a new layer and delete the one with stuff in it.
Step2:create a simple shape
The following steps are the hard parts
Step3: Now Ctrl+Click on the layer that has the simpile shape, it should make a dashed outline around the shape.
Step4:On the bottom right of photoshop there is a box, that has 3 tabs, click on the middle one title "Channels"
Step5:Add a new channel
your screen should look like this now
Step6:Color in the shape white. Note: anything white in the alpha layer will show up, anything black will be transparent. anything grey will be see through.
now make sure all the channels are visible
save & compile your texture like you normaly do, i named it simpleShapeTexture
except make your .vmt file like this
"LightmappedGeneric"
{
"$Translucent" 1
"$baseTexture" "custom/simpleShapeTexture"
}
put it in your map and check it out!!

What you should know:
How to make basic textures
basic knowledge of photoshop
Im using Photoshop CS, im sure most photoshops lower then this will still work. On to the tutorial!
Step1: Open photoshop, create a new file(im using 512x512), if theres anything in the layer erase it, if you cant erase it, make a new layer and delete the one with stuff in it.

Step2:create a simple shape

The following steps are the hard parts
Step3: Now Ctrl+Click on the layer that has the simpile shape, it should make a dashed outline around the shape.

Step4:On the bottom right of photoshop there is a box, that has 3 tabs, click on the middle one title "Channels"

Step5:Add a new channel

your screen should look like this now

Step6:Color in the shape white. Note: anything white in the alpha layer will show up, anything black will be transparent. anything grey will be see through.

now make sure all the channels are visible

save & compile your texture like you normaly do, i named it simpleShapeTexture
except make your .vmt file like this
? quote:
"LightmappedGeneric"
{
"$Translucent" 1
"$baseTexture" "custom/simpleShapeTexture"
}
put it in your map and check it out!!
