TGA auto generate alpha in Pshop

jocose

I recently switched from using PNGs to TGA files. I'm pretty frustrated by the alpha channel workflow. It seams like its much more tedious than working with in a PNG.

With PNGs I just made my layers transparent as I worked and then when I saved the file the alpha channel was automatically created.

Is there any way to do something similar with TGA files? Auto create the alpha from a transparent photoshop file?

Bal

Well, you could probably make a photoshop action, out of the top of my head, maybe merge all visible channels, ctrl click it to get selection, fill that out in the alpha channel, then to be safe dilate your merged layer a couple pixels.

moose

yeah, if you turn off your background/matte layer, then have an action merge visible to new layer, get selection, and fill alpha that'd work great. The only caveat would be to make sure you turn on the matte layer for the tga before saving, so you don't get fuzzies at the borders.

Noors

I think it's better to duplicate the transparent layer instead of using a random background, or use as background color an average of your transparent layer colors.
(off subject, there is the limit with .png, as they are saved like if there is a white background under, which doesn't make it look like in photoshop. My workaround is to use a layer with colors i want as background, set to 1% opacity. It's still not as good as real alpha, but it's better )

When you have a sharp silhouette, you could use a blur on the duplicated layer under to make some padding.
edit : xnormal dilatation filter is way better, thanks to Bal


I tend to use a group with a mask on it, instead of directly erase parts of a layer, which makes things easier when i have to switch from png to tga.


Also i think .dds photoshop exporter directly convert layer transparency to alpha, so if you chose a non destructive format, then re-open and save as tga, it could do the trick