Tga to PNbloodyG

SHEPEIRO · Sep 2006

i need some pointers.

firstly i need to convert a whole load of tgas to PNGs (100 +)

secondly i need to convert tgas with alpha channels into PNGs with correct seethroughnesss buisness, its been driving me crazy, but i bet there is an easy way.

show me please.

Xenobond · Sep 2006

You can make an action pretty easy to do that for you. I've had to do a similar process when converting 4bit alpha intensity maps to easier to edit greyscale maps.

Use this as your action when doing the batch process in photoshop.

http://kman.cottages.polycount.com/temp/Transparency.atn

SHEPEIRO · Sep 2006

i was hoping for a batch coverter or sommit that would do a whole folder, as i have so many to do, and cant face doing them one by one, even with an action. =X

hang on was that for getting the transparency right aswell as converting.

if so thank you.

dnorth · Sep 2006

I haven't looked at the PS action in the above post, but you can run an action on a whole folder of files by using File-->Automate-->Batch

Xenobond · Sep 2006

Doh! Looks like I forgot to keep the 'delete aplha channel' & 'save as png' in the action script.
You can add those to the action if you want, then when you run the batch process in PS, it'll save them all out as png's where you want them.

SHEPEIRO · Sep 2006

Xenobond- thanxs its great, i added that, though the transparency thing was for just a few files... ( i had made my own action, but it didnt seam to work on all my files ??? so i gave up on the bugger)

dnorth- cheers bud, thats what i needed to know, you just saved me about an hours button clicking :-)

CheapAlert · Sep 2006

Irfanview can't deal with alpha channels.

arshlevon · Sep 2006

there is an easy way, only problem is that it costs 3,400

http://www.webtech.co.jp/eng/istudio/index.html

example of it in action
http://www.webtech.co.jp/eng/istudio/ps2/f_ps2.html

Robert Headley · Sep 2006

Xnview converts everything, maybe you should try that?

Skizot · Sep 2006

paintsho pro 7 can handle batch converts like that.

JonMurphy · Sep 2006

Back when I was doing PS2 stuff that needed to be converted from TGA to PNG, I used a bat file calling ImageMagick to do the initial conversion, then PNGQuant to reduce the bit depth.

PNGQuant is great as it handles palettized alpha

http://studio.imagemagick.org/script/index.php
http://www.libpng.org/pub/png/apps/pngquant.html

If it was good enough for Burnout, it was good enough for me.

Husch · Sep 2006

If you want to work with PNGs like TGAs with alpha channels in a newer Photoshop version than 5.5, you can replace the PNG.8bi file format with an old version and then you will see the layer transparency as an alpha channel and can save the PNG with an alpha channel. Here you can download the old PNG.8bi file format file:

http://holodeck.st.usm.edu/vrcomputing/vrc_t/tutorials/effects/p3_clouds.shtml

rooster · Sep 2006

by the way, what are the practical differences between tga and png?

Eric Chadwick · Sep 2006

Lots
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Truevision_TGA
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PNG

PNG basically has more features, but TGA is an older more established format.

SHEPEIRO · Sep 2006

thanks guys, ive figured it all out, just used your action (amended for saving) with the batch automation system in PS worked a treat.

rooster · Sep 2006

thanks, I've looked at the wikipedia pages, but a lot of the jargon went over my head.. what I was wondering is, can you have a png with an alpha that isn't tied to transparency? say if you wanted to use it for spec or something. when I try and save a png with an alpha channel, it dissapears

Husch · Sep 2006

rooster, which version of Photoshop are you using?
with the PNG.8bi file format from Photoshop 5.5 you won´t have any problems saving an alpha channel. Adobe changed the PNG file format in Photoshop 6. If you still want to edit, save and load PNGs with alpha layers in a newer version of Photoshop, you have to replace the new file format with the old one.

rooster · Oct 2006

cheers husch, im on ps7- how would you go about replacing the new with the old format?

Rick Stirling · Oct 2006

Is it not back to the old version in CS?

Husch · Oct 2006

@ Rck_Stirling: no, TGA is back to the old file format with alpha channel, PNG still saves with layer transparency.

@ rooster: if you don´t have an old Photoshop format download the PNG.8bi file from a internetsite (the link I posted above should work), and then put the PNG.8bi into your Photoshop folder, Plugins, Adobe Photoshop Only, File Format. Make a backup of the original PNG.8bi version first.

Now, when you start Photoshop next time, and save a file with an alpha channel you will see that you can activate the alpha channel button. When you save the file as PNG and open it again in Photoshop, your alpha channel is still there.

rooster · Oct 2006

awesome, cheers man I'll check it out

Snowfly · Oct 2006

Try this also. It generates optimized PNG's (headers stripped out) as well as working in batches.

http://brh.numbera.com/software/pnggauntlet/

adam · Oct 2006

Create an action. Use Adobe Bridge (comes with CS and CS2) and run the Action on the entire folder, it should work no problemo.

Tga to PNbloodyG

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