Comments on: Add Alpha Protection to Sculpt Maps

By: Nyx

Nyx — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 03:23:14 +0000

This is what I usually do, but I tryed with TGA and the result that I love is that the watermark i’s invisble, but when we do “invert color” it appear really clear. I’ve been searching a tutorial for do something like this, because art thiefts are more and more there, and it’s sad to put a huge ugly thing that detroy the visibility of the drawing under. I don’t know if you know any toturial for that kind of things for PNG, jpeg or bmp? D8.

Thankies.

By: Murgy

Murgy — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 16:16:45 +0000

This blog is specifically for sculpt maps for Second Life. UV maps are specific to 3D modeling.

I would recommend looking for a diffenent tutorial, but here’s a basic rundown. To add a watermark to a picture, just put the text or icon for your watermark on a new layer and lower the opacity. You might try setting the layer blend type to either multiply or screen, depending on how your watermark is set up.

By: Nyx

Nyx — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 04:26:57 +0000

Omg, I’m able to do it with TGA, but need in PNG, but I didn’t understand… I tryx it to get a watermark on a digital drawing. tga, perfect, put png, still not able to. how did I can do? And where do I find UV maps x_X…. Use Photoshop CS5, in french, so again + lvl of dificulty to apply :S

heeelp meeee, please D:

By: Murgy

Murgy — Sun, 11 Dec 2011 17:46:41 +0000

http://www.adobe.com/support/downloads/detail.jsp?ftpID=1544

Try this.

By: TranquilMoonDancer

TranquilMoonDancer — Sun, 11 Dec 2011 03:29:18 +0000

I am pretty good with photoshop and I honestly cannot get any of these to work. Maybe I need more detailed explanation or images for tutorial maybe not showing something important? I am using ps7. I have been trying for ages to make my maps show a logo instead like you are doing, however to no avail. I tried the TGA and PNG, but I must be doing something wrong. This is also my name in sl. TY

By: Laczy

Laczy — Fri, 08 Jul 2011 08:28:21 +0000

Great tutorials, everything working for me. BIG thanks!

By: Murgy

Murgy — Mon, 28 Mar 2011 19:33:19 +0000

I’ve been having some trouble with alpha channels with Gimp lately, making me think they’ve changed the program a bit since I wrote this tutorial. I’ll try try walking through this in GIMP again and see if I can figure out what’s been changed and how to fix it.

By: Lera

Lera — Fri, 25 Mar 2011 03:32:24 +0000

I have got the non-watermarked version of this tutorial for .tga to work in GIMP without a hitch. And actually I always have “Merge Visible Layers” selected. When I tried it with “Flatten Image” and the alpha it does not work so use the Merge Visible Layers option!

However, I am having issues getting the watermark version of this to work. Again I am using GIMP, but when I do the same steps you have mentioned above upon upload into SL the sculpt is messed up (seems to be only showing the watermarked portions of the alpha that show). I followed your steps exactly as written. I created a black and white version of my logo in 64×64 to use as my watermark. Then in GIMP just as I had done before – added a layer mask to the sculpt map image, copied my watermark to the added layer mask, anchored the watermark onto the layer mask, then finally applied the layer mask to the sculpt map image. It appears as if I did it correctly as compared to your samples and then the other sculpts I own that are protected thusly but when uploaded the sculpt is a frightful mess. I tried several times and even tried to “Flatten Image on the .tga I was saving just to see if that made a difference – that was worse. Anyhow it is not working. Is there another step missing for GIMP when adding the watermark??

By: Murgy

Murgy — Mon, 07 Mar 2011 05:59:13 +0000

This really has nothing to do with the bit rate of the png file. With TGA, 24 or 32 bit determines whether or not there will be an alpha channel at all. Not whether color data will be saved. The difference is in the actual formatting of the image.

PNG files are most often used in web and game design. People who use the format are usually trying to get the lowest possible file-size to conserve space and speed up load time. One way to do this is to erase all of the color information where it isn’t needed, and in most cases, transparent pixels don’t need color information.

In order to store color information in a PNG file, you need to find some way to override this default function. Some programs, like GIMP, have this option in a menu. With other programs like PSP and Photoshop, you have to fool the program into thinking that the color information is needed by making those pixels slightly visible.

By: Dragon Ronin

Dragon Ronin — Mon, 07 Mar 2011 05:35:52 +0000

I have been using Corel Photo paint as it has an option to load a mask that can be any image, but will go on as a grayscale. I tried using PNG but lost the transparent color info and presumed that it was using 24 bit instead of 32 bit that tga uses. On examination the PNG establishes a single color (you can choose which one) and calls that as transparent, If that color is on the image it will appear transparent even if it was not a part of the mask, and also anti-alias bits will show up as a line or halo around the image- not a good thing unless it is close to the color of what it is around.

I have not seen a way to do real 32bit Pngs and did not know it was possible, I will have to look deeper.