Hi everyone, I’ve been trying to release myself from photo$hop. Gimp forum are harder to find. Can anyone point me into one? Anyway here’re my questions relating to GIMP :
How to create alpha channel?
Can I copy layers into alpha channel?
Can I copy masks into alpha channel?
Anyone has tips on this one?
thanks in advance
Hello
I’m from the PAA ( Photoshop Anonymous Addicts) 
It’s easy to get out of that “disease”
The Gimp have a nice manual here:
http://docs.gimp.org/en/ch08s03.html
Bye
Already downloaded the help package at gimp.org. havent read it thoroughly tho, but so far I havent find any clue on doing those in GIMP. GIMP’s help are more to user manual rather than like other softwares’ (blender’s documentation project for example).
See in photoshop I use alpha channel alot, one of those technique i use is to copy a layer, tone the brightness/contrast to full black/white, then I just copy it to alpha channel. But I can’t find a way to do this in GIMP. Any idea?
How about the gimp forum? searched google, but no luck.
Hello
The gimp it’s a Photoshop clone, almost all the basic operations can be
made with…but sometimes with a quite different aproach
I don’t know why you use this technique
But you can save in a alpha chanel of course
But you must have a selection before
So copy your layer, make it balck and white than select ( the black and white?) and
in the menu Selection -> Save in a Channel ( not sure of name my Gimp is french )
Here’s a nice forum:
http://gug.sunsite.dk/
Bye
Well, the reason I use copied layers as alpha channel I can gain the layer’s antialiasing level and also the black/white gradient levels. Thus when used in 3D softwares the transparency can be soft, just like the image in the layer. Using selection I need to re-adjust the feather, aliasing and stuffs, and often don’t appear quite soft as the original layers.
Thanks for reply and the super cool link! 
Not english forum, but lots speaks english there anyway. I also found alot forum but none in english. Is GIMP so unpopuler in US or british or anywhere near that?
It’s not that the GIMP is unpopular, it’s that Photoshop is.
Ask and ye shall recieve:
http://www.gimptalk.com/index.php
English Gimp Help-Forum.
Hold on Tight,
Ongnissim
I haven’t access to Gimp here at school, but if I remember right:
Select the grayscale image and copy to clipboard. Click on the image to modify (so that it is active). Open the layer’s dialogue. Right click and create an alpha mask layer (make sure you’re modifying the image to add the alpha mask to). Paste from clipboard. Right click on the new (alpha) layer and select the option to apply (I don’t remember how it’s worded, sorry) – when you’re done you should not have a separate alpha layer.
I like the pre-Gimp 2.0, so if you’ve got 2.x things might be moved/named slightly differently, but they should still all be there.
Hope this helps.
It’s not that the GIMP is unpopular, it’s that Photoshop is.
Ask and ye shall recieve:
http://www.gimptalk.com/index.php
English Gimp Help-Forum.
Hold on Tight,
Ongnissim[/quote]
hohoho neat… you’re my messiah
thanks
I’m using 2.28 now. I think I’ve tried that before, copied the layer (to the clipboard) but when I clicked new channels then use paste, it pasted into layers, instead of the new channel. Not sure about right clicking stuff. I’ll go and check it out again. Thanks.
theres a gui-remix called gimpshop (fanpage here:) http://www.gimpshop.net/ - it has pshop-style menus if gimps naming confuses you.
here - even for ubuntu
http://rapidshare.de/files/6367769/gimp-2.2.8_2.2.8-1_i386.deb.html
I prefer to use the default gimp. One of the reason is to release myself from photoshop. If I use gimpshop, what’s the point anyway?
I’ve found the way to copy the alpha, I copied layers into grayscale mask, then it is automatically created an alpha channel. It’s that simple eh? %| lol. Thanks everyone.
I’ve captured a way to achieve the mentioned tasks on the alpha channel in this small video - http://jimmac.musichall.cz/demos/gimp/alpha-channel-operations.avi
cheers