[ghghgh]

I am making a Space Invaders game and I am about to start on the sprite making process. The background of my screen will be black with white stars all over it, and when I create my ship sprite, I don't want the background of the sprite to be showing(all black around it would definitely stand out). Same with the aliens and missiles. Are there any forum topics about this, or any good tutorials? How do they create transparent sprite backgrounds in the games of today? The software I have available are only MS Paint and Gimp. I had Photoshop but the trial ran out and I am against pirating, so you see my prob here.
Thanks for any help!

[stayscrisp]

Hi,

You could check out my tutorial. It is using photoshop but I am pretty sure there are similar tools in gimp, anyway you should be able to manage using this. Hope that helps.

[reaper4334]

If you mean to making a transparent image...
In GIMP, there's a feature called "Colour to Alpha" (probably "Color" actually) that I think can be easily found in the menu, this allows you to change all of the chosen colour to be transparent.
Then if you save as PNG you should be able to retain this transparency.

If you mean making the image transparent in the game then look at the concept of "colour keying" (if you're using SDL it's explained nicely here http://lazyfoo.net/S...on05/index.php)

[ghghgh]

reaper4334, on 22 August 2010 - 02:40 PM, said:

If you mean to making a transparent image...
In GIMP, there's a feature called "Colour to Alpha" (probably "Color" actually) that I think can be easily found in the menu, this allows you to change all of the chosen colour to be transparent.
Then if you save as PNG you should be able to retain this transparency.

If you mean making the image transparent in the game then look at the concept of "colour keying" (if you're using SDL it's explained nicely here http://lazyfoo.net/S...on05/index.php)

That was actually a broken link...I am programming in Java, anyways. Thanks for the Gimp advice, though!

[Fib]

If your API supports loading png files, then I would do what reaper4334 said. To make a color transparent in GIMP, use this: http://docs.gimp.org...lortoalpha.html

[ghghgh]

Fib, on 23 August 2010 - 02:15 PM, said:

If your API supports loading png files, then I would do what reaper4334 said. To make a color transparent in GIMP, use this: http://docs.gimp.org...lortoalpha.html

That was helpful! Thanks.

[AdoTheLimey]

ghghgh, on 22 August 2010 - 12:33 PM, said:

I am making a Space Invaders game and I am about to start on the sprite making process. The background of my screen will be black with white stars all over it, and when I create my ship sprite, I don't want the background of the sprite to be showing(all black around it would definitely stand out). Same with the aliens and missiles. Are there any forum topics about this, or any good tutorials? How do they create transparent sprite backgrounds in the games of today? The software I have available are only MS Paint and Gimp. I had Photoshop but the trial ran out and I am against pirating, so you see my prob here.
Thanks for any help!

I personally use Paint.NET to draw my sprites - you can get it for free at http://www.getpaint.net/

Super easy to create a transparent background, same vid that taught me - http://www.youtube.c...h?v=cdFpS-AvNCE

Hope this helps

[ghghgh]

AdoTheLimey, on 25 August 2010 - 12:53 PM, said:

ghghgh, on 22 August 2010 - 12:33 PM, said:

I am making a Space Invaders game and I am about to start on the sprite making process. The background of my screen will be black with white stars all over it, and when I create my ship sprite, I don't want the background of the sprite to be showing(all black around it would definitely stand out). Same with the aliens and missiles. Are there any forum topics about this, or any good tutorials? How do they create transparent sprite backgrounds in the games of today? The software I have available are only MS Paint and Gimp. I had Photoshop but the trial ran out and I am against pirating, so you see my prob here.
Thanks for any help!

I personally use Paint.NET to draw my sprites - you can get it for free at http://www.getpaint.net/

Super easy to create a transparent background, same vid that taught me - http://www.youtube.c...h?v=cdFpS-AvNCE

Hope this helps

That was helpful, too. The vid was quick and to the point. The only thing I didn't understand was the music...Thank you!