Question about the Avatar image

[club_med]

I would like to make an Avatar with a transparent background so that it will show up nicely.

Can anyone explain to me how to do this ?.

I tried and this is what I came up with so far:
http://members.aon.at/haffar/club_med2.gif

As you can see there is a dark gray outline around the image, I think it makes it look very ugly.

How do I make it look better ?

I am using Photoshop 5.0.

Thanks.
cm.

[club_med]

anyone ?

[smokin1]

Is this what you were trying to achieve?http://www.members.home.net/smokin1/club_med2.gif

or this...http://www.members.home.net/smokin1/club_med1.gif

[club_med]

I was trying to achieve the 2nd image, I'd like to know how to do that.

Would you have the time and patience to explain it to me ? :)

thanks very much
cm.

[smokin1]

Hi
I don't use Photoshop, so it may be a bit difficult. I removed your transparency, then I changed the background colour from grey to white. Then I made the white transparent. Sorry that's not much of an explanation. You can right click and save the image if you want.
Regards
:)

[edwelly]

smokin1: what app did you use?

-:confused:-edwelly

[rh71]

It doesn't matter if you try to achieve a transparent avatar. There are 2 background colors to these threads and your posts obviously only have a 50% chance of being on the right color. You can see my avatar would only be transparent in the "whiter" background (not #FFFFFF exactly).

[rh71]

It's transparent now though...

[smokin1]

Hmm..but then..why is mine transparent in all posts?
edwelly..I used Paint Shop Pro 7..a great program..and well worth the 50 bucks Canadian
:)

[OuTpaTienT]

Did you get it yet c_med?

I just did mine in Photoshop, but almost any program that deals with .GIFs should be able to make an image with a transparent background.

If you still need help, speak up.

[OuTpaTienT]

Just to show rh71 that the background is indeed transparent.

[club_med]

Hey OuT I was hoping youd see this thread, since you seem to be a guru at this stuff :)

I was searching some online tutorials on how to make a transparent GIF. For some reason the ENTIRE GIF turns out transparent, I dont get how to make only some of it transparent.

Im using Photoshop 5.0 though.
(Had to deinstall 6.0 because my computer cant handle it)

Thanks
cm.

[OuTpaTienT]

Well, here's what I did in PS6 (should work the same in 5):

- Opened my image, which was initially a .JPG format. (.JPG format can't deal with transparency.)

- From the menu selected IMAGE/MODE then chose INDEXED COLOR. This reduces the image to 256 colors. Sometimes doing this can make an image look ugly because it uses a general color palatte encompassing all the spectrum.

---Tip for color reduction: before changing mode to indexed color, select a portion of the image that contains all the vital colors of the image, then do the switch to indexed color. This will make Photoshop optimize the 256 color palatte for the pixels included within the selection.

- Once the image is in "indexed color" mode, then just select all the area you want to be transparent (background) and then hit DELETE.

- Save the image (if necessary FLATTEN it first) as a .GIF (must be a .gif to retain the transparency).

[club_med]

Thanks OuT, ill try it out and let you know how it went.

cm.

[NDC]

To avoid jagged edges, you need to use a "matte" color for transparent GIF's... You would select the color closest possible to the background. As you can see on Smokin1 and Outpatient's transparent GIF images, they used "White" matte. Look very close at the edges of the avatar images... Although their images look perfect on the edges on the white background, the white matte color on the edges are visible on the grey. Since this post will be done on a grey background, the 2nd one is going to blend in best...


Here is an example of a transparent GIF with "white matte"

http://www.digitalmntsnow.com/NDC/SysOpt/Gif/White.gif


Here is an example of a transparent GIF with "grey matte"

http://www.digitalmntsnow.com/NDC/SysOpt/Gif/Grey.gif


Here is an example of a transparent GIF with "no matte"

http://www.digitalmntsnow.com/NDC/SysOpt/Gif/None.gif

[OuTpaTienT]

Actually c_med, I just noticed that you probably already knew most of what I just told ya. I see your image at the top of this thread is partially transparent, you just want to make more of that gray transparent.

Try this. Open your original image, club_med2.gif, then choose your MAGIG WAND TOOL and set it's TOLERANCE at 25 or so. Click on the gray background. This should get most of the area but not all. Now hold down shift and click on the gray area inside the trident forks. Then hit DELETE.

Is that more what you're trying to do?

[OuTpaTienT]

Hey, I'm learning too! Thanks for the tip on MAT NDC. I was not keen to that.

[NDC]

Don't mention it, OutPatient! ;)

If you're using Photoshop 5.5 or 6.0, it has a great feature for web graphics such as for transparent GIF's. After you make your image using layers, effects etc, you just make the most bottom layer (The background) invisible and press CTRL+SHIFT+ALT+S and you'll get a "save for the web" panel where you can set the image to GIF with option of "Selective", "Adaptive", "Web" etc. On the second row at from the bottom at the the top right, you will see an option called "Matte". This is where you specify the matte color. As I have mentioned before, you'll want to use this feature for tranparent GIF's to give it smooth edges. Also don't forget to put a check in the box for "Transparency". The best way to determine the correct matte color would be to enter the value for R.G.B. The grey background for Sysopt is:

R=222
G=223
B=223

The values above are what you want to specify for the color for the matte...

[club_med]

Thanks very much for your help everyone, I've managed to make a nice transparent GIF. It's not perfect and looks **** on some of the darker backgrounds I tested. But I think it will do for now :)

As you can see I like simplicity.