Hey all, I want to get more into GIF transparency effects for sigs and stuff, but I don't know how to do it. Can someone here who knows PhotoShop help me out and tell me how to get the cool GIF transparency effects like Turbine and Snowman use in some of their sig creations?? Thanks!

Ummmm, do you have photoshop yourself? It sounds like you do, but I want to make sure. I can explain it easier that way, but if you don't, I can direct you to a free program you can use to add transparency to a gif and walk you through it.

-Turbine

Turbine, are you talking about GIFWorks? Sorry to bust in like that but I happened upon it the other night while looking for transparency tools. Here's the link -

http://www.gifworks.com/

And this page gives a short tutorial on transparencies-

http://www.mycartoondolls.com/howto_transparentgifs.html

Hope it helps.

Thanks guys!

Yes Turbine, I have Photoshop 7. Hopefully CS will be mine in another month or so...

And Koda - thanks for the links, I'll check 'em out!

anytime, bro

Okay, since you have photoshop, this is how I do transparencies.
Create a new image, and under the "Contents" box, select transparent.
You're image template comes up, and you should see a white and grey checkerboard. That represents transparency.
Now you can either draw on top of it, or paste images, layers, etc. Do all the working you want to do. When finished, DO NOT "Flatten Image" under the layers options, rather "Merge Visible" AT this point, all layers become one and you still have the checkerboard effect at the transparent parts. You can alos select areas at this time, hite delete, and that part will be transparent.
If you're having issues with that, let me know so I can be more specific (this is off the top of my head so I might have missed something)

When you go to save it for use, don't select save or save as, but "Save for web." That option will export the picture as a .gif, which to my knowledge is the only image format that allows transparency. There are several options here.
On mine, the first box says "gif" which is fine. The one below it is the method by which the program will reduce the colors in the picture to a gif sized file. Perpetual, Selective, and Adaptive are all good. Just play with them and look at the preview image to see which one looks the best.
Make sure the transparency box is checked. On the right hand side you can select the number of colors you want used in the picture. Adjust those until you get the file size you want, which appears below the preview image. Then hit save. The other options aren't realy important but feel free to play around.

Again, let me know if you have any problems...

-Turbinr

Thanks Turbine - the "Merge Visible" piece seems to be the key. Alright, now I can have some real fun w/ sigs!

Okay Turbine, I must still not be getting something - your outlines are always crisp, whereas mine (as you can see) are not. Any further tips, or can I send you the sig file to see if you can find where the problem is?