Line art / Alpha channel question

[neo_fight]

Hi all,
I'm trying to pull off something in Painter 8 that is very easy in Photoshop 7 but is just not happening. I've got a primary RGB alpha channel with just plain black line art on a white background - I'm looking to copy that line art into it's own alpha channel so I can paint on the RGB channel but still see the art.

In Photoshop one can just "select all" on the RGB channel then "copy" then "paste" into a new channel, piece of cake. At this point the white becomes transparent and one can paint on the 'RGB' channel and still see the line art. In Painter 8, this dosen't work - any suggestions? Thanks.

[Pat Duke]

Painter 8's new and improved RGB menu essentially allows you to access your saved selections easier, but still doesn't allow for the manipulation of independent channel data. Bummer.

Just stick your lineart on a layer and change the mode to multiply or gel. It's not as elegant as a 4th channel, but it works about the same.

-Pat

[Jin]

Hi,

Pat's solution is an easy one and works fine if what you want is to have your line work on a Layer above the Canvas and/or other Layers on which you plan to paint. It does nothing to alter the line work and makes the white background transparent. You can use Composite Method Multiply or Gel.

Either works for this as long as your line work is black since these Composite Methods make colors appear darker.

Another method, that'll give you an Alpha channel and allow you to load a selection, then do whatever you want with the selection, is to (works best with clean black line work on a white background):

1. In the Layers palette, highlight Canvas.

2. In the Channels palette menu, click New From... and choose Image Luminance. Alpha 1 appears in the Channels list.

3. At the bottom of the Channels palette, click the Load Channel as Selection icon (left icon) and from the Load from: drop down list, choose Alpha 1. Unless you want the background selected instead of linework selected, click the Invert then click the OK button.

4. Close the Alpha 1 Eye icon and continue working on the RGB image. If you want to work on a Layer, use Ctrl/Command+Shift+N to create a new Layer and the loaded selection will apply to that Layer.

5. If you want to invert the selection any time later, use Ctrl/Command+Shift+I.

6. If you want to clear your Canvas but retain the original line work, highlight Canvas in the Layers list, use Ctrl/Command+A, click inside the selection, and the Canvas is lifted to a Layer. Now you can either copy and paste that Layer into a new image (Ctrl/Command+C then Edit > Paste Into New Image) and delete it from the original image, or simply close the Layer's Eye and Lock icons.

[neo_fight]

Thanks Pat and Jin,

Appreciate your input - I'll be giving these methods a shot posthaste. Another ghetto way I figured how to do it was, since Painter supports PSD files, I'd just put the line art in a seperate channel in Photoshop import that file into Painter.
Thanks again.