[Crispin Williamson]

Has anyone got any advice for doing the glass numbers on the Leon? There's a glass template but when I write numbers on I end up with a grey background rather than clear?

[Robin De Groote]

You have to make sure the alpha layer corresponds with the painted later. Remember: White is opaque, black is transparent, anything in between is more (lighter) or less transparent (darker)...

[Crispin Williamson]

Sorry I'm very new to making skins, don't really understand that

[Russell Sobie]

Depending on the texture application you are using (Photoshop, GIMP, Paint.net, whatever) you should be able to look at "Channels" and you are looking for an "Alpha Channel". This channel is typically used as a sort of translucency mask for everything else in the image. It is super confusing to mess with... especially since now adays you can use PNGs in many applications and games where you simply do the transparency right in the texture information rather than having an alpha dictate it.

Typically what I do for things like glass numbers (like on the Audi TT Cup) is just make the image full white, and then do all the editing in the alpha channel. That way you don't have to match anything up... you only edit in one place.

Here's the first tutorial I found that may be relevant to give you the basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FJeb1XjBKUw

If that doesn't help, I can give you a more concrete tutorial here later on this week.

[Marek Vons]

That glass may be very hard to do for a beginner in photoshop. I mean, I already had a lot of experience in PS, but few months ago, I couldnt get it work, I spent like 2 hours trying to find out how that glass works, then I finally found that I have to edit the alpha layer as well

[Crispin Williamson]

Thanks guys I'll have a try 2mrw night

[Michael Martin]

Thank for for saying about the alpha layer.
Something else i find helps is to flatten the image and then select the blank space and delete it before you export as a .dds file. Seems to work for me. Just make sure you save as .psd (.xcf if gimp) before so you can still adjust the layers.