Attached Link: http://brenthomer.tripod.com/tutorials.html

I have a quick Alpha Suggestion that will apply mainly to photoshop users. As an editor I use alpha's all the time for graphics. When I first started using them I ALWAYS had halo's around the objects. I found the little secret to get rid of them in photoshop. 1)Put the object you want masked on its own layer. 2) Load Selection (dont use majic wand...it is not very accurate) and then save selection. You should see the alpha in in the channels window now! 3) Your not done yet...make sure the background layer (make sure it says background, not layer 1, in photoshop this makes ALL THE DIFFERENCE IN THE WORLD.) is selected and then make it black. This will work now 90% of the time. However sometimes you have fuzz's or transparency on the object you wish to blur. Lets say it is a drop shadow. Make sure the background color is exactly the same as this fuzz, frindge, shadow, etc. Photoshop takes a bit of the background layer so if the colors wont match then you WILL get a halo effect. This is my super fast tutorial and looking it over I can see that it sucks :) Here is a link to the page a made awhile ago b/c I was sick of explaining this: http://brenthomer.tripod.com/tutorials.html