Hi all, If I save a render as a PSD file, I've heard that in Photoshop you can make the empty background transparent, just leaving the rendered objects of the scene. So, say I render P5 Don alone with the default grey background. Save render as a PSD. Open it in Photoshop. How do I erase the background so that only Don is visible? I've heard the empty background can be erased without manually using the erase tools....with alpha channels(?) Thanks, ram

Since it is a solid color background you can just use the magic wand to select background.

Double Click on the Background in layers palette to change it to Layer 0. Use magic wand and click on grey background and hit delete.

I usually just save in Poser as a PNG instead of PSD. That automatically gives it a transparent background and you can open a PNG file in Photoshop.

Okay, here goes.

1. Open the PSD created by Poser in Photoshop.

2. Make sure that you have both the "Layers" and "Channels" palettes visible (use the Window menu item to make them visible if not).

3. In the Layers palette, there will be one entry, "Background" and it will contain your render, complete with the unwanted backdrop elements, In the Channels palette you'll see a stack containing five "channels" (from top to bottom): RGB, Red, Green, Blue and Alpha1. R, G and B form the image data and exist because Poser outputs an RGB image. The Alpha1 channel is the custom alpha channel Poser has also output to allow masking the background away from the rendered objects. Note that in Photoshop a selection can be saved as an alpha channel and any alpha channel can be loaded as a selection.

4. Now, switch to the Layers palette and double-click on the "Background" entry (or click on the background and choose "Layer->New->Layer from Background" from the menu). Photoshop should respond with a small dialog asking you to name the new layer and choose a mode and opacity etc. Assuming you just click OK, you'll end up with the "Background" layer being converted to "Layer0". You need to do this because you cannot apply alpha channels to the "Background" which is a special kind of layer (the "Background" is always at the bottom of the layer stack and as mentioned doesn't support masking. However Photoshop doesn't require it to be present in a document.)

5. Now switch to the Channels palette and CTRL-Click on the Alpha1 channel. This should load the alpha channel as a Photoshop selection and you should see a marquee outline of your rendered objects. (Alternatively, choose "Select->Load Selection" from the menu and use the dropdown list to locate "Alpha1").

6. Now switch back to the Layers palette, click on Layer0 to ensure it is selected and click on the small Add layer Mask icon at the bottom of the palette (or choose "Layer->Add Layer Mask->Reveal Selection" from the menu).

7. Photoshop applies the mask to the image and the background vanishes.

Hope that helps. (edited to remove typos)

Message edited on: 01/17/2005 03:16

Works best if you render over a black background ...

Thanks so much everyone!