Easy Alpha Channel Creation Methods Using Photoshop CS4

You have designed something awesome and amazing looking but now need it to have an alpha channel and suddenly find yourself lost, stuck and completely bewildered. Have no fear, if you are using Photoshop I am about to show you one of the simplest methods of creating alpha channels, and the primary method that will help you no matter what you are doing. While this is just one of the methods, it is by far the method that I find myself using most often and typically covers all needs that you might have.

You want to begin by selecting the layers that you want to include in the overall "shape" this would be the outline, as well as any opaticy changes. Once all of these layers are selected, remember it could be as few as 1 layer, or could be as many as dozens. With all of these layers selected in the layers palette, you need to press Control + Shift + Alt + E at the same time. A new layer will appear at the very top of your layers that you have been working on.

Once you have generated this new layer, you need to press Control and click inside of the thumbnail that represents the new layer. You will not see that you have lines of marching ants as they are commonly referred around your image. This is a marquee selection that allows you to manipulate this image. At this time, with the marching ants in place, we are going to go to the Select Menu and choose Save Selection from the bottom of the menu.

Once the Save Selection dialog box opens we are going to choose the document window that contains our file, typically this will already be the document that is selected. Also, select new channel, and then provide a name for your newly created alpha channel. Once this is done, you simply press OK to actually create the alpha channel.

Now if you click on the channels palette you will see your newly created alpha channel is listed. You can load the channel, or you can choose to delete or even duplicated it if you have another exactly matching document. Regardless, now that you have selected and created your alpha channel you are further along your journey towards your unique creations that will allow you to unleash your inner creativity, while still having the perfect edges and lines that you are looking for in all of your creations.