-= Gametoast.com =-

Hi,

I'm looking forward to make my own PSE Plugin since i can not get a PS full buyable version and the plugins i want don't seam to exist.

All I want:
Split an layer into rgba and save it back.
rgb is no problem, since i can make 3 copies of the layer and use levels to get only red, green and blue. Loading the alpha channel is no problem either. I can use Load Selection and choose Alpha 1. Next i make a new layer and fill the selection black, background white (or the different way. Not sure what the correct way is).
I can also use the display mod Lighten to merge the 3 layers back to one. And i can save a selection to the alpha channel. BUT:
The selection tools can only select 1/0. So i can only have alpha channel values 0 and 255. What i need is a way to save the values between 0 and 255 to the alpha.

My idea is to make an automated script for splitting and merging. Splitting shouldn't be a problem. Only for merging i need to find a way to make an automated selection with 0 to 255 and not only 0 and 1. It is possible since PSE can load such a selection from an existing alpha channel.


And now the big problem: I have no idea about plugin programming I hope someone of you can point me the right way.

I'm not very photoshop saavy, but if you can't get full Photoshop, have you tried looking into GIMP? It's basically open-source photoshop, and because of that, there are TONS of user-created plugins. You can probably find what you need there.

Simply spoken, yes. Gimp has the alpha channel support that's my main problem. But I hate gimp. First I used paint.net, and went to PSE. Than I tried gimp and I don't liked it. Even paint.net is not my favorite anymore.

I already found the PhotoShop SDK. Just need someone to explain the basics of it. Since it uses c++ and I'm good in c++

==EDIT==

I read the adobe photoshop sdk documentation and was really glad when i saw the selection filters are possible. But i even couldn't compile the example code....

But i found a way to save a greyscale image to alpha channel
So now i just need the plugin for convenience reasons.

For everyone who like Photoshop elements and needs to split/merge the channels

Here are my steps to split and merge the channels of an image. Therefore i made a new image (800x600) and used the gradients tool with the Colors #fff000 and #00fff6. That way every colour is used.

• make 3 copies of your layer and name them red green blue alpha
• Choose the red layer and press Ctrl+L or choose the option "Levels" from the menu (in german you can find it under Überarbeiten>Beleuchtung anpassen>Tonwertkorrektur)
• now you choose at the Channel green and set the range value from 0 to 255 to 0 to 0.
• repeat the last step for blue.
• repeat the last two steps to delete the colour red/blue from the green layer and red/green from the blue layer.
• set the blending mod of these three layers to lighten.
• OK now you can change the RGB layers using only red/green/blue and black on the different layers. Later on you can merge these layers back to one layer.
• If you want to get the alpha channel you go to selection>load selection. Choose "Alpha 1" If you cannot load a selection, there is no alpha channel.
• make a new layer and use the fill tool to make the selection white.
• put an other layer under that new created one and fill it completely black.
• merge these two layers and you got the alpha channel.
• to save it back you need a new adjustment layer. It doesn't matter which one.
• copy your greyscale alpha image, hold "ALT" and klick on the white preview image of the adjustment layer and paste the greyscale image.
• hold STRG and klick on the preview image of the adjustment layer. Now you got a new selection from only white.
• go to selection>save selection and save it under "Alpha 1"
• maybe you need to invert (STRG + i) the greyscale image to get the right result, and it seams that the selected alpha from the adjustment layer is sometimes a bit brighter. So make it just a bit darker

and for some reason the list view doesn't work.... (Fixed. -Staff) But i hope that this helps someone of you.