How to make a Sprite

Douglas · 4 Sept 2008, 13:55

Hi

I have imported a smiley (3D) into SU and made some modifications. Now want to use these pictures in my Visual Basic 2008 application. The pictures must have a transparent background (sprite) so that when the pictures move in my application the background picture does not change. I use white as my alpha color.
I use a program,Pro Motion, to make the sprites, but that program does not support 3D.

So the question is Can Su make the background of a picture transparent? I have searched the SU help for alpha color and background transparent, but come up with blank.

Thanking you very much.

Douglas.

remus · 4 Sept 2008, 14:32

I tihnk the mac version can do it from the export options, although the PC cant (not sure why theres a difference )

The other workaround would be to take the images in to a photo editing program and delete the background, before saving it as something like .PNG or .GIF, which support transparency.

Douglas · 4 Sept 2008, 20:05

Hi,

Thanks very much. Will try.

Douglas.

Douglas · 4 Sept 2008, 20:36

Hi,

I have tried your suggestion. I have a 3D image and saved in a file. The only ext. I am allowed to save it is Sketchup Models (.skp).Can I save the image with a different ext.? Just learning.

Thanks very much.

Douglas.

remus · 4 Sept 2008, 20:42

If you go file->export->2d graphic, that should get you there.

Douglas · 5 Sept 2008, 19:52

Hi remus,

I tried your suggestion. I found out that the smiley in the 3D warehouse is very big in size, measured in feet. So I used the scale tool and knocked the image size down to 2 inches and also the window. I then exported it as a bitmap.
I then used Pro Motion to make the background transparent and saved it with a png ext. I then brought it into my Visual Basic 2008 application and the background was transparent.

Now I have to some animation.

Thanks very much for your help.

In case anyone reading and need some more explanation, I am more than willing to do so.

Douglas.