Moho Animation Forum

hello, its me again... I used gimp and made the background transparent, yet when I import it into Moho, there is still a large box! I tried to recreate my picture in transparency, and it did not work!

The "add alpha channel" button is greyed out...

That's a GIF file you've uploaded, not a PNG. Moho doesn't support the 1-bit alpha used by GIF, only 8-bit alpha in PNG.
Save/export again from the GIMP as PNG.

In the GIMP, before you save/export, you are definitely are seeing the grey checkerboad transparency indicator instead of a white background around your character, right?



This screenshot was taken from the freeware Paint.NET rather than the GIMP, but I think the GIMP is similar.

Regards, Myles.

Avalanche941, I would (if I were you) install both The Gimp (which you already have) and this Paint.NET if you use WinXP. For some jobs one program is more suitable, while for other jobs another is better.

I'm on Mac OS X and have several paint programs (all freeware). Nevertheless, I'm always looking for new proggies, which offer something new.

[offtopic]Alas I haven't got many draw programs (vector graphics). Maybe I should create one myself, based on Moho's vector algorithms. If I only could program. But I'm working on that too.[/offtopic]

Avalanche941,

The GIMP has many more features and is more mature, while Paint.NET has more of a Windows-like interface (although the latest verions of The GIMP is more Windows-like than earlier versions). Paint.NET is good for quick simple tasks (such as removing a background colour), while The GIMP is better for more complex work.

Rasheed,

Staying off-topic:

Rasheed wrote:Alas I haven't got many draw programs (vector graphics).

You probably already know about/have this one, but Expression 3.3 for Mac (and Windows) is still available. Fairly large download, about 60 MB, but free (marked as beta/test, but fully functional and non-expiring). You have to jump through the survey/registration hoops before downloading.

Excellent formerly-commercial vector graphics program, bought out by Microsoft and being redeveloped for Windows Vista (no Mac version). Fantastic vector brushes. Have a look at the Gallery linked from that page.

In my opinion (not everyone will agree, I'm sure), the Expression 3.3 interface is not quite as usable as the Xara drawing products, but it includes more features.
Go through the Studio E3 tutorials (under Additional Resources on that web page) and the tutorials in the PDF manual to get a decent grip on the interface.

If you use plain (PS) lines instead of brushes or gradient lines, and stick to plain fills, it exports to Moho very nicely, or it can be used to produce bitmaps for backgrounds, character parts, etc.

Speaking of Xara, keep an eye on http://www.xaraxtreme.org/, as a Mac version of the latest commercial Xara Xtreme is on the way as Open Source.

Regards, Myles.