How does alpha work?

Hello there,

Every time I make a sprite, the sprite is surrounded completely by the background colour I used in the sprite editor. I have seen examples on the forums, however, where people have made it work: The "outer" background pixels aren't showing. How can I do this with my sprites?

If you are you using MSPAINT to create your sprites, you need an image editor that supports transparency?

http://www.scirra.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=9412

MS Paint doesn't have alpha support - I'd recommend Paint.NET. We're still working on a built-in image editor which will of course support alpha!

Doh. I'm such a silly lobster. I actually usually use Graphics Gale. I was under the impression that the upper-left most pixel was being used for transparency. I'm not sure how I got that idea

That used to be the standard in some older games and tools, but these days we've got full 8-bit alpha channels

Maybe you sould not provide a built-in image editor. Image editors from Construct Classic and MMF2 for instance do not have as many functionalities as Paint.net, Photoshop or The Gimp and they are not ergonomic.

People are not given good tools do make their sprites. A "download paint.net and make it my defaut image editor" checkbox in Construct2 installation would save you time and make graphics better in user's games.

We need our own image editor for Construct 2 specific features: specifying the hot spot, image points, and collision polygons. Other editors don't do that.

The built in image editor isn't meant to be a full-blown professional image editor. It's a convenience. You can do your artwork in Paint.NET/Photoshop/GIMP/whatever and just import it later if you prefer!

...and because C2 is portable, you'll be able to prototype your game even when not on your computer. I use PS for drawing, but I like CC has it's own editor so I can still work on my game when I'm not at home.

...and because C2 is portable, you'll be able to prototype your game even when not on your computer. I use PS for drawing, but I like CC has it's own editor so I can still work on my game when I'm not at home.

Well there's plenty of image editors that can be done the same way. Gimp Portable is less than 30 megs.

Anyway that wont be forever, since paid versions will have to be tied to specific computers.

You wouldn't want a bunch of fully functioning versions flying around on zip cards... even tho that would be pretty cool to have.

Given the added functionality of drag, and drop of sprites on the editor, why not just skip the image editor part all together? Then if you must, have the animator, hotspot, and imagepoint editor all in one.

A simple image editor is still extremely useful for prototyping.

Though separating the hotspot/animator functions from the image editor functions isn't a bad idea. That way you can use the built-in image editor if you want, or link C2 to an external one.

I like that's one package and I don't need to switch between programs. Only few more clicks, but for me that's a lot, probably just laziness