Defining Alpha Values

[Gavin Goulden <gavin(at)gavimage.com>]

Hey Guys,

 

I've been searching the manuals and fooling around on my own with this problem and figured I'd bug all of you with it for a second or two.  What I need to do is take a character and define certain areas to have an alpha value(s), these values need to be embedded into a PNG file with the characters basic colours (skin, armour, hair...whatever.)  This is for a 2d based game engine using sprites, not unlike Baldur's Gate, so these alpha regions will be used to tell the coders what is a "recolourable" area.   So, for example, I'd want to make the hair have it's own region...this will say "okay, anything with this value is hair and can be swapped with different colours."  If possible, I would also need to define chunks of an object with the same idea (i.e. metal studs on leather armour.)  Is this possible?

 

I've tried creating a .tag file, this is along the same idea of what I want...I just need it to be within one PNG and as alpha values.

 

Sorry if this is basic, but I'm clueless at this point.  Any help is greatly appreciated,

 

Gavin