Some time ago I decided that if I was going to learn to mesh, etc, I needed the right tools. So I bought milkshape, and photoshop elements, believing that as I was only going to be doing 'basic' things, the basic photoshop would be okay. Duh....

All the tutorials i've read using photoshop are for the full version, and I can't find any plugins for elements that allow me to use the alpha channel, which seems to be the basis for most projects that I want to work on.

I've read lots of conflicting posts saying that elements can/can't be used for alpha channel projects, but none of the links that i've found actually allow those plugins for elements 8.

So, can anyone please tell me IS it possible to alter alpha channels in photoshop elements 8, and if so, how? (If the answer is no, then I'll have to try to figure it out in paint.net or gimp but everyone seems to use photoshop in the tutorials i've found).

thanks for reading

When I was still using Elements the only plugins I managed to find didn't do what I needed them too - i.e. I wasn't able to edit each channel individually (like in CS5.) I've upgraded to CS5 now so I can't say for sure that it isn't possible, but I didn't find a way to edit the channels in Elements (and it wasn't for lack of trying!) Gimp is free so I would say give that a try. I'm pretty sure Anubis uses Gimp for stuff because I'm sure he's written tutorials for Gimp.

Thank you. I'll do a search on any tutorials that Anubis might have done.