Creating an Alpha Mask for 3ds Max

[Nuclear Arbitor]

First; I'm asking this here because it's about photoshop procedure, not Max. I'm making it for Max but i know how to do things on the max end.

What I want to do is to remove color information but keep alpha so that my fur becomes faint on the edge but is all white, opaque for alpha masks in Max

[NiRVaNa_87]

Go to Image>Adjustments>Black&White and move all the bars to the left. I think there are other ways to do this, but this one is the only one I can remember.
Dunno if this is what you asked exactly, tell me if it works out.

[Ammorth]

You can use a gradient map and stick the white and black right next to eachother so they act like a threshold instead of a gradient.

[NiRVaNa_87]

I don´t think you get gray colors that way tho, but I might be wrong, too lazy to check.

[Nuclear Arbitor]

@Nirvana
didn't work, gave me black and white and shades of grey.

my problem is selecting the parts i want to color and retaining transparency. i could go in and fucking pixel by pixel it but i don't want to and i know there's a way to do it faster, i just don't know what it is and so I'm having a hard time describing it.

if you're still confused/unclear i could post more pictures of what I'm actually working on.

[NiRVaNa_87]

Ok, lets see. Is the drawing in a separate layer? If that layer is already with the proper transparency you can duplicate that layer and then click on the icon for "lock transparent pixels" (at the LAYERS tab, it says "lock" and there are some small icons on the side). After that, you just paint over the copied layer with a black brush.
If that doesn´t work either I´d like to see those pics, it might be easier to undestand the problem.

[Nuclear Arbitor]

Thank you, that worked perfectly. never noticed that before.

[Ammorth]

You can shift-click a layer to get the selection. Keep in mind, the selection will include any alpha aswell (a brush with low flow rate can create alpha within the color you paint). Once you have the selection of the fur, you can create an alpha channel in PS or use it for whatever you need.

If it is drawn on a solid color, you can use Select > Color Range... to key out the background color and get a selection of your fur only. (more here: http://www.lifeisaprayer.com/article...unds-photoshop )

[Nuclear Arbitor]

didn't know about color range either. it doesn't work very well in this circumstance because i have a transparent background on the layer i need to get an outline from but it would probably be what i would have to use if i had a colored background. thanks anyway

[NiRVaNa_87]

Yeah, as Ammorth said, you can also make a layer selection by ctrl+clicking a layer. And if you also hold shift you can select multiple layers. I don´t know if it´s as accurate as the other method, but it´s a lot faster if you want to select multiple layers.