# Creating Transparent Bitmaps

Bitmap graphics are shaped like rectangles, regardless of the shape of the image within them.

For example, if you have an image of a dog that you want to place on top of some other elements, the area around the dog must be transparent so that the background image appears behind the dog, and the dog appears in the scene.

If you have a bitmap you want to use within the layering order of your elements, you must make the non-image portion of your graphic transparent so that you can see elements behind the bitmap and that other elements can appear to pass by the bitmap in the action of your scene.

| There are a couple of bitmap file formats that save transparency in an alpha (matte) channel, including the 32-bit TARGA format (TGA), TIFF, SGI and PSD.

To create an image that has transparent areas:

1. Open the graphic in a third-party graphics application.

2. Add an alpha channel to the image and create a transparent shape that will reveal the rest of the channels in the image.

3. Save the graphic in a file format that preserves the alpha channel.

4. Import the transparent graphic. Toon Boom Studio assumes that the alpha channel is “straight” (not pre-multiplied).

If you can see “around” the object in the image, then you have successfully created a transparent graphic.

Refer to your graphic application’s documentation for instructions on how to define transparent areas.

See Also
Importing Flash Movies
Changing the Timing (Exposure) of Drawings and Images
Linking Templates to Media Elements
Adding Many Elements to a Scene