STEP 12:
Open up your favorite image editing program like Photoshop, Paintshop Pro, PhotoImpact or even Microsoft Paint. It makes your life so much easier if your program supports layers.

If your program doesn't support layers (like Microsoft Paint), you can create a new image, and start creating your decal. Remember to make the background color of your image the same as the color of the portion of the model you are going to apply this decal to. For instance, if the decal is going to be applied to the face and the color of the face is pure blue, the background color of the image must be pure blue as well. Once you are finished with your decal, save it as a Targa (.TGA) or Tiff (.TIF) file. Microsoft Paint for instance doesn't support Targa (the recommended choice) but does support Tiff. Also skip to Page 3 because the following steps are applicable to programs that support layers.

STEP 13:
I'm going to use Photoshop 6, and the commands I give is for Photoshop. You will have to substitute whatever procedure you need to do if you are using a different program.

Create a new image by clicking on File / New / OK. Click on Window / Show Layers. Make sure Layer 1 is highlighted. Click on Edit / Paste. The screenshot we made in Step 11 is now being pasted on Layer 1. Click on the "Create a new layer" button (circled in red) to create a new layer called "Layer 2" above Layer 1.

STEP 14:
Click on the Crop Tool (C) button in the Tools toolbar. Drag a selection box so that it just touches the outlines of the model, and press Enter.

STEP 15:
Make sure that Layer 2 is highlighted in the Layer toolbox. You can now start painting, or whatever it is you want to do for your decal, using the screenshot as a reference.

I will be painting big orange spots for my decal.

It is also recommended that you don't use anti-aliasing. A:M has a superb anti-aliasing built into it's render engine.

STEP 16:
Once you are satisfied with your artwork, Select Layer 1 and click on the "Delete Layer" button (circled in red). It will ask you if you want to delete Layer 1 so click Yes.

You should now only see Layer 2 with your artwork.

STEP 17:
Click on the Magic Wand Tool (W) in the Tools toolbar. Click on your artwork to select it. If there is separate spots like in my example, hold down the Shift key on the keyboard while clicking inside each individual spot.

Once everything is selected, click on Select / Inverse (Shift+Ctrl+I).

STEP 18:
Click on Window / Show Channels. You will now see a Channels toolbar with RGB, Red, Green and Blue separately.

Click on the "Create new channel" button (circled in red). A new channel will be created called "Alpha 1". The other channels will become invisible (the little eye disappears), and your artwork will also disappear and only show white with the selection mask we created.

STEP 19:
Press Shift+G until the Tools toolbar show the Paint Bucket Tool (G). Click on the Paint Bucket Tool (G).

You will notice that the Foreground color swatch changed to Black, and the Background Color swatch changed to white.

Click inside the window where the white image with the selection mask is. Everywhere you didn't paint in your decal should now be black, and the rest white. For instance in my case, where I created the orange spots is white now. The reason for this is that A:M will apply only those sections of the decal I created white in the alpha channel that corresponds with the RGB channels (Hope it's not too confusing. If it is, just keep on following until you see the results. Maybe then it will make sense).

STEP 20:
Click on the RGB channel to show your decal again as it was. You can also press Ctrl+D, to remove the selection mask.

Click on File / Save As... (Shift+Ctrl+S). A new dialog window will appear.

From the "Format" drop-down list choose "Targa (*.TGA;*.VDA;*.ICB;*.VST)".

Type in a descriptive name in the "File name:" box like "Face - Front.tga".

Make sure that under Save Options the Alpha Channels checkbox is checked.

Then navigate to the directory you want to save the file in by clicking on the drop-down list under "Save in:".

Once you are happy, click the "Save" button. A Targa Options window will now appear. Select "32 bits/pixel" from the resolution list.

Congratulations, you have a decal with an alpha channel! Now go back to Animation:Master.

Page 1 (Flattening a model)