Can a model be made to look different by making areas of the skin transparent?

I'm new to skinning and was wondering if transparent textures could be applied to a model.

As an example, I would like to make the horns on the dwarf mountain king helmet disappear without editing the model, just by making that region of the skin transparent.

Is this possible?

Calico

Yes, by editing the Alpha channel. Sometimes this leaves big holes in the model though.

Sorry for the newb questions, but can alpha channels be edited in Photoshop 5.0 LE?

Also, is there a good web reference on editing alpha channels?

Thanks, Calico

I'm not sure if you can do it in five, but I assume you could. I have a tutorial about editing them on my site.