Q's on Alpha Channel & Adding Particle Emitters

1. How do you add an alpha channel to an existing model (one that is in either war3.mpq or war3x.mpq)? What I mean is, I've seen a number, a large number of tutorials on editing and removing, but none about adding to specifically an original Blizzard created WC3 model (like Arthas let's say)

2. I've used the particle adder, which the particle shows up, but it's not exactly doing what I want. I'm trying to add Textures\WaterWake3.blp to a boat that has no 'movement animation' (the rippling water effect).
a. How do you tell where the emitter's point of origin is?
b. How do you control the effect so that it only acts in the xy axis, or in other words, just on the ground?

I got just about everything else handled. I'm gonna keep messing with this thing, and I might be able to figure this particle emitter problem out, but the first one, I'm at an absolute loss. Any help will be greatly appreciated.

I think this answers question number 1

Wow did you have to be a b*tch about it? And I did figure that out already... my problem is that I don't have PSP7, I'm using Photoshop 7 and PSP8. When I add the Alpha layer it doesn't transfer over to the .blp.

Now as far as doing the particle emitter, I'm going to post my findings after fiddling around with it for hours and hours:

If you've never put a particle emitter in a model before, you might want to try using the particle add proggie that's here for dl, somewhere. Then open the thing up with notepad. You want to which sequences it will be visible? Here:


Those intervals will be used in the ParticleEmitter to determine whether it's on or off with 1 or 0.

Notice how those numbers line up with the different animation intervals, in this instance they are all on... The problem I had was getting the thing to act on just the ground, and not emit in all 3 dimensions, as far as I can tell, this:
"XYQuad", makes it only emit on XY.

How about position? Let's talk about that, since the last pivot point wasn't the one that set the location of the emitter (which is what I tryed changing and when that didn't move the emitter, I gave up on it).
In this case, for some reason it was the second to last, if you're using the particle adder, you might want to put in a number you might remember, so that when you edit it, you'll know where it's at.
ObjectID = This references this emitter, since you added this thing thru particle adder, don't change it.
Static Latitude = This I believe causes the whole particle that was emitted to move, since this one is in the xy plane only, increasing this number makes it move away from the model faster.
Lifespan v. Time = As far as I can tell Lifespan tells you how many seconds that the effect will go from the starting size (as indicated ParticleScaling) to the final size. Time on the other hand, I'm not totally sure.
Static EmissionRate = In the case of the texture WaterWake2.blp, you have to keep this number low, because, otherwise you'll have a white glob under your boat. 1, I found, was really really slow, maybe 1 effect every second, where as 10 emitts a bunch. I think this is a relation of # effects/second, but don't quote me.
Static Width = this will be used as the x plane, the bounds within which the effects will be spawned, so if the point is {0,0,0}, and Width is 65, then it should spawn in between {-65,0,0} & {65,0,0}.
Static Length = this will be used as the y plane, the bounds within which the effects will be spawned, so if the point is {0,0,0}, and Length is 210, then it should spawn in between {0,-210,0} & {0,210,0}.
Segment color = I think this references transparency, so if you want an effect over an interval transparent, then set it to 0, or opaque to 1 (you can use decimals for blending)
Particle Scaling = I think this references a sort of birth, life, death cycle where the numbers indicate the size of the particles emitted.

Now, maybe I'm all wrong, maybe I'm missing something, maybe I am a noob, but in the span of 2 days (when I've had free time) I managed to figure this stuff out on my own without much help at all. I don't think it's right of those that are more experienced to look at us who haven't been doing this since RoC was first released (or even much earlier than that) as though we are inferior. You were a noob once, too, as all of us are/were (which ever the case may be). I'm posting this so that I can share what I've found, instead of witholding it, so that I might think I'm better than someone. I don't know why I had to spend 7-8 hours opening notepad, staring at it, looking for something, opening another notepad, open an existing mdl, change a number, close/save, convert to mdx, import, close WC3Edit, open it, look at the model, etc etc etc, just figure out what the code does, instead of referncing a list with information on each of these. As I find out more stuff, I'll post it here so that the NOOBS or rather, I should say those of us who want to do this crap, but don't have the knowledge, can edit models. I mean maybe 7-8 hours is ok for some people, but, people like me don't have that much time cos mommy and daddy aren't paying my bills. :8

Just be cool, don't be an a$$.

If anyone is having problems with alpha channels in Adobe PhotoShop 7, here's the solution, you'll need to update it to 7.0.1. For some reason that was a known bug with the program, that it would automatically delete the Alpha Channel from Targa when the file was saved. To get the dl, go here: http://www.adobe.com/support/downloa...51&fileID=1847

ummm if you went to the tutorials section you would have found that out almost instantly..... and why did you negitive rep me? cuase i called you a noob? grow up dude, i gave you the solution to the question you asked. and you stated that you had read many tutorials... and the alpha tutorial in the tutorials section had everything you needed to know.

Saying SHUT THE F*** UP NOOB, with TARGET ACQUIRED, in a big drawing is not answering a question, it's being an a$$hole, and you knew it when you did it so don't act as though you're shocked when I call you on it. Oh, and as for the grow up part, i'm not the one who drew the picture. Read my remarks in posts, the alpha channels weren't being added because Photoshop 7.0 had a bug, and I had to look outside the forums here to find that out.

As for the negative rep, did you really think I was going to say, "Oh golly gee Mister!!! Thanks a whole bunch!!!"??? Don't be a d*ck and maybe people won't neg rep you.