Transparency

When your doll is finished, it's time to save it. Of course!
But first, we have a little preparing to do. I always save my dolls in GIF-format. This is by far the best file-format for dolls. The colors stay clear and they won’t be blurry or have "chicken pocks" or measles.

This is the doll I want to make transparent. I have a white background for this one, and I want to change that to pink.

1. Select a color for the background. Pick a color that you can’t find in your doll.
A good color is #FF0C0C0 (0=zero) This is a bright pink. Other good choices are:

#940000 = Deep red
#FF80FF = Bright purple
#40FF40 = Neon green

You can use any color, as long as it's not actually on your doll.
One of the basic colors is easier, though. These are the colors above:

2. Use your magic wand and select the areas outside the doll. (The white, in my case)
Make sure you select areas between the arms and the body and between legs, if necessary.
Be careful to include pixels around the hair, too. It's very easy to forget that! Speaking from experience, of course! :D

3. Now you take your color of choice and bucket fill the selected area.
This is how it looks (I have chosen the pink color for mine):

4. If you want any text on your doll, this is the best time to add it. Then you don't have to worry about filling in the background color in the text. You will have to change the canvas size if it’s too small, though.

On the right hand side of the screen, where you select your colors, you can see 2 small color-areas. The top one is for the foreground color, the second is the background color. Pick the same color for both! Preferably the color you have for the background. I hope I'm not confusing you now. If the "background" color is black, and you have a lot of black on your doll, you will have trouble later if you want to edit your doll. You will not be able to separate the black background with the black on your doll. This was just an example, tho. I use mostly the pink color, so it will look like this:

You can also crop the image now to make the file size smaller.

5. Go to FILE/EXPORT/GIF OPTIMIZER. Like this:

A window will pop up. You will there see 2 images of your doll.

Check the "AREA THAT MATCH THIS COLOR". In the small color window, choose the color in your background (the one I've been nagging you about!) Once you click OK in the color window, you see that the doll on the right has a gray and white background. That means you have done everything correct!

6. Click on the tab "COLORS". You would want your image to have 256 colors, 0 % dithering and to be an Optimized Octree. (Do not ask me what that means! I only know that the quality is better.)

7. Click the tab "FORMAT". Choose the file type "NON-INTERLACED". This determines the way your image is shown on a web site.

8. Now all you need to do is click OK! Give your doll a suitable name, and click OK again. This will save a COPY of your doll. The doll on your PSP workspace can now be closed without saving, because you already saved a copy. ;)

You will now have a transparent doll that is saved in a GIF-format, without measles!
As long as you don't use more than 256 colors, you will be fine! And it's not blurry, like jpg's.

Remember, this is the format most doll makers prefer. If you enter a doll to a contest, you will have to make your doll a transparent gif. Some sites will not accept anything else. :)

GOOD LUCK and HAVE FUN!!!