Layers as an opacity tool?

[Narrowism]

So i've been using the layers tool as a way to shade (Did that make any sense?) So basically, I was using the second layer as a way to show light shining off an object, but after I downloaded it, it only showed one layer. I went into the settings and messed around with the opacity tool, but it didn't really help. Is there anyway I can make the second layer show slightly behind the first layer? The preview is different then the actual drawing area, since the preview only shows one layer. Basically, any way I can make the downloaded image look like the second layer is merged with the first?

[fernandodiacenco]

(I'm not a piskel developer)

Do you mean something like this?

(The fireball "aura" is on layer 2)

Would that be fixed if the color pallete has support for opacity in colors?

If so I would like the opportunity to suggest adding this possibility on the color palette tool, as it would make easier to add anti-aliasing to sprites made on piskel.

(I apologize if there already is, but I didn’t found it.)

[Narrowism]

yes, thats exactly what I mean.

[juliandescottes]

Thanks for filing the issue.

Alpha channel/opacity was already discussed a bit. Fully supporting alpha channels in the color palette is way too heavy for the current implementation of Piskel.

Setting an opacity per layer is much more reasonable and could be a nice feature.

So the goal here would be to :

• add an opacity/alpha value in the Layer model
• display the layer's alpha value in the layers list
• allow the user to update the alpha [0..1]
• persist the layers alpha settings when saving/loading
• support the layer alpha when exporting to PNG
• support the layer alpha when exporting to GIF (? this is a bit tricky, we can't have an alpha channel for GIFs so we might need to force a background if any transparent pixel is detected with no background color)
• support the layers alpha in the animated preview
• support the layers alpha in the drawing area (should check what other softwares do here)

Need to check the impact on performance as well :

• how to fillRect transparent pixels: update the colors vs. set a global opacity?
• try to keep the impact as little as possible for users not using alpha layers

I'll take this one.

[Narrowism]

Ok... (I am pretty confused right now...) But thanks!

[juliandescottes]

@Narrowism sorry if this got confusing.
Long story short, the feature you are requesting is not imlemented in Piskel at all for the moment. The "layer preview opacity" you can find in the settings only impacts the rendering in the editor. It's a way to tell the program:

"when editing a Layer, all the other layers should still be visible but with a reduced opacity so that the current layer always remains visible".

Here what you are asking is to set an opacity per layer and to use this information when exporting to PNG.

My comment is just the list of items that need to be done when implementing this.
What @fernandodiacenco mentioned (having opacity in colors) would be nice but it is too heavy for Piskel at the moment.

[Narrowism]

oh, that ok. maybe you could add that feature to the offline editor version of Piskel or something. But thanks for responding! :D