Hooza Time for some learning again. OK, few pictures today ''cause I dont have Director installed on that machine, and it would have been useful so I could show you the actual alpha channel at work. But anyway, if you are using Photoshop (I have version 6.0), jut follow the instructions, it''s simple enough. Simply take a picture that you have and that you want to make translucent (I use this word to distinguish from colour keying, which would be transparent). For instance, you could draw a cursor like the Windows one, a cursor, with a drop shadow. Simple enough to do, and it demonstrates the concept quite nicely. So, create a new picture. Wether there is a background or not is irrelevant, as you''ll see. DONT DRAW ON THE BACKGROUND ! Simply create a new empty layer. This is where you do your stuff. So in our case, let''s draw a cursor (a massive one, of course, since you can always make it smaller afterwards. As you can see, I have three layers : one for the lineout on top, one for the colour and another one for the shadow. The truth is, it doesnt matter. What matters is that once you are done and want to create the alpha layer, you select ALL THE LAYERS. To do that, Ctrl+Shift+click on each layer (you have to hold the shift and ctrl for EACH layer, even the first time you click). Then simply go the the Channels panel, and click on the "Save selection as channel" button (the second one, that looks like the Quickmask button). Done ! Notice that the channel is called ... Alpha1 ! So there. Now if you save to PNG, and if you have Director, you can import the picture as is and observe how well the alpha layer works. If not, you''ll have to wait until I get access to Director again The file format that you save to has to support alpha layers, and the software you import into, too. I suggest PNG because I am familiar with it and it''s very well documented on the Net (it''s an open format). But if you wanna use another one, it''s your work. And if you dont understand something in here, ask me. I did this in 10 minutes, so there is probably not as much info as you might want, and I didnt want to confuse you with too much details for a first time. Good luck Sancte Isidore ora pro nobis !