How to set a transparent "color" for animations

[Mizato]

So, I'm trying to make an animation with Kingdom Hearts magic sprites. However, instead of having a transparent background or something that contrasts the rest of the sprites, it has a black background. And that seems like no problem, right? I use paint.net so I could just use the wand tool and get rid of it all.

Well...see, when the ripper got this sprite, some of the pixels (alot) were suppose to have a certain level of transparency. So, now that they're merged with the black the wand obviously wont separate the two. I've tried googling what could possibly help me, but got no luck.

Basically, I need something that can set pure black to a default transparency, and sort of scale it somehow. These rippers must have had a reason to put the effects on black, right? There has to be some way to make them usable.

Links for examples:
http://www.spriters-resource.com/game_bo...heet/1139/
http://fc03.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2012/0...4qwoon.png

Thanks for looking at my post.

[puggsoy]

Unfortunately this is just bad sheeting. Any sprites with anti-aliasing should be on a transparent background. There's no way to remove the background and get back the original sprites.

That said, if you're finding 2 sheets that both use black backgrounds, it might be that the game actually stores them with this background. The second sheet seems to especially suggest this. But it could also just be that the sprites only appear on a black background (since I assume both of these were hard-ripped).

It looks like the only option to get the sprites with transparency is for someone to rip them directly from the ROM. Sorry

[Mizato]

...

In-game they don't appear with a black background, so it must be the game itself. I'm lost on how others are able to use these animations, since I haven't found a single sheet without the black.

Well, thanks for replying. Guess I'm just SOL :/

[TheShyGuy]

With whatever program you're using, try additive blending. The black is (0,0,0,1), so it won't show up when drawn.

[Mizato]

...

Wow, that worked really well! However, I am still at a loss on how to extract those sprites and put them on a transparent background, since using this method retains the blackness.

But thanks, this is the first lead I've gotten.