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Flash CS4 Export As 24bit+Alpha PNG Solution

Software  Tutorials

Today I was going through some design files that were sent to me to be added to a website I’m helping to develop. The designs were drawn in Flash CS4. I needed to work with these files in Photoshop, so I went to export the files as a 24-bit PNG with Alpha and blending, except Flash decided it wasn’t going to play nice.

The picture on the left is how the image appears in Flash, and on the right is the exported PNG. The problem is that Flash wasn’t correctly handling the alpha during export. So instead of the smooth edges in the left image, we have the ugly aliased edges seen on the right.

What I needed was the alpha information, or at the very least, an alpha mask. Since Flash wasn’t behaving, here’s how I made one:

1. Export the image twice; once with a black background, and once with a white background. Instead of exporting as “24 bit with alpha channel”, simply export it as “24 bit”. Other than the background, the images should be identical.
2. Open both the images in Photoshop, and put them in the same document.
3. Select the top-most layer, and set its blending mode to “Difference”.

4. Merge the layers (Layer > Flatten Image).
5. Invert the document (Image > Adjustments > Invert).

What you should now have is a greyscale image. The background should be black, and all the features white.

6. Select the entire document, and copy it.
7. Open one of the images you exported, and create a new layer mask (Layer > Layer Mask > Reveal All).
8. Paste the greyscale image into the mask.

You should now have an image with perfectly smoothed edges. If you notice a slight white or black outline surrounding the edges, you can use “Defringe” or “Remove White\Black Matte” from the Image menu.

Enjoy!

Error 1327 Solution

Software  Uncategorized

I encountered an interesting problem recently on a number of computers. Whenever I tried to install some software (iTunes, Steam, etc), it would throw up the following error and terminate:

Error 1327. Invalid Drive: Drive Letter


It appears you will encounter this if either:

1. One of the paths to your “special folders” is changed to a location which is invalid,
2. A registry value to the drive on which Windows is installed is not actually the location of Windows.

Microsoft suggests using the Windows Registry Editor to manually check if the keys are invalid, however, this only helps solve the first issue listed above, and not the second. It is also not very friendly for those unfamiliar with the registry.

However, if you were like me, you would have done the above steps, checked the “Special Folders” and found everything to be valid and still have the error appear.

So here are two solutions

1. Fix with Window’s XP TweakUI

This solution is for those who are using Windows XP, and either are fairly novice with the Windows Registry or for those who already have TweakUI installed (as there seems to be a correlation between this error and a previous installation of TweakUI).

1. Download Microsoft’s TweakUI PowerToy.
2. Once installed, run the TweakUI program.
3. Click the “My Computer” category, and select the “Special Folders” sub-section.
4. Under “Folder“, select each of the options and check that their locations are valid. Pay particular attention to the “Installation Path” option, as this is should point to the drive in which Windows was installed.

If this is in fact the source of the problem, this path will be set to something other than your operating system’s drive. Mine was set to F:\, when it should have been C:\.

Press “Change Location” to specify the drive on which Windows XP was installed. Once done, you will have to log out and back in again to complete the changes.

2. Fix by altering your Windows Register

If you feel comfortable with adjusting the Windows Registry, then the manual steps are below:

1. Press Start, then Run.
2. Type regedt32
3. Navigate to: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Setup
4. Look for the SourcePath key, its value should be set to the path in which you installed Windows. If its not the correct path, then this is most probably the source of the trouble.
5. Follow the information in Microsoft’s KB Article 327763 to check the other Special Folders (as they are included in a different part of the registry).

With any luck, this should solve your problem. Any issues or concerns, leave a message below or email me directly.

Fixing LimeWire’s Crash-On-Start Bug

Software

I reinstalled LimeWire earlier today and remembered why I uninstalled it in the first place. LimeWire would install and load correctly, but upon loading it would crash before connecting. I Google’d for numerous solutions, but none managed to prevent its untimely demise.

It wasn’t until my recent failings did I realize the fatal error only occurred in version 1.6 of the JRE. The solution was simple, run LimeWire under version 1.5. The last revision of the 1.5 JRE is update 13, which must be installed before we can trick LimeWire into running. Our lives are made simpler by the fact that Java doesn’t uninstall previous versions of the JRE when an update is installed.

The easiest way to check is to browse over to C:\Program Files\Java and look for a folder named jre1.5.0_13. If this folder exists you’re in luck. If not, visit Sun’s archive page for JRE 1.5 Update 13 and click the link labelled “Download JRE”.

With Update 13 installed, create a new shortcut in your start menu or desktop and set its destination to the following address (even though its split over multiple lines, it should only be one line):
"C:\Program Files\Java\jre1.5.0_13\bin\java.exe"
-jar "C:\Program Files\LimeWire\LimeWire.jar"

This makes the presumption that your copy of LimeWire is installed under C:\Program Files\LimeWire. If you installed it elsewhere, you will have to change the address. Visa versa for Java.

Running LimeWire is now as simple as double-clicking the shortcut. However, it should be noted that instead of one LimeWire window, two will now appear. The first will be a command prompt. Its ugly, but do not close it as it will also close LimeWire.