Transparent Background Question

Ok I have been making icons for Ballericons.com and making them for myself. I use Adobe Photoshop 6.0 and ImageReady 3.0. Im sure most of you know how to make icons. Well This question is for you. At Ballericons.com they have some requirements on how to make ur icons. This is one of them and I DONT UNDERSTAND how to do this! Read this:

"After completion of the icon you will need to save the image in .GIF format. (PAY ATTENTION HERE, TRANSPARENT BACKGROUND is VERY IMPORTANT) In doing so you will also need to set the transparency of the background. This part may be a bit complicated but you'll get through it. As you might know when you view your icon, you see the icon with a gray background. This is unacceptable. When you save your icon as a .GIF you should be prompted to choose a color to make transparent. Obviously choose the gray. So it will look like this...."

Please if any of you know who to do this or have made icons before... PLEASE HELP!!!

You can also go and look at what I am talking about ...

You can look at examples at:
http://www.ballericons.com

Or read the "How to Make Icons" section at:
http://www.ballericons.com/?pg=howto

Thanks!

For Photoshop when you go to "save for web" and save it as a GIF, look at the "matte" option that is to the right of the transparency check box. This is where you can choose what color will be seen when the graphic is viewed without having a transparent background. In Imageready, the matte option is under the "optimize" window. If its not visible on the optimize menu, click the small arrow on top of the optimize menu and go to "show options". The matte option will then appear.

That's what they're talking about. They just apparently didn't know how to say it very well.

Thanks!

Actually, I read that whole paragraph where they explained the transparent GIF problem they have.

I "think" all they're trying to say is just make sure you have a transparent background, you don't have to fool with the matte settings.

I think they are just trying to explain to non-photoshop users how to make sure the background on their GIF is is transparent. As long as the box is checked for transparency on the 'save for web" option in photoshop, you should be safe with them. In imageready, it basically keeps your background transparent if you don't have one on the picture when you bring it over from photoshop.

Ok wait, it didnt work.... What I do is make the different layers in Photoshop and just save it....not "Save for Web" am i supposed to do that? Im confused...the way I have been doing it seemed to work fine but I have a feeling its the wrong way. How does everyone else make there Icons? I save it as a Photoshop (*PSD *PDD) file and just open it up in Image Ready. If I save it for web in Photoshop it doesnt give me all the layers in Image Ready....

If its a static, motionless graphic, it can be saved as an icon right in photoshop.


If its animated, save it in imageready. If you left the picture without a background in photoshop when you created it and imported it into imageready, it shouldn't have a background when you save the icon in imageready. Thats how I do it anyway. My signature graphic was done in the same method (the empty areas on my sig GIF are transparent)

I use the same method MrB uses....I build on a layer "above" the background layer....

Then when I am finished I delete the "background" layer and use "save for web"

select .gif as the file type

check the "transparency" checkbox

make sure the matte if set to "none"

and save

if it is to be animated...

Again I use the same method MrB uses.