the cool kid's way to make transparent TF2 sprays

Just about every tutorial you read out there to make transparent TF2 sprays (or other source engine games) involves making a .tga file with an alpha channel.. but this isn't necessary (at least in my experience!)

It is much easier to make your spray as a PNG. You don't have to mess with the alpha channel - just make your transparency by deleting areas of your image or by starting with a transparent canvas and painting/pasting/typing on top of it. Just make sure that:

1. Your image is 256x256 pixels, RGB, 8 bits per channel
2. When you import the image (your PNG) into VTFedit, uncheck the "Generate Mipmaps" checkbox. For tranparent images, make sure that the "Alpha Format" dropdown is on "DXT5". everything else can stay default.
3. When VTFedit loads your image, you should be able to see the transparency. If not, check if view > mask is unchecked and check it.
   
4. Save your VTF. (file > save as)
5. Copy your spray (the VTF) into : steam\steamapps\{username}\TF2\tf\materials\VGUI\logos
6. Also copy your spray into : steam\steamapps\{username}\TF2\tf\materials\VGUI\logos\UI
7. When you load Team Fortress 2, to to options > multiplayer tab and import your spray.
8. Enjoy!

Here's the spray I made using this method:


Yes keyboard cat from the shirt "three keyboard cat moon" from threadless.com! =D