Help editing the alpha channel in Paint.net or PSElements 10?

[piggypeach]

Okay. So I'm trying to improve my sims 3 recoloring skills.

I'm trying to make some eyebrows. And the thing is, I don't want it to be the little white image floating in space, I want it to be white on black, in other words, I'm trying to edit the alpha channel. I'm not much of a computer wiz, so.. please don't use lots of tech talk. I have Photoshop Elements 10, which I am most comfortable with, but as I understand, there is no DDS plugin for Elements 10. So what I've been doing is opening the DDS in paint.net, saving it as a PNG, opening it in Elements 10 and editing it there, saving the PNG, then reopening it in paint.net and saving it as a DDS.

This is not working for me. It would be a lot easier if I could just edit the alpha channel in photoshop elements 10 or AT LEAST paint.net. I downloaded the alpha mask import plugin for paint.net, and I don't know how to use it. At all. Help?

by the way, I found the plugin here (http://forums.getpaint.net/index.php?/topic/1854-alpha-mask-import-plugin-20/).

[BloomsBase]

download dxtbmp, it saves any texture in any format you want
A very reliable tool!

[BloomsBase]

And you can try this: http://forums.adobe.com/thread/885988

[alfiemoon]

I was doing more or less what you were, but was using Gimp instead of paint.net. I have elements 8 but when I had a major pc crash and had to re-install everything, I mysteriously found myself with a DDS add on for elements! I assume that this was automatically downloaded when I re-installed because I certainly didn't seek it out having never found one before. I have looked and found this link though not sure if it will work, but it might be worth a go:

http://developer.nvidia.com/nvidia-texture-tools-adobe-photoshop

The first screenshot on this download page, about half way down on the right, is the exact same screen that I get and you get an option in there for the alpha channel. Hope this works! :)