How can I import an image as a channel in Gimp?

Question

I'm using Gimp because photoshop is too expensive. I was making a map for the game Zero-K and I need to add an image as a channel to use the texture, but I couldn't find a way to do this. There are no resources I could find on this.

I tried dragging and dropping an image into the channels tab

I went through every drop down menu item

I thought that maybe decomposing it might do something

I basically need a way to turn an image into a texture

Answer 1

If your image is grayscale, decompose it using rgba, add the alpha channel if necessary.

Then, delete the alpha layer, duplicate one of the other layers, and rename it alpha.

Compose it, and drag the layer back into the project you were working on. Then move the layer you added to the top of the list of layers.

Answer 2

Method #1

• Import/open the image as a layer
• Make sure it is the only visible layer
• Open the Channels list, and drag the relevant R, G, or B channel at the top down in the general Channels list to copy it.

Method #2

• Clipboard-copy the image (Gimp or another app)
• Create and image, open the Channels list, right click and New channel
• Edit>Paste (Ctrl-V) and Layer>Anchor layer (Ctrl-H) (which despite its name will anchor the selection in the channel).