Cut a gif from grey background and save to transparent one?

[Draeger]

I have a gif here with a logo on it.

It's sat on a grey background.

I'm using Fireworks and want to cut around the edges of the logo and then save it on a transparent background so I can import it into a Flash animation.

I use the Magic Wand tool, delete the grey background then go to Image Preview, select Alpha Transparency from the drop down menu and export it as a gif from there.

But when I open it back up, placing it on top of any image that I will be using in the Flash animation, the logo shows really ugly white pixels around its edge.

I've also tried using the "Feather" tool but the results are not really any better. Thought it might be the Magic Wand that wasn't doing a great job so sat and used the Lasso tool to try and be a bit more accurate, but I'm still getting these awful looking white/light pixels around the edge?.

I've tried faffing around doing something similar within Photoshop CS3, but again, results aren't great.

There's gotta be a trick to this, do you graphics guru's know how to go about this??!!!. I've seen folks here in the past posting up and saying "Hi - can I have this image on a transparent background please?" and graphics whizz types posting back with perfect examples saying "There ya go...!!!" so I know it can be done, I'm just tripping up trying to figure out how.

A thousand thanks to anyone that can help.

 

[Tripnologist]

Remove the background and save as a 24bit png if you just need to import it into flash.

 

[Draeger]

Hi, just tried that but no worky.

If I use the Magic Wand tool to select the grey background around the logo, then hit delete to remove the grey background and then go to Export it as a 24 bit PNG, there are no options in there for transparency ( like there are for exporting as a gif ) ?.

So when I open it back up and try and drop it down onto the image I want to add it to in Flash, the logo still has a white background.

 

[t31os]

In fireworks, use the magic wand tool again (anti-aliasing not feather).

When you export, use PNG but be sure to set the Matte to transparent, you should get a nicer finish, PNG24 or PNG32.

If you set the canvas to transparent and the matte to transparent when exporting it should look the same as it does when you have it open in fireworks.

Worst case scenario, post the image here and someone can do it for you...

Gifs work differently in that they won't look great without having a matte colour for edges, in most cases you would just use a matte close or of the colour of the image or background it's going to be placed on.