Problem with Transparency using PixelGrabbar.

Question

Well, im having a problem.
Im creating a basic 2d game and using images, since im using alot of images and they are being drawn alot i use a class i call "GameSprite", basically it retrieves the file needed and then keeps it in a pixel array, but transparency dosn't seem to work with it. The reason im using this is because say i have 100 images to draw, it dosn't need to keep using the drawImage method because it draws all at once using a set drawing area on which the pixel arrays are possitioned, for example this is the drawing;
public void drawGraphics(int xOffset, Graphics g, int yOffset)
        setImageConsumer();
        g.drawImage(drawingAreaImage, xOffset, yOffset, this);
.private synchronized void setImageConsumer()
        if(imageConsumer != null)
            imageConsumer.setPixels(0, 0, drawingAreaHeight, drawingAreaWidth, colorModel, drawingAreaSize, 0, drawingAreaHeight);
            imageConsumer.imageComplete(2);
    }Here is the basic's of what it does, note i used URL just for a test if you wanted to test (image still is uploaded there);
Image image = Toolkit.getDefaultToolkit().createImage(new URL("http://i166.photobucket.com/albums/u116/the_owner2007/testtrans.png"));
          image = setTransparency(image, new Color(255, 89, 255));
          ImageIcon icon = new ImageIcon(image);
          imageWidth = icon.getIconWidth();
          imageHeight = icon.getIconHeight();
          imagePixels = new int[imageWidth * imageHeight];
          PixelGrabber pixelgrabber = new PixelGrabber(image, 0, 0, imageWidth, imageHeight, imagePixels, 0, imageWidth);
             pixelgrabber.grabPixels();If i use for example a JLabel and set an ImageIcon as the image the transparency works, otherwise i can't figure it out.
Here is the setTransparency method;
public static Image setTransparency(Image im, Color color) {
        //the color to make transparent
        final int markerRGB = color.getRGB() & 0x00FFFFFF;
        ImageFilter filter = new RGBImageFilter() {
            public int filterRGB(int x, int y, int rgb) {
                if ((rgb & 0x00FFFFFF) == markerRGB) {
                    return markerRGB;
                } else {
                    return rgb;
        ImageProducer ip = new FilteredImageSource(im.getSource(), filter);
        return java.awt.Toolkit.getDefaultToolkit().createImage(ip);
If you can think of an alternative solution which would work better and possibly more efficiant please feel free to post that.
Thanks.

Answer 1

drawingAreaImage = component.createImage(this);Note that images created through this method are often times immutable. They will not respond to changes in the underlying ImageProducer. So "drawingAreaImage" is essentially a snapshot of whatever pixels "this" gave it.
An exception to this rule is if you use MemoryImageSource and set the animated flag,
int[] pixels = ....
MemoryImageSource imageProducer = ....
imageProducer.setAnimated(true);
drawingAreaImage = component.createImage(imageProducer);This time, whenever pixels is modified you can call imageProducer.newPixels() and the image will be updated.
On a side note, you are using a very old method of dealing with images (over a decade old since java 1.0 and 1.1). Are you doing this for compatability purposes? I would recommend you drop the ImageProducer/Consumer model entirely and stick with BufferedImages (which as been around since 1.2 and was the "upgrade" from the ImageProducer/Consumer model).