As far as making the top banner transparent, you have to find the actual image on your computer. It should be in the plazmic directory somewhere. Then you'll open it in an image editing software, preferably Photoshop (I love Photoshop) and change the opacity to make it as transparent as you'd like. Than save the image and the next time your run Plazmic it should be transparrent.
Don't forget to make a back up of the banner image first though.