Creating and Uploading Avatars

[tbhrc]

Here is a little tutorial. I use Adobe Photoshop 7, but it is pretty much the same with every other program like:

Gimp Photofiltre

Always try to use images without watermarks, that makes it a lot easier.....

It's okay if the size is not exactly 80x80, 79x80 or 80x78 is also okay, just make sure that the bigger side is not larger than 80......

 

[Juanita]

Thank you, tbhrc!

I made some avatars are made by photos with watermarks but the watermark is in the midlle of the photo but if i enlarge the photo i can see the watermark. Is there any problem if the avatars have 80x78 or 79x80?

 

[tbhrc]

No I don't think so, because you actually won't note that there is 1 pixel missing. But if the size is 40x80, I honestly think that's too small. And another tip, always remember to sharp your avatar, (you'll see the difference), and to change the brightness if they are too dark.

 

[Alexandria]

Is there any problem if the avatars have 80x78 or 79x80?

There is no problem with avatars that are 80x79 or 80x79 pixels in size, as our maximum avatar size is 80x80 pixels.

However, avatars which are proportionately noticeable in size, such as 60x80 pixels or something similar to that, will unlikely be included in the avatar gallery due to the consistency with the rest of the avatars in the gallery.

Avatars which are made with fuzzy or blurry images will also unlikely be included in the avatar gallery because the quality is not sufficient -- who wants an avatar of their favourite royal if it is unclear or grainy?

Avatars that are made using images that include the torso of a royal are also usually unclear as one is trying to include too much in such a small-shaped image. That is why mostly avatars are of faces.

 

[norwegianne]

No I don't think so, because you actually won't note that there is 1 pixel missing. But if the size is 40x80, I honestly think that's too small. And another tip, always remember to sharp your avatar, (you'll see the difference), and to change the brightness if they are too dark.

Sharpen it once and it's usually okay, but if you sharpen it more times than that, it can often become grainy.

 

[HRH Mims]

I'd like to learn how make "changing avatars". Where are more pictures in one avatars. Well, can someone help me?

 

[RhapsodyBrat]

I'd like to learn how make "changing avatars". Where are more pictures in one avatars. Well, can someone help me?

they're in GIF format. you can create them with Adobe PhotoShop or Adobe After Effects. indeed, maybe someone can help us create GIF avatars?

if there's anyone who would like to try Corel in making an avatar, i can help out with simple avatars.

 

[Lady Jennifer]

What if you are having problems adjusting the pixels? I've been trying & everytime I fix one- the other one changes. For example- if I put 80 in the width- the height changes to 85....then if I try to put 80 in the height the width changes to 75

Ok so I was messing around in Microsoft Paint & was able to cut the size down but it would be nice to use Photoshop to size it- using Paint is such a guessing game.

 

[Alexandria]

What if you are having problems adjusting the pixels? I've been trying & everytime I fix one- the other one changes. For example- if I put 80 in the width- the height changes to 85....then if I try to put 80 in the height the width changes to 75

I use Corel to make my avatars and one of the options when sizing it is to maintain the ratio -- therefore if you're adjusting the width, the height automatically accomodates whatever size you've set the width to. If you unclick that option, you can set the width and height to whatever you want.

 

[HRH Mims]

For avatar making is the best program photofiltre I think. I tried a lot of, but this is simple and it has a lot of tools and functions. and it's for free too.
Lady Jenifer when you are marking avatar, are you holding SHIFT? By pressing shift, you'll do a square.

 

[Lady Jennifer]

No I hadn't been using Shift. I did find a way though in Photoshop to make the pixels 80x80 & the moderator size avatars (you see I made the avatar I'm using- I like to keep things simple )

Lady Jenifer when you are marking avatar, are you holding SHIFT? By pressing shift, you'll do a square.

 

[suturegeisha]

Not sure how useful this would be to anyone, but I thought that I'd post it anyway.

Adding a border to your avatars

Borders make your avatars look nice and clean, and they're very easy to do.
[This tutorial is for Adobe Photoshop- the particular version I am using is 7.0. I apologize but I have no experience with other programs so I can't tell you how to do this in Corel or PSP. Sorry!]


1] Select the avatar you want to use. I am using this nice one of Princess Mathilde walking with Prince Emmanuel.

2] Go to the Layers palette [if you can't find it, go to "Window" at the top of the screen and click it, and in the drop-down menu point to "Layers" and click it to make it checked. This will display the Layers palette]. Right click on the "Background" layer and select "Duplicate Layer".

A dialog box will pop up so that you can rename the new layer. For the sake of sanity I kept the name the same- "Background copy".

Right click on the "Background copy" layer in the Layers palette and select "Blending Options".

A dialog box will pop up. Check the box that says "Stroke" on the left-hand side at the bottom. [Note- make sure that you actually physically click on the word "stroke", otherwise the menu will not come up]

In the "Position" drop-down menu, select "inside".

Click on the rectangular box next to "color" [in my case the color of the box is red].

This will bring up the color picker. Select the color you want to use- in this example, I am using black.

After clicking "OK" on the color picker, you will come back to your original dialog box. Slide the selector by the "size" option over to "1" if it's not already there, and click "OK".

Ta-da! You're done! You should now have a nice border around your avatar. Looks nice and clean now, eh? ^_^

 

[suturegeisha]

Here is the finished product of my work in the post above:

But you can easily play around with the border size and colors to make it look different! Here is a white 3 px border [to change the px size of the border, slide the "size" selector in the stroke dialog box to whatever size you'd like]:

How about 3 px pink?:

Or, 3 px black [shows up a little better than 1 px]:

Play around with it, have fun, let me know if this tutorial was helpful at all.

 

[Juanita]

I was wondering if someone can tell me how can i do a moving avatar?

Thanks in advance

 

[JessRulz]

You need to have a gif animator ...JuAnItA...
They're easy to download free (or by trial period) on the internet, just google "gif animator"

 

[Juanita]

You need to have a gif animator ...JuAnItA...
They're easy to download free (or by trial period) on the internet, just google "gif animator"

Thank you very much, my dear!
I will try to do something...

 

[Humera]

JuAnItA try Microsoft GIF Animator, you can get it easily if you do a search on google.
I downloaded it a few days ago and it works perfectly for me. I had previously made several attempts to figure out how to do animations in photoshop but it gave me a headache every time.

 

[Juanita]

JuAnItA try Microsoft GIF Animator, you can get it easily if you do a search on google.
I downloaded it a few days ago and it works perfectly for me. I had previously made several attempts to figure out how to do animations in photoshop but it gave me a headache every time.

Thank you very much, Humera!
I will try to make some moving avatars!

 

[Marengo]

I couldn't find the sizes of the moderator avatars anywhere, could anybody tell me?
To make it more complicated, how do I put faces from 3 different pictures in 1 avatar? I want to make an avatar of Queen Beatrix, Queen Paola and Grand Duchess Maria-Teresa and one of Mathilde, Letizia and Maxima, one of Astrid Laurentien and Elena and one of Claire, Cristina and Sybilla (preferably all with tiara). If it is to difficult to explain, please let me know to as I can put the idea out of my head then.

 

[Maxie]

I think the moderator avatars are 80 by 160 pixels.
I don't know which programm you're using, btw. I only know how paint shop pro works, I'm afraid...

 

[norwegianne]

I couldn't find the sizes of the moderator avatars anywhere, could anybody tell me?
To make it more complicated, how do I put faces from 3 different pictures in 1 avatar? I want to make an avatar of Queen Beatrix, Queen Paola and Grand Duchess Maria-Teresa and one of Mathilde, Letizia and Maxima, one of Astrid Laurentien and Elena and one of Claire, Cristina and Sybilla (preferably all with tiara). If it is to difficult to explain, please let me know to as I can put the idea out of my head then.

160x80

Use a marking-tool to mark the part of the picture you want, copy and paste... I often like to first paste it into a new document and resize if needed before pasting it into the final avatar.

 

[acid_rain3075]

I was wondering how do you make avatars with the double borders? Like these ones that I found in the avatar galleries for the Belgian Royal Family:

Plus I have Adobe Photoshop CS2 so my application shouldn't be a problem because I think there aren't to many difference in photoshop 7 and CS2.

 

[HRH Mims]

Well, I hope, I may help you, but I use PhotoFiltre
but I think there shouldn't be a big problem.

at first choose your avatar (80x80, don't forget sharpen it)


now, do 1st frame:

It should be: - black
- oppacity 100%
- the most important width 3 pixels

then do 2nd frame:

It should be: - white
- oppacity 100%
- width 2 pixels

Final:
It should be: - black
- oppacity 100%
- Width 1 pixel

That's it:

I don't know if there's another way
I hope I helped you. Btw, as we may post avatars, I hope it's ok, I sent pics instead of links

 

[HRH_Liz]

I am wondering if anybody can tell me....how many posts I need to have in order to get an avatar or it doesn't matter? I am new and still learning. Thanks.

 

[norwegianne]

Anybody can have an avatar. Have you looked at the avatar gallery?

 

[dazzling]

What if you are having problems adjusting the pixels? I've been trying & everytime I fix one- the other one changes. For example- if I put 80 in the width- the height changes to 85....then if I try to put 80 in the height the width changes to 75

I think this is the problem of why tyour facing the above problem in photoshop;you have "constrain proportions" checked.

When you reduce the image size in the "image size box" make sure "constrain proportions" isnt checked.

But the good thing with it checked is that you wont get a funny looking avatar (ex, the picture would end up looking funny or wrong)

I hope this helps

 

[coco]

Don't forget to sharp your avatars! A few hours ago, I found out how to do it with the program I use. Now I am sharping all my avatars which I posted yesterday and they look much better!!! I should post them once again

 

[asturiana]

How can I write something (for example my name) on the avator ? Thanks.

 

[LadyK]

Depending on the program, it changes, but most of them should just have a font tool that you type in your words, then voila.

For aesthetics, you should always consider your font, color and size for legibility at the size it will be displayed at (80x80 pixels for TRF), because why go to the trouble of text if you can't read it?

Also, remember that any text used in an avatar must also follow the rules.

 

[TheTruth]

As you might have noticed, my avatar always changes. I'm actually trying to find the right picture that will match me and won't be modified for a long time. Although I'm very indecisive and I feel like I don't have the proper pic to illustrate me. So, that's why I need help . Please, people who have stuck to one and only avatar for a long time, tell me how you've managed to choose and why this particular one. Thanks