In light of the number of requests for custom avatars here at the BB, I thought it might be helpful to have some sort of walkthrough for members in the future in order to create and host their own avatars.

So, without further ado...

Step 1: Get Yourself a Decent Image Editing Program
You should have one anyways, but the best of the bunch are Adobe Photoshop , Paint Shop Pro , and Gimp (which is free) . You can also use Microsoft paint, but it is very basic, and the free Gimp program is actually quite powerful.

Step 2: Pick Your Image, Not Your Nose
Be it Google, Yahoo, or some other giant search engine, there are bajillions of images out there ripe for the avatar picking. Once you've selected one (or multiple), save it to your computer (right click --> save image as). Now you're ready to customize.

NOTE: The best images are square images, or images you can crop to a square later. You're also better off using smaller images (but at least 72x72), as when you resize them they will retain more of the image detail. --JG

Step 3: Image Editing
Now that you've got your picture, open up your image editor (which you should install, btw). Feel free to change colors, add text, or use cool effects. The bottom line is using the resize option in the editor to change the image to 72x72 pixels, the limit here at the BB.

You might notice your picture loses a bit of quality, or really doesn't look very good when shrunk down. You've got a couple of choices - use the 'crop' feature to try and narrow down the image to a specific portion you want, which will look better when resized. Or, you could try and find a new image.

NOTE: If you are working with a GIF image, and need to shrink it down, first convert it to RGB Mode so it doesn't get distorted. GIFs don't resize very well, but RGB (JPG) images do. After you resize the GIF in RGB mode, you may convert it back to a GIF (Index Mode) if the final file size is smaller. --JG

NOTE: GIF images are best for lineart/cartoons/graphics/clipart/animations, etc. The JPG format should be used for photographs, or very complex graphics. --JG

Step 4: Photobucket - Not Just For Rainy Days
An excellent free hosting service is Photobucket , which is one of many free sites that lets you upload the images you've created on your computer. Once you've edited your image, create a photobucket account, and upload the image. When that is all done, right click on the picture, and copy the URL of the image. This is vital for the next step.

NOTE: Or, simply click once in the URL box (NOT Tag or Img) and copy the address... --JG

NOTE: You can host any images on Photobucket, not just avatars. In fact, you really should, rather than leeching bandwidth from other sites. Upload the image as usual, but this time you can either: Copy the code in the IMG box, and simply paste it into a post; or, Copy the URL as above, and use the IMAGE button when posting, and paste the URL into it. The first way is just a bit faster. --JG

Step 5 - Copying and Pasting the URL
Go into your user profile here at the BB, and click the avatar select screen. Paste the URL of your image into the box at the bottom, and then hit 'set URL'. Finally, click the button on the top left that says 'use this avatar,' and you now have your own custom image, hosted off the BB, and made whenever and however you want it!

NOTE: Custom Avatars (and Custom Titles) are reserved for those with 50+ posts ("Buttons" or higher). --JG

NOTE: It's recommended that you test your avatar here before posting on the main forums, to be sure it came out as expected. --JG

Happy Imaging!

-DJ

Thanks for that! I've been meaning to do the same thing.

I've added a few comments to your post...

Thanks...your directions probably make it clearer for the beginner.

Clearer, or more confusing... one or the other!

Well...I wrote it, which obviously puts it all into perspective.

I was wondering if someone could explain how to go about making a moving, changing avatar, like your current one Double J.

Again, use Gimp.
Make as many images as the number of frames you want in the final animated picture. More frames will make the image big. Open the Layers dialog in Gimp. Put each image into a different layer. You can rename the layer by appending the time each frame has to be on before the next frame appears. Something like layer 2 (100ms). This means that the layer 2 will appear for 100 milli seconds or in other words a tenth of a second. After renaming all the layers this way, save it as Gif. There is an option to save as animated Gif. Also check the "optimize" option to get a small animated avatar. If the changes from frame to frame are minimal, the size after optimization will be small. On the other hand, if they are unrelated images, it will be quite big.

Thanks, I'll be trying that at some point.

Any one know where i can get John Lennon or the Beatles Avaters from

Sticky! (Hooray)

http://members.aol.com/pop1rock1/JohnLennon/pictures.html
http://images.google.com/images?q=j...fficial&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wi

Help I read through Double J's instructions I visited the sites he listed. And I still have no idea what I'm doing.

I posted this about a couple weeks ago but something happened and the post was lost.

And as for microsoft paint, well hell I can't even find that on my computer anywhere.

So could someone please resize this pic again, it would be appreciatted. Like I stated earlier, I have no clue about this stuff. For example I visted that gimp site and I was totally lost, I had no idea what to download. It was all foreign to me.

Here is the pic in question.

Pic


Heck guys if I even had a slight clue as to what I was doing, I'd do it myself. But knowing my stupidity when it comes to computers, I'd totally screw my computer all up.

And I've had it in the shop more than once, and I prefer not to go through that again.


Thanks in advance.

Find a place to host it (Filedump, AOL Gallery, etc.), or maybe Geoff can.

Don't look at me! At least not until the new BB software is up and running

Try a free hosting site then, because I'll be taking it off mine shortly.

Could you please give me a name of a free hosting site? I can't remember any right at the moment.

Thanks in advance.

No problem.

Imageshack and Free Image Hosting are both decent and free.

[Need to un-stick, but want it near the top --JG]

My thread is too awesome to be "unstuck."

Spammer

A lot of info -- including this -- needs to be updated now... It's on The List.

Would you like me to update it then?

I'm following your instructions however I cannot get my avatar down to 5kb. I'm saving it at 64x64 as a .jpg and it's 12.1kb

Any advice on how to get an image of that size down to just 5kb?

Lower the JPG setting until it's small enough... say, 50-60% or so... or, attach it here and I'll take a look at it...

http://www.xat.com/io/index.html
http://tools.dynamicdrive.com/imageoptimizer/ http://www.netmechanic.com/GIFBot/optimize-graphic.htm

If you're using Photoshop, just "Save For Web" and choose jpg for photos, and gif for lineart. You can adjust the jpg compression and gif color depth there, too, to reduce the file size... Most should be well under 5k if done properly, yet still look good at 72x72 (or smaller)

oops!
here is where I meant to post
http://www.gangsterbb.net/threads/ubbthr...ge=0#Post336162