Avatar -still or animated?

[nevermore]

As far as animated goes, I lack the necessary skills to do it well, like Temis and flamingliberal and a few others.

I also lack the necessary skills to do a still avatar well. I don't let that stop me!

People keep saying they don't have the skill. In my case, I only learned how to make animated gifs for the purpose of making avatars whne I joined the board. It took an hour or so once I started playing around with the program (at the time I used Ulead Gif animator, which is really easy because it lets you just import a specified segment of video-no capping!). I have absolutely no artistic talent whatsoever, and no training in anything related to computers or graphics, but it's quite simple. It's really just finding a good bit of motion, capping it and then cutting out frames until it works and fits the size restraints. The one I'm using now took about 15 minutes to cap and animate*...

*It's from the intro to a Cory McCabe film called The American Astronaut. I realize I'm probably one of only two people on this board who have seen it (and I basically forced the other one too sit there and watch it), but it's really great. Go. Watch it. Now.

 

[auntiehill]

There should have been an option for "No Preference." There are excellent (and horrible) avatars of both kinds. And, personally, I have no intention of laying off my little friend.

My first Bloo av was animated, but I quit using it after someone told me it made them seasick:

"Do Not Fall Down Stairs" was also very good. I mean, it always made me cringe because of the implication, but it was very well done.

Oh yeah, this one:

The reason I used that one was because, back when I first got active on the BBS, I was homebound because I had fallen down the stairs of our new home and broken my foot rather badly. I wasn't supposed to walk on it for 2 weeks. Some one asked how I managed it, and I had to go into the rather ridiculous circumstances. So, it made the perfect av for me at the time.

 

[mimic]

People keep saying they don't have the skill.

My biggest problem is finding software for gifs. I tried a few free programs; they sucked and I promptly gave up.

 

[nevermore]

People keep saying they don't have the skill.

My biggest problem is finding software for gifs. I tried a few free programs; they sucked and I promptly gave up.

Ah, yeah. I did obtain my Ulead version in a less-that-honest fashion. Switched to Imageready when i got it through work. I've never really tried any of the free versions of the software. Maybe this would be helpful for people who are interested...

 

[JonathonWally]

I do miss DsZ's crazy motion ones.

 

[Sakrysta]

While I can appreciate a well-crafted animated avatar, and I love seeing what people come up with for the contests (and even try it myself on occasion), I do not like them beside every post. I have this rather old-fashioned idea that nothing should move on a web page without deliberate input from the user, so... pretty much any and all incidental internet animation annoys the snot out of me. If it's there for a purpose - like the contests - okay. But all others - .

For a while there I would hit escape to stop them, but that got old after a while. Finally I just turned them off and told myself to re-learn people's screen names.

And yes, I realize Scorch's blinking eye makes me a bit hypocritical in my declaration of hatred for all gifs animated. One of these days I've got to freeze him.

 

[Moocey]

My avatar is animated. I think it's great and I don't ever plan changing it except for special occasions or jokes.

 

[Hoser]

I like the animated ones, especially the well looped ones.
I finally got my software together, so I might be able to make better ones.

Spiff used to make me some of my favourites.

 

[WillsBabe]

I prefer a still avatar, I'm not crazy about animated ones. Some are eyecatching and clever but more still are irritating and distrating. But none of them are as irritating as images in sigs.

 

[Omnius]

I'd love to have an animated avatar feat. Scrat. But I suck at making them, so I'm sticking to still ones.

 

[captcalhoun]

mine are all currently still because i no longer have Ulead Gif Animator since it wouldn't work on Vista and i can't be assed to find a newer free version...

If you have the frames and only need to make an animated loop, perhaps unFREEz: http://www.whitsoftdev.com/unfreez/ might do the trick!

that link doesn't work for me, it keeps trying to launch a redirect and i then get a Google/Dell window telling me they can't find the redirect page...

 

[RJDiogenes]

Oh yeah, this one:

Ow. Ow. Ow. Ow. Ow.

Good, though.

For a while there I would hit escape to stop them

Hey, cool; I didn't even know about that trick.

 

[ITL]

I found Beneton Movie GIF on a freeware site - I have no idea of it's any good, as I use ImageReady. Might be worth a look.

 

[Santaman]

I don't like moving avatars so mine is a still one..

 

[trekkiedane]

People keep saying they don't have the skill.

My biggest problem is finding software for gifs. I tried a few free programs; they sucked and I promptly gave up.

Ah, yeah. I did obtain my Ulead version in a less-that-honest fashion. Switched to Imageready when i got it through work. I've never really tried any of the free versions of the software. Maybe this would be helpful for people who are interested...

We have a couple of threads with helpful links in our very own Web Sites/Design forum on this site!

If you have the frames and only need to make an animated loop, perhaps unFREEz: http://www.whitsoftdev.com/unfreez/ might do the trick!

that link doesn't work for me, it keeps trying to launch a redirect and i then get a Google/Dell window telling me they can't find the redirect page...

Now, that is strange. -But as you (apparently) haven't heard of "Google" I shall use that and find this: http://www.snapfiles.com/get/unfreez.html
just for you

 

[Holdfast]

I'm partial to subtle yet hypnotic movement.

That explains Obama in your avatar, but what about the whirly-eyed toad?

 

[captcalhoun]

Now, that is strange. -But as you (apparently) haven't heard of "Google" I shall use that and find this: http://www.snapfiles.com/get/unfreez.html
just for you

i am perfectly familiar with Google, thank you, but i tried accessing the whitsoft site directly and had the same problem. at that juncture i hadn't tried locating it elsewhere...i was planning to, however...

 

[trekkiedane]

Allright already, on re-read I did notice some 'tone' in my post that needn't be there, sorry 'bout that

 

[Roger Wilco]

I tried to get my avatar animated once (I wanted the pixel-figure to walk), put some time into it, but it didn't really look good enough. Maybe I'll try again if I'm sufficiently motivated

Animated - the challenge and the opportunity for comedy is greater.

I LOVE your avatars, especially when there are moving Andorian antennae.

 

[Spaceman Spiff]

Tonight I decided to stop being lazy and made this animated one.

ImageReady's "import folder as frames" option makes it much easier. I just do a bunch of screencaps, save them all to a folder, then import them. From there, it's just finding the right loop through trial and error.

It's from The Brain from Planet Arous, and yes, I own the DVD.