This one any better?
Avatar -still or animated?
- Thread starter trekkiedane
- Start date
This one any better?
Speaking of animated avatars...
What's the general technique involved with making an avatar look like a video? I've seen a few people achieve this (NCC-1701, orac, Praetor...). But rather than asking them directly, I figured it would be more useful to share the info with others here...
What's the general technique involved with making an avatar look like a video? I've seen a few people achieve this (NCC-1701, orac, Praetor...). But rather than asking them directly, I figured it would be more useful to share the info with others here...
I do automatic screen captures with KMPlayer (setting it to capture every third frame usually works), then I delete the frames I don't want. For help with setting automatic screencaps with KMPlayer, here's a tutorial.
Next, I put them all in a folder, then import the folder into ImageReady.
(My experience is limited to ImageReady, so if you have it, this might help; if not, hopefully someone can explain how to do it in your image editor of choice.)
I add a top layer with a border, then tweak the color and lossiness settings.
This will usually do it if the scene only needs 7-9 frames or so. If it needs more, and enough of the frame is static enough, I'll copy those parts and add them to the top layer. That way, the static portions of the frames "floats" over the parts that move. That can reduce the filesize significantly. Here are some good examples of that:
For the first, I drew a selection around the Doctor, then inverted the selection and copied it, so the baseball field, sky and sign almost work like a large border. That allowed me to have the Doctor move quite a bit. Same thing with Medusa.
Sometimes you can't do that, though, and you just have to use trial and error to see what loops well. That's what happened with these:
Animated shows and movies work really well, because a lot of animation is looped anyway:
Sometimes you can force a loop by letting it go to four frames or so, then back the other way. That's what I did with these:
If there are two quick shots, it loops easily:
If all else fails, you can reduce the size of the frame:
Next, I put them all in a folder, then import the folder into ImageReady.
(My experience is limited to ImageReady, so if you have it, this might help; if not, hopefully someone can explain how to do it in your image editor of choice.)
I add a top layer with a border, then tweak the color and lossiness settings.
This will usually do it if the scene only needs 7-9 frames or so. If it needs more, and enough of the frame is static enough, I'll copy those parts and add them to the top layer. That way, the static portions of the frames "floats" over the parts that move. That can reduce the filesize significantly. Here are some good examples of that:
For the first, I drew a selection around the Doctor, then inverted the selection and copied it, so the baseball field, sky and sign almost work like a large border. That allowed me to have the Doctor move quite a bit. Same thing with Medusa.
Sometimes you can't do that, though, and you just have to use trial and error to see what loops well. That's what happened with these:
Animated shows and movies work really well, because a lot of animation is looped anyway:
Sometimes you can force a loop by letting it go to four frames or so, then back the other way. That's what I did with these:
If there are two quick shots, it loops easily:
If all else fails, you can reduce the size of the frame:
^ Awesome work!
Sometimes I run a video file through VirtualDub, select the range I want, save as an uncompressed AVI and load it into ImageReady for animating.
I did the "panning around the picture" thing in my current avatar by making the image bigger than the canvas in Photoshop, then once again animating in ImageReady.
Sometimes I run a video file through VirtualDub, select the range I want, save as an uncompressed AVI and load it into ImageReady for animating.
I did the "panning around the picture" thing in my current avatar by making the image bigger than the canvas in Photoshop, then once again animating in ImageReady.
Okay, that's damn scary and freaky full-size!
Okay, something less scary then! 
Next I created this one:
But I wasnt really happy with the animation.. So I decided to do something simpler:
Which was too big for an av, so I cropped it:
For those interested, I used Avidemux to convert a selection of frames into jpg's.
Then I used GIMP to create the animated gif. (I'm on Ubuntu)
Next I created this one:
But I wasnt really happy with the animation.. So I decided to do something simpler:
Which was too big for an av, so I cropped it:
For those interested, I used Avidemux to convert a selection of frames into jpg's.
Then I used GIMP to create the animated gif. (I'm on Ubuntu)
I used to make animated avatars all the time, they kept making me win the SF avatar contests as well Then I gradually posted less on the boards so why put all the effort in animation when a still can convey much as well. The one I'm using right now is the first animated one since years. But I've always tried to have the best of both worlds and create an animation in a still image.
Then I gradually posted less on the boards so why put all the effort in animation when a still can convey much as well. The one I'm using right now is the first animated one since years. But I've always tried to have the best of both worlds and create an animation in a still image.
I like animated avatars.
I love my tail-moving avatar which NCC-1701 animated for me. It, or seasonal variations of it are here to stay.
EDITED TO ADD - I have just realised that the infamous butthole has been filled in in this Canon Violation avatar. I can only conclude that Trekkiedane (who added the words to my avatar) doesn't like cats' buttholes.
I love my tail-moving avatar which NCC-1701 animated for me. It, or seasonal variations of it are here to stay.
EDITED TO ADD - I have just realised that the infamous butthole has been filled in in this Canon Violation avatar. I can only conclude that Trekkiedane (who added the words to my avatar) doesn't like cats' buttholes.
Oh my! -you didn't get it yet still wear it
The missing butthole is the canon violation!
Edit:
AA, all those animated ones you made in that contest were also brilliantly composed. I learned a lot from watching your work
AA, all those animated ones you made in that contest were also brilliantly composed. I learned a lot from watching your work
Thank you for the praise
Silly me. I didn't even notice the butthole was missing, yet alone think about the reason why.
I will put this lack of understanding down the the fact that I have been in pain the last few days and the combination of painkillers and lack of sleep has befuddled my brain (not sure if anyone will believe that though).
I like mine animated, because a dancing banana just isn't a dancing banana if it isn't... well... dancing!
I've seen a lot of really classy stills though - I don't necessarily think one type is better than the other.
I've seen a lot of really classy stills though - I don't necessarily think one type is better than the other.
That's how I understood it when I first saw it.
I wish you get better, Miss Chicken.
About the OP, I'm not choosing between still and animated. It just depends. And I'm one of those who hate it when the text flashes by too quickly.
I also think that a good avatar shouldn't need a caption - with a few exceptions, mostly for jokes.
I got it down to 52k by going to 64 colours instead of 256 and making it a bit "lossy" (it has a similar effect to JPG compression on the image) in ImageReady:
I made this for a contest once:
Well, I for one enjoy animated avatars (or even interesting still ones). I think they help keep the conversation interesting even when the topics get dull.
Heck, I've been known to read some people's posts just because I know that at least their avatar will be amusing even if the thread topic isn't.
Heck, I've been known to read some people's posts just because I know that at least their avatar will be amusing even if the thread topic isn't.
