Making avatars

[Niorah]

i use GiMP on Vista too.

sometimes though, it decides it doesn't like my PC and won't run properly, so i've got Irfan View as a back up.

I used to have a similar problem with GIMP, I think the version I have now is more stable -or maybe it's my PC having more RAM than the one I had the problem on -could be anything really...

Are you guys using the 2.6.11 version?

 

[trekkiedane]

Apparently my GIMP is version 2.6.5 (Had to look it up).

 

[Australis]

Surprised none of you have mentioned IrfanView. It's pretty good for resizing and adding text, a snap to use, and free. I do believe it has a way of making animated gifs, but I never quite worked it out.

 

[trekkiedane]

^IrfanView has been mentioned twice in this thread -although not for it's abilities into inserting text (or other images) into images.

 

[Niorah]

Apparently my GIMP is version 2.6.5 (Had to look it up).

Thanks for checking, I just downloaded and installed the 2.6.11 version and apparently it's compatible with Windows 7 and works like a charm.

 

[trekkiedane]

^Forgive me for not paying attention -if you've already told us this- are you new to playing with images on a pc?

If so I feel we have to warn you that the learning-curve with regards to the GIMP is a bit steep.

But also encourage you to just google it if you have a problem: the community is very helpful and there are quite a lot of relatively simple tutorials out there!

ETA: Or just ask here -of course.

 

[JRS]

I usually use this site to re-size or crop a picture I am planning to use as avatar:
http://www.resizeyourimage.com/

 

[Niorah]

^Forgive me for not paying attention -if you've already told us this- are you new to playing with images on a pc?

If so I feel we have to warn you that the learning-curve with regards to the GIMP is a bit steep.

But also encourage you to just google it if you have a problem: the community is very helpful and there are quite a lot of relatively simple tutorials out there!

ETA: Or just ask here -of course.

Oh, no, I'm not new to playing around with images at large and avatars in the specific, not to worry. I have been using Paint Shop Pro for ages now, and I'd like to try something new and different. I had heard good things about GIMP before but I never got around to giving it a good try, which I will as soon as the need for photo manipulation arises. Thanks for the offer though! I'll definitely keep it in mind.

 

[trekkiedane]

Oh, no, I'm not new to playing around with images at large and avatars in the specific, not to worry. I have been using Paint Shop Pro for ages now, and I'd like to try something new and different. I had heard good things about GIMP before but I never got around to giving it a good try, which I will as soon as the need for photo manipulation arises. Thanks for the offer though! I'll definitely keep it in mind.

Didn't think so, but I'm usually not very observant anyway.

I grew up on PS and that Mac-equivalent (I don't remember the name but it used to say "quack" whenever you used the mouse) -Whenever I was on a course about computing I was subjected to PS (and WordPerfect -remember that?) and whenever I was working in graphics I had to re-adjust to the Mac-thing.

When I was a private person on my own PC I used a 'pirated' (off-line company version ) PS -only until I found GIMP of course!

You seem to be the one I might need for advice and hints!

 

[CaptainStoner]

Software that allows you to add a level of sharpness helps a lot.

 

[Skywalker]

I use Photobucket for editing JPGs, PNGs or other still images, and Adobe ImageReady for animated GIFs. I'm still not all that great at it, but I'm a lot better than I was when I first started out. Most of what I've learned is self-taught, though, stuff I figured out by just experimenting in both programs.

 

[Jadzia]

Sharpness will add some noise to an image.

For animated gifs, where we want detail to be as flat as possible, a median cut will often be better than increasing sharpness.

 

[JiNX-01]

For animated avs I use JASC (it came packaged with my Paint Shop Pro program).
I can set individual timing settings for each image and there are also really neat transition options (fade, dissolve, etc).

 

[captcalhoun]

my gimp is 2.6.11. i had earlier versions which had fits on me and i uninstalled and made do with Photo Pos Pro for a while in between and some other prog. 2.6.11 acted up earlier this week and i got Irfan, but it's now behaving.

 

[Niorah]

You seem to be the one I might need for advice and hints!

Oh, nope, no no no no.

I can assure you I have only ever scratched the surface of image manipulation, I am -far- from an expert!

You know who was particularly good? Angry Angel, he sure was. Wish he popped by and posted some advice for those who are interested.

 

[nevermore]

^ Pretty sure he used Photoshop and Imageready. That what I use.

He often would add a static layer over an animated gif to create a window of animation. That not only looks cool, it goes a long way toward reducing file size to fit the board's rather restrictive GIF size limits while allowing for minimal image degradation during the optimization process.

I learned to do this stuff for back-in-the-day av contests, myself. Mostly so i could compete with AA, actually.

 

[BolianAuthor]

For me, since I use static avatars, it's very simple... take an image I like, open the image in Photoshop, and then use the select tool while holding down the SHIFT and ALT keys... this will ensure that your selection is a perfect square shape.

Then, I close the original image, open a new document, paste my selection, and re-size the image to 140x140 pixels. Done. Of course, if you want to adjust the color, brightness, whatever, you can also do that, before you save the final image.

 

[nevermore]

^Why not just crop and resize instead of select, copy, open new document, paste and resize?

 

[kirstieames]

I don't know about it.

 

[BolianAuthor]

Because that's how I roll.