Avatar questions

[Greatwyrm]

Can anybody give me some pointers on custom avatars? I'm having trouble getting the file down to the pixel maximum and still having something recognizable. What file types do you use? Editing programs?

 

[Hand of Evil]

I use Irfanview I downloaded from CNET.com, it is an free image editor.

www.cnet.com

http://download.com.com/3000-2192-10180889.html?tag=lst-0-1

Here is a desktop image resized, quaility is based on the complexity of the image but it maintains everything well.

 

[Greatwyrm]

That worked pretty well. Thanks, HoE.

 

[Psionicist]

I use Adobe Photoshop.

The most important thing to learn is to cut the image correctly. Say you have a really large image you would like to use as an avatar. Before you resize it, cut out the part you like, paste it into a new image THEN resize it. This is very important. Let me show you.

This is the full size image.

If you just resize the image to a valid, small size, the result is horrible.

However, if you cut out the fish before you resize, the result is much better.

 

[Greatwyrm]

Will cropping produce the same result, or do I need to cut and paste into a new image?

 

[Angcuru]

Cropping worked fine for me. I got my Ryoga avatar by cropping it from a much larger image.

 

[Psionicist]

Will cropping produce the same result, or do I need to cut and paste into a new image?

It will. Personally I think it's easier to cut and paste though, as you will clearly see what you are cutting out.

 

[LightPhoenix]

Another tip for anyone interested.

If you're going to crop and then resize, make sure to crop the picture to whatever ration you're going to be using. For instance, say your final image is going to be 100 pixels by 100 pixels. If the picture you want is 800 by 600 pixels, crop the area to something like 600 by 600, or 400 by 400. This keeps the image look clean and undistorted.