The Avatar Shop XP - even brighter and colourful

[Reply #720 on:]

How about this, IC?



I'm also trying to make a Spock one from the same episode, preferably wielding a machine gun.

[Reply #721 on:]

That's a cool avatar, but the edges could be neatened.

[Reply #722 on:]

Spock + Machine Gun = Crazy Delicious Awesome!

[Reply #723 on:]

And here's regular Spock, sans machine gun for now...

[Reply #724 on:]

Nice work with Mr. Spock. I'm sure the w/ machine gun version will look nice as well. I'll have to decide later...

You know, Spock looks a whole lot like Xanfor...

[Reply #725 on:]

That's sweet. I'm very tempted to beg for a Chekov one Xanny.

[Reply #726 on:]

I'm still waiting for my new avatar to be set. I sent it in to Marc over a month ago. Is someone else in charge now?

[Reply #727 on:]

GFF has avatar uploading powers. He's had them for about 2 years now. There's an avatar uploading thread in Off-Topic where you can post your desired avatar. He usually does an upload per month.

[Reply #728 on:]

You're right Josh, I should neaten those edges. It's kinda hard since Kirk's hat is just so darn fuzzy! 

Anyways, Spock, armed and logical:



And since I believe girls should never have to beg...



Although if you give me a little while longer, I can try and come up with a better angle. That one's a bit too shadowy, methinks...

[Reply #729 on:]

Ok I'll wait. Thanks Xan thats uber nice of you. The Spock one is awesome.

[Reply #730 on:]

This is the current thread to post custom avatars for upload Kryten.

 http://www.peelified.com/cgi-bin/Futurama/12-003218-9/

As weiner said, gff takes care of them now, and does them on a monthly basis give or take a few weeks.

Spock with a gun is utterly fantastic.  Just sayin...

[Reply #731 on:]

It is possible to have 2 custom avatars right?

[Reply #732 on:]

In short: No.
In detail: No.

[Reply #733 on:]

Damn.

[Reply #734 on:]

You could always keep the picture of one, and use the other.  Or donate one to the pool, and switch between your custom and the pool one every week.  Some such as that I should suppose.

[Reply #735 on:]

That could work. I really like this one but Iu'd really like a Chekov one too.

[Reply #736 on:]

...how on earth would you have 2 avatars at once, bendersfan? Do you see ANYBODY else on the board with 2 avatars at once?

If you mean, can you get ANOTHER custom avatar and replace the current custom avatar you have with it, then YES, you can.
But why on earth would you NEED two custom avatars at once?

[Reply #737 on:]

So, keeping with the spirit, I've gone and made another Spock in a hat...



...a Dr. McC'y...



...a very suprised Vulcanian...



...and does anyone recognise this voice?

Avwatars were invwented in Wussia!

That's right! The one, the only!...



Thoughts?

[Reply #738 on:]

No I wanted to be able to switch between them Josh geez. I love it Xan. 

[Reply #739 on:]

I'll take that Spock: Armed and Logical one, thank you.

[Reply #740 on:]

Build for me an avatar of ridiculous proportions: 1 billion cubits in height!

[Reply #741 on:]

Yes, but WHY, bendersfan? Why?
Choose one you like and stay with it a while.

[Reply #742 on:]

I'm going to stay with this one until BWABB. But I like to change every so often.

[Reply #743 on:]

That Chekov looks kinda odd...

This one's better. 



In your face, me!

[Reply #744 on:]

Agreed.  Really good.  How are you making the outlines really smooth btw?  Techniques, programs, etc.?

[Reply #745 on:]

That's great Xanny!!! 

[Reply #746 on:]

can someone do this for me! 

[Reply #747 on:]

 

Originally posted by winna:
Agreed.  Really good.  How are you making the outlines really smooth btw?  Techniques, programs, etc.?

I use the GIMP, along with a technique I believe I've finally (at last!) perfected.

First I crop the part of the image I want into a perfect square. Then I add a transparent layer to it. I then ctrl-x out the main layer and paste it as a new layer over top the transparent layer. After that, I hand select the regions of the image I want to be clear and ctrl-x them out.

That's the time-consuming part. Then I resize the whole image down to 64x64 (or as close as I can get, I can always trim it exact later.) After that, I fill up the transparent layer with the colour white (at a threshold of 180, although I'm not sure that matters) and merge the two layers together. Finally, I use the 'select contiguous regions' tool at a threshould of 13, I believe, and select the white area and ctrl-x it out. That leaves a rim of pixilated white around the main objects in the image, which create an illusion of smoothness on the PEEL-coloured backgrounds.

Sorry to ramble, but I wanted to be helpful. 

[Reply #748 on:]

cannot rly decide what to take.

I will either take one of those two:





Or alternatively I'd take a banana or a pic of my lips...I dunno yet.

Maybe some advice?

Would be nice of someone could resize those two.

Thanks!

[Reply #749 on:]

Hmmm, let's see how this looks...I think the words didn't come out too well...



JOSH CAN'T HANDLE THIS DRAMA. HE DEMANDS TO KNOW WHY HIS AVATARS LOOK EXCELLENT AS JPG'S BUT FAIL UPON BECOMING GIF'S!!! DAMN YOU INDEX COLOR! DAMN YOU TO HELL!

[Reply #750 on:]

Hey, IC, I was bored so I tried unpixilating your siggy, since I like it so much.



Though your original has it's merits too...

Like I said, I was bored. 

[Reply #751 on:]

I'll think about switching it. Could you make it darker, though? It looks too gray in your version. Thanks, Xanny.

[Reply #752 on:]

I use Photoshop Elements to make my avatars. I find it VERY convenient with its magic eraser for transparency, and very easy to use for making cuts of the avatar. The avatars are cut in RGB color, which is how the program lets you cut them. By the time I am done cutting an aavatar and look at it, it looks PERFECT in the program.

For example, here is what an avatar I made saved as a JPG (which uses RGB color) looks like after cutting it (however, obviously, as a JPG the transparency has been replaced with a white background - however, it still looks the same as it does with transparency when looking at it in Photoshop before saving):



Looks nice, doesn't it?

However, JPGs don't allow transparency, as we know. Photoshop's own format, PSD, does allow transparency while keeping the avatar looking the same as it does as a JPG, but you can't upload that format to imageshack...and furthermore, we all know avatars have to be GIFs anyway.
So alright...you think, just take the finished avatar and save it as a GIF! Simple enough...
Here's your result:



Hmm...got all rough around the edges, didn't it?

Now it took me a while to figure out why - not too long, just a little while - but it's because GIFs are converted to Index color. Index color seems to make pictures with transparency all pixelated, with little squares.
Well, you can convert RGB pictures to Index color in Photoshop before saving, so I thought, well why don't I convert it to Index color first then just clean out the edges in Index color?
Here's your typical result when attempting to do that:



See, in Index color, when cutting, you have to work with tiny little squares, and in order to make the edges smooth, those squares need to be in the correct patterns on the edges so that you don't have little bits sticking out. Because of these, those patterns cause straight lines, and its almost IMPOSSIBLE to accomplish good looking round edges using this method.
I didn't try very hard on the one above, but trust me, it doesn't get too much better anyway. For example, here's one that was cut with that method that I think came out as good as it could've been gotten with that method:



Still not that great.

So I'm not sure what to do. Help would be appreciated...is there another program that seems to completely bypass this problem that would work better? Or is there a way to still use Photoshop Elements and get around this obstacle anyway (because for cutting, Photoshop is very convenient for me)?

Thanks in advance.

[Reply #753 on:]

Xanfor's solution seems the best... with the blending of the edges repeatedly.

[Reply #754 on:]

I recently noticed how the white specks around my avatar stick out. Could anybody get rid of them for me? I think tha anti-aliasing in general is too white as well...

[Reply #755 on:]

Yer cutting the backgrounds out wrong. You've got to scale the image down to avy size with a white background, then remove the background color with a very low threshold. This will leave a fuzzy border blending the edges of the image out to white.

I took your jpg version and loaded it in Gimp. I added transparency to the layer, selected the white with the magic wand at a threshold of 15, and cleared it. There were a few fiddly spots that didn't get picked up; lowered the threshold to 7 and did and selected/cut the remaining big chunks of white around the edges. Then I saved as a gif, allowing gimp to just automatically convert it to indexed color.

Here's your .jpg and my .gif version w/ transparency side-by-side

[Reply #756 on:]

...how the hell does the jpg have transparency?!

[Reply #757 on:]

it doesn't. Its background is white. :P

[Reply #758 on:]

Can someone make me an avatar of the albino shouting gorillas from the Mother's Day ep?

 

[Reply #759 on:]

can somewhat make this into an avy for me. I would just like zoidberg and the bag without the background