How do I upload a Homemade avatar to my Profile

[Fosco the Swift]

I recently created an avatar for my profile but have no idea how to upload it. The "Profile Options" says that I need the URL for the picture, so how do I get it a URL?

[Mando Knight]

Use an image hosting site like imgur (http://imgur.com/) or imageshack (http://imageshack.us/).

[Castaras]

Try this guide from the Stickies in this subforum. (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=80781)

[Fosco the Swift]

Alright, I have the image of imageshack and I have the pixel image numbers, except there is no field in the User CP under avatar for me to place the pixel lengths and widths in, all it has is the URL. And when I try to save changes, it says that I did not fill in all necassary fields. How do I find the Pixel measurement fields?

[Mando Knight]

The manual image size is a depreciated feature (the software now automatically detects the image size). I don't know what fields you're missing.

[Fosco the Swift]

Alright I got it to work. Thanks for the thread and for the avatar sites.
If you still have enough patience left for one more question, troubleshooting for not having the picture showing.

[Zherog]

Is the image set to public?

[Savannah]

If Zherog's fix doesn't work, please paste the exact URL you're using to this thread so we can look at it -- sometimes image sites will give you something slightly off (preview instead of image, for example) and sometimes the forum is just really picky about what it will allow.

[Cuthalion]

I see. Go to that page. Right click the image, and hit "Copy". Then paste it in the User CP field.

[Fosco the Swift]

Thanks for all the help. My trouble was I was using the wrong URL address. Is there any way for me to get rid of the white space behind the picture? It is currently a .png file so should I change that to remove the backround white?

[bluewind95]

I think you need to have a program where you can edit it and just delete the white and make it all transparent.

[Fosco the Swift]

Does anyone know a program I can use then to get rid of the white? If anyone does, will it be a lot of work, at least ot the point where it would be easier to just make the backround a simple landscape or wall?

[Savannah]

What program did you make your avatar in? You'll probably want to edit it there and re-save, as it can be very hard to remove the white after the fact.

[KillianHawkeye]

The program I would use to remove the white background is Photoshop, although I'm sure there must be a free alternative with the necessary functionality. In Photoshop, it is literally a two step process: just Magic Wand the background and hit Delete.

EDIT: Come to think of it, you probably also have to convert the Background layer into a normal layer since Background doesn't support transparency. No idea if other software packages have that same limitation.

[Grey_Wolf_c]

The program I would use to remove the white background is Photoshop, although I'm sure there must be a free alternative with the necessary functionality. In Photoshop, it is literally a two step process: just Magic Wand the background and hit Delete.

IIRC, years ago GIMP was a free Photoshop-look-alike. It was missing many of the advanced features, but magic wand is as simple as they get, especially if you are attempting to select an homogenous colour.

A quick google search tells me GIMP (http://www.gimp.org/) still exists, but if it is still free and if Fosco can run it, I can't say.

Grey Wolf

[Iruka]

IIRC, years ago GIMP was a free Photoshop-look-alike. It was missing many of the advanced features, but magic wand is as simple as they get, especially if you are attempting to select an homogenous colour.

A quick google search tells me GIMP (http://www.gimp.org/) still exists, but if it is still free and if Fosco can run it, I can't say.

Grey Wolf

GIMP is still free and at least hardware wise, there shouldn't be any probblems.
There you can easily change the white to transparent (though the white hair makes the use of the magic wand a bit more difficult). I don't know that much about GIMP, so I couldn't find a brush small enough to complete it :smallyuk:

http://s1.directupload.net/images/131011/s33basom.png (http://www.directupload.net)

[Douglas]

Iruka's attempt is pretty much the best anyone can reasonably do without having the original image in a format that supports layers, and it has minor issues at the figure's outline with not-quite-white pixels and jagged and pixelated lines.

To really properly fix it, you'd need a version of the image that holds the stick figure and the background as separate layers - if it exists, this would most likely be a Photoshop or GIMP file. If you have such a version of the file, open it in the appropriate editor (most likely Photoshop or GIMP), set the background to transparent, and then export as a png.

[Fosco the Swift]

So basically if I do not have photoshop or GIMP I am better off just making a backround to remove the white space?

[Grey_Wolf_c]

So basically if I do not have photoshop or GIMP I am better off just making a backround to remove the white space?

No. Regardless of how the background is saved, you need Photoshop or GIMP to remove it. It will just be easier if the starting image has the white background already on a different layer, but basic paint programs don't work with layers, so you will need something more advanced.

Or you could just use the picture with transparent background and a few errant pixels Iruka already provided and call it a day.

GW

[Fosco the Swift]

So how do I get the picture Iruka posted? Copy and paste isn't working so hot.:smallfrown:

[Grey_Wolf_c]

So how do I get the picture Iruka posted? Copy and paste isn't working so hot.:smallfrown:

Have you tried drag and drop to your desktop? That should work in windows and mac both.

GW

[Iruka]

Since it beats writing job applications, I worked on it a bit more. Still not perfect though.


http://img46.imageshack.us/img46/2282/z6ja.png

Should GW's solution not work for you for some reason, here's the link to imageshack (http://imageshack.us/content_round.php?page=done&id=4tHcl6GimJ6xlqTdod3HmunS3A&sa=0).

[ChristianSt]

So basically if I do not have photoshop or GIMP I am better off just making a backround to remove the white space?

Not really - One "dirty hack" would be to use the same color as the forum uses.
But the problem with the image is not changing the background color (white in this case) to transparent, but to select all of the background without selecting something else like parts of the hair (maybe that is only the problem with the file you uploaded - since it is a .jpg it is compressed which doesn't help with that problem and also doesn't support transparency settings).

Transparent isn't a color, it is an additional layer of information that the image has (or not).
I'm not that into image processing programs, so I really don't know any with more features than Paint other than GIMP and Photoshop.
As for GIMP: I don't know how easy it is to get outside of Linux-Systems, but from the download page (http://www.gimp.org/downloads/) GIMP should work on other systems as well (and is freely available).

What program did you use to create the avatar in the first place?
And what image file format do you use to save it?
It is possible that the image you have is supposed to have a transparent background, but since it is saved in a format that doesn't support transparency that it got converted to a white background. (It is also possibly that did happened while you uploaded the image)


So how do I get the picture Iruka posted? Copy and paste isn't working so hot.:smallfrown:

Try right-clicking on the image - then you should have a entry like "Save image as ..." that should to the trick (If you have no such entry, next try would be something like "Open image in new <whatever>"/"Save image location/link" to get a link to save it from there).

[Iruka]

Not really - One "dirty hack" would be to use the same color as the forum uses.


Man, I didn't even think of that. =P

[Fosco the Swift]

Thanks everyone! Considering the fact I made it it actually looks pretty decent, but I think that's mainly Iruka's work.

[Iruka]

Thanks everyone! Considering the fact I made it it actually looks pretty decent, but I think that's mainly Iruka's work.

Nah, you did a pretty good job with it.
I was just some technical support. :smallsmile: