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The_King_of_Durf
2005-05-08, 05:11 PM
Step 1: Setting It Up
Create a new document in Adobe Illustrator, and set its size to 117 by 117 pixels . When creating a new document, you'll see a window come up in which you can name the document. You'll also see a section titled "Artboard Setup." Set the "Units" drop down to pixels, and enter 117 in both the Width and Height boxes. When you set the image size in Illustrator, all that really means is that it gives you a guide box to draw in.

Step 2: Drawing Your Avatar:
The pencil tool is the best tool to use, it can be used for making make your own shapes or to correct shapes made with their respective tools. I reccomend not using the pen tool, the fill tool, or the erasers, the pencil and the select tools are the best for doing what you need to do. Be sure to use two pixel lines when making your avatars, line weight can be modified in the Brush/Swatch/etc window. The shape tools are also good for making perfect shapes, if you want to make a head for your avatar, when you select the circle tool you can set the size of the circle you want. 44 by 44 pixels is a good size for the head.

Step 3: Coloring Your Avatar:
All the lines that you make have two color properties: line color and fill color. There are a number of ways to change these, but the most obvious way is on the tool bar. There are two color blocks, one is fill color and the other is line color.

Step 4: Using the Arrow Tool
The arrow tool is the other most useful tool you have. Use it to select shapes you make, it can delete them, move them, alter their size, and rotate them. To delete a shape or line you make, just select it, go to the edit menu, and press clear. The select tool (rectangle or lasso) selects multiple shapes.

Step 5: Finishing Up With Illustrator
Now that your avatar is finished, click 'Save For Web' and save the file as a .GIF. This will make the background of your pic transparent instead of white. When you save it as a .GIF, the program automatically resizes it to fit the drawing. If your avatar is too big, doing this will cut off parts of the avatar.


Step 6: Fixing the Size of your Avatar
After you're done in Illustrator, open up your avatar in Adobe PhotoShop. Once there, select your avatar, go to the menu and click Image > Canvas Size. From there you set the size to 117 by 117 pixels, or 1.625 by 1.625 inches. There is no way to make it stay at 117x117 without stretching the image while within Illustrator, so you need to do it in Photoshop. In most cases, the resize in Photoshop just adds blank space, if your picture is too small however, it will chop off parts. Actually, I had found out a while ago there was an alternative to this, I just forgot to add it. In Illustrator when you Save For Web, select Clip to Artboard and your picture will remain inside the box with just blank space added.

Step 7: Getting your Avatar on the Internet
If you have your own website you can host your pics there, but if you don’t Photobucket is a good, free site to host your pics on. Simply sign up according to their instructions, then when you sign in you should be given an option to Browse your computer for an image file. Once you find it and submit it to upload, just get the URL and then you can link to it from elsewhere.
To post a picture in the forums, you copy the URL, type [IMG] and paste the URL in, then close the code.

Sneak
2005-05-08, 05:56 PM
Also, to save it as a gif or any other file format besides .ai, you go to the file menu and click "save for web." And mods, I think maybe this thread should be stickied.

The_King_of_Durf
2005-05-08, 06:03 PM
Okay Sneak, I'll edit that in at the top. Thanks :)
I would be a very happy boy if this thread got stickied :)

Wren
2005-05-12, 04:54 PM
Some visuals could help greatly, and even step by step pictures of making one would be awesome. Also look more polished.

Just an idea. Trying this out now myself though, usually I only edit existing pictures with Photoshop to make stuff.

Peregrine
2005-05-17, 02:00 AM
As promised elsewhere...

Peregrine's Guide to Making Avatars with Sodipodi (http://www.sodipodi.com/) and Irfanview (http://www.irfanview.com/)
With thanks to Lord of Midnight for reminding me of the installation issues involved.

Note: The following instructions are for Microsoft Windows users. If you're on Linux, you shouldn't have any problems with getting Sodipodi, but you'll have to use something like GIMP instead of Irfanview. If you're on a Mac... good luck with that! (Sorry, I don't have access to a Mac to work things out for you. There is information out there about running Sodipodi on a Mac, but there seems to be better support for its cousin, Inkscape (http://www.inkscape.org/cgi-bin/wiki.pl?MacOSXPort).)

I. Getting Sodipodi
1. Go to the downloads page on Sourceforge (http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=4054).

2. Pick the file for your version of Windows. At the time of writing, the latest Sodipodi release is 0.34, and so the two Windows files are Sodipodi_0_34_Win2000_XP_Setup.exe (for Windows 2000 or XP) and Sodipodi_0_34_Win9X_ME_Setup.exe (for Windows 9x or ME).

3. Download and run the file. Make note of where you installed it (probably C:\Program Files\Sodipodi\).

4. Go to the Gaim website (http://gaim.sourceforge.net/win32/index.php#wingtk) GIMP website (http://gimp-win.sourceforge.net/stable.html) and get the GTK+ installer. This is a shared toolkit for the user interface (all the buttons and menus and whatnot). If you already have a program like Gaim or GIMP installed, you can skip this step. Thanks to Mr_Saturn for pointing out the defunct link.

5. Run that installer. Make note of where you installed it (probably C:\Program Files\Common Files\GTK\2.0\).

6. Go to where you installed GTK. Go into the "bin" folder. Copy the file libgmodule-2.0-0.dll

7. Go to where you installed Sodipodi. Paste the file. (You might want to rename the existing libgmodule-2.0-0.dll first, just in case. It shouldn't be necessary though.)

8. Make a copy of the file zlib.dll and name it zlib-1.dll

9. You're done!

II. Getting Irfanview
1. This one's easy. Go to the Irfanview (http://www.irfanview.com/) website and download it. (The separate download of plugins is also highly recommended.) Run it and you're pretty much done.

Note: Sodipodi is free, open-source software licensed under the GNU General Public License. Irfanview is only free for non-commercial use. It will also give you the option of displaying eBay buttons in the program. Me, I registered mine. It's been my choice of file viewer/quick'n'dirty image manipulator for years. :)

III. Drawing avatars
0. Note that when you start Sodipodi and create a new drawing, you get a rectangular canvas. Mine's 210mm by 297mm -- an A4 page. I can only guess this comes from my printer options or something, but I can't seem to change it within Sodipodi and I can't seem to create a dummy printer that uses square pages. On the bright side, it's trivial to modify a blank SVG drawing -- Sodipodi's output format -- to resize it to a square. So if you want a square canvas to draw on, download blank.svg (http://users.bigpond.com/keretija/blank.svg) and open it in Sodipodi. Make sure when you save, you save as a new file, though.

1. If you haven't already, start Sodipodi and create a new drawing (Ctrl-n, 'New' on the menu, or the blank-page button in the File section). Drag out the drawing window until it's big enough to work in easily. Hit 0 or the 'fit whole page' button in the Zoom section of the toolbar.

2. Press F5, or click and hold the rectangle button in the Draw section, then select the circle/ellipse tool.

3. Click and drag on the page to draw a circle. Make it fairly decent-sized; on a canvas roughly 200mm to a side, 80mm seems about right if you're just drawing a figure (rather than a scene).

4. Click the 'stroke settings' button under Object. Click the square (block paint) to turn on the outline on the circle.

5. Click the 'stroke style' tab. Change the thickness to 8. (For OotS style, you want everything to have fairly consistently thick outlines. Some finer details will warrant finer lines, or possibly thicker lines, but these should be the exception, not the rule.)

6. Click the 'fill' tab. Drag the sliders around until you get a nice skin tone. (Tip: if you use Firefox, install the Colorzilla extension. Use this to grab colours off OotS strips, photos, and so on.) Roy is 84614aff, Durkon is d69a63ff, Elan, Haley, Belkar and Vaarsuvius are ffdfceff, and Redcloak is 00ae31ff.

6a. Diversion: Colours in Sodipodi. You have four lines, for Red, Green, Blue and Alpha. (Alpha is transparency. Full alpha means the colour is solid; zero alpha means it's invisible.) You can also change mode to Hue/Saturation/Value or Cyan/Magenta/Yellow/Black, but you shouldn't need to. Now, note the RGBA box down the bottom. Whereas the sliders go in decimals from 0 to 1, this is the hexadecimal colour value, from 00 to ff. (I'm not going to explain hexadecimal here; if you're not familiar with it you can get by using the sliders. Just know that you can copy the colours given above into this box.) Always remember to put in four pairs, not three like you would for a web page. Usually you'll want the last pair to be ff for full alpha. The colours given above all include the alpha value.

At this point, you should have a drawing that looks something like this.
http://users.bigpond.com/keretija/images/step6.png

7. Close the object style window. Now, your first test is to draw a small ellipse on top of the current one and change its fill colour to black. (It won't need an outline.) That's one eye; position it accordingly.

8. Hit F1 or click the arrow button under Draw. This puts handles on the currently selected object, which should be the eye you just drew. It also lets you click objects to select them (rather than clicking to start drawing a new object). Use the handles to adjust the proportions until it looks like an OotS eye.

9. Hit Ctrl-c or the copy button under Edit. Hit Ctrl-v or the paste button under Edit. This pastes another eye -- right on top of the first. You'll need to drag it off to see them both. Do so, moving it to about where the second eye should be.

10. OotS eyes are usually a little different in size, so use the handles to change the size of one of them. Don't overdo it though.

11. Click the 'freehand curve' button under Draw. We're going to draw the mouth now -- and we could just make it a straight line, but you'll get plenty of line practice with the arms and legs, so we're going to draw a big open mouth. Click and drag to draw the line, and make sure you connect the end back to the start. (The starting box will turn red when you move back over it.)

12. Here's the beauty of Sodipodi: it doesn't matter how jumpy and unmouthlike you just made that outline, it's very easy to adjust it! As long as you don't draw an outline that's less complicated than the end result, you can tweak the outline and remove unnecessary parts to get the result. The key is the control nodes tool (F2 or the nodes button under Draw). Click it.

Your mouth should now have several little squares on its outline marking the nodes. Click one. It'll be highlighted and two circles will appear connected to it, as well as the nodes either side of it. These show how the line enters and leaves the node. Play around with them for a while until you have the hang of how they work.

13. Now, adjust the outline until it looks kind of like a mouth. Draw a new one if you need to after experimenting. Remove excess nodes with the 'delete node' button in the Nodes section of the toolbar. (Four nodes should be enough for a wide-open mouth. Two are plenty for a closed one, even if it's a curvy 'confused' look. I'm very picky about removing unnecessary nodes from my drawings.) Don't worry about the other buttons in the Nodes section; I'm only just starting to get the hang of using them, and I've never yet needed them for an OotS-style drawing.

At this point, you should have a drawing that looks something like this.
http://users.bigpond.com/keretija/images/step13.png

14. Now to the body. Hit F4, or click and hold the circle button in the Draw section, and select the rectangle tool. Draw a rectangle that's about half the width of the head, and the same height. This proportion works for humans; look at OotS strips to work out proportions for other races. (If need be, draw the rectangle over the head to get the proportions right, then move it down into the proper position.)

15. Change the outline to match the head and give it a fill colour that you want your little person to be wearing.

16. Wait! Shouldn't the head be overlapping the body and not vice versa? Too right it should. Look at the four buttons on the left of the Selection section. Each time you draw something, it become the new 'front' object -- if you moved everything you drew into one spot, they'd form a stack with the oldest things at the bottom and the newest things on top. These buttons let you change that order. So far we have a head, with facial features in front of it, and a body which should be behind it. So select the body and hit the 'send to back' button (or the End key).

17. At this point, take a look at the two right-hand buttons under Selection: Group and Ungroup. Click on the head, and then hold down Shift and click on all the facial features, to select the entire head and face. (Alternatively, click and drag a selection box around them; this is easier when you have lots of details, but harder when you might accidentally include something you don't want to inside the selection box.) Now press the group button or Ctrl-g. Everything you selected is now treated like one single object. (It also moves to the front.) If you want to edit individual parts again, hit Ungroup or Ctrl-Shift-g.

18. Now we're going to do arms and legs. Hit the freehand curve tool again. From about where the head and body join, draw a line. It should be roughly as long as the long edge of the body rectangle, but put a fairly sharp bend in it for the elbow.

19. Tweak the nodes; for almost every arm I draw I'm satisfied with three; shoulder, elbow, fingertip. (I occasionally do fancy things with the hands, though.) Bring in the circles on the elbow node fairly close, but not so close that you've got an excessively pointy elbow. (Note that you keep smooth curves by having the two circles line up opposite each other.)

20. Open the stroke settings, go to stroke style, set the arm to the same width as your other lines, and then change the Cap style to the rounded end. There's one arm.

21. Near the end of the arm, draw another freehand curve, more or less in a semicircle. Tweak the nodes; once again, I normally use three, one that sits on the line of the arm, and one at the end of each finger. Adjust the stroke style in the same way as the arm.

Here's what my hand drawings look like.
http://users.bigpond.com/keretija/images/step21.png

22. Select both the arm and the hand in the same way you did the head and face. (Group them if you like.) Now copy and paste like the eyes. Press the 'flip horizontally' button under Object, and drag this duplicate arm into position. We don't want it to look identical to the other arm, but duplicating it saves us a couple of steps and lets us just move the nodes to make a second arm.

23. When moving the hand, you can probably get away without even tweaking nodes most times. Click the hand, then click it again. See how the handles change? Drag it roughly into position, then use the handles to rotate it to match the new orientation of the wrist. (That little crosshairs in the middle of the object is the rotation point. You can drag it around to rotate about something other than the centre. Handy for repositioning arms -- just put the point at the shoulder)

24. Now, draw a leg. (Yet again, three nodes is my normal count -- hip, ankle, toe. The ankle should be a fairly sharp bend, unlike the elbow.) Duplicate it, and adjust the second one a bit so it's not identical to the first. You might also want to send them both to the back so they don't overlap in front of the body.

25. And you're done! You've learnt ellipses and rectangles, freehand outlines and curves, nodes and colours and groups... all the basics you need to make good stick figures.

Here's what your very basic figure might look like.
http://users.bigpond.com/keretija/images/step25.png

26. Experiment! Add a fill colour to freehand curves that don't connect back on themselves. See what happens when you adjust the nodes on a circle or rectangle. (Hint: when dragging nodes on a circle, compare the results when your mouse pointer is inside the circle, then outside.) Use the 'convert to path' tool under Objects on your shapes and deform their outlines. (Here's where those other buttons under Nodes come in handy.)

And lastly, here's a couple of complete drawings you can tinker with. (Note that these were done on the default rectangular canvas. I'm now doing everything on my square canvas and it's so much easier. :D)
oots_dwarfwizard_01.svg (http://users.bigpond.com/keretija/oots_dwarfwizard_01.svg)
oots_halforc_01.svg (http://users.bigpond.com/keretija/oots_halforc_01.svg)

IV. Exporting, and making drawings into avatars with Irfanview
1. Got a drawing open in Sodipodi? Good. (Make sure it's saved at this point.) Hit the 'export' button -- it's the arrow coming out of a box in the File section.

2. You'll probably want to export the whole page, so click Page. If you've drawn it on a square canvas, you can export straight to the size you want -- 117x117 pixels for GiantITP forum avatars. If not, or if you have but you think you'll want to cut off some whitespace, you should make it much larger. (That's because we're going to shrink it to size in Irfanview later, and you get the best quality in your details if you start big and then resize once.) The default of 72dpi will give you nice big pixel values; I tend to go for overkill and double that.

3. Sodipodi exports images as PNGs. PNG is good; PNG supports things like alpha transparency (remember that from the explanation of colours?) However, the GiantITP avatar rules say GIF or JPEG, so we're going to respect that and use GIF. (We do not use JPEG for OotS-style avatars. Ever. JPEG is for photo-like images with a lot of colour gradients and few sharp edges. In other words, not stick figures.)

So, we're going to be using Irfanview to make the avatar a GIF. GIF doesn't do alpha transparency, only a simpler form where a pixel is either fully transparent or fully opaque. So, change the background to a solid colour. Because of the way anti-aliasing (think of it as making lines look smooth) works, we want to make this a colour close to what the image will appear against on the forum. White is best, as post backgrounds are either white or a pale pink. However, if you've used white anywhere in your drawing, this won't work. (When we pick the parts of the picture that are transparent, we do it by picking a colour. So you can't have a white background and white hair, say, because when you make the background transparent, you'll make the hair transparent too.) So either change the white parts of the drawing, or make the background something like a very light grey.

4. Hit Export. The PNG will be saved in the same place as the drawing. Go find it and open it in Irfanview. If you saved it at the size you want it, skip to step 7 now.

5. If you want to crop the image, click on the picture and drag out a selection rectangle. (If you can't see the whole picture to do this, go to the View menu, Display options, and hit Fit images to window.) We want our avatar to be square, so once you've drawn the first rectangle, drag its edges in or out until it's square and covers the area you want. (Look at the title bar to see when it's square.) Then crop it by hitting Ctrl-y or Crop selection under the Edit menu.

6. Now we resize. Make sure Size method is set to Resample and Lanczos filter. (It says 'slowest' but I've never yet taken more than about a second to resample a picture.) Enter the pixel size you want (again, 117x117 for this forum). Hit OK.

7. Now we save it as a GIF. Hit Save or Save as, set Save as type to GIF, make sure Save interlaced is not checked, make sure Save transparent color is checked, and select Choose transparent color during saving. Give it a filename and everything, and hit save.

8. A window showing the picture will pop up. Click on the background somewhere; whatever colour you click on becomes the transparent colour. (This was why we couldn't have white hair and a white background.)

And that's it! (The details of getting webspace and uploading this picture to use on the forums are beyond the scope of my tutorial -- read: not my problem. ;)) Now get drawing!

http://users.bigpond.com/keretija/images/oots_collection_01.gif

Wren
2005-05-17, 06:55 AM
Nice! ;)

Sneak
2005-05-17, 07:37 AM
Would that guide work for Inkscape too, or just Sodipodi?

RawBearNYC
2005-05-17, 10:48 AM
Voice of a Mod:

Stickied for your enjoyment, so, enjoy, durnit.

The_King_of_Durf
2005-05-17, 04:12 PM
There, Peregrine made me jealous with his shiny report, so I went and changed mine to make it shiny too
I was "inspired by Peregrine's work, so I went and fixed up mine as well, now it's shiny and is in order and making some sense (I hope). I f I can use my tablet labtop later I'll probably add some picture.
Thanks RawBear for stickying this thread (even though it's all Peregrines fault, jealous jealous jealous)

Sneak
2005-05-21, 12:16 PM
And also, something else to add, you need to either make a square with white fill and transparent line and resize it until the fill is invisible, or edit it in an image editing program. With the square you need to place one in each intersection at the corners. This makes the image 117 by 117, otherwise AI will crop it.

The_King_of_Durf
2005-05-21, 03:30 PM
Maybe for you, I have never needed to do that, perhaps there's something you're not doing right?

Gorbash Kazdar
2005-05-21, 03:53 PM
I think I'll add a few tips myself, here.

1. Object order is your friend. Like most Adobe programs, Illustrator has the ability to include layers; however, in AI, rather than manipulating layers, I suggest expanding the layer to see all the objects in it. Every time you draw a line, you're making a new object. Once you expand the layer, you can manipulate which objects are on top, and can be seen in their entirety. This can work to your advantage. You don't have to worry about making every line perfect, just make sure the rough parts end up underneath another object.

2. Draw more than you need. This goes hand-in-hand with #1. Often, I've found it diffcult to draw something - particularly weapons and other accoutrements - in such a way so that part of it appears to end up behind something else. So, instead trying to line things up carefully, I draw the full object seperately, then move it where I need it. Then I manipulate objects so it ends up behind what it's supposed to be behind, and in front of what it's supposed to be in front of. Plus, this helps if you want to come back and make modifications to an existing avatar. Instead of having to redraw a weapon when you move it, you already have the entire object there and can just put it where you need it.

3. Use the paint brush to touch things up. The paint brush is hard to use to draw things, but I've found it works really well when I need to touch something up. Often when you draw a line, you can end up with fill in the wrong place or not filling the entire space you need. Rather than try and manipulate a line to change the fill, use the paint brush to touch up the area and then move the paint object behind the line in the object order. The biggest challenge with the brush is that it auto selects nearby previously drawn brush lines rather than making new ones. However, this can be turned off it you double-click the tool and fiddle with the settings a bit.

4. Don't be afraid to delete and try again. I get most frustrated when I'm trying to fix an existing object to fit the way I want and just can't get it to resize or move to the right place. I've found that, often, it's better to delete the object and make a new attempt from scratch until I get it right - after all, you can always hit Crtl-Z and undo the deletion if you change your mind (up to a certain point). This holds with entire avatars as well, though personally I still save ones I don't like and look them over for a while to decide what I did wrong before I start over.

5. White sucks; use another color. Heh, what I really mean is that, as pointed out before, when you save an AI file as a .gif, the white space becomes clear. This creates one really annoying problem - if you want part of the avatar to be white, you have to remember to make it white. However, then you often then can't see whether you actually have properly filled in the white area, which can leave gaps in the avatar when you go to save it. So, I suggest using a different color to represent "white" while you're working on the avatar. Choose one you aren't going to use in the final piece - if the avatar is green and red, use yellow for white, for example. This lets you see if you've missed an area you want to be colored white. Before you save, go back and select these objects and adjust the color back to white.

6. Learn hex colors. Hex, or hexadecimal, code is a particular numerical way to tell a computer what color to make something. The number is 6 digits long, and in base 16 (0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, A, B, C, D, E, F). The first two digits are for red, the next two for green, and the last two for blue (RRGGBB). The higher the digits in each spot, the more of that color in the final shade. So, white is FFFFFF, black 000000, pure blue 0000FF, etc. There are a couple advantages to using hex colors for avatars. First, any color that can be coded with hex can be seen by a webbrowser. Second, its a lot easier to remember or write down a hex color for later use than trying to find it again via other means. RGB, CMYK, and HSB also give you numbers to find different colors, but Hex gives you one single 6-digit number that is easily recognized as representing a color. In AI, if you double click on a color in the Tools window, it brings up a color window that lists information - including Hex code - about the shade you've selected. I often copy and paste Hex code between AI documents if there's a particular shade I've used before that I liked.

7. Start with a plan, but don't be afraid to change directions later. Sometimes, when I go to do an avatar, I don't have an idea about what I want in the end. I've never had an avatar result from this that I liked. Even if its a rough idea, try and have something in mind before you start drawing. However, sometimes your plan doesn't work. I've had several ideas not pan out the way I expected at first. In these cases, you need to change things around, but a plan helps here, too. If you have an idea where you want to end up, it's easier to make changes by modifying that original concept than working in the dark.

8. Experiment! Whenever possible, try different and new things. Play with different tools, mess with colors and poses, see what happens. You don't have to keep the results of the experiments, and you don't even have to do them when making an avatar. Just try and get a feel for what you can do with the program. You never know when a technique you discovered by accident could come in handy.

RawBearNYC
2005-05-21, 03:56 PM
Maybe for you, I have never needed to do that, perhaps there's something you're not doing right?
If I'm reading this right, I don't think he's talking about a problem, I think he's talking about an alternative to having to resize your image in Photoshop (Step 6) after you're done with AI. I think he's suggesting making sure there's something drawn in each corner of a 117 x 117 box so that AI will make the final canvas size 117 x 117 without having to do that in PS.

The_King_of_Durf
2005-05-21, 03:58 PM
Oops, I missed the part about the alternative way. Sorry

The_Gnasher
2005-05-24, 03:36 PM
If you want to make an object in AI that requires straight lines, but canīt use the Square/Polygon/whatever tool (like an inclined swordīs blade), how do you do it???

Sorry for the noobish question :P

Gorbash Kazdar
2005-05-24, 03:51 PM
There's actually a standard line tool for just those occasions. You'll just end up with an outline of the shape when you're done, but it will give your straight lines.

The_Gnasher
2005-05-24, 04:57 PM
Thanks for the help.

But I realized I canīt color (Fill color) stuff I make with multiple shapes. Isnīt there a way to color inside the area?

Thanks.

The_King_of_Durf
2005-05-24, 05:10 PM
I'm not quite sure I know what you mean by this, if you could be a bit more specific?
Oh yes, but there's always one cheap way that still usually works, making a shape with fill color and line color the same and making it inside of the thing you made to fill it up, this is sort of the unprofessional way of doing things but it works fine if you're careful, and you can also make more than one of these coloring shapes to fill in different bits

Sneak
2005-05-24, 07:27 PM
Gnasher--

My suggestion: make a square, select it, go to effects, Distort and Transform, and click Free Distort, and then you can make it look like a blade. Or you could just do your best with the pencil tool.

Oh and yeah, King of Durf, I meant an alternative to editing it in Photoshop/whatever. RawBear is right, have something drawn in each corner, but just resize it until you can't see it. I got that advice from the Losar, I think.

Veera
2005-05-25, 04:45 PM
You don't need Photoshop to make the image 117 by 117 in Adobe Illustrator. When saving the image, click 'Save for Web' then above the color table, click the 'Image Size' tab. Check the box next to 'Clip to Artboard.'

It should automatically clip the image to 117 by 117 if that was what the original image's size was. If not, you can type it in. ^_^
Make sure 'Constrain Proportions' is turned off and click 'Apply' to make the changes. :-)

erisian
2005-05-27, 10:47 AM
You can use the line tool. It is to the left of the rectangle tool on th etool pallette.

Shy of that you can use the pen tool and hold down the shift key to make it a straight line (I don't know if that'll do diagonals or just horizontal/vertical lines).


Thanks for the help.

But I realized I canīt color (Fill color) stuff I make with multiple shapes. Isnīt there a way to color inside the area?

Thanks.


Gnasher - select the first shape with the "selection tool" (the black arrow in the upper left corner of the tool pallette) and then hold shift and select the second shape. Then let go of shift and right-click on either shape and select "group." Those shapes merge into one and then your fill color should fill both.

I am 75% sure this will work.

I just tested this - didn't work.

Nixie
2005-05-28, 12:42 PM
When you make your own avatar, can you use iton this site at all?

The_King_of_Durf
2005-05-28, 01:02 PM
Of course you can, that's the point of making them :)

Nixie
2005-05-28, 03:14 PM
lol, duh :D (stupid me) so when you make them, you save them as a .gif and load them in the profile?

Sneak
2005-05-28, 08:30 PM
No, first you have to host your avatar on an image hosting site, some people suggested photobucket, I use imageshack (http://www.imageshack.us). Copy the link next to the text that says Direct Link to Image. Then you click the box that says "I Have My Own" in the profile page, then paste the url in the space next to it.

The_King_of_Durf
2005-05-28, 09:50 PM
Well, you don't need to use an image hosting site, you can host them on your own website if you have one, or on your xanga or wherever

erisian
2005-05-30, 06:35 PM
There's a free site with no bandwidth restrictions for hosting, too. It's really easy to use (you don't even have to set up an account or anything) but it doesn't have any features to go view files you uploaded previously.

www.bighosting.net.

Ego Slayer
2005-06-01, 08:50 AM
When I downloaded Sodipodi it gave me this message: The application has failed to start because zlib-1.dll was not found. Re-installing the application may fix this problem.
I tried to install it again but it didn't work. Also I've tried to download the free trial of Adobe Ilustrator and it gives me another saying that it's not valid or it's corrupt.

RawBearNYC
2005-06-01, 10:59 AM
When I downloaded Sodipodi it gave me this message: The application has failed to start because zlib-1.dll was not found. Re-installing the application may fix this problem.
I tried to install it again but it didn't work. Also I've tried to download the free trial of Adobe Ilustrator and it gives me another saying that it's not valid or it's corrupt.

A quick google search turned up this. Go to the directory you installed Sodipodi into. See if you have a file named zlib.dll. If you do, copy that file and rename the copy zlib-1.dll. Then try starting SodiPodi.

erisian
2005-06-01, 11:35 AM
When I downloaded Sodipodi it gave me this message: The application has failed to start because zlib-1.dll was not found. Re-installing the application may fix this problem.
I tried to install it again but it didn't work. Also I've tried to download the free trial of Adobe Ilustrator and it gives me another saying that it's not valid or it's corrupt.

I downloaded Inkscape and had the same issue. I went back to the download site and found there were 2 download options. One of the options (the one I initially chose) said "exe only" and I had assumed this meant that it was a Windows compatible format (as opposed to MAC or Linux). It turns out I was wrong and the "exe only" option is for people who already have Inkscape but want to upgrade - they only need the exe file.

So, you might want to check your download site and see if there are more than one options for downloading, and make sure yuo get the one that has a zip file you can extract and has an installer inside it.

Peregrine
2005-06-01, 02:09 PM
RawBear's got it right -- I ran into the same problem. That's why it's step 8 of Getting Sodipodi in my guide. ;)

RoosterEgg
2005-06-22, 11:32 PM
Man, I wish I'd found this thread before I went and spent an eternity tinkering with Illustrator... I finally got it on my own though. =^__^= I just wanted to say, if you don't have photoshop, you can make lines around the border of your picture, then use the arrow to go back and make them all white. This way, the entire thing get's saved because the program recognizes that there are pieces around the actual picture. Then, just go to file,export, and save it as a jpg. Don't forget to set the color model to RBG on the mini-screen that pops up after you click save. It might leave the background white, but it keeps your picture the right size. Oh, and my avatar just looks oddly small because... well, let's say I made a boo-boo. :P

(I did have photoshop, but a friend borrowed it, never returned it, moved, and then it stoped working when I made a new user on my comp. and deleted the old one; with no disk to reinstall it, I was... well... >.< )

Sneak
2005-06-25, 02:29 PM
Actually, Zhymerra, when you click Save for Web, click the Image Size tab, then there should be something that says Clip to Artboard with a box next to it. Check the box, and your avatar will automatically have a transparent background, and be 117 by 117.

Estrogen
2005-07-03, 01:49 AM
You could also always just go onto Shareaza or DC++ and look for something along the lines of... oh....

"adobe illustrator CS full version + keygen"

replace "illustrator" with "photoshop" for desired effect.

Obviously, this is illegal in most countries, so, you know... don't tell 'em I told ya :-X

RawBearNYC
2005-07-03, 07:59 PM
You could also always just go onto Shareaza or DC++ and look for something along the lines of... oh....

"adobe illustrator CS full version + keygen"

replace "illustrator" with "photoshop" for desired effect.

Obviously, this is illegal in most countries, so, you know... don't tell 'em I told ya :-X
Be careful of downloading keygen programs to unlock expensive commercial software from file sharing networks. Frequently, they will contain trojan horse programs designed to compromize your system. I strongly reccomend that if you're not diligent in keeping your virus software up to date, you avoid this practice.

Estrogen
2005-07-03, 08:26 PM
EDIT: I made a topic about this in Friendly Banter :)

I just made my new avatar ;D I like it a lot

http://img7.imageshack.us/img7/8682/zoegitpavatar7la.jpg http://img140.imageshack.us/img140/7733/zoegitpavataralt9ip.png

Which one should I use? I like the background, but it makes it a little difficult to see the character. What do you think?


EDIT: Also, RawBear is right. When downloading anything, there is always a risk of virus infection. If you're going to download programs, make sure you do a throughou virus scan before unzipping or installing it.

Adghar
2005-07-04, 05:32 PM
I can't believe I have a better answer to something than Gorby, however old his answer was, but to Gnasher, instead of using multiple line tools, select the Pen and then place anchor points. Illustrator connects each point you place with a straight line, then you can hover the mouse over your starting anchor point to connect it and make a full shape which you can even fill with color easily.

The_King_of_Durf
2005-07-04, 06:15 PM
I don't think Gnasher's even here anymore...
Oh, by the way, Sneak or Peregrine or one of the other animators, perhaps you could post a guide on how to use that program (GIMP, I think) here. It might come in handy.

Adghar
2005-07-04, 06:25 PM
Well maybe other people could use the advice on how to draw wierd polygons.

And I think they already said something on how to make each layer a frame and do random stuff with the frame names then save.

Sneak
2005-07-04, 06:26 PM
I don't use Gimp. I use some free mac program I just found on the web while I was searching for a gif maker, and it always comes it with a colored background. So Peregrine's a lot better at that than me. Plus, the program I use is basically self explanatory.

Gorbash Kazdar
2005-07-05, 02:31 PM
I actually discovered a better way to do it than my original answer or Adghar's suggestion of the pencil tool, in fact.

Draw the general shape with the pencil, then select the object and go to the "Object" menu, go down to path, then select "Simplify." For straight-line polygons, simply select that toggle (Straight Lines). I suggest clicking Preview as well and playing with the Angle Threshold. You can adjust the shape later using the anchor point select tool (the white pointer). You can also adjust curves by leaving the "Straight Lines" toggle unchecked and playing with Curve Precision as well.

Additionally, its best not to try and make a closed polygon right from the start. Leave one side open and use the Join option under Object -> Path to close it later.

As an example on how to make a sword...
http://plaza.ufl.edu/redwolf/swords.gif
Step 1: Select the Pencil tool, and set the outline color to black and two pixels, and choose a gray for the fill. Now, draw a rough sword-blade shape with the pencil.

Step 2: Select the sword, then select Object->Path->Simplify. Toggle Straight Lines and Preview boxes, and adjust the Angle Threshhold until you have five anchor points (this lets you have the long portions and the point of the blade).

Step 3: Select the object with the white pointer (anchor point tool). Move the points until you have the blade shaped how you like.

Step 4: Draw in a guard (straight line, or perhaps a curve), and a hilt - make sure to choose a different fill color for the hilt, and to have no fill for simple guards (some guards will have fills).

Step 5: Make sure the guard is above the blade and hilt on the layers. Simplfy the paths of both the guard and hilt to taste.

Step 6: Select all three objects and Group them (Object->Group) or Right Click it and select Group. Now you can treat the sword as a single object.

With these steps and some practice, you can make a lot of different swords:
http://plaza.ufl.edu/redwolf/swords2.gif

And all kinds of other weapons:
http://plaza.ufl.edu/redwolf/weapons.gif

erisian
2005-07-05, 06:15 PM
Really cool, Gorbash! Thanks for posting that and I applaud your clear insturctions.

Sneak
2005-07-05, 07:52 PM
Thanks, Gorbash! I didn't know about that, I'll keep it in mind. And yes, your armory looks awesome!

Pop Goes the Weasel
2005-07-11, 10:43 PM
I'm getting the trial version of Illustrator, and I may buy it (only 50 bucks, I thought it'd be like 300!). But for now, I'm stuck with Sodipodi, th on program that finds it funny if I try to make anything much more complex than a circle or rectangle. In the mean time, could someone give me an SVG file of a female torso?

Adghar
2005-07-15, 05:35 PM
If anyone ever wants to do a fancomic, I have advice for making text bubbles: First, type out the text. There is no telling how much space you need until you type it out. To make the text, you'll probably want to use Comic Sans MS in size 10 or so font (to do this, hold CTRL and press T, though it may be different for mac users). Then, draw a circle around the text. Unless you've selected no fill, the circle will cover the text. No problem. Just hold CTRL and Shift at the same time, then press the left bracket key ("["). Now the circle will be behind the text. Make sure the circle has a white fill. Now, you can adjust circle and text to your needs. To indicate who is speaking, the process is simple. You'll need 3 anchor points (the little dots connecting paths, click Direct Select and click on the circle to see them) so we'll be using the Add Anchor Point tool which is a sub-command of the Pen (Hold down the pen tool to see the sub-commands, then move your mouse over the pen with a plus sign over it and release the mouse button). Once you have that equipped, make sure you can see the paths of the circle. Then, click on 3 places in the path. The first and last new anchor points should be sized apart the amount you want the width of the indication stretch to be and be put on a place on the circle's path near the character you are indicating, like so (the image is a bit large so you can skip if you know what I mean): here (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v480/Adghar/Everything%20Else/textbubble.gif)
So anyways, the middle anchor point should be between the first and last ones. Now, click the Direct Selection tool (top of your tray full of tools that should be on the left, looks like a mouse pointer with white fill) and drag the middle anchor point out towards the character that is speaking. Now you have a fully working text bubble! Hooray!

Note: For titles you probably want to use the default font, Myriad.

Sneak
2005-07-15, 05:50 PM
I'm getting the trial version of Illustrator, and I may buy it (only 50 bucks, I thought it'd be like 300!). But for now, I'm stuck with Sodipodi, th on program that finds it funny if I try to make anything much more complex than a circle or rectangle. In the mean time, could someone give me an SVG file of a female torso?

Sorry, I would if I could, but I don't know how to make an SVG file. And also, Illustrator doesn't cost 50 bucks! Does it!?

Pop Goes the Weasel
2005-07-15, 05:54 PM
I decided not to get it, but yes, it's 50 on amazon!

Adghar
2005-07-15, 05:55 PM
Save as... "SVG" (below the naming thing)

Banjhulu, if you could PM me your e-mail, I could give you a nice SVG of a female avatar though the body is a bit small.

Ego Slayer
2005-07-26, 11:07 AM
"The shape tools are also good for making perfect shapes, if you want to make a head for your avatar, when you select the circle tool you can set the size of the circle you want. 44 by 44 pixels is a good size for the head."--

Where exactly am I to find this tool? I've been playing with AI lately but still can't find it. ???

RawBearNYC
2005-07-26, 01:40 PM
I was playing with Sodipodi and Inkscape a bit lately. I think I like Inkscape more than Sodipodi, but I discovered something in Sodipodi that people might find interesting:

You can set the "Page" to 117 x 117 pixels. It's a bit hidden tho.

In the upper left hand corner of the Sodipodi document window (where you draw your picture) there's a little triangle pointing to the right. Left click it and a menu will come up. Select "Dialogs" from that menu and you'll see "Document".

http://www.twors.net/rawbear/images/sodipodi002.jpg

When the Document dialog box opens, you can set the size of your document. Make sure the top Paper-size says "Custom" and Units says "Points". Then type 117 into both Width and Height.

http://www.twors.net/rawbear/images/sodipodi001.jpg

Then you shouldn't have trouble making an avatar that looks right on the site!

Sneak
2005-07-26, 03:46 PM
"The shape tools are also good for making perfect shapes, if you want to make a head for your avatar, when you select the circle tool you can set the size of the circle you want. 44 by 44 pixels is a good size for the head."--

Where exactly am I to find this tool? I've been playing with AI lately but still can't find it. ???


You know the square tool? There should be a little arrow in the corner of the box that has the square tool. Drag and hold that, and you can then change the tool to make different shapes: star, circle, etc.

Gorbash Kazdar
2005-07-26, 06:51 PM
You know the square tool? There should be a little arrow in the corner of the box that has the square tool. Drag and hold that, and you can then change the tool to make different shapes: star, circle, etc.
You have to select it and then mess with it using options under the "Effects" menu to get the other shapes, btw.

Peregrine
2005-08-05, 05:31 AM
I was playing with Sodipodi and Inkscape a bit lately. I think I like Inkscape more than Sodipodi, but I discovered something in Sodipodi that people might find interesting:
:o

RawBear, I could kiss you (...if I, err, weren't allergic to uncooked ursines). It even has a manual XML editor! :D

RawBearNYC
2005-08-05, 12:19 PM
:o

RawBear, I could kiss you (...if I, err, weren't allergic to uncooked ursines). It even has a manual XML editor! :D
*Plants a big kiss right on Peregrine's forehead then gives him a shot from an epipen*

Searian_Taladon
2005-08-16, 05:16 PM
If you are really masochistic (like me) you can make an avatar using Microsoft Visio and then resize and convert it to gif in Photoshop. One bored afternoon at work resulted in my avatar, which I made after I found out Rich didn't want his art used in avatars elsewhere.

Elethiomel
2005-08-26, 02:00 PM
I just wanted to give a big thanks to you guide-writers, and to Searian Taladon who pointed me to this thread.

<-- Shiny!

Nihility
2005-09-09, 06:40 PM
HUZZAH! After many a hour of trial and error, I have finally finished my new avatar using Inkscape (which was sort of annoying as it has no paintbrush tool). I use linux so no adobe.. that and I didn't want to buy it anyway. Lemme know what you think.
Hmm.. seems I need to fix it so it doesn't have the white background..

Edit: I've converted the image to a .gif but it still has the white BG.. arg.. i guess i'll read through the rest of the pages to see if anyone already answered this, but if you're feeling nice, please let me know. thanks.

I'm using The Gimp, not Photoshop btw.

Flak_Razorwill
2005-09-16, 09:46 AM
I'm using sodipodi, and converting the files to .gif via photoshop 7.0

Whenever I finish the conversion, the pics always end up all pixelly. How do I solve this?

EDIT: Also in irfanview, too. I try to keep the pixel resolution as high as possible, but no dice.

Ikkitosen
2005-09-27, 07:23 AM
Okay, so not strictly an avatar question, but an Adobe Illustrator question:

I'm trying to draw a line that gradually expands as it moves away from its origin, like a slightly diverging beam of light. I could do this by drawing a really thin triangle, but I was wondering if there was an effect I could add to the line tool line that would accomplish this, maybe by defining the angle of divergence and the the line and fill colours as usual. Anyone know if this is possible? It'd be a big help.

Cheers in advance,

Ikki.

Kylenpc
2005-10-04, 08:16 PM
Where do you get adobe illistrater.

Leewong
2005-10-05, 07:46 PM
Whee! This is me showing off my first avatar attempt. Hooray!

You (legally) get Illustrator by buying it. My company is encouraging me to learn it. This is the result. Hee-hee.

Kylenpc
2005-10-05, 09:23 PM
Huh yu do but what about the fr5ee trial.

Annon
2005-10-07, 03:20 PM
I've been giving Sodipodi a try, and have been having fun drwing random stuff and playing with it. I really enjoy the nodes (if I knew how to get them in Photoshop seven I would probably be entertained for hours). I just can't get enough of them!

And by "can't get enough of them," I mean I can't seem to figure out how to make a new node in an already exising object. Also, are there supposed to be nodes on things like recangle or circles as well. I think I got them on a circle once by accident, but have been unable to duplicate my steps.

So what I mean is...uh...help? :-/



EDIT: Also, can someone point me to a good beginner's program for making animated gifs? Also, what are the restrictions on using said animations as avatars?

Adghar
2005-10-07, 03:59 PM
Nodes? What do you mean?

WampaX
2005-10-07, 05:10 PM
EDIT: Also, can someone point me to a good beginner's program for making animated gifs? Also, what are the restrictions on using said animations as avatars?

Adobe Image Ready can do the animated Gifs.

General Policy is nothing too fancy as other people have to download your ani.gif and then not be distracted by it when they are posting. If it is too much of an eyesore, one of us (the mods) will inform you.

RawBearNYC
2005-10-08, 09:42 AM
I've been giving Sodipodi a try, and have been having fun drwing random stuff and playing with it. I really enjoy the nodes (if I knew how to get them in Photoshop seven I would probably be entertained for hours). I just can't get enough of them!

And by "can't get enough of them," I mean I can't seem to figure out how to make a new node in an already exising object. Also, are there supposed to be nodes on things like recangle or circles as well. I think I got them on a circle once by accident, but have been unable to duplicate my steps.

So what I mean is...uh...help? :-/

EDIT: Also, can someone point me to a good beginner's program for making animated gifs? Also, what are the restrictions on using said animations as avatars?
There are no restrictions on using animated gifs as an avatar, but have some respect for our dialup users and keep the filesize small.

I'm on my laptop which doesn't have a working installation of Sodipodi, so I'm doing this from memory.

Nodes are the fundamental piece of vector graphics. They determin angles and curves when applied right.

A rectangle will have four nodes one at each corner. Actually, an oval also has four nodes at the cardinal points.

When you draw a shape in SodiPodi, tho, you don't get the editable nodes right away. But, if you click on the node editing tool, a new toolbar should come along the top. One of the last few buttons on that toolbar should look like a warped figure 8. When you click on that with a shape selected, it will change to contain editable nodes that you can play with.

AFAIK, Photoshop only allows node editing with respect to paths. Aside from paths, Photoshop doesn't do any vector graphic editing. That's why Adobe makes Illustrator.

Edit: Grrr....Ok, I got sodipodi working and realized that I was remembering Inkscape (I like Inkscape better, fwiw, and it installs easier in Windows), not SodiPodi. The warped figure 8 button I was talking about is in the "Object" tool box. It's the last one.

Annon
2005-10-09, 10:58 AM
Thank you. Currently, I am not at my computer, and don't have VNC up and running yet, so I can't try it out. I'll post when I do (I think I already tried your suggestion though--I'll just have to see how it goes.)

bananna
2005-10-10, 02:07 PM
I have a problem with my attempt at a Sodipodi av - the drawing went fine, but when I went to IrfanView and exported as .gif , the transparent colour was totally wrecked by the colour reduction and became riddled with horrible little lighter-coloured dots :( Since Adobe Photoshop 5 is awful at transparency, I was wondering if there's an easier and cleaner way to reduce colours.

ETA : Nevermind. The key is to reduce colours BEFORE saving as a gif - you need to de-select the Fred-Jacobs thing.

Annon
2005-10-10, 06:26 PM
I have a new problem. I have an object that is acting odd. I can't move it from the spot it is on. If I try, it copies itself and stays in the same sopt. Even If I try to delete it, I get a seemingly infinite number of copies that ome up and replace it.

What the heck did I do to deserve this?

EDIT: Scratch that figured it out myself. Don't know what was wrong to begin with, but who cares! ;D

EIDT2: <----- Woohoo! Got My first one done!! Got shrank all to heck, but not bad for a first time...

Annon
2005-10-11, 10:57 PM
Sorry for the double post, But I already edited my previous one three times.

I can get my avatar to be any bigger than the one I am using. I would be satisfied, except it seems Like everyone else's are bigger, by the looks of them. I even did a side-by-side comparison and, sure enough, they are bigger (in height, at least).

Why are all of mine midgets?

Amalthea
2005-10-26, 02:44 PM
Okay, so not strictly an avatar question, but an Adobe Illustrator question:

I'm trying to draw a line that gradually expands as it moves away from its origin, like a slightly diverging beam of light. I could do this by drawing a really thin triangle, but I was wondering if there was an effect I could add to the line tool line that would accomplish this, maybe by defining the angle of divergence and the the line and fill colours as usual. Anyone know if this is possible? It'd be a big help.

Cheers in advance,

Ikki.
Really, the only way I know to do this is in Photoshop, using a pressure sensitive tablet. You set the pen to pressure/thickness, draw the line with the tablet pen and increase the pressure of the pen on the tablet to thicken the line. It takes a little practice.

GreenWarden
2005-11-19, 12:50 PM
Hey, I recently got Sodipodi, and I am pshyched to use it, to forward my OOTS art.

But, when I try to open the file, it says Iam missing the component, 'zlib-1' could not be found.

I tried to repair the program by reinstalling it, but it was to no avail. Anyone have any knowledge on this subject.

RawBearNYC
2005-11-20, 02:31 PM
see step 8 from "Getting Sodipodi" from this post: http://www.giantitp.com/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.pl?action=display;board=news;num=1115586717;s tart=0#4

GreenWarden
2005-11-20, 05:26 PM
Oooie, thanks on my way, and creating avatars, but againg I'm having a slight problem.

When I export them to Irfanview, everything goes swell, but when I open them, there is nothing there.

Gogo525
2005-11-22, 12:50 PM
I cannot make avatar since I do not have adobe illustrator :'(. so I was wondering if someone could make me one of seigfreid of soul calibur 3. I would be ever thankful if someone were able to do this for me but a noon I wont be able to get back on this computer until next monday. I might be able to get on to check on like thursday so Ill try to check in then. but please someone help me with my predicament.(if that is how you spell that)
thanx,
Assassins shadow

Pensive Pine
2005-12-05, 02:14 AM
This topic was really helpful ^_^
I had a big problem with my wings, though. I had to trade transparency for them, it seems.

nuttynathaniel
2005-12-29, 01:23 PM
Seeing as i didn't want to fork out $500 for the adobe illustrator, i decided to go for the GTK/Sodipodi combo. The installation went smoothly, but i am unable to download the blank square canvas linked to in the sodipodi tutorial. All I get when click the link is an .xml text document, any suggestions?

RawBearNYC
2005-12-29, 05:41 PM
Seeing as i didn't want to fork out $500 for the adobe illustrator, i decided to go for the GTK/Sodipodi combo. The installation went smoothly, but i am unable to download the blank square canvas linked to in the sodipodi tutorial. All I get when click the link is an .xml text document, any suggestions?
Don't bother with the template, just do this (http://www.giantitp.com/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.pl?action=display;board=news;num=1115586717;s tart=45#49) instead.

nuttynathaniel
2005-12-30, 07:31 AM
thanks :)

On to character making!

SacredStorm
2006-01-16, 10:51 PM
Hmm I surprisingly just found this topic and didn't have alot of time to read the whole thing ::), but I do have one question for anyone who uses Adobe Illustrator.

I have used my Illustrator, but I am not very skillful in it. (Give me MS Paint and I can do wonders ;)) I have come up with a small number of stick figures with the program. Found here.

http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a147/SacredStorm/MEL.gif
http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a147/SacredStorm/ASHLEY.gif
http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a147/SacredStorm/LAURIE.gif
http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a147/SacredStorm/Stick-practice.gif

Sorry for all the hyperlinks haha... Anyways as you can see I like to make these pictures of my friends and have them keep them, but when I want to make an avatar *See mine* it doesn't have as nice of quality as my larger ones do.

So my question is, "Are there anyways in Illustrator to shrink the picture and not distort the quality?"

Or

"How can I help my smaller avatars in the future? Such as, is there a certain line size that I should use for my avatars?"

Hope all that made sense ;)
Thank you in advance!

-Sam

Samiam303
2006-01-16, 11:30 PM
SacredStorm, what version of Illustrator are you using?

SacredStorm
2006-01-16, 11:40 PM
I use Adobe Illustrator CS2

Oh and to note on the large stick figures you may have to enlarge the picture. My internet explorer makes it small at first making it blurred but i expand the picture to get the full size ::). If that may be the case for some of you.

Tariskat
2006-01-19, 05:20 PM
Okay, I am having me a very large problem. Any and all help would be appreciated. I downloaded Sodipodi and the extra GTK thing. I copied and renamed all the necessary files, glib to glib-1 and all that, but now when I try to open Sodipodi I get this message:

The procedure entry point g_module_open_uft8 could not be located in the dynamic link library libgmodule-2.0-0.dll.

And all I can do is hit okay, and I'm stuck with a program that doesn't open.
Advice, please!!!

RawBearNYC
2006-01-19, 06:02 PM
Okay, I am having me a very large problem. Any and all help would be appreciated. I downloaded Sodipodi and the extra GTK thing. I copied and renamed all the necessary files, glib to glib-1 and all that, but now when I try to open Sodipodi I get this message:

The procedure entry point g_module_open_uft8 could not be located in the dynamic link library libgmodule-2.0-0.dll.

And all I can do is hit okay, and I'm stuck with a program that doesn't open.
Advice, please!!!

I'm doing this from memory, but I remember that problem. The problem is that it can't find that dll file. Do a search for the filename on your drive, it should be somewhere in the GTK file space. Copy that file to the directory where you installed Sodipodi, then the program should start. Don't move the file, or other things based on GTK (that you may have loaded) will break.

Tariskat
2006-01-19, 07:34 PM
RawBearNYC- I searched for the g_module file bit and could not find it in my computer. Then I searched for the libgmodule-2.0-0.dll and I found two files by that name, one in the gtk and one in the sodipodi. I copied the gtk into the file with sodipodi files and program but it still baffles me. It gives me the same message. Any other ideas? Or should I just keep looking for the g_module? And even though it didn't quite work, thanks for your help anyway.

RawBearNYC
2006-01-20, 10:46 AM
g_module isn't a file, it's a part of the libgmodule, you won't find it. I'm thought that was the fix, it might be that there's another fix out there, but I can't remember it, maybe, later today, I'll hit google with the error message and see what I get.

Tariskat
2006-01-22, 07:14 PM
nevermind, RawBearNYC. Finally got it! I completely erased both files/programs and redownloaded it. Then I went back to the direction here, on page 1, Pergrine's step

7. Go to where you installed Sodipodi. Paste the file. (You might want to rename the existing libgmodule-2.0-0.dll first, just in case. It shouldn't be necessary though.)

So I renamed the orignal, then pasted my new copy, and BAM it's open. Thanks for your time and help though!!

Raistlin1040
2006-01-28, 12:29 PM
Is there a guide to making avatars with GIMP? Thanks

amorelli
2006-01-28, 01:07 PM
Is there a way to convert .svg to .gif on a mac? I looked at irfanview but it's only for PC. I have a nice avi for darklight140 sitting here in .svg on my machine, but I can't make it usable. :'( (In case it it matters, I made it in Inkscape.)

[edit] I exported it as a .png and it looks nice, but I figured out how to use the GIMP to save it as a .gif, and it loses a lot of quality and becomes pixelated. Any other suggestions?

[edit2]here it is as a .png
http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d45/_amorelli_/avatars/Wildmage.png

and here it is as a .gif (i converted it with preview this time)
http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d45/_amorelli_/avatars/Wildmage.gif

RawBearNYC
2006-01-28, 05:23 PM
Is there a way to convert .svg to .gif on a mac? I looked at irfanview but it's only for PC. I have a nice avi for darklight140 sitting here in .svg on my machine, but I can't make it usable. :'( (In case it it matters, I made it in Inkscape.)

[edit] I exported it as a .png and it looks nice, but I figured out how to use the GIMP to save it as a .gif, and it loses a lot of quality and becomes pixelated. Any other suggestions?

[edit2]here it is as a .png
http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d45/_amorelli_/avatars/Wildmage.png

and here it is as a .gif (i converted it with preview this time)
http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d45/_amorelli_/avatars/Wildmage.gif

You're problem is antialiasing (and the transparency in the GIF image), or the lack of antialiasing.

Pixels are square. There's no help for that. to make smooth lines that aren't perfectly vertical or horizontal, a graphic program needs to use extra pixels of various shades between the two colors next to each other, for example, the brown in his shirt and the black of the border of his shirt. If you zoom in real close, you'll see various pixels between the brown and black.

when creating gifs with transparency, there are a couple things you have to be careful of. Only one of the possible 256 colors in a gif can be considered "transparent". Any pixel colored that color will be transparent. But when you get to the borders and those colors start changing due to the anti-aliasing, those stay what they are. If the antialiasing was to white white originally, for example but the gif is shown on a dark background, you'll see a halo of white-ish pixels surrounding the image.

The other thing that can happen is what happened to you. the antialiasing didn't happen at all. So, none of those shaded pixels are there, and the lines don't look smooth.

The fix would be to follow these steps in gimp. Open the original png image in GIMP (not the gif, it's too late to anti-alias that). then, fill a lower layer with white. use the magic wand (fuzzy select tool) with "Sample Merged" clicked in tool options. Then click the white areas and use Clear to get rid of what's there. Then save it as a gif. That should preserve the antialiasing. The antialiasing will be to white in this case (because that's the color you used as the background). These messages boards have 2 backgrounds, white or tan. The good news is that they're close enough in value that you won't see the halo when it's on the tan.

Hope that helps.

amorelli
2006-01-28, 06:12 PM
Thank you RawBearNYC. That worked perfectly. Here's the finished gif...

http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d45/_amorelli_/avatars/Wildmagegimp.gif

Raistlin1040: I would suggest using Inkscape (http://www.inkscape.org/) instead of the GIMP and then using the GIMP to make it a gif like RawBearNYC told me to.

Raistlin1040
2006-01-29, 01:12 PM
Are you sure the link is right because I am getting a Cannot Find Server page?

amorelli
2006-01-29, 05:26 PM
the link works for me, but just search inkscape on google. It's an open-source vector drawing program.

http://www.google.com/search?client=safari&rls=en&q=inkscape&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8
its the first link

Raistlin1040
2006-01-30, 10:13 PM
Okay I am at the downloads page, what do I click on to download it?

amorelli
2006-01-30, 10:38 PM
download the one for your OS.
If you are on a Mac, which you should be cause they're the best ;), get the one that says Mac OS X - .dmg.
If you made a mistake while buying computers and got a machine that runs windows, get the one that says Windows - .exe installer.
If you're on Linux, a better choice that windows, though not as good as Mac, download the one that says Linux Autopackage - .package.

(Sorry about the pro-mac stuff ;D. I couldn't resist)

Raistlin1040
2006-01-30, 10:55 PM
So this can make things in the OotS format huh?

This is confusing. How do I make the avatar?

RawBearNYC
2006-01-31, 10:47 AM
So this can make things in the OotS format huh?

This is confusing. How do I make the avatar?

We don't have specific instructions for using Inkscape. But we do have a post on using SodiPodi on the first page of this thread. The two programs are similar, so many people will be able to adapt the instructions to move from one to the other.

Or maybe one of our Intrepid guide authors will write an Inkscape tutorial: http://www.giantitp.com/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.pl?action=display;board=news;num=1115586717;s tart=0#4

amorelli
2006-01-31, 10:02 PM
I will this weekend, possibly before. No time right now

[edit] sorry for the double post. The next one is gonna be Looooong

amorelli
2006-02-03, 10:03 PM
Amorelli’s Guide to Making Avatars with Inkscape (http://www.inkscape.org/) and the GIMP (http://gimp-app.sourceforge.net/)

This Guide is intended for use with Mac OS X, though Linux and Windows users should have no problem.


I: Getting Inkscape (http://www.inkscape.org/)
1. Go to the Download Page (http://www.inkscape.org/download.php)

2. Select the download appropriate for your system. (These aren’t links, since those change with new versions. I just included which to download for each OS)
---MACINTOSH: Mac OS X — .dmg
---WINDOWS: Windows — .exe installer
---LINUX: Linux Autopackage — .package (See autopackage.org (http://autopackage.org) for directions).
---OTHER OSs: Scroll to the bottom of the screen. You can download the source code and compile it yourself.

MACINTOSH
3. Drag the Inkscape application from the disk image to your application folder (or wherever you want it to go)

OTHER OSs
3. Follow the instructions on the website

II: Getting the GIMP (http://gimp-app.sourceforge.net/)
NOTE: The GIMP requires Apple’s X11 which is included in the “Optional Installs” Package on the OS X install disk

FOR MAC:
1. Go to the GIMP.app website (http://gimp-app.sourceforge.net/)

2. Download it.

3. Open the ReadMe and follow the instructions.

FOR WINDOWS:
1. Go to the GIMP for windows website (http://www.gimp.org/windows/) and follow the instructions there for download and installation.

FOR UNIX (Linux, BSD, Sun Solaris)
1. Go to the GIMP for Unix website (http://www.gimp.org/unix/) and follow the instructions for download and installation that are appropriate for the OS you have.

III: Making the Avatar
NOTE: I am doing this on a Mac. There may be slight differences in appearance and function with other operatic systems, but it should be the same overall.
1. Open Inkscape. At this point, your screen should look like this (http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d45/_amorelli_/Inkscape%20Guide/Picture1.png) (a large picture, so just the url)

2. Go to File > Document Preferences (Shift + Ctrl + D). The window should look like this (http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d45/_amorelli_/Inkscape%20Guide/Picture2.png). Choose the Page tab, and in the custom canvas section set the units to px and each side to 117. It should now look like this (http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d45/_amorelli_/Inkscape%20Guide/Picture3.png).

NOTE: If you hover the mouse over just about anything, a box will show up telling what it does.

3. There should be a small box in the lower left part of the screen. This is the canvas. Zoom in on it using the zoom tool (The magnifying glass). The box in the extreme lower left corner also controls zoom. I like to set it at between 200 and 225 for the basic drawing and zoom in further for detail.

4. First, use the circle tool (guess which one it is) to create a circle. I generally make it about as big as a third of the canvas height. Now go to object > fill and stroke. You’ll want to always keep this window open, since it controls, surprisingly enough, the fill and stroke of whatever object you’re currently editing.

http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d45/_amorelli_/Inkscape%20Guide/Picture4.png
NOTE: The anatomy of the fill and stroke window.
Fill deals with the inside of the object and its transparency and color. Stroke deals with the outline of the object.
Along the top are three tabs: Fill, stroke paint, and stroke style. They are remarkably self explanatory. In the fill and stroke paint tabs (the above picture), the X makes it no fill, the solid box makes it a solid fill, the linear gradient makes it a linear gradient fill, the circular gradient makes a radial gradient fill. Ignore the other ones. The slider at the very bottom controls the transparency of the entire object. The triangle and surrounding ring control the color, and the slider labeled “A” controls the alpha. Under the alpha slider is a box containing a value. This is the code for the color you are currently using. The stroke style tab doesn’t really need explaining, since it is already well labeled.
http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d45/_amorelli_/Inkscape%20Guide/Picture5.png

5. Change the fill of the circle to an appropriate flesh tone, (I used ffd197ff) then select the stroke paint tab and make sure it’s black. Your canvas should look something like this. (http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d45/_amorelli_/Inkscape%20Guide/Picture6.png)

6. Now, select the straight line/Bezier curve tool (the pencil with a straight line and a curve). This tool creates nodes where you click and draws straight lines between them. Press enter to end the line. For this example, we will create a wizard type person. So, create a blocky outline of the robe. Remember to make the line 2 pts thick, and choose a nice fill for it. Then, select the robe, go to object > lower to bottom. It should look something like this: (http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d45/_amorelli_/Inkscape%20Guide/Picture8.png)

7. Obviously, we don’t want a blocky outline. This is when vector drawing comes in. Select the node tool (right under the arrow tool) and click on the object. Each of the nodes can have lines going off of it. These lines control the curvature of the lines between the nodes. However, right now the nodes don’t have any. So… hold shift, click and drag off one of the nodes. A line should come off of it and affect the curvature of the line. Play around with moving the nodes and creating more lines so you get the hang of them, and make a robe. Now, it might look something like this. (http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d45/_amorelli_/Inkscape%20Guide/Picture9.png)

8. Now, we make the face. Using the circle tool, create two small ovals, one slightly larger than the other, and make the stroke and fill black. Basically, make it look like the eyes on OoTS. They should look something like this. (http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d45/_amorelli_/Inkscape%20Guide/Picture10.png)

9. To finish the face, we make the smile. Use the freehand drawing tool (directly under the spiral) to make a smile. If you make it a little crooked or shaky, don’t worry. Remember the node tool? You can use it on this line too, so you can change the curvature and placement of the nodes, and even delete or add them. To delete click one and press delete. To add one, double click on the line. So, the drawing will now look like this:
http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d45/_amorelli_/Inkscape%20Guide/Picture11.png

10. All we have left is arms and legs. Make them with the Bezier curve tool, similarly to the creation of the robe, except you need no fill. Generally, I use two lines per arm. The first line has a node at the shoulder, elbow, and end of the middle finger. The second has a node at the end of the left finger, wrist, and right finger. Use the lines attached to the nodes to achieve the right curves. The leg has a node at the hip, knee, ankle, and toe. Here’s a close up of the arm/hand (note that I changed the robe somewhat. This was easily achieved by moving nodes.)
http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d45/_amorelli_/Inkscape%20Guide/Picture12.png

11. Now, you can add other things like a belt, etc.
http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d45/_amorelli_/Inkscape%20Guide/Picture13.png
Another possibility, as Pop Goes the Banjulhu told me, is to make the lines in the drawing have rounded "caps", so the end of the line is not sharp. This is done by going to the stroke style tab of the stroke and fill window and choosing the rounded cap, as is shown in the picture of the stroke style window above.

12. Once you are done, go to file > export bitmap. Choose the page tab and set the size to 117 by 117, which will be 90 dpi.

13. Now, quit Inkscape and open the GIMP. Open the image you just exported. Create a layer and move it to the bottom, and use the paintbucket tool to fill in the lower layer with white. This functions to fill in something behind the transparent first layer so the anti-aliasing is preserved when converted to .gif. Your windows should now look like this. (http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d45/_amorelli_/Inkscape%20Guide/Picture14.png)

14. Select the lower layer, and use the magic wand tool with the sample merged option (the settings for your magic wand tool should look like this (http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d45/_amorelli_/Inkscape%20Guide/FuzzySelectBar.png)) selected to choose the white areas and use clear (ctrl + k) to delete them. When you do so, you should see the checkerboard background again, not white. Then, go to file > save as. Erase the .png at the end of the name and replace it with .gif. Click save, then export, and unclick the comment part. Then, click export.

15. Your Done! If you have any further questions, PM (http://www.giantitp.com/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.pl?board=silly;action=imsend;to=amorelli) me or post them in this thread.
http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d45/_amorelli_/Inkscape%20Guide/example.gifhttp://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d45/_amorelli_/avatars/alamir2.gifhttp://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d45/_amorelli_/avatars/apple.gifhttp://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d45/_amorelli_/avatars/vaynor2.gifhttp://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d45/_amorelli_/avatars/Wildmagegimp.gif

[hr]

FAQ
Q: In Gimp, when you use the Fuzzy Select Tool, (to make the background trasparent) how do you keep it smooth and not choppy?
A: First of all, make sure you export the image from inkscape as a .png. This image should look smooth: this is because of antialiasing to make the edges curved. However, this antialiasing is done by changing the alpha of certain pixels, which won't transfer over onto a .gif nicely, and produces results similar to what you have shown me. However, by putting the white background on a layer behind it, you make the antialiasing over white. Then, by using the fuzzy select tool with the sample merged option and selected the white areas (make sure the white layer is still selected in the layers section), you delete the non-antialiasing part of the white background. So, you should be left with an image that has anti-aliasing over white. However, your image does not seem to have this antialiasing.

There are two things I think could be causing this problem.
First, you may not have the sample-merged option selected. This would delete the entire white background, and thus render it useless. When you delete the white areas, the layer that was previously completely white should now have a white silhouette of your picture on the above layer.

The second thing that could be causing this problem is if the threshold is set incorrectly on the fuzzy-select (threshold is how close the color has to be to the adjacent color to be selected. So, if the threshold is too high, for example, a grey would be selected along with the white.) The threshold should be set to 15.

Here is a picture of what the settings should be: http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d45/_amorelli_/Inkscape%20Guide/FuzzySelectBar.png

If the problem persists, feel free to PM me.

RawBearNYC
2006-02-04, 12:46 PM
Thanks for the guide. Couple notes

The GIMP is, in fact, available for Windows, it's actually my primary raster graphics editor.

One thing you might want to do is define what Fill and Stroke mean. Your guide assumes that the reader knows what they are, but that really shouldn't be a given.

Pop Goes the Weasel
2006-02-04, 02:04 PM
Nice tutorial! But, I would like to suggest that you cap the ends of the hands and mouth. This can be done via the stroke menu, and it really enhances the look.

Another usefual tool for making avatars is Macromedia Flash. It is expensive, but it has a very unique, simple method for editing nodes (drag the line to curve, hold ctrl to make a new point). I might make a tutorial.

amorelli
2006-02-04, 02:19 PM
thanks for the feedback. I forgot about the rounded cap thing :-[. I made the changes you suggested, and if there are any more you'd like, just inform me.

Also, I added more information for other operating systems, so it should be more universal.

Pop Goes the Banjulhu: I do like Flash for making avatars, but I found that it doesn't export them in a good enough quality, which is why I now use inkscape.

Pop Goes the Weasel
2006-02-04, 03:16 PM
Pop Goes the Banjulhu: I do like Flash for making avatars, but I found that it doesn't export them in a good enough quality, which is why I now use inkscape.
Yeah, I was having that same problem (I use inkscape).
Mods, I don't know if I have the right to request this, but I think that if we removed all non-tutorial posts, this thread would be much easier to navigate. Just my 2 cents! :P

amorelli
2006-02-04, 03:55 PM
adding my 2 cents... or make a new thread just for the tutorials which you mods could lock after putting them there. This way, there's still a thread for avatar making questions.

[edit] Pop Goes the Banjulhu: Your sig is messed up. Looks like you were using html tags in there. It's better now

Eldhrin
2006-02-05, 01:30 PM
Something I don't quite comprehend about this tutorial. I use Inkscape for mine, and when I Export Bitmap, I get a PNG with a transparent background, so no need to do any messing with selecting things in GIMP.

Of course, I then went and made it into a GIF with a white background for some incredibly stupid reason, but that was very deliberate, I think I'd forgotten that GIF can handle (pathetic) transparency. But anyway, it is possible to export from Inkscape with transparency already in place. I just don't know how I managed it.

amorelli
2006-02-05, 04:44 PM
You are correct - the png is transparent. However, converting it directly to gif w/out using the method I included messes up the anti-aliasing.

RawBearNYC
2006-02-06, 12:22 AM
the PNG spec supports, iirc, alpha transparency, which fixes the anti-aliasing problem found with GIF's. Unfortunately, PNG isn't supported in Mac browsers, so you probably shouldn't use them on web pages.

nightfire8199
2006-02-09, 06:06 PM
can anyone tell me how to make Avatars in Pixia? its a free program that you can download. it is very powerful and need some instruction. i have some basic knoledge on it so you would need to tell me how to change the format to gif.

amorelli
2006-02-09, 08:43 PM
Dont know Pixia, sorry.

RawBearNYC: Could you change the title of this topic to just Guide to Making Your Own Avatars. A lot of people want to make their own but don't want to buy illustrator, and because of the title, they don't necessarily think to look here.

Sneak
2006-02-10, 02:27 PM
Hmm. If you open an image in Illustrator and then save it again, it becomes blurry. Is there any way to fix this? Sometimes I don't save the .ai files, so I just open the image file to add stuff on, but then it got blurry. I've done that before without it getting blurry though, but when I try now it seems to always go blurry. Any help?

Jack Squat
2006-02-10, 05:50 PM
Hmm. If you open an image in Illustrator and then save it again, it becomes blurry. Is there any way to fix this? Sometimes I don't save the .ai files, so I just open the image file to add stuff on, but then it got blurry. I've done that before without it getting blurry though, but when I try now it seems to always go blurry. Any help?

I have the AI 3 (circa. 1990) kit, so I'll look it up and see if I can find anything.

speaking of which, anyone know if there's an adaption to allow older Mac programs to run on Windows?

amorelli
2006-02-10, 05:54 PM
speaking of which, anyone know if there's an adaption to allow older Mac programs to run on Windows?

Not that I know of, but you can generally find a different program that does the same thing.

Pop Goes the Weasel
2006-02-10, 06:00 PM
can anyone tell me how to make Avatars in Pixia? its a free program that you can download. it is very powerful and need some instruction. i have some basic knoledge on it so you would need to tell me how to change the format to gif.
Dude, I tried to check it out for you, but the site is incredibly confusing. It never even specifies if Pixia is a vector or bitmap program.

Jack Squat
2006-02-10, 06:06 PM
Not that I know of, but you can generally find a different program that does the same thing.

I have Access to Corel Draw, but I don't feel like learning it. I remembered Mac's release of Virtual PC and thought there might be some software out like that for windows.


Sneak: The only thing I could find that might help was the Autotrace tool, it'll help redefine the borders, but I'm not sure if that's the extent of your problem.

nightfire8199
2006-02-10, 11:02 PM
thats ok i decided to download Inkscape. so i no longer use pixia.

Sneak
2006-02-14, 10:16 PM
Sneak: The only thing I could find that might help was the Autotrace tool, it'll help redefine the borders, but I'm not sure if that's the extent of your problem.

Well, it somehow fixed itself. Dunno what the problem was, but thanks anyway.

Jack Squat
2006-02-15, 09:56 AM
Well, it somehow fixed itself. Dunno what the problem was, but thanks anyway.

yeah, software does that alot, I don't know how many glitches i've run into that later disappear. Being an amateur programmer I know two rules about programs
1. There's what a program should do, and what it will do.
2. If your program doesn't have any bugs in it, it doesn't work in the first place.

amorelli
2006-02-18, 07:17 PM
guaging interest: are there people interested in a tutorial to making animated avatars in Flash?

Sneak
2006-02-18, 07:27 PM
Ooh! I would be interested! I can use Flash, but I'm not great.

amorelli
2006-02-19, 12:11 PM
for this one, it wouldn't be so much of a step by step thing from the beginning as a list of things to keep track of. I'll include a step by step for the one I'm doing for mortia, but I'm going to assume people are pretty good at flash already. I'm not gonna explain all the terminology (motion tween, shape tween, rotate, etc.). Flash is pretty easy to learn anyway, so it shouldn't be too hard to figure out.

Sneak
2006-02-19, 12:31 PM
Yeah, I definitely don't need to learn about tweens and stuff. I'm pretty good at Flash if I do say so myself (although I'm horrendous at actionscript), and I can animate, but a guide to making avatars would still be appreciated.

amorelli
2006-02-19, 02:05 PM
i can't do actionscript for my life. My knowledge of it consists of, go to google.com, type in "Actionscript for [insert thing you want to do]". Command+C, Command+V.

Sneak
2006-02-19, 04:35 PM
Heh, the way I do actionscript is...well, I did another animation a while back with another person, and we were helped by another person who knew actionscript. So all I do is I either look for a tutorial on newgrounds or I copy stuff from that animation and paste it into the new one.

amorelli
2006-02-21, 02:29 PM
hmmm. I don't think the flash thing is gonna work, since animations are generally completely unique. I'll make a list of things to remember, though.

PS: Sneak: the minsc avatars awesome. BG II was a good game... ahhh... the memories

/me stares blankly while reminiscing about spending way too much time playing it
***Amorelli stares blankly while reminiscing about spending way too much time playing it
[edit] WHOA!!!! The board knows the / me command. Wow, that's cool
<geekness>OMGZ!!1!one!! TEH B04RD IS 4 1337 HAXXOR!1!!one!!11!1!!two!!</geekness>
:-[ sorry.

Kindariel_Silnarie
2006-02-28, 06:43 PM
Silly question: the avatar MUST be a stick figure?

if so, i would like to know asap, for I might be against the rules fromt the start.

Thanks. ;)

Sneak
2006-02-28, 07:02 PM
No, definitely not! There is no restriction to stick figure avatars. However, many prefer them, and most avatar makers tend to make them in an OotSish style.

Kindariel_Silnarie
2006-02-28, 07:18 PM
ty sneak. I may tamper with my photoshop sooner or later to fit in. until then, the Emblem stays :P

TheLastOfTheFallen
2006-02-28, 11:36 PM
So, here is my first try at avatar art. Weak, I know, but I would like feedback for specific ways I could improve. Thanks in advance.

http://i41.photobucket.com/albums/e298/TheLastOfTheFallen/First.gif

Edit:
And here's version 2:
http://i41.photobucket.com/albums/e298/TheLastOfTheFallen/Second.gif

amorelli
2006-03-01, 05:56 PM
it looks good!
To improve it:
1) Make it bigger so it takes up as much space as possible without messing up the aspect ratio.
2) get rid of the white space behind it

other than that, it looks good to me!

TheLastOfTheFallen
2006-03-01, 11:12 PM
thanks. I have trouble with the white space one = I use InfranView, and if I don't put the white space there, everything behind it ends up black.

amorelli
2006-03-02, 05:41 PM
you could use the gimp. Use the directions in the guide linked in my sig to make, and just ignore the inkscape part

2000eyes
2006-03-03, 02:07 AM
4. First, use the circle tool (guess which one it is) to create a circle. I generally make it about as big as a third of the canvas height. Now go to object > fill and stroke. You’ll want to always keep this window open, since it controls, surprisingly enough, the fill and stroke of whatever object you’re currently editing.

i had a slight problem here. when i first made a circle it turned out fine but when i made a circle in a new document it was invisible and when i let go of the mouse a lined box appeared and there were two small squares and two small circles on the edge


how do i create a proper circle? one that i can actually see? PM me

PS:this is inkscape im using

RawBearNYC
2006-03-03, 11:48 AM
i had a slight problem here. when i first made a circle it turned out fine but when i made a circle in a new document it was invisible and when i let go of the mouse a lined box appeared and there were two small squares and two small circles on the edge


how do i create a proper circle? one that i can actually see? PM me

PS:this is inkscape im using
Without looking over your shoulder and actually watching, it's hard to say, but my guess is that both your line and fill settings are set to naught. Likely there's a circle there, but it has no stroke and no fill. Try setting up your colors FIRST, then drawing the circle, see if that makes a difference.

amorelli
2006-03-03, 07:26 PM
try making the eyes smaller, curve the lines for the hands, arms, and feet a bit more (don't make the joints such sharp angles), and put the robe behind the head. Other than those minor tips, good job on the first attempt.

[edit] To reiterate a previous request, could one of the mods change the title to just Guide to Making Avatars, as there are numerous other guides now within the thread.

Tilian
2006-03-11, 03:16 AM
This has been a really helpful thread. I think I have the basics of making avatars down now. Body-to-head proportions still throw me a bit though:

http://img82.imageshack.us/img82/4213/palace3xf.gif

And there's one big problem I've run into.

What is the best way to handle a character who is dressed entirely in black(or extremely dark clothing) and keeping its form visible? As in someone whose arm is draped in front of herself, and whose dress' shape tends to blend together into one dark blob, like so:

http://img212.imageshack.us/img212/3325/mage7al.gif

What would be the best way to approach this problem, while still keeping the clothing as black/dark as possible?

(apparently the chain links on the headdress need to be darker too)

Sneak
2006-03-11, 08:00 AM
Well, what I would do is just use the color mixer to make every color as close to black as possible, dark dark grey, but if you want stuff to show up, make that also a dark dark grey but a different dark dark grey.

EDIT: Hope that's coherent...

Pop Goes the Weasel
2006-03-12, 06:25 PM
Well, what I would do is just use the color mixer to make every color as close to black as possible, dark dark grey, but if you want stuff to show up, make that also a dark dark grey but a different dark dark grey.

EDIT: Hope that's coherent...
Do you mean:
Don't ever use pure black. When you want something to pop, lighten it very slightly.

Sneak
2006-03-12, 06:42 PM
Damn you and your ability to make sense...

amorelli
2006-03-12, 08:53 PM
To reiterate a previous request, could one of the mods change the title to just Guide to Making Avatars, as there are numerous other guides now within the thread.

Blackbird
2006-03-14, 10:19 AM
I've got a problem that hopefully someone can help with. I tried out the sodipodi for making OOTS-art and avatars after reading Peregrin's excellent guide for it. It installed fine but now most of the buttons on the toolbar are greyed out, kind of like static on the tv. Everything still works fine and it's more of an inconvenience than any real problem, having to look up with buttons with the tooltip but still. I know that this might not be the right thread for this but it seemed like the most logical place to post.

Pop Goes the Weasel
2006-03-14, 11:02 AM
I've got a problem that hopefully someone can help with. I tried out the sodipodi for making OOTS-art and avatars after reading Peregrin's excellent guide for it. It installed fine but now most of the buttons on the toolbar are greyed out, kind of like static on the tv. Everything still works fine and it's more of an inconvenience than any real problem, having to look up with buttons with the tooltip but still. I know that this might not be the right thread for this but it seemed like the most logical place to post.
You could try using Inkscape. It's pretty much the same as Sodipodi, but with fewer bugs.

Blackbird
2006-03-14, 02:56 PM
Thanks. I downloaded and installed Inkscape and everything's working great now :)

Pop Goes the Weasel
2006-03-18, 02:10 AM
I think I might make that Flash tutorial. I made the second character in my sig with Flash.

amorelli
2006-03-19, 11:53 AM
As I have said before - Flash is awesome for making avatars, but quite frankly, its antialiasing sucks, so you have to make them really big if you want them to look nice (I think mine is 4 times the size of a regular avi, and then the website scales is down)

Pop Goes the Weasel
2006-03-19, 02:02 PM
As I have said before - Flash is awesome for making avatars, but quite frankly, its antialiasing sucks, so you have to make them really big if you want them to look nice (I think mine is 4 times the size of a regular avi, and then the website scales is down)
No, you just have to export to PNG, then use the GIMP!

EDIT: I made this with Flash:
http://tinyurl.com/f8j2c

RawBearNYC
2006-03-19, 02:24 PM
There are a million vector based drawing tools. i don't know that we need tutorials on all of them. I could make an avatar in Microsoft Word, but I'm not gonna, and not going to suggest someone do a "how to make an avatar in MS Word"

I think if you understand Illustrator, Sodi Podi and Inkskape, chances are, you can create stick figures in any program with vector graphics features. I even used paths in GIMP to create one from scratch, but I don't reccomend it.

I think, more helpful would be to create flash animation in Macromedia Flash, skipping over the "how to make the stick figures." step.

Pop Goes the Weasel
2006-03-19, 02:34 PM
There are a million vector based drawing tools. i don't know that we need tutorials on all of them. I could make an avatar in Microsoft Word, but I'm not gonna, and not going to suggest someone do a "how to make an avatar in MS Word"

I think if you understand Illustrator, Sodi Podi and Inkskape, chances are, you can create stick figures in any program with vector graphics features. I even used paths in GIMP to create one from scratch, but I don't reccomend it.

I think, more helpful would be to create flash animation in Macromedia Flash, skipping over the "how to make the stick figures." step.
Well, Flash handles nodes very differently from Sodipodi, Inkscape, or AI. I doesn't show the nodes the the user, it uses a far more intuitive system.

amorelli
2006-03-21, 07:56 PM
Well, you can manipulate the nodes if you want to, it just requires clicking with the white arrow.

About the animation tutorial - that'd be hard, since all of the avatar animations are different. If you go to my portfolio (http://photobucket.com/albums/d45/_amorelli_/avatars/), there are three animated avi's, all of which are completely different. Thus it is hard to compose a tutorial for this. Instead, I would recommend getting a tutorial on the basic animation, and then you can just use that to learn how to animate.

RawBearNYC
2006-03-22, 12:50 AM
Well, you can manipulate the nodes if you want to, it just requires clicking with the white arrow.

About the animation tutorial - that'd be hard, since all of the avatar animations are different. If you go to my portfolio (http://photobucket.com/albums/d45/_amorelli_/avatars/), there are three animated avi's, all of which are completely different. Thus it is hard to compose a tutorial for this. Instead, I would recommend getting a tutorial on the basic animation, and then you can just use that to learn how to animate.

actually, i was talking specifically about a macromedia flash animation.

amorelli
2006-03-22, 06:47 PM
actually, i was talking specifically about a macromedia flash animation.
So am I. The tutorials that come with Flash are actually pretty good, and adapting it to avatar making isn't too hard. Just don't be afraid of frame by frame or lots of layers.

Kord
2006-03-26, 04:49 PM
I have a question about Inkscape.

When I create something, like a grey beard or whatever, and put it on top of a black face, it blends. How can I fix this?

RawBearNYC
2006-03-26, 07:58 PM
I have a question about Inkscape.

When I create something, like a grey beard or whatever, and put it on top of a black face, it blends. How can I fix this?

Voice of a Mod:

you posted this here and started a new thread. Don't do that anymore, please.

Kord
2006-03-26, 08:21 PM
Wasn't sure if anybody would see it...sorry...

amorelli
2006-03-27, 08:58 PM
I'm not sure what you mean... could you post an example picture?

reorith
2006-04-09, 11:28 PM
any suggestions on using the reshape tool in illustrator cs?

fetfet
2006-04-25, 07:54 PM
I am a pretty good avatar maker, but how do you make them move?

^ i use it to make hair, armor, and hands.

RawBearNYC
2006-04-26, 11:34 AM
I am a pretty good avatar maker, but how do you make them move?

^ i use it to make hair, armor, and hands.

Animation is usually achieved by making images into animated GIF's or using Macromedia Flash.

fetfet
2006-04-26, 08:44 PM
How do you get that, oh great RBNYC?

Kord
2006-04-26, 10:57 PM
I heard Flash cost money, but if there is a free version...I would be interested.

fetfet
2006-04-27, 07:31 AM
i found it. 30 day trial. click here. (http://www.soft32.com/Download/free-trial/Macromedia_Flash_MX/4-353-1.html)

fetfet
2006-04-28, 09:17 PM
i having a little trouble making it a transparent .gif. can anyone help me?

Adghar
2006-04-29, 12:57 AM
You can use layers to animate GIFs with Adobe Imageready.

fetfet
2006-04-29, 07:53 AM
i use the gimp, and macromedia flash, so can anyone help?

Jack Squat
2006-04-29, 08:06 AM
depends on what you have. most programs have a transparant background function (although I can't seem to get the one in Corel to work).

If you have photoshop on you computer, you can load the image into there, go to select->color range and click on the background (it works better if the background is a very light color your not using, for me, that's always 10% gray). Then go to select-> inverse, ctrl+c, open a new document (original picture size, for most people I think that's 117px x 117px) and ctrl+v. If your using a mac, use the apple key instead of ctrl.

fetfet
2006-04-29, 08:44 AM
ya, i know how to do that, but the problem is that i cant keep them animate!

ybn1197
2006-05-15, 03:13 PM
I heard Flash cost money, but if there is a free version...I would be interested.

There's always SWiSH (http://www.swishzone.com/). Its not free, but it costs a heck of a lot less than Flash.

RawBearNYC
2006-05-15, 03:48 PM
i use the gimp, and macromedia flash, so can anyone help?

Here's the quick and dirty. GIMP can save gifs as animated, it's part of the save as dialog. you need to create each animation frame on a layer by itself. If the frame is to have transparent parts, then you need to clear those areas so they're transparent on the layer. This can make it hard to edit your image, because you'll be able to see anything that shows throuhg on lower layers. it also means you'll need to combine any layers (and duplicate, if necessary) if you're using layers to assemble the frames. in the Save as GIF dialog, where it says "frame disposal where specified" select "One frame per layer (replace)".

That should give you your animated gif.

amorelli
2006-05-15, 06:46 PM
I just tell flash to export it as a .gif. The antialiasing is bad, so I usually make the avatar 3 to 4 times bigger than necessary, so when giantitp shrinks it down, better quality is achieved.

Dracorat
2006-05-24, 08:06 PM
Thanks for this wonderful guide.

I downloaded inkscape and tried using it for the first time. The learning curve wasn't bad and here are the results of my first attempt at both Inkscape and at making a OOTS style stick figure:

http://keithratliff.com/dnd/blue_armored_male.png

I imagine Ill keep at it and learn how to do even better.

Also, I have no plans to actually use this guy, so if someone thinks he fits for their own avatar, feel free to use him for your own.

TinSoldier
2006-05-24, 08:27 PM
If he's up for grabs, post him over in the OotS Arts & Crafts (http://www.giantitp.com/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.pl?board=comics;action=display;num=1147371230 ) thread.

Fishies
2006-05-25, 08:21 PM
Irfanview makes my Sodipodi picture all blurry.

Shalaina
2006-05-26, 01:12 PM
Hmm, I tried making my avatar in Sodipodi & Irfanview, and thanks to the great tutorial it wasn't too bad :). Just one issue: The avatar seems rather small, even though I resized it to 117 x 117 pixels. Just my luck that she's too tall for her own good, or does have anyone have any idea how to make it a tad bigger?

Jack Squat
2006-05-26, 01:40 PM
you can make it any size, just have it a square. The site automatically resizes it to 117x117.

Shalaina
2006-05-26, 01:54 PM
you can make it any size, just have it a square. The site automatically resizes it to 117x117.


If I just keep it in its original size, it looks even smaller when I upload it :/. And yes, it is a square. Oh well, thanks for trying to help :)

RawBearNYC
2006-05-26, 03:54 PM
you can make it any size, just have it a square. The site automatically resizes it to 117x117.

The site doesn't resize it, the browser does. And browsers are notoriously bad in the algorhythm they use to resize images by anything other than quarters. Also, fo r the sake of downloading, it's better to have the smallest size file as possible. It's a waste to have a large file tht will be shrunk in the browser.

In other ways sizing your image to 117 x 117 is always a better idea.

Kord
2006-06-07, 07:17 PM
For the magic wand tool, what is the best threshold for making 117 by 117 avatars?

RawBearNYC
2006-06-08, 10:53 AM
For the magic wand tool, what is the best threshold for making 117 by 117 avatars?

I'm sorry, but I don't see the connection between fuzzy select (magic wand) and image size.

black_raven391
2006-06-17, 05:01 PM
I have a problem with Sodipodi... whenever I go to save, save as, open, export, or import, a message pops up that says "This program has performed an illegal opperation and will be shut down" and then it just closes, making me lose any work.

I also have a little problem with IrfanView... I went to go make the avatar background transparent, so I clicked "save as". When I clicked on "gif" a little window popped up. I clicked on "Save Transparent Color" and my avatar popped up. I clicked on the background like I was told to do, but it doesn't do anything. I mean, I guess it thinks it made it transparent, but it still has a white box around it. It's really starting to frustrate me.

If anyone can help me out, I would really appreciate it.

*Edit* I are smart lolz I figured out the IrfanView! ::)

fetfet
2006-06-18, 03:33 PM
Well, for starters, the Irfanview problem is that you have to actually DRAW the white background. It helps.

Were-Sandwich
2006-06-18, 03:50 PM
This guide is great. I got GIMP and Inkscape. Check the OOTS arts and crafts thread to see my efforts, like my spiffy new avi.

Ego Slayer
2006-06-25, 07:05 PM
Ah questions, questions!!

INKSCAPE:

What the Hell is with the line half way thru the head? How do I get rid of it??? >:(

Also when finishing it in GIMP and "saving as" I don't have the "png." there to delete and add gif.
And it tells me I have to export first and theres no "export" option in File.

Samiam303
2006-07-20, 11:10 AM
Didn't someone make an inkscape tutorial thread a while back? Try searching for that. :)

Omen
2006-08-05, 02:48 PM
Woot! I finally broke down after a week+ of messing with various programs I already had and Dled Inkscape and Gimp. The turorial helped alot on pg 7!! Thanks whoever did that. Gimp is kinda a pain but I got it after about 20minutes or monkeying with it.

My labor of love while going through the tut...

http://i53.photobucket.com/albums/g70/omen_darkwoods/inkscapetestgimped.gif


This looks so much better than my last 'jagged' attempts! Thanks again!

Pop Goes the Weasel
2006-08-09, 05:37 PM
Amorelli's Inkscape Tutorial (http://www.giantitp.com/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.pl?board=news;action=display;num=1115586717;s tart=90#98)

NEO|Phyte
2006-08-13, 01:23 AM
out of boredom, I decided to try out this OotSatar stuff.

http://img151.imageshack.us/img151/1811/firstof0.png

It feels kinda plain, but I'd say its pretty good.
(made with Sodipodi)

Blood
2006-08-29, 07:58 PM
Ahh, someone finally switched this thread over from Board Issues.

I also downloaded Sodipodi, but I've always been horrible with anything that requires any artistic skills whatsoever, so I pretty much gave up before figuring out how to do colors. ::)

Omen
2006-08-30, 07:59 PM
Can someone please help me with 'Pattern to Fill' in InkScape? I make the coolest patterns and they show fine when I use them to fill shapes in IS but then when I open them in Gimp they are transparent or have no fill/pattern. :-[ I don't know what to do and need a little help here.

Torin_Dalemark
2006-09-26, 09:40 PM
Thanks a lot for the sodipodi tutorial. This is fun stuff (and makes me feel like an artist *cough* yeah right *cough*). Take a break and pat yourselves on the back...








... Ok, now get back to answering those questions.

P.S.
<- Yup, that's it, just made it

Vaynor
2006-09-27, 11:03 PM
OH MY GOD HOW DO YOU MAKE CIRCLES IN AI!!!???

Sorry, but it's driving me crazy!

Never mind... ::)

Anyways, where's fill?

I keep answering my own questions.. :P

New one! I tried painting over a black line i didn't want, but it comes out a different color, how do I fix this?

tape_measure
2006-09-28, 10:34 AM
http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b63/tapemeasure/DR.gif

Do I have a question about the above's halo. I'm trying to get make a design similar to the Iron Avatarist awards and i'm having trouble making the halo looking more metalic, rather than transparent.

Can anyone help?

Myatar_Panwar
2006-10-03, 07:04 PM
First Id just like to say sorry if this was the wrong thread to post this, I really had no idea where to put it.

And i know this is probally been asked about a thousand times, but can someone tell me how to save something on inkscape that can be uploaded on photobucket?

Ive read the inkscape tutorial but I just dont get it. Im not very good with computors. So if someone could just please help me, it would be greatly appreciated.

Also, can someone tell my why the color overlapps, and how to get rid of it. I would show a picture for example, but I dont know how to save it yet. :)

BelkarsDagger
2006-10-05, 01:50 AM
How does one do transparencies with AI? Just to let you know, I have an older version, 8.0.1 to be precise.

Rashnuk
2006-10-18, 12:05 PM
Itīs damn hard with inkscape... but practice makes perfect

Diakos
2006-10-31, 03:30 PM
Hey im currently working on a Urahara kisuke (from Bleach) avatar and im down to one final obstacle:
His striped hat, i simply can't make proper stripes with sodipodi.
I am currently using the pen tool to make boxes of colour inside the outlines of the hat and it is sortoff working, however it requires a extreme amount of "points" to avoid looking angular and is therefore a extremely tedious task.
So does anyone have a hint on how to make it better looking (and if the method is easier and/or faster then my current one it would be a defenite bonus)

RawBearNYC
2006-11-02, 12:08 AM
First Id just like to say sorry if this was the wrong thread to post this, I really had no idea where to put it.

And i know this is probally been asked about a thousand times, but can someone tell me how to save something on inkscape that can be uploaded on photobucket?

Ive read the inkscape tutorial but I just dont get it. Im not very good with computors. So if someone could just please help me, it would be greatly appreciated.

Also, can someone tell my why the color overlapps, and how to get rid of it. I would show a picture for example, but I dont know how to save it yet. :)

There are two (three, but two, really) types of images that can be put on a web page. "JPEG" (or "JPG") and "GIF". These are "raster" image types. The default format for Inkscape is SVG which is a "vector based" image type. So, you can't directly safe them to the web.

Inkscape does have an "Export" feature to save drawings as "PNG" (another "raster" format) format. But this format isn't appropriate for the web (some web browsers support it, but not all do). Unfortunatley, as far as I can tell, PNG is the only raster format inkscape will use.

This means that you need another program to convert the PNG or SVG file to a GIF or JPG. I use GIMP, but that can be a tediously difficult program to use. Others have recommended Infranview, but I have no experience with it. Photoshop, Paint Shop Pro, and a host of others will also work.

If you're not computer literate, this may result in more frustration than answer. For that I apologize.

But I hope I've helped some.

Adghar
2006-11-12, 07:43 PM
How does one do transparencies with AI? Just to let you know, I have an older version, 8.0.1 to be precise.

You can't do partial transparancy (which I assume is what you want, since complete transparency just means something doesn't appear) over a background, but you can do it over other objects in the image.

Hold Shift and press F8. If that doesn't work, go along the top of the window, find the Window tabthing (tabthings being the drop-down things like File or Edit), open it up, and find Transparency.

The Orange Zergling
2006-11-13, 04:59 AM
Hmm, found the Windows tab, but couldnt find Transparency though... then again, it's 4am... I'll try again tomarrow, but thanks for the help anyway. :smallsmile:

Wayril
2006-11-29, 06:50 PM
How does one do transparencies with AI? Just to let you know, I have an older version, 8.0.1 to be precise.

I guess it may not have been there yet, but CS2 and a few older versions have an opacity slider. obviosely 100 is 100% visible and 0 is 0% visible.

The Orange Zergling
2006-11-29, 09:05 PM
I guess it may not have been there yet, but CS2 and a few older versions have an opacity slider. obviosely 100 is 100% visible and 0 is 0% visible.


Unfortunately, it doesnt. I've come to the conclusion that this version doesnt 'do' transparencies. I hope to upgrade soon. (or get off my ass and download inkscape or something...)

Enlong
2006-12-12, 10:30 PM
Uhm, is there a guide for those of us with just MS Paint?

Urthadar
2006-12-15, 10:41 AM
My labor for going through this tutorial:

http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r106/urthadar/Urthadar1.gif

Any ehrm.. advice for me? I don't really like the cape, and maybe I should've made my body somewhat more slender. I also couldn't make nice hair or a nice helmet.
And my personal frustration: the hands! They look so simple and they're so hard to do when you don't know the program..

But anyway: thanks for the guide!


Uhm, is there a guide for those of us with just MS Paint?

See post no 5 of this topic: there's a free downloadable program.

zegma
2006-12-15, 06:40 PM
Uhm, is there a guide for those of us with just MS Paint?


ull never get it with paint its basilcy impossible. use sodidopi. much easier.


thx for the sodidopi guide.

zegma
2006-12-15, 06:48 PM
if u are using sodipodi send me the svg file at [email protected] and ill make him skinnyer and ill make his hands a bit more rounded. look at sig.


My labor for going through this tutorial:

http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r106/urthadar/Urthadar1.gif

Any ehrm.. advice for me? I don't really like the cape, and maybe I should've made my body somewhat more slender. I also couldn't make nice hair or a nice helmet.
And my personal frustration: the hands! They look so simple and they're so hard to do when you don't know the program..

But anyway: thanks for the guide!



See post no 5 of this topic: there's a free downloadable program.

Urthadar
2006-12-16, 12:13 PM
if u are using sodipodi send me the svg file at [email protected] and ill make him skinnyer and ill make his hands a bit more rounded. look at sig.

Thanks, but that's not necessary. I just wanted advice if it should be skinnier. And I think I know how to make the hands more rounded already. I use Illustrator btw.

zegma
2006-12-16, 03:20 PM
oh ok. nvm then.

when u make the body a recangte the size for a huamn is abotu half the size of the head, for dwafrs is about 3/4 the size of the head so its ok. just a little biger.

Enlong
2006-12-17, 11:27 AM
ull never get it with paint its basilcy impossible. use sodidopi. much easier.


thx for the sodidopi guide.What the heck is sodidopi?

My computer is taunting me. It only has Adobe Reader.

Urthadar
2006-12-18, 07:04 AM
[u]
I. Getting Sodipodi
1. Go to the downloads page on Sourceforge (http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=4054).

2. Pick the file for your version of Windows. At the time of writing, the latest Sodipodi release is 0.34, and so the two Windows files are Sodipodi_0_34_Win2000_XP_Setup.exe (for Windows 2000 or XP) and Sodipodi_0_34_Win9X_ME_Setup.exe (for Windows 9x or ME).

3. Download and run the file. Make note of where you installed it (probably C:\Program Files\Sodipodi\).

4. Go to the Gaim website (http://gaim.sourceforge.net/win32/index.php#wingtk) and get the GTK+ installer. This is a shared toolkit for the user interface (all the buttons and menus and whatnot). If you already have a program like Gaim or GIMP installed, you can skip this step.

5. Run that installer. Make note of where you installed it (probably C:\Program Files\Common Files\GTK\2.0\).

6. Go to where you installed GTK. Go into the "bin" folder. Copy the file libgmodule-2.0-0.dll

7. Go to where you installed Sodipodi. Paste the file. (You might want to rename the existing libgmodule-2.0-0.dll first, just in case. It shouldn't be necessary though.)

8. Make a copy of the file zlib.dll and name it zlib-1.dll

9. You're done!

II. Getting Irfanview
1. This one's easy. Go to the Irfanview (http://www.irfanview.com/) website and download it. (The separate download of plugins is also highly recommended.) Run it and you're pretty much done.

Note: Sodipodi is free, open-source software licensed under the GNU General Public License. Irfanview is only free for non-commercial use. It will also give you the option of displaying eBay buttons in the program. Me, I registered mine. It's been my choice of file viewer/quick'n'dirty image manipulator for years. :)


But you can also do this with Gimp. I do hope you know how to use google and browse a forum, 'cause it's all explained in this topic.

tape_measure
2006-12-28, 06:19 PM
so I'm trying to get help with a problem with Irfanview Here (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=30598)

If anyone can help me out, I's be forever in...well I'd like it a lot, let's put it that way.

Thanks,
TM

knucklehead
2007-01-17, 07:43 PM
Can anyone offer advice on how to make chain mail in AI? Is there a fancy trick?

Also, when I draw my hands (or any line for that matter) they end with a straight edge instead of rounded. How do you draw a line with a rounded edge?

Wayril
2007-01-20, 08:46 PM
Can anyone offer advice on how to make chain mail in AI? Is there a fancy trick?

Also, when I draw my hands (or any line for that matter) they end with a straight edge instead of rounded. How do you draw a line with a rounded edge?

Start by making one chain link. Copy and paste until you form a row. Group that, then copy and paste until you get the whole shirt. It's tedious, but if you want it enough, that's the best way and that's why they made grouping.

Next the rounded hands aren't necesary, but up on the top where it shows the size of the stroke, there's a brush thing, and there'll be a group of different sized circles and dashes,(at the top from left to right) when you open it up pick one of the circular ones. (Below that is the area, where you can select which type of brush stroke you use from top to bottom.)

Captain van der Decken
2007-01-21, 04:36 PM
This seems the place to post it so, is there any way I can convert files like GIF or Bitmap to Inkscape's SVG?

DarkCorax
2007-01-22, 12:38 PM
No. you can import the pictures, using "Import" under "file" (Or press Ctrl+I), but you cannot change the format to .svg.

knucklehead
2007-01-23, 08:17 PM
Sometimes I create a weapon using the warp tool. When I rotate the weapon is distorts depending on the angle. Is there a way to warp an image and keep it that way when you rotate it? Specifically I'm trying to draw two axes. I want the blade of the axe to be rounded. The drawing below has the axe the way I want it. When I try to rotate either axe it looks retarded.

http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e366/willydigger/Hosting/Desert_5.gif

Icwer
2007-01-26, 09:13 AM
I'm having trouble placing a weapon under a hand in Inkscape, could someone help me with this?

Captain van der Decken
2007-01-26, 10:35 AM
If you select the weapon, and hit page down, it'll move further back. Vice versa for page up, end sends it to the end, and home brings it to the front.

Icwer
2007-01-26, 02:59 PM
Ah, that worked, thank you kind sir =D!

Icwer
2007-01-28, 05:20 PM
Could somebody give me advice on how to draw a ponytail (with Inkscape) hairdo while looking at someone face to face (face faceing viewer of the pic)?
Thanks in advance.

Peregrine
2007-01-29, 12:35 AM
Could somebody give me advice on how to draw a ponytail (with Inkscape) hairdo while looking at someone face to face (face faceing viewer of the pic)?
Thanks in advance.

Well, it's not quite face on, but, how's this?
http://members.westnet.com.au/perey/images/oots_ponytail_01.png
Here's the SVG source (http://members.westnet.com.au/perey/images/oots_ponytail_01.svg), so you can tweak it to your heart's content. Actually I might tweak it a bit myself to get it more face-on...

Edit: Actually, depending on whether you were after a top-of-the-head ponytail (like I drew) or a back-of-the-head one, Haley's hairstyle is a good reference. Find a comic (like #120 (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0120.html)) where she's facing the reader and off you go.

Icwer
2007-01-29, 09:30 AM
Thanks a bunch Peregrine, that really helped me out :smallsmile:!

The Dirge
2007-02-01, 03:48 AM
When I follow Peregrin's guide and make sodipodi avatars they have what I can only describe as dots of colour. Look at my avatar closely to see what I mean.

DarkCorax
2007-02-01, 08:01 AM
Thats part of what happens when you change it into a .gif... some programs don't do it though... like Photoshop...

Peregrine
2007-02-01, 08:49 AM
Yep. It's a limitation of the GIF format: it can only use so many colours, so it 'fakes' having more colours by mixing together dots of other colours. (Here's the last explanation of GIFs, dithering, and file formats (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=30598#15) I gave. It's what you might call a frequently asked question. :smallsmile:)

It can also depend on the program you use, and how that program tries to shoehorn your precious image into a little GIF, like DarkCorax said -- but mostly, you're better off trying a different format (like PNG), if your images have a lot of colours.

The Dirge
2007-02-02, 03:45 AM
Thanks guys.

The Orange Zergling
2007-02-10, 03:19 AM
Hey, can anyone please tell me how to do a "glow" effect in AI? I could always do a transparent circle thing... but that has no gradient, and when I use grandients, the individual colors inside of it cant have differing transparency values (From what I see, anywho). Help would be appreciated and rewarded with pictures of cookies.

Dementius
2007-02-19, 12:42 PM
i would do glow effects with the "diffuse glow"-filter in photoshop.

i've got a question, too: how can i link two speakingbubbles (i don't know if this is the right word, i'm not a native english-speaker) in Adobe Illustrator?

Dementius
2007-02-19, 12:50 PM
i mean like this:
http://dementius.xini.de/comic/likethis.gif

The Orange Zergling
2007-02-20, 12:17 AM
i would do glow effects with the "diffuse glow"-filter in photoshop.

I don't have Photoshop.

And what I use for things like that, is to click without dragging with the pen tool, it creates straight lined shapes with the fill color. Then use a line-less white shape under the text to cover up the black line you create in the speech bubble. Uhhh, that came out complicated.

Dementius
2007-02-20, 06:21 AM
aha, ok. thanks!
i will try it later.

psyc0
2007-02-28, 12:50 PM
hey im new to this. could any1 tell me how to make some of those sticks?

psyc0
2007-02-28, 12:54 PM
yeah im new to dnd. I just started playing with a friend in the bus and loved it :biggrin:

psyc0
2007-02-28, 12:57 PM
can any1 help me make my own avatar?

psyc0
2007-02-28, 01:11 PM
CAN ANY1 help me by teaching me how to make my own avatar?

psyc0
2007-02-28, 01:30 PM
Could any1 help me make an avatar? i dont know how and im just asking someone to tell me where to click to make one

B-Man
2007-02-28, 01:58 PM
psyc0, it is frowned upon if you double/triple/even quadruple post, and if you read the first page of this thread, it tells you step-by-step how to create an avatar using Adobe Illustrator and Inkscape/GIMP.

ufo
2007-03-10, 11:08 AM
Could any1 help me make an avatar? i dont know how and im just asking someone to tell me where to click to make one

"WHere to click to make one"? Huh?

This stuff is made by the individual in illustration programs (most often SVG programs).

Mysticaloctopus
2007-04-03, 12:50 PM
i mean like this:
http://dementius.xini.de/comic/likethis.gif

Here's the trick:
Line your two bubbles up where you want them. Work out where the joins will be, then follow this guide.

http://img512.imageshack.us/img512/8365/joiningbubblesdv6.png

Threeshades
2007-04-14, 01:01 PM
im sorry if this has been asked before, but is there a way i can legally get Adobe Illustrator for free?

Peregrine
2007-04-14, 11:39 PM
im sorry if this has been asked before, but is there a way i can legally get Adobe Illustrator for free?
Yes.
1) Have someone buy it for you.
2) Win it in a competition of some sort.
3) Work for Adobe (employees probably get access to all the cool stuff).
4) Work for a company (or possibly an academic institution) that has bulk licences.

And failing any of those...
5) Use a free alternative like Inkscape. :smalltongue:

Threeshades
2007-04-15, 11:07 AM
Yes.

And failing any of those...
5) Use a free alternative like Inkscape. :smalltongue:

That's the one :biggrin:

Dispozition
2007-04-16, 04:37 AM
Yes.
1) Have someone buy it for you.
2) Win it in a competition of some sort.
3) Work for Adobe (employees probably get access to all the cool stuff).
4) Work for a company (or possibly an academic institution) that has bulk licences.

And failing any of those...
5) Use a free alternative like Inkscape. :smalltongue:

Technically there's a 6, that I could probably pull off...But saying what it is would be breaking the rules...So yeah...Get inkscape or Sodipodi.

The Vorpal Tribble
2007-04-23, 09:34 AM
I recall doing it at one point but its been a looong time... how do you make backgrounds transparent in GIMP?

DarkCorax
2007-04-23, 11:11 AM
13. Now, quit Inkscape and open the GIMP. Open the image you just exported. Create a layer and move it to the bottom, and use the paintbucket tool to fill in the lower layer with white. This functions to fill in something behind the transparent first layer so the anti-aliasing is preserved when converted to .gif. Your windows should now look like this. (http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d45/_amorelli_/Inkscape%20Guide/Picture14.png)

14. Select the lower layer, and use the magic wand tool with the sample merged option (the settings for your magic wand tool should look like this (http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d45/_amorelli_/Inkscape%20Guide/FuzzySelectBar.png)) selected to choose the white areas and use clear (ctrl + k) to delete them. When you do so, you should see the checkerboard background again, not white. Then, go to file > save as. Erase the .png at the end of the name and replace it with .gif. Click save, then export, and unclick the comment part. Then, click export.

This should be what you want.

NEO|Phyte
2007-04-30, 12:56 PM
Technically there's a 6, that I could probably pull off...But saying what it is would be breaking the rules...So yeah...Get inkscape or Sodipodi.
*checks gender sign/avatar of person in question*
Ermm, he(?) DID specify LEGALLY in his requirements for it being free, so no, there isn't a 6.

Om
2007-05-31, 06:23 PM
Short question that I'm sure has a very simple answer. Can anyone tell me how to make an "imprint" or "silhouette" of an image using GIMP? I'm not sure of the correct terminology but essentially I want to take a complex image and reduce it to a monochrome outline/shape/image.

Gefangnis
2007-07-05, 11:01 PM
Interesting - I've always used Flash to draw OOTS avatars. The line-point thing really lends itself to stick figures.

Threeshades
2007-08-20, 07:30 AM
Hey guys, just a quick question:
How do i make a hidden object visible again in Inkscape, when it's not selected anymore?

I made a part in a group picture invisible through the hide option in the object properties so i could make some changes on a character that was partly behind it, but now i dont know how to get the hidden object back.

Thanks a lot in advance for any help.

Tygrasong
2007-09-22, 10:00 PM
I've been reading through the posts some and I've downloaded Sodipodi, but I can't open it. What directories are you guys talking about? I can't figure out where these files I'm supposed to copy are, and a search turns up nothing. I've used Microsoft Flash in a college course, but no longer have it. I'd really like to start making avatars and all. I would appreciate the help.

Tygrasong
2007-09-23, 02:36 PM
I've been reading through the posts some and I've downloaded Sodipodi, but I can't open it. What directories are you guys talking about? I can't figure out where these files I'm supposed to copy are, and a search turns up nothing. I've used Microsoft Flash in a college course, but no longer have it. I'd really like to start making avatars and all. I would appreciate the help.

Nevermind, my husband, Telvos, got it working for me.

Nazde Bahatur
2007-10-27, 09:08 AM
Question: How do you fill in, in inkscape?
Ok, I do the circle (head), make it fleshy-coloured, draw a line for hairline, how do I make the hair brown? The whole head keeps becoming brown and i think I'm gonna break my laptop...

Dr. Bath
2007-10-27, 09:27 AM
You can't fill in inkscape. You have to make 'objects', such as the head, and change its colour. So you have to draw the entirety of the hair not just a line.

@v Why? Your problem is solved! Caloo Calay! You just have to get used to the vector system rather than the bitmap one.