Let a thousand avatars bloom

[Paul]

   After reading aly's message in another thread. I thought we could try to have a dedicated thread for avatar creation.

   If you are able, post the link to your pet photo or upload your pet photo into this thread. Then we will see what avatar's our resident photo experts can create for you.

   The max size for an avatar is now 60 x 60.

      Paul

[Karen]

I would be happy to help anyone with avatar creation - or, for that matter, with resizing images for your signature file, too. Just post the image or a link, or you could email me the picture you want, send it to [email protected] and I'll resize it and send it back so we can get rid of some of those broken image icons that abound at the moment!

[RachelJ]

Can you crop? My one photo program increases the size of my photo when I crop. Another doesn't do that but leaves a black area for what was cropped out. The third one leaves a white box. If I send you one with the black box, can you crop the black box out??? I used to be able to do anything I wanted with PHotoPoint but they up and disappeared

[tatsxxx11]

Rachel, I tried to sign up again with Photopoint and couldn't find them either! I have 4 photoediting programs, and not ONE works for me re: resizing for avatars. My MS Picture It Express can resize using the precise pixel size, will not "save" it in the jpg. format!! All the others, Adobe, Corel Print House and MS Imaging resize only specifing the total byte size or dimensions in bytes!!! I have a headache!!!

[Freckles]

I've been using Adobe PhotoDeluxe for years but didn't realize they could "Prepare a photo for online display". With the new, improved PetTalk, Avatars, etc. in mind, I went to PhotoDeluxe help and searched for "Online display". That's where all my questions were answered; reducing file size, resizing, pixels, resolution, etc. Hopefully this information will help you find the answers in your software.

My pet peeve is having to scroll across to read text and see entire pictures, so I've been using 400 as maximum pixel width. I might experiment with 500, but 640 is too much.

I started posting pics just this month, I'm definately not a pro, but my experience might help others.

I couldn't get Webshots to work correctly, so I switched to Photogra. Not a big deal since I only had two pics to switch.

Good luck

[Karen]

Originally posted by RachelJ
Can you crop? My one photo program increases the size of my photo when I crop. Another doesn't do that but leaves a black area for what was cropped out. The third one leaves a white box. If I send you one with the black box, can you crop the black box out??? I used to be able to do anything I wanted with PHotoPoint but they up and disappeared

I can crop, rotate, adjust brightness or contast, can sharpen and unsharp mask, can flip so a left-facing pet becomes a right-facing pet, can fix red-eye - you name it, I - with Photoshop - can do it! Send 'em to me!

[Edwina's Secretary]

I'll bite. Here's (if I do it right) a photo of Edwina from my webshots for a avatar.



Do with it as you see fit.

[RachelJ]

I would like to publically thank Mz Karen for helping me create my very special avatar. I just love it, and Hannah thinks it is so COOL.

[Karen]

You're welcome, Rachel. As long as Tucker doesn't see it and get upset. I'm glad Hannah likes the purple, I debated, but thought pink might be to prissy for her!

Now, Edina's Secretary might want to use this one: in the spring, but for now, the image you tried to post (I got to it by pretending I was going to "Edit" your post - you have an extra http:// in the front of your link) is below.

For those curious, Edwina had been Cat of the Day, so I simply used the Search button on the Pet of the Day homepage, made sure "image previews" was checked, and searched for her. The "preview images" that appear in the search results window are all 60x60, so are already the right size.

Anyway, here she is: in avatar size.

[Edwina's Secretary]

Oh wow! Thank you so much! I debated between those two photos.

Is it there now?

[Karen]

You can use either one, just right-click the mouse, and say "Save Picture As " onto your hard drive.

Depending on what hardware, and what operating system you are using, it might say "Save image as" or something else similar.

If you're on a Mac, like I am, just click and hold down on the image, and it'll give you a "Save this image as" option.

Once it is on your hard drive, you can go to "user cp" then "edit options" and down to the avatar feature, hit browse, show it where the avatar is on YOUR computer, then you're all set!

[Edwina's Secretary]

Tried it on my home computer -- which IS a Mac. I am not Mac compatible.
It did not give me the option "save image as" "copy image" etc. but not save as. I do not like this machine and will try again on PC.

[Karen]

Edwina's Secretary - you have to click on the image - but don't let go. Instead of pushing the mouse button and letting go, it's only "half a click" - put the cursor over the image, push the mousebutton down and hold it down for a second, and the menu will appear.

[RachelJ]

Originally posted by Karen
You're welcome, Rachel. As long as Tucker doesn't see it and get upset. I'm glad Hannah likes the purple, I debated, but thought pink might be to prissy for her!

Oh, you are absolutely correct, The Princess of Pillows, Queen of the Couch, feels that the royal purple is much more appropriate.

Tucker is an easy going little fellow who needs little more in life than lots of cuddles, but one of these days I'll work on a signature picture which will include him

[Edwina's Secretary]

I want to see if I did it right.