How to Create Avatars for a Website

Avatars, those cute little image representations of our personalities, are all over the Web. Their primary purpose is to create a personal icon for use on a forum, as a representation of a game character or as an identifying image for your email and cell phone. They're typically larger than other icons. There are hundreds of websites on which they can be created. However, you can also use some of your desktop programs to create a simple avatar.

Things You'll Need

• Internet connection
• Illustrator program (optional)
• Photo editing program (optional)

Instructions

Create Avatars for a website

1. Decide what you want your avatar to convey about you.

2. Choose a type of avatar to create. Avatars are tremendously varied--they can be static 2D or 3D images, animated 2D or 3D images, speech-enhanced animations, photos or just simple clipart images.

3. Decide on a program with which to create your avatar. Animation programs have step-by-step instructions for creating avatars, as do the multitudes of websites on which you can create and download an avatar for free.

Create a Freeform Avatar for a Website

1. Create and name a new document in your illustrator program, setting the image size in the range of 120 by 120 pixels.

2. Use the pencil and shape tools to create a basic outline of your avatar. It's best to use two pixel lines, whose weight can be modified in the "Brush" window, to modify the shapes symmetrically.

3. Use the "Line Color" and "Fill Color" tools on the toolbar to shade your image.

4. Select, delete or move any shape or a piece of any shape to make it fit your avatar's personality. Use the arrow and select tools to play with the image.

5. Save your finished product as a .gif file by clicking "Save for Web."

Create a Photo Avatar for a website

1. Launch your photo editor program.

2. Open the image you wish to modify.

3. Crop the image as needed. Unless you want to use the whole photo as an avatar, you will need to use the Selection tool to choose a part of the image.

4. Click on the rectangular "Selection" tool in the toolbar and click on the top left of the part of the image you want as your avatar.

5. Drag the edge of the "Selection" box to the lower right corner of the image section, letting go of the mouse button when the image you want is framed inside the dashed-line box.

6. Select "Crop" from the menu or toolbar to change the image to the selected section.

7. Convert the color depth to RGB in the "Image" menu.

8. Resize the image to a size no larger than 132 x 132 pixels.

9. Save the image as a .gif or .jpg file.

Tips & Warnings

• The type of avatar you choose will probably depend on where the avatar will be used. Many forums place limits on the size and type of avatars users can upload, but there are no such restrictions when you are creating an avatar for your own website.