How to Make an Avatar for Forums
Whether you enjoy posting on crafting, political, social chat or technology forums, your avatar is used to represent you to the online community. Forums are online versions of message boards and avatars are the small graphical files that go along with your posts on the boards. Although many forums offer a collection of generic avatars to use, you can create your own, personalized for the forum you're on, or with designs to reflect your personality and interests. Create a custom forum avatar, then use it to introduce yourself to the web.
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Instructions
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Open Publisher, then click "Blank Print Publication." Pull down the "File" menu, then choose "Page Setup." Scroll the "Publication type" menu to "Custom," then type in your preferred avatar dimensions. Avatars are very small files, so choose something such as 2 inches by 2 inches. Click "OK" and the Publisher workspace automatically adjusts. Pull down the "Insert" menu, then choose "Picture," then "Clip Art." Type a word or phrase about the forum, such as knitting, hockey or cats, into the "Search for" box. Click "Go," then scroll through the results. Double-click a graphic to add it to the avatar workspace. It probably opens much larger than the avatar box, so grab a corner and shrink it down into place.
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Create a new Photoshop file by clicking "File," then "New." Name the file "ForumAvatar" and set the size, such as 2 inches by 2 inches. Pull down the "Mode" menu and select "RGB Color." Click the "White" button under the "Contents" section, then click the "OK" button. Open a photo to use for the forum, such as a head shot of yourself, a picture of your latest quilting project or a sports team logo. Click the "Lasso" tool on the "Tools" palette, then draw an outline around that part of the photo. When the blinking lines appear, press the "Ctrl" and "C" keys to copy it. Click back to the "ForumAvatar" box and press the "Ctrl" and "V" keys to paste in the image. Click the "Paint Bucket" tool, then click the top-left square of the "Color Picker" below it. Select a background color for the avatar, click "OK," then click into the white space in the "ForumAvatar," which fills the area behind the image with color.
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Open Paint and click "Image," then "Attributes." Type in the avatar's size and click "OK." Pull down the "View" menu and click "Zoom," then "Large Size." This increases your drawing space; it won't make your actual avatar any larger. Click the "Paintbrush" tool, then select the medium, round brush head below it and a paint color from the "Color Picker" at the bottom of the screen. Draw the outline of the forum avatar, such as a palm tree, shamrock or martini glass. Click the "Paint Bucket," then click inside the outline, which fills with color. Click the small round brush head and a new paint color, then add more designs to the avatar. Click the "Airbrush" tool, which looks like a spray can, choose the large whirl below it and a new paint color. Click in the white space around the avatar to add sparkles; change paint colors for a rainbow sparkles effect.
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