Sig/Avatar tutorials by the makers [Index in First Post]

[XxChris43xX]

ok, those were the sig tutorials, which were quite handy thank ya very much.... Now, on to the avatar tutorials. I wanna learn how to make animated avatar gifs!!!...

By the way, I have the Paint and Windows movie maker programs. Can I just use those to make avatars/sigs?

[Shay]

Originally Posted by XxChris43xX

ok, those were the sig tutorials, which were quite handy thank ya very much.... Now, on to the avatar tutorials. I wanna learn how to make animated avatar gifs!!!...

By the way, I have the Paint and Windows movie maker programs. Can I just use those to make avatars/sigs?

http://forums.animesuki.com/showthread.php?t=642

[XxChris43xX]

nice sig...
Um, actually I wanted to ask one more question. When your making a sig where can ya get a cool background?...
Or does the background depend on the image you already download/copy?
Yuiichi's avatar just kickz ass...

[Yuiichi]

Originally Posted by XxChris43xX

By the way, I have the Paint and Windows movie maker programs. Can I just use those to make avatars/sigs?

All of these tutorials have been made for Photoshop, so I don't think these will help you too terribly much. All the tools are different. You might get some basics out of them though.

Moviemaker is for making movies, not avatars/sigs/banners/etc., so that won't really help you either

Thats not to say you can't use Paint though!

Originally Posted by XxChris43xX

When your making a sig where can ya get a cool background?...
Or does the background depend on the image you already download/copy?
Yuiichi's avatar just kickz ass...

It depends on the kind of sig you make. If you just crop an image, usually the background depends on the original image. If you want to be more "l33t", then you probably make your own backgrounds (like me) with brushes. If you want, I can make a tutorial about that.

And thanks for the compliment

[XxChris43xX]

Originally Posted by Yuiichi

It depends on the kind of sig you make. If you just crop an image, usually the background depends on the original image. If you want to be more "l33t", then you probably make your own backgrounds (like me) with brushes. If you want, I can make a tutorial about that.

Oh man, if ya can make a tutorial on backgrounds that would be awesome....
And one more thing. Is Adobe Photoshop Elements 4.0 any good?...

[kira_lacusXX]

yeh Yuuichi i did it! i did the rounded edges!! although i dont know what i did to get that...im pretty sure it wsnt what you said to do...o.O. anywho yeah make one for backgrounds!!!

[Yuiichi]

Originally Posted by XxChris43xX

And one more thing. Is Adobe Photoshop Elements 4.0 any good?...

Photoshop Elements is a cheap version of Photoshop to let you learn how to use it before committing the $1000 it is to purchase the full version. I, myself started in Elements, and I would say it's a good purchase if you really want to buy it.

And KiLa, nice job doing the advanced rounded edges. I'm proud that one of my "students" has made their own way of doing it too. You should practice to see if you can do it again

[KiNA]

Just praising KiLa?



*jumps up and down pointing to my sig*





*fails to attract Yuiichi's attention*





*die in humiliation*



Nah I'm just joking My current one was a quick work

I should do a tut on cutting out render using quickmask to challenge Dragon tut.. but I'm too lazy

[Yuiichi]

You've attracted my attention KiNa. You're still my friend And nice job with the sig too - even if it was a quickie, it's still pretty nice.

It would also be good if you could do a tutorial. I would really appreciate that Whenever you have time.

Now, on to backgrounds:

First of all, I'm going to point out a few sites which I enjoy getting brushes from.

-8Nero Custom Brushes
-DeviantArt
-AngryBlue
-Google (search for Photoshop brushes or something similar. Good for finding specifics, ie. blood brushes.)

As for making the backgrounds, thats to come soon.

[hikaru_masha]

Originally Posted by Xellos-_^

I got as far as step 4. but when i do the deleted i get left with white color corners. Nothing i do seem to get rid of the corners. So i need to do to get rid of the corners?

Also how i do add borders?

go to: select - invert and then delete it
or just go to: image - crop

[hikaru_masha]

hey i want to ask something about screenshots. everytime i do a screenshot of my windows media player i cant get rid of the player when i go to edit it. even if i save it as a jpg it wont let me see the image properly. anyone know why that is?

[Pellissier]

Originally Posted by hikaru_masha

hey i want to ask something about screenshots. everytime i do a screenshot of my windows media player i cant get rid of the player when i go to edit it. even if i save it as a jpg it wont let me see the image properly. anyone know why that is?

At the very beginning, I had the same problem of your, and I could tell you that windows media player simply isn't the proper way to get a screenshot. And getting rid of it for such things is the solution I would recommend.
May I suggest you a freeware program which is very indicated for taking snapshots? It is bsplayer, located at http://www.bsplayer.org/ .

Very easy to handle. You can select a destination path for snapshots, in the options. And then, while the video is running, for every time you will push a button (on mine is "P", it should be settable though) it will autosave a jpeg snapshot on the designed folder.

Then if you need an amount of frames to realize an animated gif, you will most likely need something else, but for now, I answered to your question.

Hope to have been helpful, and if you'd need further infos you can alway ask

[kira_lacusXX]

Originally Posted by Yuiichi

And KiLa, nice job doing the advanced rounded edges. I'm proud that one of my "students" has made their own way of doing it too. You should practice to see if you can do it again

. . . . master . . . . .



its nice to see that your proud, but your way seems so much easier!! my way involves like a gazillion steps, including when i have to undo stuff i did b/c i still havent got the flow of things. if i do something wrong, o hello delete button

im such an amateur compared to KiNa ._. ill become better...i hope... i must not give up hope!

Originally Posted by Yuiichi

Now, on to backgrounds:

First of all, I'm going to point out a few sites which I enjoy getting brushes from.

-8Nero Custom Brushes
-DeviantArt
-AngryBlue
-Google (search for Photoshop brushes or something similar. Good for finding specifics, ie. blood brushes.)

As for making the backgrounds, thats to come soon.

ive been to the first two, 8nero is fine but deviantart, every brush/brushset i like its PS7.0...and i only have 6.0...

[Yuiichi]

Originally Posted by torrencee

ive been to the first two, 8nero is fine but deviantart, every brush/brushset i like its PS7.0...and i only have 6.0...

Ooo.. I have PS CS so, no problem for me

[kira_lacusXX]

awww luckeeeeeeeeeee XP

[KiNA]

OK.. this is how I cut my render .. I use PS CS2 so I dont know if this tool is available for lower version PS :/

OK let start ... We gonna use this image

Spoiler:

Now close the spoiler and stop oogling her .. we gonna get up close and personal with her soon

Reset your brush to use the default brush make sure the opacity of the brush is 100% too.. Press D to get the default Black/White default foreground/background color.

Spoiler:

Double-click the quick mask button to get this window


Click OK .. you can change the quickmask color if you want .. Im using blue

So just brush over her to cover her up .. like this

Spoiler:

Now you can brush over all of her .. but for a huge render .. this is the fastest way ... Select wand tool .. select the middle unbrush part ... then


Use 2 or more pixel expand then press alt+backspace to fill the selection . deselect it and press B to get the brush tool again

btw, you should get this as result

Now this is what I say we gonna get up close and personal.. Press X to switch the foreground and background .. using white now right, now brush over the part you dont want .. white is the delete option for quick mask .. so just go over the outer rim.. leaving the hard part (like her hair) for later ..

Spoiler:

With the hard part .. zoom in as close as you want and dont forget that we can change the brush size with the square bracket [ - smaller , ] - bigger brush size .. Here's another tip .. Since we can easily delete and add the quick mask, I usually dont mind if I deleted a portion of the render since I can easily add that part again eh? Maybe this 2 image can help



A picture says a 100s words

Once you satisfied with your quickmask .. like this

Spoiler:

End the quick mask button .. Press Q
Your quick mask now turn to be a selection like this

So just press Ctrl+C to copy it and paste it to a new document ..

End Result ..

Spoiler:

Well.. there some white specks near her hair :/ .. you can go back to the original doc (the one that you use quick mask) and undo the exit quick mask from history .. and you get your quick mask again .. Or you can just use the eraser on the new document

That wasnt so hard eh Feel free to ask for more explaination if you want I see if I can confuse you more

Disclaimer: I like to claim Tamaki for myself .. but I think most people would object .. so I just lay claim to this tutorial by myself.. I've learn this from a tutorial from another forum, but I wrtite this one based on my experience .. and the tip is my own style.. dont know if other people use this tactic as well . No doubt that some people love pen tool to cut out but I cant get a handle on using pen tool unfortunately .. and I think this one is easier since I can delete and add a portion I want easily .. Still its up to you which is better/ easier .. I'm just showing an alternate option beside pentool and... eraser tool

Well. I'm tired now so cya ..

Want me to do multicolor tut?

[tabun]

Very nice tutorial! It is indeed a bit less confusing than the one I saw before the nuke (no offence), so I might actually start dropping the eraser tool and try this

As for the "specks" remaining due to cutting a render, I find it useful (especially when pasting onto invisible background) to use Layer -> Layer Style -> Stroke @ about 2-3 pixels and a highly visible colour (red, blue, green, depending on the render) to find the last specks.
Also, even if I endanger myself to sound dumb, I save all my cut-out renders on invis background for later use, so I can resize or re-cut them at will. But then again, who wouldn't

[KiNA]

Well.. I usually add another bright contrasting layer (under it) on my cutout template so I can hunt the leftover specks but I guess yours can work as well.. Just remember that you have to remove the blending option when to import it to another doc

And I do saved them too .. you already spend hours on it why would you just throw it over unless you want to practice on that same pic all over again

[hikaru_masha]

Originally Posted by Pellissier

At the very beginning, I had the same problem of your, and I could tell you that windows media player simply isn't the proper way to get a screenshot. And getting rid of it for such things is the solution I would recommend.
May I suggest you a freeware program which is very indicated for taking snapshots? It is bsplayer, located at http://www.bsplayer.org/ .

Very easy to handle. You can select a destination path for snapshots, in the options. And then, while the video is running, for every time you will push a button (on mine is "P", it should be settable though) it will autosave a jpeg snapshot on the designed folder.

Then if you need an amount of frames to realize an animated gif, you will most likely need something else, but for now, I answered to your question.

Hope to have been helpful, and if you'd need further infos you can alway ask

WOW! That is very useful! Thank you. No it's not for animated gifs, it's just for single shots. I'll definately look into it

[hikaru_masha]

Originally Posted by tabun

Very nice tutorial! It is indeed a bit less confusing than the one I saw before the nuke (no offence), so I might actually start dropping the eraser tool and try this

As for the "specks" remaining due to cutting a render, I find it useful (especially when pasting onto invisible background) to use Layer -> Layer Style -> Stroke @ about 2-3 pixels and a highly visible colour (red, blue, green, depending on the render) to find the last specks.
Also, even if I endanger myself to sound dumb, I save all my cut-out renders on invis background for later use, so I can resize or re-cut them at will. But then again, who wouldn't

i just fill the backround to whatever colour the specs are (in this case white), merg the layers and just fill it to another colour. then i take the magic wand tool, select the background, inverse the selection and its a nice and tidy cut