Avatars & Profile Banners: The Making of . . .

What you need:

These all depends on what type of avatar you make.

There are trials with most any software, but don't load them, until you are ready to skip happy at it. You don't want to run out of time, and not get much done.

I bought these things . . .

Plextor Convert X

to save the stills from my VHS. I doubt you have this problem. I've been collecting movies, longer than I care to remember. Also, there is no trial period for this one. It has hardware as well.

Corel InterVideo WinDVD Players

A lot of the DVD software, we have for our computers, has the camera on them. You use that for snagging your screen-shots. I find that this one takes the pictures the fastest. I have yet to have to go back, and retake any. It snags every last screen shot from a scene, in one go. You just need an itchy trigger finger.

Corel Paint Shop Pro

You only need this, when the pictures are too dark. Hit "One step photo fix", and that is usually all it takes to lighten it perfectly.

This is what puts them together.

Corel Animation Shop

If you decide to buy Paint Shop Pro, don't buy the latest version. The older versions, not too old, come with Animation shop. I've read where the latest version of Paint Shop Pro does not have Animation Shop with it.

The New Real Player

These are FLV files, that have to be converted to an AVI file to play on your DVD software. You can use the trial download of . . .

Smart FLV Converter Pro

That only saves 70% of the video. If you use the free download, you can use this, if you only want something early on in the clip. You can also purchase this software, so there aren't any limited amounts. I normally use this, because it is quicker to do it myself, but if the clip that someone requests from an avatar is at the end of the video, then I send it off to be converted for free. I send them here . . .

Zamzar

You have to have a URL, email address, and it takes them a few hours, etc . . . I will explain all of this in my "how to" post.

This makes it look like it takes forever to make them, but I can now toss one together in no time at all. It just takes a tad of practice.

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Making avatars from on-line videos:

First, you download RealPlayer.

The New RealPlayer

Then you find whatever video you want, start it up, and at the top right corner, there will be this . . .



You click to download, and it stores them in your documents, in your "My Videos" folder. There will be a RealPlayer video folder in there.

Now, depending on whether or not you want the entire video, or just certain sections of it, you will have to convert the FLV file, to an AVI file. You can do this for free with this download, as long as you don't mind it only saving the first 70% of the video. You can get that software here . . .

Smart FLV Converter Pro

I plan on buying this software later on, because I sometimes need the entire clip. For now though, I can, and do send them off to this site for free . . .

Zamzar

They can take hours to return the video to you, and sometimes it's not emailed back to you until the next day, depending on when you send it in. If you would prefer using them, instead of buying that software, this is how you use that site for converting your video files . . .

Go to Zamzar, and click on the 'download videos' tab. Take your You-tube URL address, and place it in the URL blank. Click the 'convert files' tab, and choose 'video formats' AVI. Then enter your email address, and click the 'convert' tab. Wait for it to load. I've done this. It does work, and it is safe. They email you the link for downloading your video. You only have 24 hours to save your video to your computer, unless you join.

Now, you open your video with your DVD software. Some of our hardware comes with this, but the reason I named WinDVD software, is because I know it comes with the camera icon, which is used for taking screen-shots of your movie. I now use the software that came with my burner. Many have the camera option. Just check what you normally watch your movies on, and see if it has this option. Once you get your video playing, and you are near the scene that you want, snap your mouse button as fast as you can, to take the screen-shots.

Now, open your Animation Shop, which has a free trial as well. Then click on the symbol for the animation wizard, which is right under the file tab. Then you set it up. Click "Same size as the first image frame", "Opaque", "Centered in the frame - With the canvas color", then check "Scale frames to fit". Click "Yes, repeat the animation indefinitely". With the "How long do you want each frame to be displayed?" I find that either 10, 20, or 30 works best for movie pictures. Test for best quality. Now you add your images. Click next, then finish, and you have your animation reel. Now you have to re-size it. Click on the animation tab, and then resize it. When you go to the "Animation" tab, and then click on resize, make sure the "Maintain aspect ratio of . . . " box is NOT checked. That way you can set your size to 110 width, by 90 height, or whatever works for you, and it won't force the one size to alter. You can test your avatar, before saving it to your computer, by clicking on the videotape icon, on the top right side of the task bar. It is beside the arrow cursor/question mark tab. It plays a review of your avatar.

Also, once you make all of these settings, the only thing you will ever have to change, is the images added for your next avatar, and the "time per frames", 10-20-30, etc.
It remembers everything else you set, even if you shutdown your computer.

Some from the You-tubes videos . . .



Using your own movie collection:

You can do the same thing with your own DVDs. Find your scene, click your camera icon quickly, saving the pictures that you want. Then follow all the steps above.

Some using my DVDs . . .



With your VHS, you have to buy the hardware, which I linked you all to in the first post. It's the Plextor link. I bought mine for numerous other reasons, not related to avatars, but what do you know, it works for them as well. The Plextor comes with instructions, and then you simply follow the same steps that you did with the You-tube videos, and/or your DVDs.

Some using my VHS . . .

Making avatars with your Jasc software:

OK, this is both Paint Shop Pro, and Animation Shop. There are numerous things to make, alter, add to photos, etc . . . There is a book that comes with this software, and many helpful sites on-line. Also, there are many downloads on-line. Some are free, some are not, but there are plenty that are. They cover such things as picture tubes, font, glitter tubes, adding animation - snow, rain, stars, etc . . .

Individual questions, I can answer. Writing everything I now know, down in here. I don't think so.

You can make them 100%, using the tubes, fonts, and such. One example is the avatar I made for Pimpy . . .



Then the add-ons, like snow, rain, etc . . .



There are also a ton of affects that are a part of both Paint Shop Pro, and Animation Shop. I've used many. Here are a few . . .

Working with the clarity:

This was my avatar to begin with, using the original stills from my DVD.



This is after I took each still to Paint Shop Pro for some quick adjusting.



Whenever you have this problem, open each still one at a time with Paint Shop Pro. Then click on the "Enhance Photo" tab. Click on "One step photo fix." That normally fixes it.





If that doesn't work . . . sometimes they get too colorful . . . then try the "clarify" choice, or the "edge preserving" choice, etc . . . which are also in the "Enhance Photo" tab.

Also, at times, the picture can look grainy, or out of focus. Using Paint Shop Pro again, try using this step. Click the "Adjust" tab, then click on "Photo fix", and then click on "Digital camera noise removal". You can fiddle with the settings until you like it. There are many in that "adjust" section, like soften, sharpen, etc . . .

If you've ever wondered how all of those movie stars look so young in their photos. Welcome to the world of Jasc Software.

Sizing tips:

To make it larger, when your avatar is open like a film reel, crop any wide-screen shots. To do this, you click on the cropping icon. It's the fourth icon over, underneath "Zoom" on your tool-bar. Outline one of the photos with what all you want left in it, and then click the "Crop" tab.











Some of these are simply animated photos that I found on-line. You can alter them down by opening them in Animation Shop. Crop them, and then resize them like I showed you before. If the file size is still too large, you can delete enough scenes from the avatar, until it reaches the allowed file size for this board.

An example would be . . .



A couple others . . .

I've been asked by 5-6 people now, on how to make these. I didn't want to keep searching through the avatar thread, to find all of this information. It's scattered between a good 9 posts, and several pages. I believe I've covered the bulk of how to make them. If you have any questions, or problems, ask away. If you would still prefer that I make them, I am truly fine with that. Place your requests here.

I haven't decided just yet, but I will either post everything that I make in this thread, or I will create a Photobucket account for them. I dunno. We shall see. Until then, I have two requests that I'm running late on. You two let me know if I got the right scenes, made these right. More than likely something is off with them, some of them. Speak up. I'd rather know. The seconds on the videos, rarely ever match what the person tells me.

Bill -

I'm just working these up in different ways. Some are hard to see. I can lighten them up some, but I'll need more time. Let me know.
Sawman3 -

The Spirit found these -

I had to crop the hell out of this first scene.








p.s. Here you go Powdered Wawa.

Nebbit, when I saw this one, I thought of you.

Try not to take that in the wrong way!

Thanks Mary

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Buddha

Wow, great job Des, you have put a lot of work into this. Thank you. I may still need your help with some of these. A lot of this is over my head.

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We are both the source of the problem and the solution, yet we do not see ourselves in this light...

You're welcome, Nebs!

Thanks, and ask anytime.

I think I will create an album of all the avatars I make, but I'll post what you guys ask for here, so that they are easy to find.

Thanks very much, Des. You're the best.

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Wow Destiny, those are great! Thank you! Repped!

Virtual Dub

I'm glad that you guys like them.

B-card, I'm assuming you want this one, but I may be wrong. Either way, here it is, edited a few different ways. The file size was way too large, so I had to delete many of the screen-shots.

wow didnt even know this thread existed til just now hahaha

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[punches him in the face, grabs him and points his gun right at his throat] I never said anything about the FBI. She's my partner, ese. And if anything happens to her, I will find you and I will kill you. I won't think twice. Come here, look in my eyes. [pushes barrel of the gun into his mouth and cocks it] Look at my face. If anything happens to her, I will kill you. This is between you and me, and nobody sees, nobody knows.

thought id put it here too. could u maybe resize these to avatar level? thanks a million!

Yep, I was just working on them. The one avatar only had to lose about 4-6 stills. You can tell that I took them from the ending. The other one, though, is even larger in file size than B-card's was. There are ways to delete certain scenes, without it being obvious, to too obvious that any are missing. I'm going to go finish my outside work real fast, before Mother Nature turns her light-switch off, and then I'll be back.

Awesome work.

(Though now it's here suppose i'll have to my own )

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If God had wanted me otherwise, He would have created me otherwise.

Johann von Goethe

OK, that one began at 1.61 MBs. We are allowed 241 KB. First off, I don't know if they edited that, or what, but he is looking in the one direction, and then that guy that is playing the guitar should be in the scene. After that, then he looks the other way. I cropped it, resized it to the 110 by 90 size, and then I deleted that extra bit at the beginning. It was still at 504 KB.



I deleted, and deleted. If I had kept deleting, until it reached the allowed size, there wouldn't be enough left for it to look good.
Then I wondered, how big would the file be if I snagged it from my own VHS copy. That same scene is only 285 KB, and loads brighter. Go figure!



I only had to reduce it a smidge, to get it to the allowed size. This one is 240 KB. Take it.




Post what you want, if you're wanting something. I'll toss it together.


Thanks, Mrs. Darcy!

you're the cats pajamas!

Are those cats potty trained?!? If not, I'd sooner be their meow.