Avatars and Signatures.

Hey..hate to be a pest but here's a thought...

Could we make a sticky on how to take a screen shot of your character.

How format it and create it into an avatar image or signature for use in the user's profile.

or for that matter any other image to use for an avatar and/or signature.

Like a step by step tutorial....not all of us are wizards yet...including me. ha ha

Hope I picked the right place to post this.

I'm sure there's lots of us who don't know quite how.

Hmm, well I already have a process that I go through to make the avatars and signatures of the old forum. Which I need to update for this one, such as colors. All I need from everyone is a screenshot of their character. Either they can take it themselves or I can when I get the chance to play. I will then crop out a nice closeup of your character for the avatar, and type out your name how you want it displayed. And for the signature I will still have your character as a primary focus in the frame but also include the background for added effect. So it's important to choose a location to take your screenshot that you really like. Then I will add your name into the frame and viola! It's that simple. At least simple for me. I might give out my .psd files so anyone can use them to edit their avatar and signature how they want it, but I am sure that everyone would be happy with what I do with them.

Hell I mess around in psp7 alot, so if anyone wants one done gimme a yell =D gives me somethin else to do

Just some examples below

someof these are old, ive gotten alot better so yeah =D

Well, I'm gonna try to supply a basic tutorial for people with default programs.

I'm going to use windows purely, I don't know much about default apple graphics programs aside from the fact my sister seems to think the only default graphic program on it sucks.

Now, I use Vista, so some options might be slightly different for xp users but I'm going to assume their in the same general area. I'm also not a paint expert, so if someone else knows the program better by all means.

1. To take a screenshot in game just hit the Prt Scrn(Print screen) buttom. It will be to the right of the F12 key.

2. Windows comes with Paint. Paint can be found under all programs -> accessories -> Paint(a cup with a paintbrush in it). If you're using xp, then it might be program files. It will have program in the name however.

3. Paint is open. Now we need to open one of the screenshots. To find the screenshots, navigate to Documents -> Guild Wars -> Screens. That's where mine is anyway, if you can't find it simply do a search for Guild Wars and a Screens folder should appear momentarily. That will tell you where to find it.

4. Pick the screen shot you want to use. It will be fairly large. We don't want it to be that large, so we need to cut out the portion we want. On the right there is a toolbar with various pictures of different tools. It would probably be good to play around with these to see what they do and experiment a little with what Paint is capable of. I personally don't know, I use photoshop, so don't ask me. In the top right hand corner of this tool bar is a rectangular shape box. Pretty much a selection. When you make your selection, hit ctrl+c.

5. Make a new file by going to File -> New

6. Hit Ctrl+V to past the picture you just cut out. It still might be fairly large. So, we'll need to shrink it. You can do this by clicking on one of the eight tiny blue boxes around it's edge that appear when we click it. I suggest using the one in the bottom right hand corner. That will allow you to shrink both height and width at the same time. Shrink it to what you think looks about right. It will probably be pretty small by comparison. This is fine.

7. Now we have a big area of white by our picture. We want to make the white disappear. To do this we need to change the canvas to the correct size for what we're doing. So go to image -> Attributes. This will give you a box. This box will have two values for height and width in it. Now, close that window. It will be easier just to click the white area and shrink it to fit over your image. It works the same way as the image, just click in the white area and more tiny blue boxes should appear around the edge of the white area. You can use attributes to check the size. The general size of avatars most places is 130 x 130. This site has limits of 150 pixels wide and the height cannot exceed 200 pixels.

8. Now, with a little playing we should have a rather basic avatar or signature. You can use other tools, such as the text tool to add text to it or do other more elaborate things.

9. Finally, we want to save it. You can save it as a JPEG or PNG. I'm more fond of png myself.

10. On this forum uploading options for the avatar can be found under profile -> right below the navigation bar will be a list of links to various places, avatar and signature can be found here. For your avatar simply browse and find the image you'd like. If it rejects your image it might be too big data wise and in such a case you can save it as a different file format or shrink it some more.

11. For a signature, you will need a hosting website like photobucket or imageshack.us. Beyond that I don't appear to be familar with this board's way of doing things.

A note, when downsizing an image it's best to try and keep it's original dimensions more or less in tact. Squishing or stretching your image generally has a poor look to it.



With that, I'm also a photoshop user and probably won't mind making avatars/signatures. Just supply the picture and tell me what you'd like and we'll work together.

Fairly old stuff:

http://img27.imageshack.us/my.php?image=topaz2copyck0.png

http://img238.imageshack.us/my.php?image=exportwizard3xd7.png

Wow!

Lots of talent here and an awesome walkthrough. I couldn't ask for more.

Now I just gotta decide which character and where for the image.

Might be a little bit before I decide but you guys/gals are totally there with excellent replies.

Your input and help is really appreciated...thanks.

I'll be taking your advise and probably get one of you to do one up for me in the near future.

Here are some of the signatures / avatars I made for the old forum. They were made with the same colors so that they matched. Which is something I need to do for this forum but I haven't had the time to do yet.







I was taking everyone's screenshot at the guild hall. Now I will let you guys decide where you want me to take your picture at or you can just send me a screenshot that you took and I will convert that into a signature.

www.1001freefonts.com seriously Zal, u need fonts xD

No, I don't. I just like crisp clean fonts.

I really like some of the stuff from your gallery. Like the ice gimper and breaking out of the ordinary.

[b]Good work guys. I appreciate seeing all of you pitch in here. I am amazed at what many of you can do. Keep it up.