Tutorial: Create your own Avatar in MS Paint

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Tutorial: Create your own Avatar in MS Paint

Postby Qyzbud » February 24th, 2008, 2:14 pm

This is a simple tutorial for anyone wanting to make a DKC Atlas Forum Avatar in MS Paint.

A tutorial for making avatars in GIMP is available here.


I will improve this MS Paint tutorial when time permits.


Note: Avatars are to be 96 pixels wide and 72 pixels tall.

All you need is for this tutorial is a screenshot from any DKC game (easy to capture using an emulator), the 'frame' file attached to this post, and of course MS Paint.

You will turn a screenshot like this:
diddy-win.png
diddy-win.png (36.63 KiB) Viewed 91373 times


Into an Avatar like this:
avatar-diddy-win.png
avatar-diddy-win.png (3.93 KiB) Viewed 91370 times



Before you start, please save this file:
frame.png
frame.png (246 Bytes) Viewed 91369 times



On with the tutorial!

1. Open a DKC screenshot of your choice in MS Paint.

2. Open the frame file you saved (frame.png) in a new instance of MS Paint. (this means you'll have two MS Paints open at the same time - one with your screenshot, and one with 'frame.png')

3. Select all of frame.png, copy it, and paste it into the MS Paint window that your screenshot is in.

4. At the base of the toolbar are two icon that look like a collection of coloured shapes on a yellow background. Click on the bottom one of these, and the frame you pasted in should now become transparent.

5. You can now click on the frame and drag it until it outlines the section of your screenshot which you want to use as your avatar.

6. When it's where you want it, click View > Zoom > Large Size (you may need to scroll until the framed section is on screen, you may not) and click and drag to select everything inside the frame's grey outline (without selecting any of the grey outline itself). Now copy, and paste this into another new instance of MS Paint.

7. If there is white canvas area beneath/to the right of your newly pasted avatar, resize the canvas area until the status bar says 96x72.

8. If things look right, save your file as a PNG with a name of your choice.
Last edited by Qyzbud on July 23rd, 2008, 9:33 pm, edited 2 times in total.
Reason: Edit step 7 slightly to improve clarity
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Re: Tutorial: Create your own Avatar in MS Paint

Postby cfh » February 24th, 2008, 2:26 pm

Neat. So you will add the effects?
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Re: Tutorial: Create your own Avatar in MS Paint

Postby Jomingo » February 25th, 2008, 2:52 am

Thanks, this will come in handy.
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Re: Tutorial: Create your own Avatar in MS Paint

Postby Qyzbud » February 25th, 2008, 11:10 am

I don't think there is any way to create decent scanline effects in Paint, but I'm sure the GIMP can handle it! I'll have a chance to try out the GIMP and write a tutorial on Wednesday or Thursday this week, so hopefully this MS Paint tute is good enough for the time being.
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Re: Tutorial: Create your own Avatar in MS Paint

Postby cfh » February 25th, 2008, 11:12 am

OK, then. I'll wait for the GIMP tutorial.
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Re: Tutorial: Create your own Avatar in MS Paint

Postby Jomingo » February 26th, 2008, 6:44 am

Can't wait. Should be very interesting.
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Re: Tutorial: Create your own Avatar in MS Paint

Postby cfh » February 28th, 2008, 2:53 pm

I found out how to do scanlines in GIMP when I made my Picture Thread picture. Just go to Filters > Distort > Video. :D

But I don't know if it's the same looking :|
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Re: Tutorial: Create your own Avatar in MS Paint

Postby Kowbrainz » February 28th, 2008, 7:07 pm

cfh wrote:I found out how to do scanlines in GIMP when I made my Picture Thread picture. Just go to Filters > Distort > Video. :D

But I don't know if it's the same looking :|



You'll have to do it with a larger image first, then resize it afterwards in this case I think.
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Re: Tutorial: Create your own Avatar in MS Paint

Postby cfh » February 28th, 2008, 9:42 pm

Qyzbud, you should make a tutorial for the program you use.
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Re: Tutorial: Create your own Avatar in MS Paint

Postby Qyzbud » March 1st, 2008, 12:43 pm

Okay, I've been teaching myself to use the GIMP. I think that's the best approach, as it's freely available to everyone. I personally use Photoshop, but that's a very expensive package. I use it because I'm a web & digital graphics designer by trade, but I'm starting to appreciate how capable the GIMP is. Not quite as slick as Photoshop, but it's certainly the better option if you don't have cash to splash around.

Besides, anyone who's invested in a copy of Photoshop... I'd expect they'd be serious enough about graphics that they could easily work out how to crop, border and filter a screenshot!

I'll create a new thread for the GIMP tutorial when it's ready.
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Re: Tutorial: Create your own Avatar in MS Paint

Postby cfh » March 1st, 2008, 12:45 pm

Sounds good. Does this mean you found a way to make the scanlines look the same?
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Re: Tutorial: Create your own Avatar in MS Paint

Postby Qyzbud » March 1st, 2008, 1:46 pm

More or less.

The scanlines effect is essentially just a looping pattern two white pixels above two black pixels, which when repeated, appears as 1px thin horizontally layered white and black lines. This pattern is then faded to an opacity of say... 6%, to give subtle but visible 'scanline' effect.

Could be done quite easily in any program with layers and opacity.

The only thing Paint can't do is opacity. Oh, and layers. ;)


EDIT: Okay guys, the new GIMP tutorial can be found here: Tutorial: Create your own Avatar with the GIMP!
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Re: Tutorial: Create your own Avatar in MS Paint

Postby Kiddy14 » July 22nd, 2008, 10:19 am

I've made my own one with this tuto, thanks Qyz! =) What do you think of it? I don't think I'll get rid of it in a long time =)
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Re: Tutorial: Create your own Avatar in MS Paint

Postby Diddy_Gal » July 23rd, 2008, 8:07 am

Nice avatar, Kiddy14!
But how did you added the DKC2-like letters on yours?
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Re: Tutorial: Create your own Avatar in MS Paint

Postby Qyzbud » July 23rd, 2008, 9:11 am

Yeah, good work Kiddy. Very nice looking, clear and distinctive.

Image
^ for future reference ^

Blends elements of DKC2/3 nicely, but nothing from the original? I would have thrown in a butterfly from Jungle Hijinxs if I was you. Don't go stealing my great idea now! :D

By the way, what a cheeky grin that young ape has... It would make a great smiley... *begins scheming*
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Re: Tutorial: Create your own Avatar in MS Paint

Postby Stone » July 23rd, 2008, 9:53 am

I also think Kiddy's avatar is a nice composition.
Kiddy, do you still have something like a bmp or psd version of your avatar? I'm sure it would look even more wonderful by saving it as png instead of jpg.

Edit: I've just noticed that the frame.png has an extra 1 pixel grey line, is this done on purpose Qyz? It makes the whole picture 1 pixel bigger on each side than the example pic ;)

Edit2: Can anyone explain why GIMP uses less kb for the same png than Photoshop?
And here's Kiddy's avatar in jpg and png, thanks to GIMP the png is 3,4 kb (Photoshop was about 7,2 kb, which couldn't be uploaded to DKC-Atlas):
Image Image
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Re: Tutorial: Create your own Avatar in MS Paint

Postby Jomingo » July 23rd, 2008, 11:10 am

Gnawty.png
Gnawty.png (16.3 KiB) Viewed 91080 times

I was bored, and noticed that the "gallery" for avatars in the control panel has very few avatars that aren't already taken. So I decided to try out this editor.
What do you think?

EDIT:
butterfly.png
butterfly.png (16.23 KiB) Viewed 91055 times

I made another one.

EDIT2:
Gnawtyfalling.png
Gnawtyfalling.png (17.07 KiB) Viewed 91080 times

DKonRambi.png
DKonRambi.png (16.73 KiB) Viewed 91075 times

Two more. By the way, all four of these are from the same screenshot. Are they good? This is kinda fun.

EDIT3:
DKandDiddy.png
DKandDiddy.png (16 KiB) Viewed 91069 times

RambiCrate.png
RambiCrate.png (16.34 KiB) Viewed 91064 times

Here's two more.
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Re: Tutorial: Create your own Avatar in MS Paint

Postby Qyzbud » July 23rd, 2008, 3:57 pm

Those are okay, Jomingo (although some are missing, and the others are unusually 'smooth' looking...), but I'm finding myself liking the more creative 'composite' style ones that people are making for themselves. They are just more interesting and unique... I might work on a few, using that approach. It would be great to have a bit more of a gallery for new (and current) users to choose from.

Stone wrote:I've just noticed that the frame.png has an extra 1 pixel grey line, is this done on purpose Qyz?

Yeah, that grey border is to help keep the black border visible when using dark screenshots. The grey border is supposed to be cropped off when you're done. I should edit step 7 of the tutorial to make this more clear... in fact I'll do so now. ;)

Stone wrote:Can anyone explain why GIMP uses less kb for the same png than Photoshop?

I should probably answer this in the GIMP avatar tutorial thread, but since you asked here I'll do my best to answer here this time. Are you saving as PNG-8 or PNG-24? That might be what's responsible for such a difference in file size. Saving with 8-bit colour is fine for SNES graphics; 24-bit is overkill, and will increase the file size significantly with (generally) no improvement in appearance.
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Re: Tutorial: Create your own Avatar in MS Paint

Postby Jomingo » July 24th, 2008, 1:40 am

I fixed them. Sorry you don't like them, it's my first time. What do you mean "smooth looking"?

EDIT:
Diddyon Rambi.png
Diddyon Rambi.png (17.34 KiB) Viewed 91031 times

DKCMAP.png
DKCMAP.png (17.87 KiB) Viewed 91029 times

Ellie.png
Ellie.png (18.29 KiB) Viewed 91032 times

Dixie and Kiddy.png
Dixie and Kiddy.png (15.63 KiB) Viewed 91028 times

I'm bored, so I keep making these. Use them if you want to, doens't matter to me.
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Re: Tutorial: Create your own Avatar in MS Paint

Postby Jomingo » July 24th, 2008, 7:56 am

Kroolnstein.png
Kroolnstein.png (16.16 KiB) Viewed 91023 times

lostworld.jpg
lostworld.jpg (3.08 KiB) Viewed 91024 times

Krow.png
Krow.png (18.32 KiB) Viewed 91018 times

Quawks.png
Quawks.png (15.49 KiB) Viewed 91015 times

Zinger.png
Zinger.png (15.7 KiB) Viewed 91015 times

Koin.png
Koin.png (15.71 KiB) Viewed 91012 times

Some more. Finally something kinda productive to do with my time.
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Re: Tutorial: Create your own Avatar in MS Paint

Postby Kiddy14 » July 24th, 2008, 10:46 am

Diddy_Gal wrote:But how did you added the DKC2-like letters on yours?

I used a sprite sheet of the letters I found on the net :D
Qyzbud wrote:...but nothing from the original?

I didn't think of it you know, I had a little poor space to work on, that's why =)
Stone wrote:I'm sure it would look even more wonderful by saving it as png instead of jpg.

I stupidily forgot to change Paint's saving preferences to png :(
Can I use Image instead of my actual one? I also think it looks better like a png.
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Re: Tutorial: Create your own Avatar in MS Paint

Postby Stone » July 24th, 2008, 11:36 pm

No problem, it's your Avatar at last ;)
And it is also a png. Oh I see, it's already in use. Nice!

Kiddy14 wrote:I used a sprite sheet of the letters I found on the net :D

I think I've found the same site, because all the elements needed for recreating your Avatar were there, too.
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Re: Tutorial: Create your own Avatar in MS Paint

Postby Jomingo » July 25th, 2008, 10:41 am

diddy.png
diddy.png (12.11 KiB) Viewed 90960 times
Kritter.png
Kritter.png (13.26 KiB) Viewed 90935 times
Slippa1.jpg
Slippa1.jpg (3.32 KiB) Viewed 90935 times
Slippa2.png
Slippa2.png (18.01 KiB) Viewed 90935 times
Winky.png
Winky.png (15.63 KiB) Viewed 90933 times
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Re: Tutorial: Create your own Avatar in MS Paint

Postby gamer_boy997 » July 25th, 2008, 10:48 am

Nice avatars Jomingo! Diddy_Gal might like the first one.
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Re: Tutorial: Create your own Avatar in MS Paint

Postby Jomingo » July 25th, 2008, 10:50 am

Thanks! :D I think she just changed her's recently though.
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Re: Tutorial: Create your own Avatar in MS Paint

Postby gamer_boy997 » July 25th, 2008, 10:52 am

Yeah, a couple days ago I believe. She might use it when she gets tired of her current avatar though.
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Re: Tutorial: Create your own Avatar in MS Paint

Postby Jomingo » July 25th, 2008, 10:53 am

Yeah, that or my Diddy on Rambi one.
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Re: Tutorial: Create your own Avatar in MS Paint

Postby Kiddy14 » July 25th, 2008, 10:56 am

Poor Diddy_Gal :roll:

Jomingo wrote:What do you mean "smooth looking"?

They look kind of smoothy and not pixelized =P Look:
ImageImage
See how Rambi looks kind of pixelized square-y while Diddy looks smooth spongy? =P
But the pictures are cool in my opinion =)
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Re: Tutorial: Create your own Avatar in MS Paint

Postby Jomingo » July 25th, 2008, 11:00 am

Oh, I didn't know "smoothness" was a bad thing. I think they look better that way.
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Re: Tutorial: Create your own Avatar in MS Paint

Postby Simion32 » July 25th, 2008, 11:06 am

Here's a clearer rendition of Jomingo's current avatar, done in MSPaint:
LostWorld.PNG
LostWorld.PNG (4.97 KiB) Viewed 90888 times
How it's done: Select an area, then hold Ctrl and press + and/or - on the numpad to scale the selected area in factors of 2.
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Re: Tutorial: Create your own Avatar in MS Paint

Postby Jomingo » July 25th, 2008, 11:17 am

It's cool, but I like mine better.
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Re: Tutorial: Create your own Avatar in MS Paint

Postby Kiddy14 » July 26th, 2008, 3:45 am

I took Qyz's idea and added some stuff in my picture, I didn't add a butterfly though.

Original:
Image

With a tire:
kiddyconllanta.png
kiddyconllanta.png (3.96 KiB) Viewed 90831 times


With a level end sign:
kiddyconsenal.png
kiddyconsenal.png (4 KiB) Viewed 90829 times


I don't like neither, but, oh well, what do you think?
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Re: Tutorial: Create your own Avatar in MS Paint

Postby Jomingo » July 26th, 2008, 3:50 am

I don't know, I think they look kinda cluttered that way. The level sign is kinda cool though.
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Re: Tutorial: Create your own Avatar in MS Paint

Postby Kiddy14 » July 26th, 2008, 6:10 am

Maybe if I make it smaller, oh well, I made this one:

kiddymoneda.png
kiddymoneda.png (4.2 KiB) Viewed 90860 times

It adds a little bramble sprite and a DK Coin font.

EDIT: This is the bramble sprite solo:
kiddyconbramble.png
kiddyconbramble.png (4.11 KiB) Viewed 90851 times

I may use it.
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Re: Tutorial: Create your own Avatar in MS Paint

Postby Malmo » July 31st, 2008, 10:44 am

Hey Qyzbud, is this the right place to approve new avatars? Sorry if I'm doing this wrong, I checked just about every relevant thread.

http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f44/M ... ingers.jpg
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Re: Tutorial: Create your own Avatar in MS Paint

Postby Jomingo » July 31st, 2008, 10:51 am

If you made it in MS Paint I don't see why not post it here, though I think we were using the Avatar/Signature Guidelines Discussion topic for this. I posted all of mine here, so it should be fine.


By the way, your current avatar of Cranky Kong is already taken by a moderator here, so you should change it. You shouldn't use the gallery because almost all of them are taken, so you should either make one of your own or use one somebody has made. That one you made there: I can't tell if it's the right size just by looking at it, but if it's 96x72 I think it's ready for you to use. It looks pretty cool by the way. :D
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Re: Tutorial: Create your own Avatar in MS Paint

Postby Kiddy14 » July 31st, 2008, 10:58 am

I like it too =)
Just change it from 86x70 to 96x72 ;) And be sure it's surrounded with 2 pixels wide lines, or use the frame Qyz posted at the beginning, just make sure the final file is 96x72.
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Re: Tutorial: Create your own Avatar in MS Paint

Postby Malmo » July 31st, 2008, 11:36 am

Thanks. This should be okay, right?

(I'll take requests for any no animal signs, if anyone would like)
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Re: Tutorial: Create your own Avatar in MS Paint

Postby Qyzbud » August 1st, 2008, 3:07 am

Malmo wrote:Hey Qyzbud, is this the right place to approve new avatars?

Thanks for checking - Jomingo's right that we were using a different topic for the submissions/approvals, but I must say we aren't really all that organised with the avatar side of things just yet. :roll: Your avatar is great, by the way. Very clever and well made. :D (although it may look nicer if saved as a PNG... JPG files tend to lose clarity)
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Re: Tutorial: Create your own Avatar in MS Paint

Postby FunkyKong » August 1st, 2008, 2:24 pm

All these avatars are very nice! Great work! :D
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