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Use Computer Graphics Programs to Dress Up Avatars and Modify Images

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Why Modify and Dress Up Avatars? Because it's FUN!

Dressing up avatars and modifying pictures is a great way to show your unique style and personality to the world. Most everyone these days has a face on the internet in one form or another: social media like Facebook, gamers avatars, profiles as authors, or as an owner of a business.

I wrote for eHow for many years with a recognizable avatar I had chosen as my "face" on the site. One day I decided that I wanted to dress up my avatar (a black and white cat) for the holidays. When my cat showed up in the forum with a Santa hat on...Everyone wanted to know how to do that, so I told them how (LOL...e"how" that is).. That was the beginning of tons of fun with my friends. We all "dressed up" for nearly every holiday. A few of my favorites were Christmas and "National Talk Like a Pirate Day" (see the pirate I made of my dear, tolerant husband).

Any avatar or image can be dressed up. You don't need special equipment or software, but a good graphics tablet or software are helpful. I'll walk you through the process and show you how to amaze your friends and perplex your family by dressing up your avatar and modifying pictures of yourself.

Table of Contents

Choose Your Image to Modify

The best images to modify are simple ones. My cat avatar is a perfect palette to work with because it is only two colors and the drawing is simple. I can change the look, simply by changing the color of the cat, or the background, or both...like in this avatar I created for Halloween. I call him...Ghost Cat. Other alterations are easy to do using either the graphics program that came with your computer...like Paint, or with programs that you have purchased like Photoshop, or Corel.

Instructions for Modifying an Image

I will be giving you instructions to dress up your avatar by using the drawing program that almost everybody has, Microsoft Paint. It's easy to use and nearly every computer comes with it already installed. I'm going to use a picture of my cat, Darby. It has a minimal...non-busy...background, which makes it easy to work with. You should choose a picture that has a close-up of a face (person or animal) with a minimal background like mine.
  1. Go to Accessories in your Start Up window. Find "Paint" and click on it.
  2. Click on "File". Find "Open" and click on it.
  3. Find the image file that you want to use. A face shot will be good for this tutorial, as that is what I'm going to use (my cat's face, that is). It will make it easier for you to follow the instructions.

 

Choose Your Brush Tool and Colors

All functions can be accomplished using your cursor, your finger on a touch-pad, or a drawing pen and graphics tablet.
  1. Click on your drawing tool from the choices on the side. I'm using the "Brush" tool.
  2. A menu will appear for you to choose your brush tip style. I'm using "Round". Click on the largest round dot.
  3. Load your brush with color. Click on "Red" from the palette provided.
  4. Draw a red triangle on the top of the head in your photo to create a Santa Hat. Use one fluid motion with no breaks in the line.
  5. Fill in the hat with red. You can do this by drawing with your brush, or using the "Fill" feature. Try using the "Fill" feature first. It may save you some time. Click on the "Fill" beaker. Make sure red is still your chosen color. Click the little fill beaker somewhere inside your triangle. If there is mostly one color in the background, it will fill with red immediately. If you had a break in your line, the red may leak out into the rest of your picture. If that happens, just click "Edit", "Undo" and it will take you back to the red triangle. Correct the break and try again.

    Paint is a very basic and limited program. The "Fill" function is not working for me because the pebbly background is too difficult for it. I can't modify the size of my brush either, so I just have to put up with drawing the red in by hand, with a small brush size. Graphics programs like Publisher or Corel are much easier in this regard. Even if the "Fill" function won't work, because of the pebbly background, I can change the size of the brush to make the fill-in process easier.

 

Add the Fur on the Hat

  1. Add the fur trim to the hat. You can do this one of two ways; by drawing it in as you did before, or using the "Ellipse" tool. I'm going to use the "Ellipse" tool to show you another way to draw.
  2. Click on the Oval Shape on your Tool menu. This is the "Ellipse" tool and allows you to draw circles and ovals quickly and easily. When you click on it, a menu will open up for you to choose what you want your ellipse to look like. The first choice on the top is for a line drawing. The second one is for a filled-in ellipse. Choose the second one to save yourself some work.
  3. Move your cursor to the point where you want to start your ellipse. This will be the top of your ellipse.
  4. Click and hold while you drag your cursor down and over. An ellipse shape will appear and will change shape depending on how you drag your cursor. Play around with it a bit until you think you have the hang of it. Just let go of your cursor to set the shape that you want. If you make any mistakes, just Edit/Undo and start over.

    Make a series of ellipses all along the bottom edge of the hat so that it looks like fluffy fur trim.
  5. Do the same thing at the top of the hat to create a puffy pom-pom on top.

 

Modifying Images for Profit

Modifying pictures is fun. Within an online community, where the participants know each other, the activity is a hoot! On eHow, I was known to grab just about any picture someone posted in the forum and would modify it and re-post. It was always in good fun, never mean-spirited, and eventually people started asking me to modify their pictures for them. From there, it grew into a business.

Business? Absolutely! My goofy little hobby turned into a money making business by posting my altered photos on Zazzle.com. Zazzle is free to use. Anyone can open up a store and start creating products for other people to buy. You must own the rights to the images you use (no stealing photos or images from others). I always asked permission before I posted any image that belonged to someone else. Some of my friends liked the new images so much, they would ask me to put it on Zazzle so they could buy it on a t-shirt or mug. I was happy to oblige.

Below are just a few examples of my image-altering art and some of the Zazzle products that I've created with it.

Modified Images on Zazzle.

My friend "Kittycooks" raises chickens. Her hens are very friendly and she uses them for therapy for her autistic daughters and has even taken them to the school to teach other children about chickens. When she told us about her hens on the forum, and posted a picture, my demented brain immediately thought "Three French Hens"...from the Christmas song, "The Twelve Days of Christmas". This altered image was the result of my inspiration. With Kitty's permission, I put it on Zazzle, where she promptly bought some mugs.

Visit Kitty on her blog to find out more about her wonderful chickens. Kittycooks, Gardening, Gluten Free Cooking and Chicken Blog

Three French Hens Double Image Mug mug
Three French Hens Double Image Mug by DianeCass
cheap coffee mug on zazzle

Meet "Nattie", my favorite subject for modifying images. Her beautiful smile and fluffy white fur is the perfect palette for adding other artistic elements to her pictures. Her person, Bossypants, happily agreed to let me put her on Zazzle. This "Fairy Dogmother" t-shirt is my favorite image of her. Bossy says that people stop her in the streets and ask about it when she wears it.

Samoyed Fairy Dogmother shirt
Samoyed Fairy Dogmother by DianeCass
Browse more Samoyed T-Shirts

To promote literacy, I once again used Nattie as my subject for this book-bag tote.

Library - Samoyed - Cool Dogs Read Literacy bag
Library - Samoyed - Cool Dogs Read Literacy by DianeCass
Browse more Cool Bags

Image Modifying is Contagious

Soon after I started fixing up my profile avatar, many of my friends took up the habit too. They also opened storefronts on Zazzle and started selling their art. Here are a few of my friends and their work.

Rickmac is a good friend and I absolutely ADORE his cat "Specs". You gotta love a face like that! I used Specs many times as a subject, but Rick opened a Zazzle store and started selling a variety of great products featuring Specs and his beautiful art.

Here's one Rick's coffee mugs. I often feel like this in the morning. LOL!
I need coffee! mug mug
I need coffee! mug by RickMac
Create a cheap personalized beer mug at Zazzle

Dealing with Ghost Avatars is fun and profitable.

When people don't provide a picture for their profile, on whatever website they are on, the site usually throws up a ghost avatar as a stand-in. Ghost avatars where a topic of discussion one day in the forum and some of us decided to start playing around with them for fun. The result was this panel of gussied-up ghost avatars. Believe it or not...these actually sell on Zazzle.

Grow Grass not Hair...Chia Man Bald Ghost Avatar
Bald Ghost mug
Bald Ghost by DianeCass
Make a promotional travel mug online with Zazzle

Need Woman, Caveman Ghost Avatasr
Caveman Ghost shirt
Caveman Ghost by DianeCass
Shop for a different t-shirt design

Cat Ghost Avatar
Cat Ghost Avatar mug
Cat Ghost Avatar by DianeCass
Browse Cat Mugs

My Family Photo Freakout 

Software and Gadgets for Digital Image Modifying

These are my favorite tools for doing digital art using my photos.

- Photoshop Elements: Versatile, powerful and widely used.

- Wacom, Bamboo Graphics Tablet and pen. The best on the market with the easiest to use pen

- If you purchase a Graphic Tablet, I highly recommend getting a sleeve to put it in. It will keep your tablet and pen safe from scratches and other damage when transporting.

- Corel. Great tools, fantastic video tutorials, gorgeous results.
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Are You an Image Tweaker?

Have you been known to annoy your enemies and amaze your friends with your clever image tweaks? Do you have a Zazzle store where you highlight your creative Tom-Foolery? Tell us about your favorite tweak, what you think of this lens or even post a link to your tweaked image on Zazzle. I'll choose a product to highlight on my lens.

  • mediawizard May 22, 2012 @ 5:06 pm | delete
    YES! Use Gimp this is a great program to make your banners and modify your photos.
    You can also greate Animated Banners
  • rickmac Dec 5, 2011 @ 7:16 am | delete
    I miss the good ol' times on Ehow and the zany antics. Thanks for including my mug of Specs on Zazzle. Great lens and well detailed.
  • bossypants Nov 28, 2011 @ 2:20 pm | delete
    Yes! I learned form the best. (Follow these directions and you can say that, too.)
  • Upon-Request Nov 28, 2011 @ 2:19 pm | delete
    Love these! And yes, I'm a tweaker too :)
  • LaraineRose Nov 20, 2011 @ 8:16 am | delete
    I often wondered how this was done. Blessed for sharing.
  • Frischy Nov 16, 2011 @ 6:43 pm | delete
    This is so much fun, and doesn't look too hard. Of course, I am not as talented as you are. I am going to give it a try. Wish me luck!
  • kittycooks Nov 16, 2011 @ 7:38 am | delete
    Seeing the ghost avatars made me laugh. We had so much fun on the eHow forum! Thanks for mentioning my hens, I love the zazzle apron I bought from your store. Great job on this informative lens.
  • FlaminCatDesigns Nov 14, 2011 @ 8:29 am | delete
    Great lens :) I love making silly photo pics. I made several for my twitter avatars and also some of my profile pics here. I just started my Zazzle and CafePress shops a couple months ago. Thanks for the inspiration here.
  • JoeCinocca Nov 14, 2011 @ 1:40 am | delete
    I'm not very good at the graphics thing. I usually just outsource it. There's a ton of details, however and this lens breaks things down nicely.
  • scarlettohairy Nov 13, 2011 @ 11:29 pm | delete
    Great directions!
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dlcass

Hi, and welcome to my lens. I am a wife, mother and teacher. I love music, gardening, antiques and art.

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