Usagi Yojimbo DojoBoard

Ok, you avataar experts...

How do you get images with such detail as avataars. By the time I get an image with the correct number of pixels and KB, It's a tiny fuzzy image. What gives? Give up your secrets!

crop the image, not resize

My avatar is a scanned photo from National Geographic. Scanned with 300dpi, in Paint Shop Pro I cropped it into a square, resized and sharpened a bit.

Gosh, mine took forever...I dont remember how I did it

Like musashi and Sebastian pointed out: crop the image. Or get a picture small enough that you can use it as an avatar right away (like mine .)

When using pre-existing digital images, resampling the image to a smaller size is better than simply resizing it. For GIF images, you'll have to up the color depth to higher than 256 (like 16 million), resample, and then re-save as a 256 color GIF. Resampling preserves more of the quality, but is not as good as scanning or creating an image directly to teh size you want.
My avatars, which change once a year, all come from a video arcade game released back in the late 80's...can anyone identify?

My avataar is one of my drawings, of a character I created called Schwartz (rhymes with warts, which is appropriate, since he's a toad).

I did crop it, but still it was too big. I had to keep reducing the pixels and size until it was less than 6 KB. It lost some definition, but it's okay I guess. I'm not sure how to "resample". I'm kind of new to the technology!

your avatar is so cool ziritrion

Todd Shogun wrote: For GIF images, you'll have to up the color depth to higher than 256 (like 16 million), resample, and then re-save as a 256 color GIF.

There is also a great free online gif editor. It works well especially for animated gifs.

http://www.gifworks.com/

miyamoto musashi wrote:your avatar is so cool ziritrion

Really? Thanks! My avatar is from a videogame called Rivercity Ransom for the NES, but the real reason I use it is for my obsession with this Flash animation (click on "watch this movie!!!" to see it.) I spent 2 months of my life just staring at it over and over again (2 years ago), and I'm not tired of it yet. And, of course, I love Daft Punk to death .

Todd Shogun wrote:My avatars, which change once a year, all come from a video arcade game released back in the late 80's...can anyone identify?

Shinobi? Ninja Gaiden? Dunno. The last one you had reminded me of Rockman/Megaman, but it was too small to make sure. But if your current avatar and the old one are from the same videogame, then I'm puzzled .

must stop watching animation!!!!

slowly that animation is stealing my soul

Told ya . Just in case you wanted to know, the tune is "Harder Better Faster Stronger" by Daft Punk, which you can find in their CD "Discovery" (An AWESOME CD, BTW.) Also, the mangaka and animator Eiji Matsumoto ("Captain Harlock") made a whole movie (called "Interstella 5555") which uses the whole CD as its soundtrack. Clips from the movie were used as the promotional videoclips for the album that were broadcasted on MTV, VIVA, and many other music TV stations.

my new avatar is from return of shinobi

Yeah, that's from the first level, right? I personally liked Shinobi III and Shadow Dancer more, (That dang dog is so awesome) than RoS.