Avator and signature assistant!

[Durindfire]

I believe you've opened up a relatively large can of worms my friend.

[Athan Marr]

Now that we have an idea of how to create avators, is there there any links that can show us how to create signatures? Or it is the same concept?

[Alehk Thol]

This tutorial assumes you can open a player model in modview and have GIMP installed.

• Okay, so firstly, we found ourselves a background. I chose this and pasted it into a 150x150 canvas.
• Next, I opened up Modview, chose my model. I then hit "Edit" and "Choose background colour" then selected a vibrant pink.
• By clicking and dragging the two mouse buttons (and holding alt to move the model up and down) I got myself closer to the model's face. Once satisfied, I Print Screen and paste as a new image in GIMP.
• Using the "Select by colour" tool, I highlight the pink background, then tap Ctrl+X to remove it. Then, I simply select my model from the image with the Rectangle Selection Tool and copy and paste it as a new layer above the background in the avatar file. (Edit -> Copy, move to the avatar image, Edit -> Paste As -> New Layer)
• The model is naturally too big, so we use "Layer" -> "Scale Layer" to reduce it's size to something sensible.
• Select "Color" at the top, then "Colorize" and choose a colour for your player model. Once done, duplicate the layer twice. You can do this step again later if you want to adjust the color. Alternatively, use "Color" -> "Color Balance" and modify the Shadows, Midtones and Highlights accordingly. A good order for the slider bars using this method would be Cyan/Red -100, Magenta/Green 28, Yellow/Blue 100, I did this for my examples, then used "Colorize" later to pick a colour I preferred over my initial choice.
• Drop the opacity of the top layer to 50, the next to 60 and the third to 70.
• On the top layer, go to "Filters" -> "Distort" -> "Wind"
  Settings: Style: Wind | Direction: Right | Edge Affected: Leading | Threshold/Strength: 10
• Repeat the above step with the "Direction" set to Left.
• Select the bottom layer, Filters -> Blur -> Gaussian Blur (8px)
• Right-click the top layer and select "Merge Down" Then repeat again so all three player models layers have become one.
• Click "Filters" -> "Distorts" "Video" (Settings: Video Pattern: Stripe + Additive Checked)
• Now, animating! You should have two layers: Your background, and your hologram. Duplicate them both so that you have four layers.
• Select either of the holographic layers and click "Filters" -> "Artistic" -> "Softglow" Drop the "Brightness" slider down to 0.1
• If you want your avatar to "ripple" as if there is a transmission error, skip ahead.*** If not, keep following.
• Merge each hologram layer down onto a background. You should now only have two layers.
• Click "Filters" -> "Animation" -> "Optimize for Gif" This will create a new image.
• You can preview the animation now by clicking "Filters" -> "Animation" -> "Playback"
• Click "File" -> "Export As" -> Save the file as anythingyouwant.gif, ensuring you've checked the box entitled: "Save as Animation" Ensure "Loop forever" is checked. Example
• Click Export, done. Result:

***You have four layers like so (from bottom): Background, a holographic layer, a duplicate of the background and then the other holographic layer. Duplicate the top holographic layer twice.

• Select the bottom of the two, click "Filters" -> "Distort" -> "Ripple"
• Then select the top layer, and repeat while changing the "Orientation" to "Vertical"
• Now duplicate your background layer twice more and by clicking and dragging, slot them so that they rest beneath each holo layer.
  Layer order now (From bottom): Background, Holo, background 2, Holo 2, background 3, Holo 3, background 4, Holo 4
• Merge each hologram on to its background so you have 4 layers in total.
• Rename the bottom two layers to "1" and "2" Duplicate them both 5 times.
• Drag them into order so they read 1, 2, 1, 2, 1, 2, 1, 2, 1, 2, 1, 2 with your two rippled layers resting on top. If it helps, you're basically placing all of the frames of your animation in order. So you want your original image, then one with the slight glow, then the original, then back to glow, repeating until you decide to add the two rippled layers.
• If your very top layer (the vertical ripple) has a dark wavy line at the top, simply take a soft-edged brush and erase it out.
• Now, hit "Filters" -> "Animation" -> "Optimize for gif"
• Click "File" -> "Export As" -> Save the file as anythingyouwant.gif, ensuring you've checked the box entitled: "Save as Animation" Ensure "Loop forever" is checked. Example
• Click Export, done. Result:

All done! I hope this helps. Obviously, I'm around to answer questions if any of the steps aren't explained clearly.

[Silas Vir'n]

Thank you Alehk!

[Shaok Panek]

Thank you for the detailed instructions, Alehk! I've had an easy time following them.

Done one for Shaok, here are the results:

[Athan Marr]

Thank you!

[Karmarie Zar]

Beautiful!

[Cael Dan’kor]

I suggest Alehk places that HOW TO in a separate thread and sticky it.

[Karmarie Zar]

I made my one more green

[Jago Mirax]

Now watch the forums be bombarded with holographic avatars.

Great tutorial, Alehk.

[Karmarie Zar]

Now watch the forums be bombarded with holographic avatars.

Great tutorial, Alehk.

Come.........join us on the holographic side.....I know you want too......

[Athan Marr]

Not going to lie I am going to do this haha! But this will be my first avator I made myself so why not!

[Keth Flynn]

Avatar*, for future references

'looks really neat, I'll give it a go at some point! Thanks!