Exercise Two : Create a personal avatar using either (1) Face Your Manga; (2) the South Park Avatar Creator; or (3) Simpsonize Me.
In the online world, an avatar is a 2-D or 3-D graphical representation of a user. In short, your avatar serves as your on-screen identity on a web site or network. Most sites that allow users to register and interact with other users allow you to create a profile that involves typing in some personal data and uploading a personal picture or avatar to serve as your identity. Some people choose to upload small thumbnail images of themselves or their pets to serve as their avatars. Others may simply allow a default image provided on the site (often a silhouette figure) to stand in for them. There is also a third option, which you'll be trying here, that involves using one of the following sites to create and save an avatar image.
Note: While sites like these typically invite you to register, it usually isn't necessary in order to use the site to create and save an avatar.
Face your Manga allows you to create your avatar by choosing from certain features in a menu of options. Once you've finished your avatar, you have to provide an email address where it will be sent to within minutes.
At MadMenYourself.com, you can create an avatar based on the popular AMC series about the New York City advertising world of the early 1960s. To do so, you're offered a step-by-step set of menu options that allow you to choose each feature of your avatar including body shape, hair style and color, clothing, accessories, and so on. When you finish, you're given the options of downloading a head, body, or scene image. For our purposes, the "head" shot will work best.
South Park Avatar Creator works pretty much the same way. You create your avatar by choosing from certain features in a menu of options. Once you've finished your avatar, you're given several options to save the image you created. However, the only one that saves the whole screen (figure and background) is JPG>Wallpaper. After downloading your avatar with background to your computer, which is too large to use as an avatar, you will need to crop a portion of the image (a square image approximately 2.5 x 2.5 inches will work nicely) and resave it.
Note: If you're on a Macintosh, you can capture a portion of a screen image using Command+Shift+4. This will allow you drag the cursor over the area of the screen that you want and save it to your desktop. Otherwise, use a image-editing program like Photoshop.
Lastly, BeFunky.com allows you to add a variety of effects to your photos. These images can then be saved on your computer and reduced (with an image-editing program) to a useable size (approximately 2.5 x 2.5 inches) for an avatar.
If you have time, try 2 or more of these programs and experiment with the different options provided. Choose your favorite image to serve as your avatar.
