BTS : Avatar Creations 2016

a reply to: Ghost147

Zarni will have to chime in to clarify specifics...but the skinny on it:

you make an animated avatar that places itself where you want the animation int he background to be and use that as your "clear gif". The background is static still....but is overlaid by the gif with the embedded animation

originally posted by: bigfatfurrytexan
a reply to: Ghost147

Zarni will have to chime in to clarify specifics...but the skinny on it:

you make an animated avatar that places itself where you want the animation int he background to be and use that as your "clear gif". The background is static still....but is overlaid by the gif with the embedded animation

Hmm, I see.

sounds like complicated tweaking

a reply to: Ghost147

zarni can give you specific pixel counts that should allow some basic math to guide you.

but yeah...most complicated than just doing art. LOL, thats why i stay away from it.

Animated Gifs 101...

Here's the method to my madness and hopefully is somewhat intuitive.

1. Take cursor and highlight the entire mini profile. This shows you what avatar you have to work with. If the part you want to animate is not highlighted in the middle section, you can't animate it.



2. Open mini profile background image in your favorite image editor (I use GIMP)

3. The top left corner of the image is 0,0 coordinates in GIMP, I don't know about other editors. This is important for the next step

4. Take your cursor in the editor to 61x, 10y. From there, take the rectangle select tool and drag a 175 X 240 box. Copy that and paste it into a new transparent 175 X 240 image window.

For Ghost, it would like like this...



This is the specific area that can be animated and when used as an avatar will (almost) perfectly align with the mini profile background image. I say "almost", because there is something in the profile depending on whether a member is offline or online or some other magic that makes the start coordinate shift up or down one pixel at times. It is usually not very noticeable, though.

5. You can either put together multiple frames using the entire image to make a ani gif (very kb expensive) or use transparent layers in specific areas that you want animated.

Step 5 is the step where you can get creative and use a lot of trial and error to get the effect you want while remaining under the 75kb requirement.

Hope that helps!

a reply to: Zarniwoop

Simple enough.

I'll give it a shot sometime soon.

Also, why is animation available in the avatar but not the background

a reply to: Zarniwoop

a reply to: Ghost147

why is animation available in the avatar but not the background?

That, I don't know for sure. However, I suspect it is to keep bouncy stuff away from things like the member information and statistics.

a reply to: cody599

a reply to: Zarniwoop

Is size also a factor?
That was my guess anyway.

originally posted by: Zarniwoop
a reply to: Ghost147

why is animation available in the avatar but not the background?

That, I don't know for sure. However, I suspect it is to keep bouncy stuff away from things like the member information and statistics.

So in order to make SirKonstantin's avatar 'safe' it's just a matter of reducing the totality of it's size, despite the animated part not hitting any members information?

originally posted by: DontTreadOnMe
a reply to: Zarniwoop

Is size also a factor?
That was my guess anyway.

That was my thought too, but the gif I created is smaller in size than most of the images I regularly upload

a reply to: DontTreadOnMe

Size in KB for mini-profile bacgrounds is 150kb. So, size is probably not really a factor in animating them, as you could have a 10kb animated background.

I think it's just one of those general rules to remove subjectivity....not to animated backgrounds so that there are no grey areas about what backgrounds might be OK and another might not be. A lot easier that way, IMO. There's still plenty of room to be creative under the current requirements

a reply to: Ghost147

So in order to make SirKonstantin's avatar 'safe' it's just a matter of reducing the totality of it's size, despite the animated part not hitting any members information?

Yep


Reduce the size so that the animation fits withing the avatar space is the only solution there.

[ETA] Or you could move the whole image down far enough to fit in the avy space and doctor up the top part left blank by the move.

I love my avatar...well I loved it more from Ghost's pinterest and I was made to 'dress up' the android. That was a great av, now, I lose a couple IQ points every time I look at her. Sad, really. I think I would like Ghost or someone else to help me with another.

I like this one

a reply to: reldra

lol!

Well what's your next concept? Or I could make some photo manipulation from scratch? Just name a theme

a reply to: Ghost147

Steampunk.
Techno.
Lightmare.
Bokeh.
Melancholy.
Fog.
Moon.
Dread.
Insanity.

a reply to: Ghost147

I can;t get it to post. It has a demon with his hand on a girl;s shoulder, she is holding a knife.

The only changes I would like is ATS on it and brighter hair on the girl.

originally posted by: reldra
a reply to: Ghost147

I can;t get it to post. It has a demon with his hand on a girl;s shoulder, she is holding a knife.

The only changes I would like is ATS on it and brighter hair on the girl.

You mean this one?



I can also colorize it for you too if you'd like? Perhaps your hair color and complexion?!??!?!

a reply to: Ghost147
yes, that one.

originally posted by: reldra
a reply to: Ghost147
yes, that one.

Colorize it to match your hair color/complexion???

Or just boost the lighting?