Avatar Software Question

What software does everyone use to create their avatars??
I use Paint Shop Pro, but can't seem to make avatars that blend correctly with my profile background even when my colour codes are the same (although it could be a school monitor problem).

Anyone got any tips for me.... I want to make some high class avatars like, Zedd's, Kinglizard's and JAK's

edit: on paint shop pro it limits what colours i can use after i save the image: how do i stop this

thanks for any suggestions

[Edited on 1-10-2004 by UK Wizard]

I use Photoshop 7 and CS...I've got Paint Shop Pro 6 too, but I really only use it for capturing images off of the net...Photoshop does everything I need it too, and there's plenty more that it can do but I havn't grasped yet...

Both are expensive pieces of software - I'm lucky enough to work in an office where PS7 is required for our output, so they buy it and I get to bring it home...the copy of CS is a different story...lol

You've put together a nice collection on your avatar thread, so if PSP works best for you then I say keep at it...As far as the color matching issue, PSP dosn't have a feature that allows you to click a spot on the image and see the RGB values?

[Edited on 10/1/2004 by EnronOutrunHomerun]

I used to have the same problem when I first started. I had like PaintShopPro V2 or something many moons ago. LOL!

A friend told me the magic word. Photoshop.

He was entirely correct.

Hey UK Wizard

I've had PaintShop Pro 8 for ages, (and Macromedia Fireworks with which I made a few nice images) and had a fair bit of fun with both of them. But I kept hearing everyone going on and on about how good Photoshop was, again... and again... and again...

So I thought I'd take a look at it and.... WOW.

I haven't tried PaintShop Pro 9. To be honest I can't say I'm that worried about doing so either, Photoshop CS is just jaw droppingly good. Unbelievably so.

Due to it's excellent features (most of which I'm sure I've yet to discover) and the incredible amount of tutorials on the 'net, my work has come on miles. (So just imagine how bad it was before )

To put it in perspective, all the images I've created and that are available for viewing on ATS/BTS were created with Photoshop and ImageReady. I registered here on 6th July and before then I'd never touched Photoshop, since getting Photoshop I've only worked with PaintShop Pro 8 a handful of times.

It turns out that I'm quite glad about the incessant rave reviews I kept hearing.

Here, if you are interested in this I really would like to stress how much Photoshop has opened to me. I had no intention of posting this yet (if at all), it is an idea I was/am working on for the ATS wallpaper competition.

The thing about it is the entire picture (apart from an image of my daughter which I have tried to blend in with the clouds and rain) is made from scratch, which for me is a first ever.

Edited to add this link because the one above seems not to work.

So there you are anyway. It still needs a lot of work but as I said I'm not even sure whether I will enter this or not, but I just wanted to show what could be achieved through Photoshop totally from scratch and after only a couple of months.

(Sorry to ramble on, but I am impressed.)

Jack

[Edited on 2/10/04 by JAK]

Wow Jak...that's a beautiful image! It took me a moment to see the picture of your daughter...amazing!

Thanks for the advice everyone

JAK your entry for the ATS wallpaper competition looks cool

[Edited on 2-10-2004 by UK Wizard]