Avatars in Photoshop 7
Avatars are little pictures that represent you on the Internet (message boards, blogs etc). This tutorial will teach you how to make an avatar that has transparent cuts in it, where the background of the web page leeks through. For example:
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1. Select your choice of an original image. |
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2. Using your Rectangle Marquee Tool select the portion of the original image, while holding down the shift key to make the selection a perfect square. Press down the Ctrl and C keys down at the same time (Ctrl+C) to copy your selection. Go to File >> New. Change the Width and Height attributes according to how large you want your avatar. Keep in mind, however that most avatars are small (never over and rarely 100 by 100 pixels) as there are often size restrictions on how large your avatars can be on message boards. Usually, I make avatars of sizes 60 by 60, 70 by 70 or 80 by 80. For this tutorial, I chose 70 by 70 pixels. |
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3. Paste (Ctrl+V) your image into the new blank file. Your image should be too large for the image. (If it is too small, go and find a bigger image. What we want is bigger or same size.) Let's resize our image now. Go to Edit >> Transform >> Scale. Scale your image either by dragging the edges or changing the numbers for W and H in the toolbar. The numbers for W & H should be the same for best results. Hit "Enter" to confirm your changes. |
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4. Now for the fun part. :) Go to Layer >> New >> Layer. Accept the default values. Choose a colour that is not present in the image, so you can easily see the lines you make, and zoom in if you wish. Select the Line Tool. Select the "Fill Pixels" icon, make the Weight 1 px (2 if you like). Make sure to UNCHECK anti-aliased. |
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5. You can design now! Hold down the Shift key while you draw for straight lines. Come up with wacky designs... make holes here and there! Be creative! (the lines are where the holes will be, not the space in between the lines. That's just confusing. ><). Oh, and make sure you are on your new layer. |
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6. Time to make the holes into holes. On your Layers Palette (Go to Window >> Layers if you can't see the palette). mouse over to the new layer where you drew your lines on. Click it while pressing Ctrl at the same time. This will select all the lines, but not the image. Now click on the layer with the image on it. (Be careful not to deselect!) and press the delete key. It is very important that you are on the image layer when you click delete. |
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7. Click the lines layer. Now right click on the image layer in the layer palette, select Layer >> Layer Style >> Stroke. Match your settings in the box that pops up to mine. (Size: 1 px, Position: Inside, Opacity: 100% and Fill Type: Colour). Click on the little box of red and change that to any colour you wish. Click "OK" |
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7. Go Select >> All. Then Image >> Crop to make the stroke neater. Save as a .gif and your done! Note: Saving as a .gif is extremely important! Don't save as a .jpg or .psd! |
Questions? Comments? tell me!