Hey Mish-mashers,
I’m creating a new avatar, and I need some help; I trying a new design method. Instead of using the ‘rectangle shape’ for an avatar, I’m trying to create a custom shape (in this case, a coffin). I’m just not too sure what tools I should be using.
I usually search the net for some tutorials, but in this case, I’m not too sure what to look for.
Any help would be appreciated:tup:
If your using Photoshop
You should start out with the 160x64 working space first [CTRL+N, then type in the dimensions and press OK].
*If it has a BACKGROUND [with that little LOCK next to it], create a NEW LAYER then drag the BACKGROUND to the trash bin to get rid of it.
Now you should have your working area. There’s multiple ways of going about this, but I personally would probably use the POLYGONAL LASSO TOOL. I’d go about drawing the shape of the coffin within the 160x64 layout.
After you connect the starting point with the ending point, your area will become selected. Press CTRL+BACKSPACE to fill it in with whatever color is your current background color [should be black OR white if you didn’t mess with it]. You can always change the color inside later, you just need to fill it so you can mod it later.
Bunch of other shit afterwards, such as placing an image inside, etc, but I’ll help with that if you need it later on.
IMPORTANT
If you want to have the coffin shape ONLY [i.e. just the coffin, not the coffin sitting inside a rectangular box], your going to need to save your file as a PNG or GIF. If your going to use it for SRK, you might consider using GIF as PNG’s usually save over 20kb [and non-prem is 19.5kb I believe]. This is the most important step of all [I would say].
Hope that helps. Questions, ask away. 
Exactly what I needed to know:tup:
You’re the shit, Sas:cool:
GET SOME KANG, SON!
Happy to help.
BURGAH KANG!
This is not easy; I’m trying to get the shape accurate with the Laso Tool, but I either fuck up the dimensions, or the process times out and creates itself. Any suggestions?
You using the LASSO tool or the POLYGONAL LASSO tool?
LASSO!
Right click the LASSO tool. That’ll bring up a small window where you can select POLYGONAL LASSO.
POLYGONAL!
[details=Spoiler]I’m sure there’s an easier way but I can’t recall at the moment because I don’t have the Shop at the moment. If the shape of your coffin is similar to this, then I would draw HALF of it with the POLYGONAL. Like this. Sorry for the crude sketch. MSPaint.
Note: The dashed lines is just there for symmetry.
AFTER you draw the bottom half, copy that layer. On the COPIED LAYER, use CTRL+T, which is the transform tool. When it’s selected [which should happen RIGHT when you press CTRL+T], right click on the selection and a box should show up giving you some transformation options. I think theres one on there that should flip the image so that it mirrors [i.e. look like the dashed lines part].
If not, choose ROTATE 180, then FLIP HORIZONTAL. That should fix it [once again, running off of memory, but I’m sure those options are there].
After you do that, if it’s not aligned right, align it. When you find the right shape that you want, merge it with the other layer [I think CTRL+E?]. If CTRL+E doesn’t work, you can go to LAYERS :r: MERGE DOWN. That should do the trick.[/details]
Hope that helps. Lotta reading, I know, but if you got any more questions or need help, I’ll check back here every now and then. 
CTRL+E is the command for ‘merge layers’. So, sometimes you get merge down, sometimes you get merge linked, and sometimes you get flatten image. You can hit the carrot in the layer pallete to find out which command CTRL+E will currently do. If it is greyed out, it will do nothing.
Thanks for the help guys:tup:
That project is currently in hiatus, but I just finished the one I’m sporting. Weird thing is, there are imperfections on it; do you notice the pieces of white on the far left and right sides (corner on the left, white lines on far right)? Those aren’t in the original or optimised files. It just shows up here!
Any help?
Nice work on your current.
As for the white specs, it happens to me too. I’ve yet to learn how to get rid of that…
That happens in animated gifs because you can only get 256 colors used. It usually pops up if you shrunk the gif as well.
Well, I’m only using 256 colours; do you mean when SRK automatically shrinks it? Weird; I have a pre-set template to the designated dimenions. I’ll fiddle around with it, though. Thanks, Chibi:tup:
Thanks fo the av respect Sas.
:wonder: Those white specs are very lite transparent colors. Since you’re saving as a GIF it doesn’t save as a transparent color, it makes them white. Zoom in closely to the white specs and you’ll see them and can erase them to clean it up. If you go to :
Edit->Preferences->Transparency & Gamut
Then change the Grid Colors to something darker (I keep mine set on Medium), they’re a lot easier to spot. I usually open the picture in Image Ready and preview the GIF there and if I see any white specs go back to Photo Shop and zoom in to where the specs where, then just delete them. That’s how I was able to make these old avatars with odd shaped boarders: [list]BloodWulf:
[*]Shin Takuma:
[*]Ayumi120%:
[/list] :xeye: I hope that helps you out a little… dood.
Thanks Dood; I’ll give it a try.
Nive avs; you’re talented.
:wonder: Thanks hombre. Actually, after looking at the shape of your avatar, the right side is made of two 45 angles. The easiest way for me to make 45 angles in Photo shop without having the white specs is to open a new workspace with a small dimension size like 16x16. Then just take the pencil tool set to 1 and make a line from one end to the other like this:
Then I just take that line and drag it to the avatar I’d be making and put it to where I would want it to go:
Then just add your picture within the boarder like this:
Then here it is, me passed out on the floor of a hotel room with a trash can over my head:
:bluu: Stoopid friends and their trash cans and cameras… dood.
That’s getting saved on my laptop.
