Guide to Making Avatars with MS Paint (and Irfanview)

[hyperfreak497]

Yeah. That allows you to do a double bend. Quite useful, actually.

Thank you for enlightening me, Miss Lissou.

[Qwernt]

Anyon using paint.net instead of MS Paint? I am wondering what line width to use (the numbers are a bit different than paint).

My avatar is my first attempt, and I don't think the lines are thick enough...

[Yeril]

Well inkscape uses a 2px Line so that should do.

[Qwernt]

I didn't think to look in the AI thread, thanks.

[chef781]

best one i've ever had. ty

[VForVaarsuvius]

Thank you very much! This will be a great help in sketching stuff out...

\V/

[Omega]

W000T! I'm sooo glad I finally have this!

[Lerky]

how in the world do you draw a hat!?!?!

[Taekwondodo]

thank you sooooooooooooooo much I have been trying to make an avatar for sooooooooooo long! (what do you think by the way?)

ALL HAIL LANKY!!

[Majorman]

Thanks for the help, man, you're great! That's my first home-made avatar.

[Dallas-Dakota]

Psst, you probably forgot the part where he told you to use Irvan to get a see-through background instead of the current whitebackground you have.

And I clearly smell the black necro-magics of thread ressurection.

Down you thread zombie!

[Return of Lanky]

It's not my fault!

Oh wait, I put a link in my sig and told people they could draw Dante. So it is my fault. But not my fault at the same time. Hehe.

Anyway, once I get used to making avies again, I'll give this a long-overdue overhaul.

[Athaniar]

Thank you! Thank you so much! Look at the sigatar of night elf Xavius (the one to the right). Yep, couldn't have made it without this tutorial.

[Baalthazaq]

Yay! Now all I need is some artistic talent!

Still this is kindof right...


When compared to the original....


I gave mine some clothing. :P

Edit: *ahem* Sorry bout the thread resurrection. Didn't realize the last reply was so long ago.

[BatRobin]

You make it seem so easy!

How do you make a really good circle like you did? I can't do anything like that ever.

[Baalthazaq]

You make it seem so easy!

How do you make a really good circle like you did? I can't do anything like that ever.

Hold shift when you're making your circles. :P

[Quincunx]

Curving lines in MS Paint:

With the curvy line tool you can only make a curve or an s-shape with 4 nodes: two end nodes and two nodes between the start and end nodes.

Using the curvy line tool, click where you want the curve to start (the starting node), then click where you want the curve to end (the end node), making a straight line.

Next, you need to click two more times for the two middle nodes which will determine how the line should curve.

Your first click should be closest to the starting node, then your second click should be closest to the end node. You can click and hold to move the curve, then release when it looks right.

If it looks wrong, CTRL-Z to undo the curvy line and try again. You may need to overshoot on your first of the two middle nodes if the second middle node is pulling the curve in the opposite direction.

Hope that helps. :) Just play around with it until you get the hang of it.

First row: For a squiggly line with multiple curves, first draw it freehand with the paintbrush tool, then divide it into sections. For simplicity's sake, each section should curve in only one direction. Use the curve tool to make the simple curves first for each section, then smooth out the resulting line.

Second row, left: Of course, you can use the circle tool to cheat if your section is an arc.

Second row, right: A friendly reminder that holding down right-click while using the erase tool will only erase the eyedropper foreground color and replace it with the background color. This is useful for getting rid of the freehand marks of the original sketch.

Third row: While learning how to manipulate the curve tool, it might help you to eyeball how far the cursor needs to go by drawing a little right-angle and seeing if one end of the curve is more severe than the other. Here they're about the same degree of curviness, and the cursor clicks need to be about the same distance from the freehand guide line.

Fourth row: This curve is very angular. See how much distance lies between the cursor and the line on the first click. See also how distorted the curve looks on the first click, and how the second click has dragged it back a long way.

S-curves in a single action, where you don't click on the same side of the curve, or where you don't click in the same order as you drew the line, are another level of complexity and best left alone until you've mastered the simpler curves.

[Ender Wigin]

This looks like it could work, but I have just one problem...I don't know how to upload my pic to the internet! I've tried to copy it from my folders, take it from facebook... Its just so irritating!

(*huff puff huff puff huff...* got to control my anger...)

Anyway, could you help me please?

[Elder Tsofu]

Upload it on photobucket, imageshack or any other uploading site for pictures.
Use the URL to the picture to link it, and [IMG]-tags around the url to show it of in a post.

[Ender Wigin]

Thanks, now I have an awesome new picture!!!!

...A little childish, yes, but I'm not the best with paint, and it was the fiorst thing that came to my head. What was I going to draw, an awesomley detailed picture of Chuck Noriss killing Xlyon? This is a REALY old computer I'm using and I can't use Inkscape like the rest of you guys.

And, by the way, this is not my fantasy life. I'm not realy some crazy nerd who whises that Miko was real (and alive, for that matter) and was ready to make out with me. Honest. Don't judge me!

...I'm a terrible artist, I should just change it... (But you will always be in my heart, Miko )

You know what? This picture is waaaaaaayy to embarising to reveal, and would make me look like a two year old. So I deleted it from this post so no one can look upon it and think less of me (even though I could just make a new account and no one would be the wiser). But thanks anyway for teatching me how to make a profile picture, Bugger. And thank you, Tosafu, for helping me upload a picture. Now, to perfect my artistic skills, I will have to work for years, mastering the colors of the computer screen, painting an image too good for this old graphix card...

...Unless somone can think of a computer program that can fix my pictures after I'm done, and make it look pro? Somthing that doesn't need a new computer?

[Elder Tsofu]

The thing most people, those who cannot be bothered to hone their ootsy skills by sitting under a waterfall meditating over true oots'nes for ages and ages that is, do is to request one after their specifications in the request thread.
That's the closest thing I know to an internet-program that can make your pictures look like a pro's.

[Crimmy]

The thing most people, those who cannot be bothered to hone their ootsy skills by sitting under a waterfall meditating over true oots'nes for ages and ages that is, do is to request one after their specifications in the request thread.
That's the closest thing I know to an internet-program that can make your pictures look like a pro's.

Wait... People do not sit under a waterfall, meditating over true OotS'nes? Not even for months?

[Ender Wigin]

*Sigh...* So far, no one on the forums Tosufu sugested have decided to make a profile picture for me. Guess I'll go meditate under a waterfall now.

[Dallas-Dakota]

You know it's bad when you smell a thread come back to life as many times as this one....

I have no idea why it hasn't been locked? Or do you guys have a Roland-Pass-of-Necromancy?

[Baalthazaq]

It's helpful and fun. It might make more sense to make it a sticky than lock it.

I was still getting info for it <10 posts ago.

[fedcomic]

Thanks so much for this helpful tutorial!

What I am wondering about is how tall to make characters of differing species. So if I have made my MS Paint image 400 x 400 pixels, how tall should a halfling be? And how many pixels wide should his head be?

[Stormbow]

This is TREMENDOUSLY cool. Thanks for taking the time to post such an awesome guide, TLB!

Bookmarked for future reference.

[KatarinaKate]

Wow! thanks! very useful!