Arts and CraftsThe place to talk about stick figure avatars, graphic design, fan art, or any application of the visual arts and creative writing--or just to show off your latest masterwork!
and another useful tip: Hair is insanely annoying, so my best advice for that is practice practice practice. You'll get better at it slowly and steadily.
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I have returned, and am back to abnormal. I'll probably be a tad sporadic due to a busy schedule but hopefully will not disappear again.
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Originally Posted by LaZodiac
Look apon me, mighty Posid-Eon, ruler of the waves and saviour of people. Watch as I stumble about on dry land humoursly, AND TREMBLE!
I'm a pretty good listener. If you EVER need to vent, someone that listens to what you are saying or just want to talk, my PM box is always open.
I've used GIMP for a long time, but I mostly used it for pixel art. When I tried to draw Oots characters with it, things got ugly. Especially the art.
So I tried Pages. It isn't an art program, but using the shapes and the pen tools I managed to create some pretty good characters, like Rhedyble's avatar.
But then I tried Inkscape. Perfection. I'm making Oots style versions of my family, and I couldn't have done it without this guide. Thank you so much.
Inkscape and GIMP are pretty similar, so my knowledge of GIMP has enabled me to make even better Oots people, and as I'm pretty practiced with the pen tool in other programs that was easier as well. So I'm looking forward to doing loads of art!
EDIT: I have now completed my first try. An Oots style picture of my brother:
Please view it full size, otherwise deviant art has given it an odd black background for some reason.
I had the same problem, but I found a nice solution. Before you export your PNG, go to Document Properties (Ctrl+Shift+D) and choose a background color which has no transparency (set the alpha value to 255). The transparency is dA's problem when displaying the images, so removing it avoids it. It's also a good idea to have control over your background to assure your character is always clearly visible. And it looks nice
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If you want to get an overview of my avatars or if you are looking for an avatar for you to use, check this post.
Well, I've tried my hand at an OotS-style avatar by using this guide and I must say it's been a great help.
First attempt, while storming through the guide:
(still needs resizing)
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I made a mistake with his right hand, so I just turned him into a cyborg. Go figure.
Second, more serious and considerably longer attempt:
(still needs resizing)
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I messed up in quite a few places, especially where layers were concerned. In hindsight, I also forgot to add proper curves. Still, I think it turned out quite alright.
Quote:
Originally Posted by The Randomizer
and another useful tip: Hair is insanely annoying, so my best advice for that is practice practice practice. You'll get better at it slowly and steadily.
QFT.
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Spoiler
Sigatar by Crimmy
Last edited by Freshmeat : 09-01-2009 at 12:40 PM.
Those look great Fresh Especially the second one... love all the details!
Yeah, I had some fun with that. I should've started out bigger though and then downsized it to avatar size. Most of the details are a bit of a waste now since they're too blurry if stretched and nigh-unreadable/unseeable if not. Curse my poor sense of perspective!
Here's a quick close-up on the inner coat and random gadgets:
Don't miss the poor layering on the revolver/hand and the holster/belt!
I think I made the feet too small. Anyway, I've discovered that that avatar doesn't really work well when reduced to actual avatar size, which is too bad.
As a tip to other newcomers, you might find it useful to just make a 120x120 square as a 'template' and make all your avatars inside the 'box' you thus created. I find that it helps a bit to keep proper perspective of height and size, and that it's particularly useful to keep tabs on how an avatar looks at avatar-size (just zoom out all the way - tah-dah!) when working in inkscape.
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Spoiler
Sigatar by Crimmy
Last edited by Freshmeat : 09-02-2009 at 08:49 AM.
Well, I've tried my hand at an OotS-style avatar by using this guide and I must say it's been a great help.
First attempt, while storming through the guide:
(still needs resizing)
Spoiler
I made a mistake with his right hand, so I just turned him into a cyborg. Go figure.
Second, more serious and considerably longer attempt:
(still needs resizing)
Spoiler
I messed up in quite a few places, especially where layers were concerned. In hindsight, I also forgot to add proper curves. Still, I think it turned out quite alright.
QFT.
I think the first one is unimpressive and badly done.
However the second one is absolutely AWESOME! I love it! The "stabbity" made me laugh. It's just so amazingly detailed. I though my first few tries on Inkscape were good, but that's way too detailed and fiddly for me! How on Earth did you manage it?
More! More!
__________________ My DeviantArt An Avatarist is I!!! Homebrews:
I think the first one is unimpressive and badly done.
Yeah, no kidding.
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However the second one is absolutely AWESOME! I love it! The "stabbity" made me laugh. It's just so amazingly detailed. I though my first few tries on Inkscape were good, but that's way too detailed and fiddly for me! How on Earth did you manage it?
Patience and trial and error, mostly. And lots of Time™.
Quote:
More! More!
Well, I've practiced quite a bit and have made a few things in the meantime that I'm quite happy with, but I wouldn't like to show it all yet. However, I've found that Inkscape is absolutely terrific for drawing guns, so I'll show you three that I think worked out pretty well:
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Respectively a steampunk revolver [not the exact reference picture I based it off though], the Blade Runner pistol and some kind of steampunk/electricity-based assault rifle I thought of (I forgot to make the background around the trigger invisible before uploading it, but oh well). As you can see, I took a few liberties with some of the details so the first two aren't exactly carbon copies (albeit pretty close) of their non-oots counterparts. The steampunk revolver still has a few flaws so I'll probably edit it at some point in the near-future.
That said, I don't think I'll show off much more pictures from now on, since I wouldn't like to hijack this thread.
I need help. on my inkscape program all the shapes I make are transparent, not deep enough colors and they have no stroke whatsover no matter how ridiculous I make the amount. It's never done this before though.
I need help. on my inkscape program all the shapes I make are transparent, not deep enough colors and they have no stroke whatsover no matter how ridiculous I make the amount. It's never done this before though.
I'm on Ubuntu 8.10 in case that affects anything.
This could be 3 things... The transparency of the colour, the transparency of the object, or the transparency of the layer. Could I see some printscreens of your inkscape?
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I would kill myself if I had to make my avatars on paint.
Couple of things:
Some of the best avatars on the forum are made with paint. It's a surprisingly versatile program.
It's generally considered not worth it to reply to a post that is two years old.
Some of the best avatars on the forum are made with paint. It's a surprisingly versatile program.
It's generally considered not worth it to reply to a post that is two years old.
No, I meant a post. rpgsr4me quoted a post, and because of this I felt fairly safe in assuming that he was replying to it directly, particularly as his post would have little connection with the topic of this thread in general.
Some of the best avatars on the forum are made with paint. It's a surprisingly versatile program.
It's generally considered not worth it to reply to a post that is two years old.
As a tip to other newcomers, you might find it useful to just make a 120x120 square as a 'template' and make all your avatars inside the 'box' you thus created. I find that it helps a bit to keep proper perspective of height and size, and that it's particularly useful to keep tabs on how an avatar looks at avatar-size (just zoom out all the way - tah-dah!) when working in inkscape.
Um... no. In my experience, it's far better to just send your large size screen to paint, do a final adjustment, send to Irfan, make final sharpening and resizing, save. Takes around as much time, but the resulting image is far sharper, smaller and a lot less 'muddy' than what the Inkscape can produce.
That, and I find such little boxes severely limiting, due to a few factors.
Quote:
Originally Posted by RPGsr4me
I would kill myself if I had to make my avatars on paint.
What.
Paint is hands down the best, most lightweight editor you can use - it you know how to use it. All my avatars saw paint at least once during drawing.
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Originally Posted by roger123275
Until I read this guide, I would spend hours in paint on my avatars.
Now I can make art like this in 15 minutes
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Um... I'd advise to to spend another 15 minutes working on sword, both hands, and legs.
"Well, the Great and Powerful Trixie can't actually transport you to Equestria... But!
The Great and Powerful Trixie can beat you over the head until you think that's what happened!"
Until I read this guide, I would spend hours in paint on my avatars.
Now I can make art like this in 15 minutes
Spoiler
It's not bad but it can still be improved. A lot.
My recommendations:
-Don't use the calligraphy tool for oots style avatars (that's what you used for the boots, isn't it?)
-Manually modify the nodes to make smoother shapes.
-Try to make the side fingers of the hand into one curved line instead of two, and the middle finger I usually make it as a continuation of the arm.
-Change the capping of the stroke into the round one:
One internet for you, good sir. One massive internet for you. ^^
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Quote Of The Week Whenever I Feel Like Updating It (last updated 1/17/12)
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Phase
That guy was badass! He was like, "Oh! Oh, you're gonna try to Chuck Norris me, I'll just Chuck Norris you!" Unfortunately, I am the best Chuck Norris since Chuck Norris.
Which is saying something, considering that Chuck Norris... was Chuck Norris.
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Re: Inkscape guide for OotS avatars
Re: Inkscape guide for OotS avatars
Especially the second one... love all the details! 
