sonsofwashington
April-29th-2005, 02:41 PM
I thought this would help the curious get their foot in the door. With the number of cool pics also it may help give birth to more avatars and/or signatures.
Prerequisite: Semi-Sophisticated Image Editing Program
I use Macromedia Fireworks MX 2004 (any version of Fireworks should work), but I am sure other image editing programs like Photoshop and such will work just as well if not better.
It takes about 10 minutes per avatar, but at first it took me longer. You have to have a steady hand and patience.
STEPS
1.) Convert the original *.jpeg file to a GIF format so that you can work with the image in bitmap format.
2.) Open the converted gif file and select the lasso tool. There are two lasso tools. One is a "free form lasso" and the other is the "polygon lasso". Anyway the lasso you want to use is the one where you click the mouse and it sticks at a point until you click the mouse again and it sticks at that point again (The polygon lasso).
3.) Then just trace out the image of the player using the lasso by clicking around his body. This is the hardest part of the entire process. You will get better the more you do. A nice trace is what it is all about. I trace in bits becasue if you trace the entire player and then mess up a mouse click at the end you will have to start all over. So trace the helmet, then an arm, then a leg etc. The lasso works by creating an enclosed area then clikcing "delete". The enclosed area is removed from the GIF and a nice trace of the player remains. Be carefull that you dont enclose the entire player because then you will essentially be taking the player out of the picture.
4.) Once the entire player is traced out and the background is gone I usually copy the traced out image and paste it into a new project so that the canvas is the exact same size as the image. Select the image (so the blue box surrounds it), press CTRL-C, CTRL N, CTRL V. The image should be put in a new canvas with the same dimensions.
5.) Then it's time to futs with the export options. Make the canvas have a transparent background. Export the image as GIF, with 256 colors (use "adaptive" or "exact" palate), use Alpha transparency (very important to eliminate white areas), and use a black mate (cause ES uses a black background). These settings are very important.
6.) At this moment I save the project. I resize the image so that the height is 100 pixels keeping the proportions locked (obviously you can do whatever size you want). Then I save the project again with another name so I have a big version and a small version.
7.) Export the small version as a GIF and you are done. If the trace is good and the export settings are correct the image will look great. If you want to review your trace just export the image with a black background (black cause that is the extremeskins background) as opposed to a transparent one. This way you won't have to upload the image to the server just to see how it looks.
If you send me a PM I'll send you some sameple JPEGS, GIFS, and Fireworks Projects. That way you can see the progression of images and MX projects.
Anyway, the most important things are getting a good trace and exporting with the correct options. It goes slow at first, but now I can do one in 10 minutes or less which is about my patience threshold for doing one of these. It can get annoying in the begining, but once you get the feel for it you can whip em off pretty fast.
Good luck.
Prerequisite: Semi-Sophisticated Image Editing Program
I use Macromedia Fireworks MX 2004 (any version of Fireworks should work), but I am sure other image editing programs like Photoshop and such will work just as well if not better.
It takes about 10 minutes per avatar, but at first it took me longer. You have to have a steady hand and patience.
STEPS
1.) Convert the original *.jpeg file to a GIF format so that you can work with the image in bitmap format.
2.) Open the converted gif file and select the lasso tool. There are two lasso tools. One is a "free form lasso" and the other is the "polygon lasso". Anyway the lasso you want to use is the one where you click the mouse and it sticks at a point until you click the mouse again and it sticks at that point again (The polygon lasso).
3.) Then just trace out the image of the player using the lasso by clicking around his body. This is the hardest part of the entire process. You will get better the more you do. A nice trace is what it is all about. I trace in bits becasue if you trace the entire player and then mess up a mouse click at the end you will have to start all over. So trace the helmet, then an arm, then a leg etc. The lasso works by creating an enclosed area then clikcing "delete". The enclosed area is removed from the GIF and a nice trace of the player remains. Be carefull that you dont enclose the entire player because then you will essentially be taking the player out of the picture.
4.) Once the entire player is traced out and the background is gone I usually copy the traced out image and paste it into a new project so that the canvas is the exact same size as the image. Select the image (so the blue box surrounds it), press CTRL-C, CTRL N, CTRL V. The image should be put in a new canvas with the same dimensions.
5.) Then it's time to futs with the export options. Make the canvas have a transparent background. Export the image as GIF, with 256 colors (use "adaptive" or "exact" palate), use Alpha transparency (very important to eliminate white areas), and use a black mate (cause ES uses a black background). These settings are very important.
6.) At this moment I save the project. I resize the image so that the height is 100 pixels keeping the proportions locked (obviously you can do whatever size you want). Then I save the project again with another name so I have a big version and a small version.
7.) Export the small version as a GIF and you are done. If the trace is good and the export settings are correct the image will look great. If you want to review your trace just export the image with a black background (black cause that is the extremeskins background) as opposed to a transparent one. This way you won't have to upload the image to the server just to see how it looks.
If you send me a PM I'll send you some sameple JPEGS, GIFS, and Fireworks Projects. That way you can see the progression of images and MX projects.
Anyway, the most important things are getting a good trace and exporting with the correct options. It goes slow at first, but now I can do one in 10 minutes or less which is about my patience threshold for doing one of these. It can get annoying in the begining, but once you get the feel for it you can whip em off pretty fast.
Good luck.