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Awesome Avatar Photos For Imvu
Like most people, they don't know how to create there own imvu avatar works of art for them self's. I know how you feel. In this tutorial you will learn the basics of creating a simple png file formatted image using text and shadow drop. Why not jpeg or gif? Jpeg is a file format that uses a background. Gif is a file format for animated images. Png is a transparent file for mat that has no background.

PLEASE I DO ASK. DONT STEAL ANY OF MY PHOTOS.

Here are some questions that most would like to know if your not as savvy with the image editing as most.
How do i take a screen shot. Hold Ctrl+Prt Sc. If your on a laptop. Its a little different. You have to hold down the fn key. So hit fn+Prt SC.

What is a screen shot? A screen shot is basically like taking a picture. When you hit the right keys for screen shot. Your computer will take a picture of the current view of your computer screen. Very useful tool.

What is image cropping. Image cropping is when you take away excess parts of a photo that are not needed.

Posted by Twizzy from Brighton, Michigan, United States • Published 19th October 2008 • See Twizzy's 18 projects »

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Destiny S. favorited Imvu Avatar Photo Editing 09 Dec 05:15
elisabetta.damato.31 commented on Imvu Avatar Photo Editing 07 Jan 18:59
sarahpunkgirl favorited Imvu Avatar Photo Editing 01 Jan 17:38

Step 1
First off. Here is a list of things you will need.

1. Because i don't use photo shop, you will have to get paint shop pro 8.

2. Imvu chat client downloaded and ready to go.

3. You must know how to take screen shots.

4. The bionic white room

5. Some time

Extra Tips: When creating an avatar photo. It is important that you have at least one bundle of poses. This will make your picture exponentially better.

If this is your first time creating avatar photos, you mite want to stay away from white clothing. It is fixable but it can be frustrating. This tutorial is meant for people with little photo editing experience.
Step 2
First open imvu and log in. Btw, that is my real imvu username. If you wish, you are more than welcome to add me.
Step 3
Open the pain shop program located on your desktop.
Step 4
Go to the buddies chat window and click on the icon that says my room at the bottom of the chat window.
Step 5
Here is where things get fun. Picking out your perfect imvu avatar image that appeals most to you. Don't worry, if you don't like it. You can always make more. Once you are loaded into your room. Click on inventory in the chat window. Click on decorate and choose the bionic white room.
Step 6
Now your ready to pick the clothes and poses you want your avatar to have. Once you are done choosing your clothes and pose. Its time to take you screen shot.

Extra tip: The bigger your chat window is, the bigger the photo. Also is helps to take different screen shots from different views. This gives you more options to chose from and its fun.
Step 7
Once you have your screen shot. Go to your paint shop and past it in. Once your image is pasted we need to crop the image. On the left side there is a tool bar, click on the cropping tool to crop your image. Btw... when you crop your image, make sure you about about 50 to 100 pixels of room around the image because of shadow drop. Sorry, i forgot to mention something .When you have selected the area you want to keep, dubble click and it will get rid of the surrounding items that are not inside the box.
Step 8
Okay, your photo is cropped and things are looking good. Its time to erase the background. One paint shop pro there are 2 types of erasers. You have your general eraser and you have your background eraser. For this we are going to use are background eraser. To select the background eraser tool click on the arrow an click background eraser from the drop down menu. Before you can start the erasing you have to do a few things. At the top there will be a tool bar for the eraser. Make sure your Hardness, Density, Thickness, Opacity, and Sharpness are all set to 100. Your Step should be set to 1. Rotation set to 0. Sampling and limits should both be set to contiguous. Last make sure you have check marked the box Auto Tolerance and nothing else.
Step 9
Okay, your background is erased and its looking good. Now i'm just kinda half assing mine but this should give you a general idea of what your photo should look like. So i found out you cant upload a png photo because it just adds a background anyways. So im just gunna keep the background attached to my photo. But there should not be a background on yours.
Step 10
Okay, now it is time to add some text.Changing the hue(color)
is simple. On the color pallet to the right there are 2 boxes.
More than likely the top one should be black for your outline color.
The second one can be any color you wish, or you can make it
transparent by clicking on the circle with the line going through
it. Once you are happy with your color selection and font you
can now add personal text. Actually before you do this. You want to
selcet Vector in the drop down menu under create. Click anywhere in the image window. A box should appear. In that box, type the text that you want to add. It is always smart to check the box that says remember text. This will remember your text so you don't have to type it again. But if you delete it and type something else and find you don't like it and want to go back. You have to retype it if you clicked the apply option. When you are peachy with your text click the apply button. There will be a circle thing in the middle. This will allow you to move your text. On all sides and corners of your text there will be small boxes. This will allow you to re-size your photo. Once your text is placed right click and select the option that says Select None.
Step 11
YAY TEXT! Now you have your text, your image is looking good, and your happy. Its time for shadowing but, first you need to open the picture in your internet browser and save the photo. This will put both the image and the text on the same layer. To open your image in the internet browser you need to go to the top and click view. Scroll down the drop menu and click the "Preview in Internet Browser" option. Now there should be a window that says "Web browser, image formats, blah. blah..." Choose the "IEXPLORER.EXE option. If you do not see this go to edit web browsers, click on add, and type it in. If you want you can browse for the option or you can enter it manually. Submit it as IEXPLORER.EVE and click ok. Once it is added click okay again. Now you have it added. Choose the IE option only. If something else is highlighted in gray under the browser click on it. This will un-highlight that browser. Under image format click png and un-highlight jpg. When you are done click preview, this should go to another window. Under the colors tap select the option 16.7 million colors (24 bit). In the next tab select Alpha channel transparency and Existing image or layer transparency. When you are done click OK. A window should show up, allowing you to view your picture. If there is now white around you photo, you have done everything correctly. If there is a white background then you need to go back and check what you did. When the window has opened and loaded, save the image.

Why do i have to open my photo into an internet browser previewer? When you save your photo through paint shop, because paint shop has its own file formats for saved images. You will not be able to upload to myspace, photobucket, or anywhere else you would upload photos to.
Step 12
Your photo is saved now right? Okay, good. Now you need to open your photo. Click on the folder that has an arrow above it. This will open your your my documents folder. Find your picture and open it. Okay, so everything is on one layer and your background is still transparent. Time for shadow drop. If you do not see an option for shadow drop, you need to right click anywhere at the top. Hover over Tool Bars, and in the side menu click effects. When you have done this click the shadow drop option. A window should appear. There are some things we have to set. Set your Vertical and Horizontal both to 0. Opacity should be set to 100, and Blur set to 18.00. These are the settings i like but you are more than welcome to change them any time you want. Your color can be anything you want it to be. Just click on the color that is currently selected and another window will open with the color pallet. Select your color an click OK. When i do shadow drop i like to do it a few times because it makes the shadow more bold. Open your image in a web previewer, save, and upload to anywhere.
Step 13
Here is your finishing image. This should give you a general idea of what yours should look like only without the background. So, im proud to say. YOU ARE DONE!!! "claps hands"

I kinda half assed mine, but yours should be a thousand times better than this one. Its just a sample anyways.

Extra tip. Its always safe to upload your photos to photobucket in case something happens to your computer. You will have all your images saved.