they're everywhere you look.... especially on the journal sites, i can't find a tutorial or anything on them, does anyone know of a tutorial or know how exactly you can make these little icons? my avatar is an example of one of them if you don't know what i'm talking about exactly..

I don't know exactly what you're talking about. You don't mean your avatar? What do you mean then? I totaly don't understand you.

yeah, it's like my avatar.. i can't really explain it, i think they're called graphic icons or something, they are what my avatar is.. same size and everything, but the people use like photoshop or psp or something to edit them.. adding pictures and then making their own effects on them such as blurring, antiquing, etc.. i'm sure since you don't know what i'm talking about that you won't be able to help me, lol. but i'm hoping someone will understand what i mean.. i just don't know how to go about editing them exactly, so if anyone could help me, it'd be appreciated..

Do you mean the Icons on the desktop for the programs? or do you mean the FavIcons - those little images in the address bar next to the url address? either of those help you decide what you are asking for?

You can see how to make FavIcons in the Tutorial/How To forum here. Try searching around http://www.download.com

Link:Icons search result for download.com

FavIcon Tut Link: FavIcon

Your explanation is a little vague, so i am not sure who will get it right. Probably if enough people post here you will get your answer eventually lol

Good Luck

Do you mean that images at the bottom of my post? That's called a signature, or just sig. Just ask someone in the graphic forum, I'm sure there's someone who can make you a good one.
-=jeroen=-

no, no, it's not either of those lol. the favicons and such or your signature.. it's what my avatar is.. someone made it and edited it to be that exact size, and did their own little touch-ups on it.. i can't explain it!.. i can show you a link though where you can see exactly what i'm talking about.. hopefully now you'll understand, lol.

icons here.. the 100x100 ones..

This post has been edited by mastercomputers: Jul 30 2005, 12:35 PM

Okay, so you're asking how does one make an avatar?? Or make special cool effects with it is it? How did you make your own avatar in the first place? I think I know what you mean, like a lot of people only make LJ-icons all the time, and they have like words and designs on top of a photo or a picture, or they animate them and stuff. That's what you're asking right?

Basically you just need photoshop or paint shop pro or gimp, and lots of originality and creativity. There's no such "formula" for making an avatar. Just take any picture you like, crop it to 100x100, and then add filters and layers of different colours and words, and if you want to animate it probably use a gif animating program or something. If you want to know how to make a particular EFFECT then maybe someone can reply...

Those icons or avatars take a program that does animation. Depending on your level of graphic knowledge, there are a lot of programs out there to use.

If you like the work on that site you shared, why not ask that person how they do their icons?

Most forums allow 96 x 96 on average.

You try doing a search? Just doing a quick search and I found these tutorials:

Making animated avatars with Paint Shop which has the url for a free demo of the program shown.

Tutorial on AIM animated icons

GConvert has a nice looking tutorial. I'm going to look at it myself.

A whole list of tutorials


This is summer and time to learn a new computer skill.

ahh, brian and chiiyo.. finally someone understands lol. i just couldn't explain it correctly, but thank you both for the help.. i'm not great with the graphic programs [chiiyo], and the help topics within them aren't much help for me because i don't know the wording they use for specific tools and options, etc.. i guess i'll have to take some time and really just sit down and study it one of these days. and brian, thanks for the links, i saved a couple of them, so when i have time i'll be able to check them out. thanks again.

Glad we were of help. Actually if you want to know more about those types of graphics program a good place to start is just by searching the astahost forums. We get regular tutorials, short and long, as well as links to good tutorial sites for graphics quite regularly around here, and some of them are really useful. Most of the tutorials are written step-by-step, just follow through, and you will, at the same time, get familiarised with the program that you're using. A google search on the net should also come up with more understandable help files and tutorials for whatever program you're using. And at the very end, you can always purchase one of those "Dummies" or O'reilly books. They are always helpful.