Lyran - Sim Animated Avatar Tutorial
May 30, 2008 19:43:20 GMT
Post by Administrator on May 30, 2008 19:43:20 GMT
Originally Posted by Lyran
Here I'll show how to make your own animated sim avatar.
I will use the programs SimPose, PhotoShop and PSP's Animation Shop.
First I need to choose which head I want to use and then I'll make a picture of it.
Next I open my paint program and make a 60x60 pixel background. The head I am going to use on this avatar is dark skinned and has golden accessories. I think it will look nice with a gradient golden background. When I have made the background, I change the image size of the head pic to make it fit. I make a new layer on the avatar file and paste the head. Then I carefully cut out the white background (from SimPose) on the layer with the head, to make my gradient background show. Finally I add some Outer Glow and Inner Glow effects on the layer with the head. This is what the av looks like now
I think it would look nice with some sparkle in her diadem so I draw a "star like" sparkle like this (enlarged pic)
Make sure to draw the "star" in a layer of it's own because we will need to lower the opacity to make the animation.
I lower the opacity of the "star" to 0 and save a version of the avatar as a gif and name it av1. Then I change the opacity of the "star" layer to 55 and save another version, named av2. Finally I change the opacity of the "star" to 70 and save that version as av3. Now I have all the pics I need to make an animation.
Next I start Animation Shop and run the Animation Wizard. I add the images like this: av1, av2, av3 and av2. Then it's time to adjust the time span for all the frames. I choose to show the head without sparkle for a rather long time and then there is a short "sparkle time". Here is a pic from Animation shop where you can see the time span I chose for each frame under the frames. They are the ones that start with D.
Now I just have to save the animated gif and here is the finished avatar.
I hope that this tutorial will be helpful for you even if it wasn't possible to describe every little step in detail.
Here I'll show how to make your own animated sim avatar.
I will use the programs SimPose, PhotoShop and PSP's Animation Shop.
First I need to choose which head I want to use and then I'll make a picture of it.
Next I open my paint program and make a 60x60 pixel background. The head I am going to use on this avatar is dark skinned and has golden accessories. I think it will look nice with a gradient golden background. When I have made the background, I change the image size of the head pic to make it fit. I make a new layer on the avatar file and paste the head. Then I carefully cut out the white background (from SimPose) on the layer with the head, to make my gradient background show. Finally I add some Outer Glow and Inner Glow effects on the layer with the head. This is what the av looks like now
I think it would look nice with some sparkle in her diadem so I draw a "star like" sparkle like this (enlarged pic)
Make sure to draw the "star" in a layer of it's own because we will need to lower the opacity to make the animation.
I lower the opacity of the "star" to 0 and save a version of the avatar as a gif and name it av1. Then I change the opacity of the "star" layer to 55 and save another version, named av2. Finally I change the opacity of the "star" to 70 and save that version as av3. Now I have all the pics I need to make an animation.
Next I start Animation Shop and run the Animation Wizard. I add the images like this: av1, av2, av3 and av2. Then it's time to adjust the time span for all the frames. I choose to show the head without sparkle for a rather long time and then there is a short "sparkle time". Here is a pic from Animation shop where you can see the time span I chose for each frame under the frames. They are the ones that start with D.
Now I just have to save the animated gif and here is the finished avatar.
I hope that this tutorial will be helpful for you even if it wasn't possible to describe every little step in detail.