BIG THINGS COME IN SMALL PACKAGES
by ~persia~{MaX}
Way back in the good ole days when Paint Shop Pro 3 was the ultimate paint program and Eminem was still Marshall Mathers, people chatted in VP chat rooms and an "avatar" was 48 x 64 pixels. (squint to view example below)
A "mega" (at 102 x 116 pixels) is.. simply put, a larger avatar.. like sooooo.
Compared to the original avatars, they were actually huge.. thus their name, "mega". Then, with the advent of the html-enabled chatroom, came "avatars" as we know them now, bandwidth-hogging monsters sometimes in excess of 500 pixels. Egads! They're big alright... but bigger isn't always better.
While diminutive in nature, the mega can be both intricate and beautiful in its simplicity, concentrating more on enhancing the graphic itself rather than the creation of elaborate frames and big bold bevels.
i'm noticing more and more megas popping up on the graphic horizon these days, and while i'm not very optimistic that many chatters will suddenly begin trading in their super-sized avatars for these tiny lil works of art, i think they are a refreshing change and really fun to make!
Ok.. ready to downsize? We're gonna be using Paint Shop Pro to create a basic mega. For this lesson, we'll learn two techniques used in the creation of almost all megas: (1) changing a background and (2) applying a filter.
You'll need:
1) Program: PSP6 or PSP7 (and a basic knowledge of it)
2) Filter: Flaming Pear's Aetherize (part of the Sextet collection).
Note: This is optional. If you want to skip the filter, just follow the
first six steps below.
If you don't have the sextet filter, you can download it here:
 before |
 after |
1. Please copy the picture of the girl to your computer or select one of your own (just about any black and white will do).
2. Next copy and save these two backgrounds to your computer as well:
 background 1 Made by - Anonymous |
 background 2 Made by - Klassic Kuntree |
3. Open all three images in PSP. The first thing you'll always want to do when making a mega is increase your color depth since you are working with GIFs. To do this, go up to "Colors" on your tool bar and increase the color depth on all three images to 16 million (24 bit).
4. Copy Background #1 (edit/copy) and Paste as a new layer on the av pic of the girl. (Edit/Paste as New Layer). Now click on your Erase tool. We want to erase the part of the background that is covering the girl. Set your eraser brush settings at Size 28, Hardness 0, Opacity 50, Step 25, Density 100.)
Once you've uncovered the girl and it looks something like the picture below, then Merge Layer Which is under Layers---> Merge--> Merge All (Flatten).
Tip: I like to keep my layer pallet toolbar visible and slide the opacity of the top layer down just a little so I can see what's hidden beneath, then erase, then return the opacity back up to 100%.
5. Next, copy Background #2 and paste it as a new layer on top of the av. Then take your eraser (same settings as above) and run it over the av so you have about this much showing of the av and you still have some of the background left. (You always want to leave a little of the background showing over the image). Merge layers again.
6. Now, let's add a little color. On your toolbar, go up to Colors/Colorize. Settings: Hue-> 141 and Saturation->74... So it looks like this.
Looks pretty cool huh! At this point you could add a name to it and be done, but if you want to jazz her up a bit more with the aetherize filter, then continue with the following steps:
7. Go to your filters and open the Flaming Pear Sextet filter, Aetherize,and use the following settings: Blur 152, Hues 41, Colorize 190, Haze 34, Dreaminess 75, Glue Normal and then press ok.
8. Now, all that's left to do is add our text. Open your text box and choose a font (i chose P22 Davinci, Size 26 pt.) Kerning at 25, No Stroke, Fill Color White, Vector and Anti-Alias checked. Type your name and position where you want it. Then on your layer palette, right click where it says Layer 1 and click "Convert to Raster Layer". This will allow you to play with that layer and bring down the opacity of your text. (you can also add a drop shadow if you like). Reduce the opacity to 90. Add any other text you like, i added the verical name (Max) in the font Criminal, color black, and reduced opacity to 93. Merge layers once again. Feel free to add any of your own touches here, i.e, lines, circles, squares, anything you like.
9. Ok, last step! Go up to Colors on your toolbar --->Adjust--> Gamma Correction..... Red 0.98, Green 0.90, Blue 0.82 (this just adds a little depth)
And Voila! You're done! You're a magnificent mega-making fool!! Hopefully, your completed av looks something like this one.
For useful sites with hints and tips, please check out the Links page on this site.
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