Avatar challenge

[Kraellin]

i used to do quite a few of these years ago. you take a fairly normal picture and reduce it down to a 50 x 50 pixel image for use as an 'avatar' on a web site. an 'avatar' in this instance, is just a picture or animation that is used as a visual representation of yourself or some aspect of yourself or whatever. you see theese most frequently on forums, like here on retouchpro. mine, for instance, on RP is the little archer picture up in the top left of my posts.

so, the challenge here is, i'm posting a picture, which i borrowed from the main challenges area of our own Amber and it is your job to reduce this picture to a 50 x 50 pixel image suitable for use as an avatar. it must be 50 x 50 pixels exactly. the trick is to be able to identify who it is and make it look good at this very small image size.

so, have at it and make Amber proud

[irshgrlkc]

I went for a crop and added sparkles (love sparkles!). So, is she recognizable?

[Photo678]

How'd I do?

[lkroll]

I ascentuated her hair and also added some Toadies magic to the mix.

[pavel123]

I think that 3kx3k is a beter size. Attached larger image just in case.

[pavel123]

Ou, the avatar

[makeovermagic]

here's another...

marsha

[Kraellin]

excellent

kerry, surprised at the half face, but it works. the eye looks a bit odd, but otherwise very good.

photo678, very nice. very recognizable.

lk, interesting. not quite as recognizable as amber but good.

pavel, obviously your first one doesnt qualify for size the second looks better but a bit dark and smudgy so the recognition is lost a bit.

marsha, fascinating that you could get that much image information in that little image. well done

very cool, guys

[irshgrlkc]

Originally Posted by Kraellin

kerry, surprised at the half face, but it works. the eye looks a bit odd, but otherwise very good.

I confess, I love sparkles too much, her eye looks funny because I added a sparkle to it.

[Kraellin]

ah! there we go. ok

[makeovermagic]

thanks craig i agree, i was surprised at the amount of image (does that make sense) and how clear it turned out -- it also worked much better in b&w. I got the idea from a filter forge filter which i used, along with some other editing.

marsha

[chillin]

Double take, here

[Kraellin]

marsha, ah, another filter forge user! excellent! have you submitted any filters there and if so, under what name?

chillin, i like that but it's lost a bit of recognition. any way to bring both out a bit more?

and since i mentioned that sometimes avatars are animated, these would be perfectly acceptable on this little challenge. several folks here at RP use animated avatars. and, the small file size of the 50 x 50 format makes it possible to use an animation even on web sites that tightly restrict the avatar file size.

[jch71566]

I like the sparkles!

For mine I used Xero Radiance. Not entirely happy, but best I could muster today.

-Jeff

[makeovermagic]

craig,

yes i have three filters at filter forge, but nothing worth mentioning, although they were accepted; i just wanted to see if i could do it.

...and thanks, you've inspired me to upload my own avatar.

marsha

[Kraellin]

jch, it's a bit bleached. a little more color on the skin shld do it

marsha, excellent on the FF filters and excellent on the avatar! a tiny bit more contrast might help it show better.

what are the names of the FF filters or of the user that submitted them? i'll look them up

[makeovermagic]

craig,

filters are gold, silver, and copper emboss -- not very sophisticated !!!

i have attached an amber animation -- that's about the extent of my animation knowledge at this point (very confusion to figure out).

marsha

p.s. i added a little contrast; any better?

p.s.(2) the animation is not showing; saved as "gif" but only works through first loop when you initially view and then stops -- it should go through four colors in an endless loop.

[Kraellin]

excellent on the filters. i'll check them out later.

and yes on the contrast but i think a bit more color now too would help. i'm attaching a quickie i did. on this one i added a contrast/brightness adjustment layer and a color balance adjustment layer. mostly i just added more red with the color balance.

also, here's a small tip for all on these. 'jaggies' are VERY prevalent in these tiny images. one way to reduce that is with a light 'smoothness' or 'smudge' brush. however, the trick is to leave some definition so one can make out detail still. so, dont overdo this. i did a little of this on marshas along the jaw lines and a tiny bit around the nose.

love the animation, marsha what program are you using? i might be able to help there.

[makeovermagic]

craig, i changed my avatar to the original -- i had actually added a blur but it does make it look too blurry on such a small image.

as for the animated gif -- it's working fine, it's just not showing up on this thread as a continuous loop -- perhaps if it was set as someone's avatar it would though.

as for the filters, trust me, they're nothing special, not compared to the other outstanding filters on filter forge.

marsha

[Kraellin]

marsha,

perfect on the avatar! very well done! good color, good sharpness, excellent!

not sure what animation program you're using but it shld have a 'continuous loop' setting for it, either when you save or during production. it shld be able to save as a continuous loop and show here. i've done these before here on RP using animation shop 3. they will loop in threads... or shld. you may have a loop control in the program itself but that's not the same as saving it with continuous loop.

hehe, yup. some of those filters are impressive. but i'm still going to look at yours

[makeovermagic]

craig, i fixed the amber animation - in the export there was a looping option that i did not set.

thanks for the kind words on my avatar

marsha

p.s. craig, the animated color portion of amber's avatar was also done in filter forge.

[Syd]

When you resize your image to 50 by 50 you should check the "Resample Image" box and choose "Bicubic Sharper" This will help to keep your image crisper.

Here's my shot at it.

[byRo]

Nice idea craig, I'd been thinking of doing something along these lines in the monthly contest.

Originally Posted by Kraellin

....it must be 50 x 50 pixels exactly...

..but mine wouldn't be so big!

- Cropped 50 x 50 to the interesting bits;
- Did a retouch on the resulting image (rounding and equalizing);
- Added bevel and emboss, stroked the outline.
- Added some sparkles on lips and eyes.

Had some pixels left over so I added my logo as well.

Originally Posted by makeovermagic

...and thanks, you've inspired me to upload my own avatar.

Now I understand why RetouchPRO is looking prettier now that I'm back on line after a month away.

Rô

[Janet Petty]

Tupaciguara, Brazil? and we thought Goiania was difficult to pronounce.

Here is a HUGE welcome back Ro.

Janet

[byRo]

Thanks, Janet. Nice to be back on line - three weeks away and withdrawal symptoms were setting in!

Yep, you'll have to have a pretty good map to find me now!
Give you a hint though - close to Uberlândia. (now that helped, didn't it?)

Rô

[Janet Petty]

Hey Ro, you could be in Possum Trot...or Flippin...or Yellville, or Hogeye, or worse yet, Toad Suck.

Yep, those are names of real places; and all right here in dear old Arkansas.

And off the subject, here is my post. I used a threshold technique and blended back in some color. The object was to stylize it but keep it sort of recognizable. If this works, I may change my avatar. This scaling things down bit is not my bag.

Janet

[Kraellin]

marsha, yup, it's looping now (and i did look up your filters. nice you know, you could combine those into one filter by simply adding a color control on the surface color node)

syd, looks good. did you remove some shadow? she looks a little wider in the face.

welcome home, Ro great looking avatar. amazing what you can get on a 50 x 50

janet, also nice, but again, seems a bit too strong in the whites/brights.

[Janet Petty]

Originally Posted by Kraellin

janet, also nice, but again, seems a bit too strong in the whites/brights.

Exactly. I did a cartoon effect and only at the last minute decided to use some color.

Originally Posted by Kraellin

the trick is to be able to identify who it is and make it look good at this very small image size.

I think even cartooned it is recognizable. However, looking good is another matter. You are right at 50x50 pixels, one does lose a lot of detail.

Thanks for the challenge. I'm still learning.

Janet

[pavel123]

Added contrast and sharpened image.

[Kraellin]

very nice, pavel. i looked at your first 50 x 50 again and i think my glasses must have been smudged when i looked at it before. it was a bit dark but not as smudgy as i thought when i looked at it again. so the darkness thing would have been more a matter of choice than anything else.