[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 RetouchPRO 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 RetouchPRO 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