Avatars, again!

[BakerMikeRomeo]

I change my avatar here on APS all the time. Mostly because the forum software doesn't fuddle around with the picture (for a counterexample, go to ARFCOM and look at about 95% of the posters' avatars. Horribly squished and warped and downright hideous. Adblock is my only friend!), so I've pretty much got my choice of any legit picture I like for it.

Which brings me to the topic, a semi-resurrection of the old one: when you're looking for a fresh look, where do you go? If you pluck your own from larger pictures, what's your process?

Most of mine so far have come from a webcomic called Questionable Content (www.questionablecontent.net), because of late the guy who does it has turned out a lot of humorous or convenient expressions on characters' faces lately, so I've gotten a pile of good avatars recently.

This paragraph right here was gonna be a little whine fest about how another webcomic I read (Girly (www.go-girly.com)) wasn't too good for the avatar-snatching, because the speech bubbles often cover up parts of faces or whatever I'm trying to get at. Then I went and actually checked and now I've got about fourteen more avatars lined up. This is a total crisis! My entire worldview has been shattered! Woe is somebody else, probably! I only went back five comics in the stupid archive, and now I've got about forty more avatars to cut out. Awesome. 

But before I hit another webcomic and start downloading like a nutbag, ma' process is pretty straightforward: box-select tool in Paint. Box, box, box, and rebox until I have a square area that has the thing I want in it, then I crop the picture and save it in a format that won't make it ugly, and file it away until I get bored with my current avatar. Whee!

~GnSx, 4:53 AM

"You see? This is why nobody likes you, it's because of sh[tuff] like this." ~DivX, Penny-Arcade

[Perd Hapley]

My avatar could beat up your avatar.

[BakerMikeRomeo]

If I weren't such a dunce, boy howdy Fistful, I'd give you such a retort. It'd be fierce. All the kids all the way in Singapore'd be like, "Ohhhhh, burn!" and surely you would relinquish your Of Dollars in disgrace.

Instead, it's time for a Diet Coke and a handful of Ibuprofen! Huzzah!

~GnSx

[TarpleyG]

Argh!  Mine'll rape and pillage ya matey!

[Ezekiel]

I just use mine own ugly mug.

I figure I cannot get more offensive with my content! 

[SpookyPistolero]

It's a book good enough to make my avatar. Who knows which one?

[wingnutx]

Ayn Rand cropped my avatar from a larger picture for me.

I have a bazillion jpgs I've been saving for years, and some of them become avatars.

[Twycross]

I usually use larger images I like. I used my own mug for a while, but I just get too bored with the same pic all the time. I hope I like the current one for quite a while.

[Perd Hapley]

I've been meaning to get a digital picture of myself for an avatar.  Dare I unleash the full horror of the fistful?

[Nightfall]

I just resized mine from a Wikipedia pic, IIRC. Maybe edited it slightly in Paint to make it perfectly square, then finished it off in IrfanView. Funny, I have GIMP but I use an amalgamation of other small programs for this kind of stuff. I have several others sitting on my HD, including my own fugly mug, but I'll spare everyone.

I'm glad to see everybody has avoided big animated ones so far. I find that terribly distracting when I'm trying to read!

[Perd Hapley]

I must say I've come around.  I guess I didn't like avatars in the past because I'd only seen them on, er, low-class forums.  But around here, there seems to be a due amount of discretion in the avatars, and they're very handy for identifying members.  Also, when I come back to a thread, I'm usually looking for my last post, so I can read from there.  Avatars make that much easier. 

[cosine]

(...) they're very handy for identifying members.

Not to mention, they often tell you quite a bit about the member and their likes...

<<< cosine, who really enjoys music and playing the pianoforte 

[Sindawe]

But around here, there seems to be a due amount of discretion in the avatars, and they're very handy for identifying members

I suspect thats due in part to the fact that we don't have a bunch of teens and teen-wannabes trying to one-up each other, along with the restriction in the size of the avatar.

[Perd Hapley]

Did you miss the first response on this thread? 

[molonlabe]

I like em.