Animated Avatar...thingy =D

Charshine

Charshine

New Member
Mar 4, 2008
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Not sure where to put this...move it where you need to!

I see that some people have avatars that are animated (i'm pretty sure i saw that anways, maybe i'm crazy?) Do you have to be a fancy person on here to get that on your profile? The avatar i just uploaded is supposed to move and it's not! What's the dealio? :smile:
 
eh1eh

eh1eh

Blah Blah Blah
Aug 31, 2006
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To have the animation work you need to upload your avatar to something like photobucket.com then use the other option in the settings to get your avatar from another website.
Hope you get it to work, that avayar looks like it could be hypnotic.:smile:
 
shadowshiv

shadowshiv

Dark Overlord
May 29, 2007
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I tried that before, but I could not get it to work. Perhaps I'll try again.:-(
 
S

Sal

Hall of Fame Member
Sep 29, 2007
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shadowshiv said:
I tried that before, but I could not get it to work. Perhaps I'll try again.:-(
Click to expand...
Tch, they forgot to add that you have to be special....and ya have to believe in majic....
 
shadowshiv

shadowshiv

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May 29, 2007
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Sal said:
Tch, they forgot to add that you have to be special....and ya have to believe in majic....
Click to expand...

I don't think I am as special as you are, Sal. That won't stop me from trying again, though.:smile:
 
karrie

karrie

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Jan 6, 2007
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Sorry i didn't spot this thread earlier Charshine.

In order for an animated avatar to work, it has to be a very small application. Some are too big for the site to accept. It's been a common issue. Take mine for example, it's just a few pics flashing, so it's a pretty tiny file. But others I've had that are actual animation have refused to work for me.
 
shadowshiv

shadowshiv

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May 29, 2007
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karrie said:
Sorry i didn't spot this thread earlier Charshine.

In order for an animated avatar to work, it has to be a very small application. Some are too big for the site to accept. It's been a common issue. Take mine for example, it's just a few pics flashing, so it's a pretty tiny file. But others I've had that are actual animation have refused to work for me.
Click to expand...

Since a .gif file is small to begin with, how does one go about making it even smaller(in file size) without making it too small to see?
 
S

Sal

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shadowshiv said:
Since a .gif file is small to begin with, how does one go about making it even smaller(in file size) without making it too small to see?
Click to expand...
Shadow try an upload again. I had problems a few months ago, but nothing recently. I'll magic wand ya...maybe it will work... :D Poof....
 
O

Outta here

Senate Member
Jul 8, 2005
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photobucket has a new image editing feature - it'll resize to spec now, but I don't know what size it has to be if it's animated. I had the same problem with an old avatar, never managed to resolve it.
 
shadowshiv

shadowshiv

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Sal said:
Shadow try an upload again. I had problems a few months ago, but nothing recently. I'll magic wand ya...maybe it will work... :D Poof....
Click to expand...

Thanks Sal and Zan. I'll give it a try soon, for sure.:smile:
 
eh1eh

eh1eh

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Aug 31, 2006
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I forgot about the file size deal. From the avatar page, " Note: The maximum size of your custom image is 100 by 100 pixels or 48.8 KB (whichever is smaller)."
 
Praxius

Praxius

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Dec 18, 2007
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eh1eh said:
I forgot about the file size deal. From the avatar page, " Note: The maximum size of your custom image is 100 by 100 pixels or 48.8 KB (whichever is smaller)."
Click to expand...

Which means if you are planning on having an animated GIF avatar, the overall pixel size needs to be reduced, as the more frames added for animation, the larger that KB size will be.

If you have an animated GIF file you wish to animate and also size down to suit the forum requirements, you will need a program such as Adobe ImageReady (Additional program which came with Photoshop CS) which specializes in web related graphics. Open your GIF file in ImageReady and you will see each frame/slide of the animated GIF appear in seperate layers and columns (A breakdown of the animation)

If you open up an animated GIF file inside Photoshop all you will get is the very first frame, flattened and indexed into probably 256 RGB colors..... basically nothing to work with. If you plan on cropping down the size of the GIF to suit the requirements here of 100x100px you will need to convert the file from Indexed to RGB so that Photoshop/ImageReady effects and layer styles can be applied and not limited to just 256 colors (Which makes GIFs smaller then JPG files in general.)

Once you have applied the effects or transitions you wanted and for how long, export the ImageReady file back into a GIF and open it up. It should work pretty decently.

Note: For animated avatars for most forums, you can only get about 3-4 frames at the most before your filesize starts to jack up fast. You can either reduce the overall size of the avatar (Thereby reducing the amount of pixels that need to be calculated per frame inside the file) Or reduce the amount of frames used in the GIF. (A quick method is to delete every 2nd frame.... it'll make the animation seem faster but it'll be even and smooth.)

Or if all of this is way over your head, do a Google Image Search for "Animated Gif" and filter the results to display only "Small Images." ~ You might also get away with Medium Images for things above 50x50... but I think you'll be hunting longer that way.

Enjoy.
 
Imp

Imp

Nominee Member
Mar 2, 2008
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I just loaded this one and it took it. It's 100x100 but only 8 mbs.

If you have the animated one, pm it to me and I'll see if I can reduce the frames in it, Charshine.
 
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