Daystar Design ~ Anime, Manga, and Video Game Bishounen Avatars, Icons, Layouts, and Wallpapers ~ Version 15.0

Sick of graphics filled with CuTe AniMe GiRLz that you've never even heard of? We offer bishounen and couple graphics only. (What's a bishounen?) We specialize in icons/avatars and wallpapers and you will also find layouts, scans, and PNGs around here as well. We're always looking for more artists to become part of the team so check out the join the staff page if you are interested.

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This is a very beginner level tutorial. Many of the tutorials out there that explain how to use avatar templates are confusing even to me, so this is the basic, un-fancy way to use avatar templates. I'll be using a template from our avatar template section to demonstrate.
Requirements: A graphic design program that allows layers and has an eraser tool and some sort of selection tool.

1.) First orgainze all of your elements in your graphics program. I'm making a 100x100 avatar because then it won't looks so wierd when I blow it up. I'm going to use a Fullmetal Alchemist image and a template from here on Daystar. My templates are all saved as gif files. I know that some sites offer templates as PSD files (that's basically the same as gif except only Photoshop people can use it) and some save them as JPEGs (which is sort of stupid because then the aren't transparent).

2.) Move the image and template into your canvas/project, making sure the template is on the top. Make sure these are the only two visible layers. As you can see in this screenshot I turned off the eye next to the layer called "Background" because this is what will make it transparent. Now there are two ways to erase the necessary parts in an template. The quickest way is to use some sort of selection tool (in this case I used Magic Wand") to select the parts you want to delete while on the template layer(see picture). To finish you simply press the delete (or you could use cut too) while on the layer with the image.

3.) But what if the template is not the kind with straight edges? If you look in this screenshot I changed the template to have little indents at the corners, now if you use the magic wand like in the screenshot it won't work because it will select parts you don't want.

4.) So if you have a template with non-straight edges you will have to use the erase tool to erase the parts you want. To do this simply start erasing while you are on the image layer. You can look in the screenshot to see what I mean, I didn't do the whole thing, but I think you get the general idea. Make sure you are using a Mode for the erase of Pencil or Block (see my screenshot). You cannot use a mode of brush because it does not erase cleanly and it will leave some pixels behind (really ugly looking)!

5.) However you do it, you now have a avatar with a template all ready to use. If you want you can change the color of the template like I did in this screenshot (Image > Adjustments > Hue/Saturation > click the "Colorize" checkbox). Or you can just leave it black. When you save it make sure you save it as a TRANSPARENT GIF. Both of these are important, the transparent part should be obvious I hope. You have to save it as a GIF rather then a PNG because anyone on Internet Explorer 6 or lower can't view PNGs properly and it will look like junk.

6.) So here's the finished project! As always this is just the simple way I do it, there are other ways but this I think is the easiest way. Happy avatar making!

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Layout Copyright 2009. Layout Designed by MyrrhLynn. Hiiro no Kakera Copyright Idea Factory. Character designs Copyright Yone Kazuki. Layout inspiration and coding help from the book: The Zen of CSS design by Dave Shea and Molly Holzschlag.

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	1.) First orgainze all of your elements in your graphics program. I'm making a 100x100 avatar because then it won't looks so wierd when I blow it up. I'm going to use a Fullmetal Alchemist image and a template from here on Daystar. My templates are all saved as gif files. I know that some sites offer templates as PSD files (that's basically the same as gif except only Photoshop people can use it) and some save them as JPEGs (which is sort of stupid because then the aren't transparent).
	2.) Move the image and template into your canvas/project, making sure the template is on the top. Make sure these are the only two visible layers. As you can see in this screenshot I turned off the eye next to the layer called "Background" because this is what will make it transparent. Now there are two ways to erase the necessary parts in an template. The quickest way is to use some sort of selection tool (in this case I used Magic Wand") to select the parts you want to delete while on the template layer(see picture). To finish you simply press the delete (or you could use cut too) while on the layer with the image.
	3.) But what if the template is not the kind with straight edges? If you look in this screenshot I changed the template to have little indents at the corners, now if you use the magic wand like in the screenshot it won't work because it will select parts you don't want.
	4.) So if you have a template with non-straight edges you will have to use the erase tool to erase the parts you want. To do this simply start erasing while you are on the image layer. You can look in the screenshot to see what I mean, I didn't do the whole thing, but I think you get the general idea. Make sure you are using a Mode for the erase of Pencil or Block (see my screenshot). You cannot use a mode of brush because it does not erase cleanly and it will leave some pixels behind (really ugly looking)!
	5.) However you do it, you now have a avatar with a template all ready to use. If you want you can change the color of the template like I did in this screenshot (Image > Adjustments > Hue/Saturation > click the "Colorize" checkbox). Or you can just leave it black. When you save it make sure you save it as a TRANSPARENT GIF. Both of these are important, the transparent part should be obvious I hope. You have to save it as a GIF rather then a PNG because anyone on Internet Explorer 6 or lower can't view PNGs properly and it will look like junk.
	6.) So here's the finished project! As always this is just the simple way I do it, there are other ways but this I think is the easiest way. Happy avatar making!