Avatars! , or, Hello Thing #7

From dictionary.com:
av⋅a⋅tar
   [av-uh-tahr]
–noun
1. Hindu Mythology. the descent of a deity to the earth in an incarnate form or some manifest shape; the incarnation of a god.

2. an embodiment or personification, as of a principle, attitude, or view of life.

3. Computers. a graphical image that represents a person, as on the Internet.

Though I may occasionally have delusions of godhood, we're not talking about definition #1 here. Or even #2. No, this post is all about #3--graphical images representing a person in the internet! Please refer to my userpic on the far right, should you care for a graphic (heh!) example. I started looking into avatars because I lack a digital camera and wanted a picture that looked something like me on my blog. But the more I played with them (that would be learning habit #7 1/2, no?) the more I thought they might have useful applications in a library setting.

As part of my job as a youth librarian, I've been asked to work with other staff and put together some programs involving teens with technology. (Look Mel, I really am working on this year's goals! Really.) One of the ideas that's been tossed around is offering a computer class exclusively for teens in how to get the most out of social networking sites. Making yourself public on the internet comes with some safety concerns, especially for minors. You really don't want to attract the wrong kind of attention online. And posting pictures of your 13-year-old self (MySpace & Facebook both require you be 13 to have an account) may do just that. Avatars let you express the "inner you" while maintaining your privacy & safety. Plus, they're a lot of fun. You can get away with a lot of wardrobe choices your parents would never let you leave the house with.

I'd really like to be able to incorporate avatars into virtual reference. I miss the face-to-face contact over the desk. Chatting with an icon isn't the same, but it does personalize the transaction a bit. Makes it seem a bit more friendly.

Enough with the boring bits--bring on the pics!

This is the first avatar I created:

You can make your own over at Yahoo! Avatars UK & Ireland. This generator was easy to use and I was pleased to note that it offered "Plus Sizes." It's nice to see all body types, including my own, represented.

And this is my second. (I've always wanted to visit Springfield. Or at the very least, Shelbyville.)
You too can insert yourself into the Simpson Clan over at the Simpsons Movie site. Be patient...it may take awhile to load.

(BTW, I first learned about these two avatar generators, amazingly enough, from this year's Cooperative Summer Reading Manual. It pays to read the programming manual, really it does!)

Well, after that, I was hooked. I had to find more avatar creators. I knew I'd seen South Park avatars running amok on the internet and a quick google search turned up Create Avatar - South Park Studios:


Although I liked the avatar I generated, I wasn't thrilled with the ginormous logo that dominated the lower third of the image. And I never did successfully manage to either download or blog the image, despite repeated tries. Instead, I finally broke down and emailed it to myself (email DOES work). I originally edited the image to remove the logo...until I discovered that was in violation of South Park Studios TOS...

A second google search turned up the much more satisfactory SP-Studio which claims to be "the 1st & biggest flash-game to create your characters in 'South Park'style." I don't know if that's true, but it's certainly a lot of fun and offers far more in the way of wardrobe options and whatnot. Couldn't get this one to save, either, but the FAQ helpfully suggested I use a screenshot instead. Here's me, ready for Colorado's impending zombie apocalypse:














Given that every 3rd Thursday of the month I surround myself with tween otaku, I thought I'd try to turn myself into an anime/manga character. I had a lot of fun with Face Your Manga. But given the cigarette, this one's never seeing daylight outside of this blog.

Naturally I couldn't stop here--creating avatars is just too much fun! So I went searching for more generators and found this great article over at Mashable: "Avatars Everywhere: 27 of the Best Avatar Makers"and the follow-up "5 Very Simple Ways to Create an Avatar." (Mashable, BTW, is a very interesting and useful blog dedicated to Web 2.0 & social networking news. I'm finding it so helpful, I subscribed to it via RSS feed over on bloglines...) Mashable pointed me towards scads of fun (& fairly easy to use, too) avatar makers.

Here's me gone all Lego courtesy of The Block Head Iconizer:

Block Head Iconizer is another one of those flash games that requires you to do a screen capture & edit the resulting image in order to save the new you. At least it's up front about it and you won't be wasting your time unsuccessfully trying to save or download.

DoppelMe is a very simple site. Register to save your doppleganger, then click on "quick code" to paste the html directly into your blog, journal, etc. It's even got a facebook app that'll add it for you.



This one's truly WILD. Check out Build Your Wild Self from the New York Zoos & Aquariums. Not only can you create an out of this world you, but you can learn about the animals' you're "borrowing" from. This one's kid friendly, but not so easy to edit--be sure you do your screen capture BEFORE you click on "I'm done"--unlike the pic below, you'll have a much cleaner easy to edit image to work with. You can build your own desktop or email your finished creation on home. The art reminds me very much of David Shannon, for some reason.
Here's a much more tween-friendly anime me:
It was created over at Gaia Online, an anime-style MMORPG.
I always wanted electric blue hair. Truly. Just ask my stylist. She seems to think it might be a bit too extreme a change. Your thoughts?




[Note to self: must check into Face Your Manga & Gaia Online's policies for using your avatars outside of those environments--we've been having trouble finding copyright free images for use in promoting anime club. If these are copyright free... we could have a special program using the computer lab to transform each club member into little manga chibis! Combining teens and tech AND getting us some colorful publicity. Must investigate further!]

Little manga me is a little too cute for my tastes, but not nearly as appallingly cute as this, from WeeWorld. That being said, I thought Sonia would get a kick out of the Team Jacob t-shirt. And for the record, when I'm "live" in WeeWorld...my teeth (wait for it...) SPARKLE!



Here's a caricature of late '80s me sans glasses, created using Digibody's Caricature Maker. This reminds me an awful lot of Terry Moore's art in STRANGERS IN PARADISE. Digibody's very easy to save in a variety of file formats directly to your PC. I was, however, disappointed by the lack of hairstyles/features available to choose from. Hence the '80s hair.

This may be my favorite avatar maker of them all--Mr. Picassohead! (Or at least it would be if it included glasses.) Mix & match Picasso parts to make your very own masterpiece. Flip 'em, flop 'em, plant 'em every which way. This one's titled "self-portrait...the contacts years." This is another flash game, so be prepared to do another screen capture.
(Why aren't glasses available on more of these avatar makers? Why?!)

My most favorite avatar maker to date is probably meez. You can download your avatar directly to your desktop, export it directly to your blog/facebook account/myspace page etc. (just like flickr!), or cut & paste code. All three methods work like a charm. It's very easy to use. (Even if I did get Java errors when I first opened it this evening and tried to change my attire. They resolved themselves after a page refresh.) Meez allows you to select from a variety of body types, includes glasses (huzzah!), and has an extensive wardrobe to choose from. Some of the backgrounds are animated, too...

(This one's for my friend Tania, who attended "Zombie Prom" in Fairbanks, AK on 02/14/09. I was there in spirit, if not in person...)

So those are just a few of the avatar makers available on the web. There are many, many more. Go forth & play! And if you've got a favorite you'd like to share, be sure to comment...using your new avatars of course!