[DandieeLyon]

floating around in here (am especially fond of all the yummy elves) got me to thinking...

I have never used an avatar,and I don't even know where to begin looking for one (or do you all just make your own?)

Any suggestions for the newbie? Much appreciated....

[Shanalir]

Dandiee, these are some of my favorite sites for avatars. Avatarity has a movies section with quite a few LOTR avatars, while the others have different interesting stuff.

http://www.egs-avatars.com/home.php

http://avatarity.com/

http://www.blackmaxpc.com/avatarsmiles/avatars.htm

I found theses by going to a search engine and typing in "avatars." It's amazing what you'll get back when you try something like that lol. It did take quite a while for me to go through and find the sites I liked, because I checked every single link. Lots of fun, though if you have the time.

[ellisk]

Just some technical details...

Once you find an avatar you like (and I like those sites recommended up there as well) you need to post it on line somewhere so you can link to it here. I put mine at http://tinypic.com and other people here that I know have theirs at photobucket. Also, the picture can't be any bigger than 100 x 100 pixels.

Two important things to keep in mind as you search:

First: people are often very touchy if you take a picture off their private site and use it for your avatar without asking. (You probably would have guessed that, but some people don't).

Second: if you find a picture you like, don't just put the url to it in your profile (i.e. link to it on it's original site). That is considered bad form because it wastes bandwidth to the hosting site. That's why I recommended tinypic or photobucket. They are both free for hosting pics.

The avatars are a lot of fun to play with though. I have tons that I'll probably never post but had a lot of fun making. It's easy to do a simple one with just Adobe Photoshop.

[DandieeLyon]

thanks for all the information. It will surely help me from making mistakes. I knew that it was bad to directly link to piccies,so I won't be doing that,but i really,really appreciate your advice on what sites to use,as I wasn't sure where to go. Also,thanks for the great avatar site suggestions...I am off to explore!

[DarkElfChilde]

And sometimes I make avies for myself and others.

- DEC

[ArtanisOrangeBlossom]

yes DEC slowed this one down sometime right after i joined *Laughs*

[DandieeLyon]

woo woo! all those lovely backsides!

[ArtanisOrangeBlossom]

*laughs* isn't it great?

Ack! i didn't realize i posted twice

[dolarabee]

[ArtanisOrangeBlossom]

ah bless you! *grins*

[LuthienTinuviel]

I found this large collection of avvies on a website once, but that was several years ago... before I discovered photoshop I used to simply crop whatever that comes by (still do, I still couldn't find a suitable flash programme to suit me) using photoes mostly paintings etc of anything that catches my eye...