[Tutorial]Making an Avatar[Tutorial]

Hello Everyone!

Today I will show you how to make a simple avatar!
It's pretty easy and I made it step by step for all of the
Photoshop beginners. Before I begin I will like to
say that there's more ways to do them, but the most
easy way is the following. This will come in handy to make
other things, not just avatars so get ready to learn something new!

---------STEP BY STEP---------

STEP 1.
Open up Photoshop and create a new document:
Input these settings:



STEP 2.
Now that you have your new document make a new layer.
(Shift + Ctrl + N) and name it whatever, default is "Layer 1".



STEP 3.
Now you have your new layer let's get on with the avatar shall we?
Simply go to the tools you have on the left side, Select "Rounded Rectangle Tool".


You'll also noticed that the top bar will change, forget all of it, just focus on "Radius"
and input "18 px" or whatever you choose to.


STEP 4.
Go to your document and simply draw a rounded rectangle from in the
center of your blank layer, not the background. Once you draw it right click
and select "make selection" and input the following:


STEP 5.
With your selection just head over to the paint tool and with any color
paint over the selection, it will give you something like this:


STEP 6.
Deselect and double click on the "Layer 1" layer, it should bring up
a new box. Go directly to "Gradient Overlay" and select the colors of your choice.
Now go to "Stroke" to create a stroke, choose the color and set it to only 1 px.
It should be about the same as the color you chose earlier.


STEP 7.
The fun starts, you have the basic structure of it.
Next we would like to put a basic symbol, this is for our beginners.
Chose anyone, I prefer you to paint it white.
Note: Make the symbol on a new layer, just to fix it later.
You can double click on the layer to tweak it and make changes in color
as well as give it a stroke.

STEP 8
The Shadows and Lighting.

We have the basic, now we need to make it shiny from the top and dark from
the bottom. Let's begin. Head over to your tools and choose "Elliptical Marquee Tool"


We now go to our document, please create a new layer. And simply draw
it over the top centered part of your avatar And paint it white* and reduce the opacity to about
30-40%.
Like this:



Now we need to remove the excess white paint, so all we do is delete it.
For beginner I would recommend making the layer called "background"
Black or any other color so you can see what you're deleting.

We need SHADOWS!! It's time to use our Gradient tool.


Select a darker color, I'll use black. Make sure you have selected
the gradient to go from a color to transparent like this:


Ok, now we simply go over from the bottom to the middle of our avatar
Also delete the excess gradient. Then lower the opacity as desired.
We should have something like this:


And that's the basic avatar anyone new to Photoshop could do!
Now if you want to tweak it a little I'll show you some tips.

Tip #1.
Use a lighter shade color of your main color and with the help of gradient
go over it in the middle but this time, select the "Radial" option like this:


Note: You're making a new layer all the time ok?
Now go to your layer, you should see
something that says "Normal" "Opacity" and "Fill" above. Simply go to "Normal"
and select "Color Dodge" This will give it a little shine.


Tip #2.
Drop Shadow.
Go back to the original template and double click it to bring the setting, go to
"Drop Shadow" and input all of these settings then click ok:


This is the our result after just following simple instructions and some tweaks:



I know the paw wasn't a great idea, but it's just a symbol
Note: You can always put your name/username/script on it to make
it more personal. This is my first tutorial and look out for a new one soon.

I'm including the template for y'all to use. but not the PSD.



Hope this helps people! Especially the new ones to Photoshop.
With practice and patience you can make great things!
Always remember that.


P.S. If I wrote something wrong, tell me.

this is awesome thanx!

Thank You! I just spend some time right now to take all those screenshots and get the instructions ready.

EDIT: Can this be stickied? I only see 1 sticky on this forum.
Some people would find this useful.

wow great tutorial
now I can make my own avatar!

EDIT: um where can I get photoshop?

It's noob proofed..haha..
Step by step.

edit: www.adobe.com/photoshop

do you mind making a tutorial like this for gimp. i can't afford photoshop. however the layer screenshot looks very similar to gimp

yea like I said
where can I get photoshop or gimp?

nice same way i do it except better ha ha

I have no idea how to use GIMP, sorry.

Look above.

You really do need this tutorial buddy..And grab that template so
you can get an idea on how to make them, just don't go around saying you made it