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| How to Make Chat Characters (Page Two) |
| How to Make Your Character Downloadable 1. You must have a website you can send your .avb/character to. Or perhaps a friend has a site where s/he posts .avb�s. If a friend does, ignore this part. Send the .avs to them and they�ll know what to do. Don't forget to ask nicely. 2. Click on file/properties. 3. In the Character URL spot type your URL. This has to include your character's name. Here is an example: http://www.geocities.com/redfernsrambles/charactername.avb. This is obviously where I would send my characters (if GeoCities supported .avb�s that is, they don�t currently do so. I have a site at NBCi.com that I send my .avb�s.). Click on the Don�t Allow Users to Modify URL box. Click OK. Save it again. Make a new .avs again. It�s okay to tell it to overwrite it. Really, it is. 4. You can now FTP your file to your website. Don�t ask me what FTP is. If you have a website you should know. Notes, Advice, Recommendations: 1. Save as you work and save frequently. You never know what�s gonna happen. A bolt of lightening could strike your computer. I can�t tell you too many times to save your work. Save your work. 2. Don�t use photos to make characters. It�s too much of a pain. It�ll take forever. Remember, it�s called Comic Chat. That said, do whatever in hell you want. Doesn�t matter to me. It�s your time, your vision, and your character. 3. Your base poses have to be .bmp files. No way around it. 4. File names used: .avb (that�s your character file � the one you can chat with) and .avs (that is your base file that you make an .avb from). You�ll hear the terms �character�, �char�, �avb� and �avatar�, they all mean the same thing. 5. Try to find pictures with clean backgrounds. The color doesn�t matter (as it can and probably will be changed), but make it one color. MUCH less time and energy expended. 6. There is a zoom button. Use it. You can have your .bmp so large you can adjust it pixel by pixel. BUT make sure you close zoom when you want to do anything else. That includes importing new .bmps, adding the talk bubble positional thingie, saving your file, etc. Close zoom. Can�t say that enough. 7. OOPS! You made a mistake. You put color where don�t want it. You put a line in the wrong place. You erased something you wanted to keep. Click edit/undo BEFORE YOU DO ANYTHING ELSE. If you don�t, you may have to edit the mistake pixel by pixel, it depends on the mistake. Believe me, it ain�t fun. 8. You can �disable� a pose. Click the disable box. That pose won�t show up when you chat. Can�t see the point really. If it�s a pose you decide you don�t like, delete it. Save everything again. 9. The flip-flop thing. What?! All your poses should face right. The program will assume your facing right. Once you�re chatting you want to be facing the people you�re talking to. If you don�t have your poses facing right, the program may have you facing the wrong way. Sounds silly, but you want this to look right, right? Click on the �cut/copy� button in your tool thingie (it�s the top right-hand tool � dotted box thingie). Click in the upper left-hand corner of your workspace, hold down the left click and drag until you�ve selected all of your workspace (or at least the whole pose). Then click on the eighth button down on the left-hand side of your tool thingie. It says �flip picture horizontally� when you float your mouse arrow over it. Click on it. Voila! You are now facing right. Yippee! 10. Don�t use black or white as your transparent colors. Most characters are outlined in black. White is used a lot in characters themselves (clothes, teeth, eyes, etc.). As I mentioned, I use light grey. The transparent color can be changed (see above, way above) but I�ve never done it so I can�t give you instructions. 11. The poses: when you type certain things while chatting a designated pose will pop up. This list is as follows: laugh ��lol�, bored � unknown, angry � unknown, happy � : ), scared � unknown, shout - !!!, sad - : (, coy - ; ), point to self � �I�, point to other � �You�, wave � �Hi� and �Bye�. It�ll run through your neutral poses as long as you don�t type one of the previously described thingies. That�s why lots of neutral poses are good. You don�t want to be in the same position all the time. Boring! 12. You can also add emotions. Click character/add emotion. It supposedly adds depth to each pose. Sounds like more work to me. I never use this; therefore I�m not sure how it works. 13. Use F1. That�s the help thingie. It does, occasionally, become useful. 14. Email me. I�ll try to answer in a timely manner. |