It's a Cartoon! It's an Avatar - Full Article

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5. WeeMee http://www.weeworld.com/ Use this site to create a wee mini version of yourself plus you can add all kinds of fun (and geeky!) accessories. There’s plenty of scope for customization of your avatar. Hint: Use the dropdown to select categories and browse through your options and screenshot when you’re happy. 6. Mii Avatar Generator http://www.wiiplayable.com/playgame.php?gameid=157 Like WeeMee (mentioned above) this is an easy way to create a Mii style characters as found on the Wii computer console. 7. South Park studio http://www.sp-studio.de/ Even if you’re a soulless ginger like me, you too can have your own South Park avatar! You can choose your clothes, jewellery, hair, expression, and background. Hint: Make sure to save one cartoon without a background for photo fun inserting “yourself” into other pictures. With Photoshop go to Magic Eraser and take out background and save as a .PNG. Now you can insert your cartoon into any background! ARTICLE BY GWYNETH JONES - THE DARING LIBRARIAN It’s a cartoon! It’s an avatar! It’s 20 super sites to a new animated you! Consider creating avatars for students who are blogging or contributing to wiki discussions. Having an icon to speak from sometimes frees students, especially the more shy or reticent, to really express themselves without restraint. This concept can work for shy grown-ups, too! Either way, having a fun signature avatar is great to use with Twitter, blogging, commenting, Slideshare, business cards, and a whole host all of social media communications. Super hero cape optional! 1. Ultimate Flash Face v0.42b http://flashface.ctapt.de/ Channel your inner CSI detective with this site, which is quite like a police photofit – very sketchy! 2. Make yourself in Lego http://reasonablyclever.com/mini/flash/minifig.swf Produce a Lego character that looks like you. 3. Mr. Picassohead http://www.picassohead.com/ create.html Become an abstract work of art in the style of Picasso with Mr. Picassohead. Put your eyes, nose, and ears wherever you want! 4. Simpsons Movie http://www.simpsonsmovie. com/main.html Ever want to be a Simpsons character? Now you can create your own Simpsons-style doppelganger in the style of the Simpsons. It’s pretty easy and fun to choose the clothes, hair, etc, but do note that the saving feature didn’t work for me the two times I tried it so when you get your character the way you want it – take a screenshot! Want to jump-start your web presence and connect with your school community in a hip happening animated way? Channel your inner super hero with easy and fun character creators! Here’s a list of more than 20 websites that you can use to create fun avatars. Creating a signature avatar is also a fun way to create a brand image. Though this article is aimed at teacher librarians creating avatars for themselves and not with classrooms of students, there are several sites here that kids would dig and would also be appropriate to use with them. www.sybasigns.com.au

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Written for @SybaSigns in Australia - this is the full article that is also available for download on their site: www.sybasigns.com.au/its_a_cartoon_its_an_avatar.pdf or http://goo.gl/bq6XY

Transcript of It's a Cartoon! It's an Avatar - Full Article

Page 1: It's a Cartoon! It's an Avatar - Full Article

5. WeeMeehttp://www.weeworld.com/

Use this site to create a wee mini version of yourself plus you can add all kinds of fun (and geeky!) accessories. There’s plenty of scope for customization of your avatar. Hint: Use the dropdown to select categories and browse through your options and screenshot when you’re happy.

6. Mii Avatar Generatorhttp://www.wiiplayable.com/playgame.php?gameid=157

Like WeeMee (mentioned above) this is an easy way to create a Mii style characters as found on the Wii computer console.

7. South Park studio http://www.sp-studio.de/

Even if you’re a soulless ginger like me, you too can have your own South Park avatar! You can choose your clothes, jewellery, hair, expression, and background. Hint: Make sure to save one cartoon without a background for photo fun inserting “yourself” into other pictures. With Photoshop go to Magic Eraser and take out background and save as a .PNG. Now you can insert your cartoon into any background!

ARTICLE BY GWYNETH JONES - THE DARING LIBRARIAN

It’s a cartoon! It’s an avatar! It’s 20 super sites to a new animated you!

Consider creating avatars for students who are blogging or contributing to wiki discussions. Having an icon to speak from sometimes frees students, especially the more shy or reticent, to really express themselves without restraint.

This concept can work for shy grown-ups, too! Either way, having a fun signature avatar is great to use with Twitter, blogging, commenting, Slideshare, business cards, and a whole host all of social media communications. Super hero cape optional!

1. Ultimate Flash Face v0.42b http://flashface.ctapt.de/

Channel your inner CSI detective with this site, which is quite like a police photofit – very sketchy!

2. Make yourself in Lego http://reasonablyclever.com/mini/flash/minifig.swf

Produce a Lego character that looks like you.

3. Mr. Picassoheadhttp://www.picassohead.com/create.html

Become an abstract work of art in the style of Picasso with Mr. Picassohead. Put your eyes, nose, and ears wherever you want!

4. Simpsons Moviehttp://www.simpsonsmovie.com/main.html

Ever want to be a Simpsons character? Now you can create your own Simpsons-style doppelganger in the style of the Simpsons. It’s pretty easy and fun to choose the clothes, hair, etc, but do note that the saving feature didn’t work for me the two times I tried it so when you get your character the way you want it – take a screenshot!

Want to jump-start your web presence and connect with your school community in a hip happening animated way? Channel your inner super hero with easy and fun character creators! Here’s a list of more than 20 websites that you can use to create fun avatars.

Creating a signature avatar is also a fun way to create a brand image. Though this article is aimed at teacher librarians creating avatars for themselves and not with classrooms of students, there are several sites here that kids would dig and would also be appropriate to use with them.

www.sybasigns.com.au

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8. WimpYourselfhttp://www.wimpyourself.com/

Cartoon yourself in the popular style of Diary of a Wimpy Kid book series!

9. HeroMachine 2.5 http://www.ugo.com/games/superhero-generator-heromachine-2-5

Turn yourself into a super hero character. This would also be great as a part of a digital storytelling resource or story starter.

10. Marvel’s Superhero Avatar Makerhttp://marvel.com/games/play/31/create_your_own_superhero

11. Design a Marvel Superhero Comic Striphttp://marvelkids.marvel.com/shows/122/the_super_hero_squad_show

12. Design Superhero Speech bubbles and Texthttp://www.superlame.com/

13. Hero Factory http://cpbherofactory.com/

Use this as an alternative to Hero Machine.

14. BuiLD YouR WiLD SeLFhttp://www.buildyourwildself.com/

From the Wildlife Conservation Society: Create an avatar out of bits and pieces of humans and other animals – head, arms, legs, clothes, eyes, mouth, tail, wings, shells … just pick the parts you like and assemble them together, choose a background, and at the end you’ll get animorphtastic name and description!

15. ToonDoo http://www.toondoo.com/

Very easy to do and super fun site to create your own comic strips! From the helpful ToonDoo wiki some of the outstanding features: drag ‘n drop assets, 1, 2 or 3-panel comic strips, can be used with multiple languages, and the ability to choose from a vast variety of characters, props and backgrounds categorized into specific galleries.

16. Toonlet http://toonlet.com/

Allows students to create their own comic strips populated by their own characters. They can choose how many frames they want for their cartoon, and the simple editor makes it easy to drop their characters into a story.

17. Clay Yourself http://clayyourself.com/

Sponsored by Hotels.com Clay Yourself lets you create a version of yourself in modeling clay. You can start with the given facial frames and then customize other features. These features include hairstyle, eyes, eyebrows, glasses, eyeballs, nose, and mouth. When you are done with your customization you can share your character on Facebook or Twitter. You can also download your character in JPG format or take a screenshot. It’s Claytastic!

18. ArtisanCam http://www.artisancam.org.uk/flashapps/exploreselfportraits/

A quick way of producing a sketch version of yourself. Limited choices, for exampleI couldn’t get my red hair – had to settle for pink!

www.sybasigns.com.au

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19. Mad Men Yourself http://www.amctv.com/madmenyourself/

NOT for the students. Fans of the TV show Mad Men can create a sharp dressed 60s-style avatar of themselves.

20. Go!Animate http://goanimate.com/videomaker

Finally, my favourite, and the site that has the comic chops to make the most customized avatars is the Go!Animate Comic World Character Creator. Though this takes the most time to master it has the most potential for avatar greatness! And it makes those avatars characters in your own animated cartoons! GoAnimate also has a very helpful forum for questions and a friendly and responsive community manager. Check out my wikipage for an animation example, all the directions, and to get the Comic Tutorial.

Whatever site or style you choose, have fun and let your imagination go when it comes to creating your super hero animated avatar!

Some sites allow you to save the finished creation as a jpg. If not, then take a screenshot, paste into a paint program, crop and save as a JPG. One of my favourite new free digital image manipulation sites is picmonkey.com. If one of these avatar creation sites is blocked by your district filter or firewall, go on to the next one ... OR ... do this at home! Be an Avatar Ninja!

Active links and more information to all these sites can be found on my Daring Tech Character Creator wikipage (http://thedaringlibrarian.wikispaces.com/Avatar_Generators), and several postings with even more examples, how-tos and tech tips can be found on my blog http://www.thedaringlibrarian.com/

Now go forth and be animated!

www.sybasigns.com.au

Gwyneth Jones, along with colleague Dr Joyce Valenza, will be joining Syba Signs for a series of seminars in July/August, 2012, in Sydney, Adelaide and Perth. See our website for more information www.sybasigns.com.au/seminars