Photoshopped images & requests, show off your Photography
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By DJSilkie
#65801 Recently, a few people commented on my avatar. They say "It looks just like the pre-made ones you can choose from this site, but, it's exactly like you're car." They also say, "it has no hood" but that's irrelevant. I'm here to show you how to make the avatars in the selection screen reflect that of your own vehicle :).

First off, don't be too frightened by all the steps...I just really into detail. As I will in all my future DIYs as well.

First off, let me go through the materials you will need. And the materials that make it easier.

THINGS YOU WILL NEED:
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A computer...
This is highly recommended as it the results are better if they aren't just imagined. Thought just thinking about a cool avatar is much easier. I'm using my Alienware m9750 latop PC for all my video, music, and picture editing because the dual 3.5ghz processors and three 17" monitors make it really easy. But you REALLY don't need anything that extreme lol.

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Interwebs...
Also highly recommended as to the fact that others may see your beautiful work of art via cyberspaces...however...seeing as how you are reading this...you probably already have that. So mark it off the list.

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A "pixel editing" program...
There are lots of different programs out there. I just used MS Paint. But if you have something similar, it all works. Just something you can use to draw in each pixel with. It makes lower-quality images like the ones we are working with easier to do.

RECOMMENDED ITEMS:
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A mouse. No, not a REAL mouse...that would make things harder. But a nice computer mouse would provide excelled precision in the picture editing process. I'm using my g5 Logitech laser mouse because it can run at 2000dpi lol.

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A nice picture editing software...
Software that's much nicer than that of MSPaint can provide you with excelled editing options. I'm using Adobe Photoshop CS3 Extended for it's "save for web and devices" option.

LETS GET STARTED
...bout time
NOTE TO READERS: This DIY was created with a mindset of creating a walk through ANYONE could understand...unless, of course, you don't read English...that could make things harder...But anyway, the point is that it's very straight forward and has a lot of details. So bare with the slow pace so the computer illiterate can keep up. :)

First thing to do is to get to the selection screen. On this website, hover your curser over the "My Account" box at the top of the screen, then click on the "Profile" button to go to your profile settings page.
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Scroll to the very bottom of your profile page and find the section relevant to your avatar. From there, search for the "Show Gallery" button towards the bottom of the page. It's the last option before the "Submit" and "Reset" buttons to the right of the "Select Avatar from gallery:" Text. Click on that button when you find it.
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You will now find yourself amongst a plethora of civics in every form and color. Find the vehicle color you want and right click on the image. When the drop box appears on your screen, select the "copy image" option ("copy" if you are in Internet Explorer) and proceed to open your "pixel editing" software. Again, I am just using MSPaint.
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To change it the civic model type, select the drop box next to the "Select a category" text, choose your civic model, and select the "Go" Button. The drop box is towards the top of the page, above all the civics.
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NOTE : If you cannot find your civic color in the models provided, try looking in a separate section. For example: I drive a black coupe, but the "coupe" section had no black cars to choose from. Yet the "Sedan" selection screen did. So I just copied the black sedan instead.

When In your "pixel editing" software, Paste the image you copied from Civic-EG.com to the program by selecting the "Edit" menu at the top of the screen, and selecting the "Paste" option from that menu. (Alternatively you may press "Ctrl+V" on your keyboard and it will do the same thing, just much quicker)
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Now you have your previously "selected" civic nicely placed and ready for editing...But...wait...what's all this white space? My image I pasted is only a fraction of my drawing space. MY IMAGE IS TOO LARGE! Don't fret...that's an easy fix.
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Go back to the civic selection page and right-click on ANY of the civics that are a front-end view. When the drop box shows itself, select the "properties" option at the very bottom.
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You will see that the size of the image of the civic, is in fact, 86x71 (width first). You may now close this window.
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Return yourself to your over-sized plethora of pixels and click on the "Image" option at the top menu. Next, select the "Attributes" option and wait for your next step to appear in front of you. (This may be different for those of you NOT using MSPaint.)
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In the window that appears, you will notice that your width and height are NOT 86x71. Do change them. Make sure to put 86 first, the 71 second, and also make sure the "pixels" option under the "units" text is selected. You wouldn't want your avatar to be 86 INCHES across...would you? When you are done editing the values, click the "OK" button and your image will be cropped accordingly.
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There, NOW you have a nice little civic happily waiting your imagination to be applied to it. But what's with this background? It's black...how do I get the EXACT color I need? READ ON young grasshopper!
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Go back to the Cvic-EG.com website and go to any page. Home page, some random thread, doesn't matter. Press the "Print Screen" button on your keyboard. (Mine is labeled "PrtSc". Yours sould be similar.)
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Go back to your "pixel editing" software and paste once more. Paste over the top of your previous image. Trust me on this one...your precious image isn't going anywhere.
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With your image being taken up by whatever page you screenshot; Select the "eyedrop" tool from the menu, Wherever it may be.
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Click on any of the pale-green color on the screen. The eyedrop will pick up that color and set it as the color you are using.
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Now, either go to the "Edit" menu again and select the "Undo" option, or press "Ctrl+Z" on your keyboard to return to your previous image of the civic you selected.
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Notice now, how you are back to your old civic image, yet your color you have selected is a color that's not even in the image :)
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NOW comes the fun part.

First thing is first. You gotta see what the heck it is you are doing. Select the "zoom" tool on the menu and click on the image a couple times to zoom in. You get a better perspective of each pixel making this whole ordeal an easier task.
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There ya go. :)
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Select the "Paint Bucket" tool from the menu.
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Click anywhere in the black area around the outside of the car. This will replace all that ugly black with the same color that the forum has as its background. So the image will blend perfectly.
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Now YOU decide how to do the next few steps. Now you can lift, lower, cut, paste, hack, mash, doodle and paint your car however you want! Get whatever finishing touches you need getting done, and the move on to the final steps of this walthrough! (...finally)

I have here, my final edited civic. I removed the hood to see the engine without some huge blocky underside of my civic's hood taking up most the pic. I also painted in my b15b7 with my headers, blue valve cover, as well as my intake, strut bar, and radiator can be seen. Then, I edited in my eyebrows and added some color to my headlights. I finished off with lowering the car, widening the tires a little, and drawing up my Xenon 5600 bodykit with fog lights, license plate, and you can see the bottom-half of the radiator in there too. Then I saved the image to someplace easy to find.
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The next part isn't required, but if you want a 100% legit result I would highly suggest it.

Open up Adobe Photoshop.

When that's all loaded up, go to "file" and select the "open" option (or press CTRL+O on your keyboard), find your civic you just created and load it up.
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When your image loads, you will notice its all...gross...looking. This is MSPaint (if be) saving in low quality mode and Photoshop noticing it...unfortunately, so can you...here's how to fix that.
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Go back to your "pixel editor" you used so much before, and load your image again (if you hadn't closed it, then don't worry about it. Just get back to it)

Instead of SAVING it. Go to the "Edit" option, and on the drop box that appears, select the "Select All" option. (OR press Ctrl+A on your keyboard)
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A fun looking dotted line will appear around your image.
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Next, go back to the "Edit" menu, and select the "copy" option. (or press Ctrl+C on your keyboard)
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Return your focus to Photoshop and close off the image you already have here if you havn't already. The easiest way to do this is by clicking the little "X" in the top right-hand side of the page.
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Start a new document in here by going to the "file" menu and selecting "new" (or press Ctrl+N on your keyboard)
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Don't change anything in this window, nothing needs to be. Just select "OK"
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You will have a fresh blank document already fitted to the size you want :)
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Paste in the image from the other program by going to the "edit" menu and selecting the "paste" option. (or pressing Ctrl+V on your keyboard)
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You will notice now, that your image is clean looking and not garbled like before.
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Now, go back to the "file" menu and select the "Save for Web and Devices" option. (earlier versions of photoshop just say "Save for Web")
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A new window will introduce itself to you. Make sure your quality is set to "maximum". To change it, select to drop box to the right side of the page underneath the "JPEG" drop box and the "Preset" text.
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Once that is done and over with, save your document wherever you please.
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Return once more to Civic-EG.com and to to your profile one more gain. Scroll to the bottom, and THIS time, click the "browse" button to the right of the "Upload avatar from your machine:" text.
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After you have selected your image from wherever you placed it FROM photoshop, hit OK and walah...Your super-cool avy is finally up on the site!
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As you can see in this image below, the image is just like others except...personalized...and it blends just perfectly :)
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Hope you all enjoyed reading this. Sorry for it being so long. I wanted to make sure I got all the grounds covered. I hope you all can benefit from this :) Happy editing!

~S~
Last edited by DJSilkie on Thu Aug 14, 2008 7:36 am, edited 1 time in total.
User avatar
By DJSilkie
#65992
teal_dx wrote:awesome DIY :thumb:

making this a sticky :woot:


YAY Thanks Teal, I enjoyed making it :) Hope it helps everyone out.
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By Civic_HatchSI
#66033 great write up, iv done a few of these as well, very time consuming but well worth it!
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By jmsplitfyre
#66055 LOL! Great DIY, Silkie. I love the part Interweb and mouse. :lol:
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By RAKUN
#66773 wowww that's really nice yo
By GoRide
#81187 this helped me to custom mine alittle bit :D not as good as urs tho! urs is awesome!