Practice Palace Home Page | Backups and Extras | First Time User Guide Making Palace Avatars with Adobe Photoshop
Introduction
After downloading and installing the Palace client, most new users visit Palaces that distribute Avatars, and start collecting them. After using the creations of others for a while, you might want to make your own avatar. It might be an image you found on the internet, or it might be a picture of yourself that you have on your computer. This guide was created to help Windows users through this process, starting with obtaining the required tools, and including the use of the Palace Palette to maximize the quality of your Avatar.
The first step is to download the tools that are needed to make your own avatars. You will need a graphics program. The instructions below are for people who are using Adobe Photoshop as a primary graphics program. Since Photoshop is a commercial program, downloads to the software are not provided. If you do not have Adobe Photoshop already installed on your computer, try A Beginner's Guide to Making Palace Avatars for instructions that include links for downloading a graphics program.
You will need the Palace Palette for Photoshop. This is a very small download at under 1 Kb. After downloading the palettephoto.zip file, unzip the PalacePS.ACT file and place it where you will be able to find it easily, like on your desktop. Most computers already have software to unzip files. Try double-clicking on a zipped file, and usually a program will come up to unzip the file. Look for a button that says "Extract" to unzip the file. If you need a program to unzip files, try Winzip.
Palace Palette for Photoshop for Windows Once you have downloaded and unzipped the Palace Palette and placed it on your desktop, and have a working version of Photoshop on your computer, you are ready to move on to the next step.
First, launch Photoshop. With a default installation, this would be done by going to Start Menu, Programs, Adobe Photoshop, and selecting the Photoshop icon. Once Photoshop is up and running, go to File Menu, Open:
A window named Open will appear. Use the icons on the left to browse your hard drive for the picture that you want to make into an avatar. Highlight that file in the Open window, and then click the "Open" button:
The image should appear in the main Photoshop window. You are now ready to move to the next step.
This step is optional, and would only be needed if you want to use a portion of the image for your avatar. If you want to use the entire image for your avatar, you can proceed to Step 4. Here is an example of an image that is open in Photoshop, which you want to make into a Palace avatar:
To select a portion of this image to make into a Palace avatar, use the Selection tool, by clicking on this rectangular icon:
Now click on the top left part of the image that you want to see in your avatar, and hold down the left mouse button, and drag to the lower right part of the image you want to see in your avatar, and then release the left mouse button. The part of the image you selected should be framed with a moving dotted line:
Now go to Image Menu, and select the item called Crop:
The image will change so it looks exactly like the part that you had previously selected:
Now that the image appears the way you want to see it in your avatar, we can proceed to the next step.
Step 4 - Convert The Color Depth
This step is also optional. To bring an image into Palace, the image must be 132 x 132 pixels in size or smaller. If the image is already 132 x 132 or smaller, and you don't want to resize it, then you can skip Step 4 and Step 5, and move on to Step 6.
If the image is larger than 132 x 132, then it will need to be resized. Before resizing the image, we need to convert the color depth to millions cf colors, or RGB. When we resize the image later, converting to RGB will preserve the image clarity. With the image open and visible in Photoshop, go to Image Menu, Mode, and select RGB.
If RGB already has a check mark next to it, then the image is already millions of colors. Typically, a GIF (.gif) image will need to be converted to millions of colors (RGB) because GIF images are 256 colors. A JPEG (.jpg) image is usually already millions of colors, so RGB may already be checked. Either way, try to convert the color depth, and then move to the next step.
As mentioned earlier, to bring an image into Palace, the image must be 132 x 132 pixels in size or smaller. If the image is larger than 132 x 132, then it will need to be resized. With the image open and visible in Photoshop, go to Image Menu, and select Image Size:
The Image Size window will now appear:
First, make sure "Resolution" is set to 72. Then make sure "Constrain Proportions" has a check next to it. You will now need to change the dimensions in the top section of the Image Size window. In this example, they are set to 254 x 277 pixels. The largest of these two numbers will need to be 132 or smaller. Change the number 277 to 132, and it will automatically change the 254 to a new number that suits the new 132 height, which in this case would be 121. You only need to change one of the two numbers, as the second one will change automatically.
Click the OK button, and the image will now be 121 x 132 pixels in size. If you want to verify the size of the image, you can go back to Image Menu, Image Size, and verify the size in pixels in the Image Size window. Now that the image has been resized, we are ready to move to the next step.
Step 6 - Apply The Palace Palette
Now it is time to apply the Palace Palette. Let's have a quick look at why this step is so important, and compare a finished avatar that didn't apply the Palace Palette with one that did:
Without Palace Palette With Palace Palette
You may have seen avatars on Palace that look like the one on the left, and now you know how that happened. They didn't apply the Palace Palette. With an avatar that has skin tones. it is especially important to apply the Palace Palette, so your avatar will look like the one on the right.
With the image open and visible in Photoshop, go to Image Menu, Mode, and select Indexed Color:
The Indexed Color window will now appear:
There are critical settings in this window that must be selected. Near the bottom, in the section where it says "Dither", it is very important to select "Diffusion", and change "Amount" to "100", which will maximize the quality of the avatar as it will appear in Palace. After adjusting these settings, click on the Palette menu, and select Custom:
The Color Table window will appear. Click the Load button:
Navigate to the PalacePS.ACT file, and select it. If you left the PalacePS.ACT file on your desktop, it will be easy to find. Then click the Load button.
A new Color Table window will appear. Click the OK button:
Finally, in the Indexed Color window, verify that "Dither" is set to "Diffusion", and "Amount" is set to "100", and then click the OK button:
Now that the Palace Palette has been applied, you are ready to move to the next step.
Step 7 - Save The Altered Image
Before we actually bring the image into Palace, let's save the work we have done so far by saving the image. With the image open and visible in Photoshop, go to File Menu, and select Save As:
The Save As window will now appear:
Use the drop-down menu in the "Save in" section to find a folder where you want to save the image. You can change the name of the image in the field next to "File name". In the "Save as type" section, select "CompuServe GIF". Then click the Save button to save the image.
Step 8 - Export The Image To Palace
We are now ready to export the image from Photoshop, and bring it into Palace. With the image open and visible in Photoshop, go to Select Menu, and select All:
Now go to the Edit menu, and select Copy:
Now switch to the Palace program. Go to Edit Menu, and select Paste Multiple Props.
This will paste the prop pieces into your prop bag.
Each avatar is made up of pieces, usually called props or prop pieces, that are 44 x 44 pixels in size. An avatar can use a maximum of 9 pieces, for a total maximum size of 132 x 132 pixels. In this case, the avatar is composed of 9 pieces, which appear at the top of the prop bag. Double-click on each of the 9 pieces while you are in a Palace to wear your new avatar!
If you have any questions, you can email the address below, and we'll try to help.
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