Avatar from video tut

[Arika]

This tutorial is for making avatars from a video source. I’ll make this as simple as I can make it with enough snazzy pics to go along with this tutorial. If this tutorial is being ripped, please notify the admin or mods at staticillusions.net so I can rip that baka a new one.

Anyway, you’ll be needing these happy apps

Virtual Dub (http://www.virtualdub.org/)
*Adobe Imageready or **Photoshop CS2

*I prefer to use Imageready as I use Photoshop mainly for editing pics and making sigs.

**For some reason, Adobe added in the animation window in Photoshop CS2. Why they did this is beyond me…

First off, we need a video we want to make use. I’m using an episode from School Rumble: 2nd Gakki. This is actually a raw episode which is something you want to use if you’re going to making an avy from an anime series.

Now open up VirtualDub and then goto File>Open video file. Sometimes, VirtualDub might put out some message about audio streaming. That doesn’t matter since we’re not going to have any sound. As long as it can open the video, it’s fine. Now we need to remove the unnecessary video that we don’t need.

Quick Tip: I actually play the video to find the exact time the section of video I want starts and ends.

To select the sections you want removed, first press the “Home” key the move the slider on the timeline to where you want and then press the “End” key. Now you should have something like this:


Notice that there is a gray bar on the timeline. That shows what has been selected.

Then all you have to do then is press the “Delete” and now those frames are gone. Like so…


Now that part of the video is the beginning part.

Do this again to remove the unnecessary video that is after you clip.

Another Tip: I usually cut off a second or so before and after whatever animation and taking. Then I cutoff a bit more off the sides to make sure I have the exact animation I want.

Now, we must save this clip. Goto File>Save as AVI… to save the clip.

Next up is to fire up Imageready. Once you have it running goto File>Open and open the clip you saved. This will now bring up a window and prompt you to choose as to how you want this opened. Click on the “Limit to Every” option and choose somewhere between 2 and 4. In this case, I choose 3.



What this does is that it will remove X number frames at a time.
e.g. if I had a clip that had 120 frames and I choose to Limit to Every 2, then I’ll end up with 60 frames.
Don’t worry because animation is about tweening between key frames. I’m not going to explain that since I another tutorial that does that.

Once you have your clip opened, go to your animation window, Window>Animation if it’s not there, and go ahead and press play on the playhead. Looks kinda cool for now but we need to resize this sucker.

Goto Image>Image Size…

Now go and play in the size you want but make sure that “Constrain Proportions.” With that option on, you just need to put in one of the measurements and the other measurement will be automatically put it as the app will make the proportions right.


I put in 120 here and clicked Ok.

Another annoying tip: I usually put in the width instead of the height. Sometimes putting in the height puts the width above whatever the restrictions are for what site you’re going to be using this avy.

Everything seems to be in order. Or is it? With Imageready, we can test it on our web browsers. On the toolbar, there is an icon above the “Fullscreen” button. Click on that and it will open the avy in your browser. You can also click and hold to select a different browser if you have more than one.


Hmm, my avy is going too fast. We’ll need to fix that.

If your avy is moving too fast, you might have to adjust the delay time between frames. To do this, go the Animation window and then click on the first frame. Then move the slider bar to the other end and then hold the “Shift” key and click on the last frame. All of the frames should be selected now like so.


See that number below each frame? That indicates the delay time between each frame. Click on that number on any frame and this window should pop up.


Select “Other…” and this window will pop up. Make sure the window says, “Set Delay For All Frames To.”


I choose to set it .07 of a second. And this is what I got.


As you can see, this is a lot better now.