ReVo is proud to have a wide assortment of designers call us home, and there’s more than one way that can benefit you! Are you ready to learn how to make your own AVs, or just curious how you can help your artists produce exactly what you’re looking for? In this column, we’ll be featuring your questions and providing you with answers straight from the community!
My question for all you AV makers: When someone wants an AV made and details are needed, what’s the best way to break it down so that you as an artist will be satisfied with the information given?
nicole
Care says:
When I say details, this is something I am really looking for on insight. Say you request an avatar for a specific character. What I’m looking for when it comes to details is that I want to know about the character. What is she/he? What is the personality like? What do they enjoy? What do they do for a living? Anything that will help me learn this character and better design an avatar that would ‘fit’ them. Now, for OOC, I would like to know some of your likes and dislikes more then your details, as frankly I know most of you OOCly and I could work with some, but however there are a few that I don’t know and when that comes out, again it’s about your personality. Are you shy? Are you quiet? Do you like naughtiness? Do you like to hang it all out there? That’s what I’m looking for as a designer.
Hippolyta says:
Hello Nicole!
Thank you for your question, and I hope that I can answer it to your satisfaction. I would say there are a few things to break down for an avatar request – and please note, ask ten artists, and you might get ten different answers. But these are, in my humble opinion, what is needed.
– First, and foremost, if the artist you are requesting from have a template for how they would like the information structured – use it!
– Secondly, structure your information clearly. And spell check. Some artists just copy and paste the information for name and extra text that you have provided, so make sure that you are providing the artist with the correct information!
– Thirdly, the following information is usually what an artist needs:
— The name to go on the av.
— Any extra text.
— Model and images.
— What is the avatar for, ie, roleplay or OOC.
— What is the feel, theme, mood, idea… that you have for the avatar.
— What do you hate to see in an avatar – might be frames, a font, a certain colour scheme.
— Any further information, such as, the artist needs to change the eye color, or remove the ear rings from a model.
Hope that answered your question, Nicole!
What constitutes a ‘High Quality’ image [size, clarity, etc]?
malice
Care says:
This one for me, really depends on what you are wanting within the avatar you are requesting for. I am not a real big fan of the giant images, I mean those that are like 2000 x 2000 pixels, that you have to scroll to see the full thing. For me, I’m looking for good quality image rather then “high” quality. I like images between 900 high and 1000 high, Sometimes I will even go with the smaller ones like the ones that are 350 to 400 high as I can and will work with those. Now as for the clarity, I like images that you don’t see little dots in the image – that’s grain, and the more of the grain you see, the worse it is to try to cover up. So I like to have images that are clear and smooth. I can stand a slight grain, but not so much that I can not work it. Other than that, I don’t mind anything else. So I guess it depends upon the designer and artist.
Stabz says:
For me, an image’s quality is directly related to how easily I can manipulate it. Given that I tend to make smaller AVs to begin with, image size is generally a less important factor – having room to play does make things easier there, but I don’t really need to put a firm limit on the minimum dimensions the way some artists do. If a picture is so small I genuinely can’t do anything with it, I can either look for a larger version or move on to another – that’s why we ask for multiple options to work with!
What’s ultimately more important is how “clean” an image is. A picture isn’t automatically high quality just because it’s huge – if you’ve ever done an image search, clicked a link because it met or exceeded your artist’s size requirements, and found out it was nothing but pixellation, you know what I mean! Some artists are capable of smoothing out grainy textures or other artifacts, but I doubt anyone actually enjoys it, and the more grain that’s present, the less likely it is you’ll get a good result. I’m a big fan of filters, actions, and other highly stylized effects, but because they all work by “turning up the dial” on the original image, they “turn up” any imperfections that are present, too. So what I need are images that are clear, crisp, and smooth, particularly when it comes to a model’s skin. The same applies to backgrounds – the more well-defined the boundary between a model and the background, the easier it is to extract them from it. Models that fade into the background (such as when they’re on very bright or very dark backdrops), very busy backgrounds, and scenery that overlaps the model are all more difficult to work with. None of those are deal-breakers for me, but they may be for other artists, and they do play a part when I’m choosing which image to work with!
Do you have a question you’d like to see here? Check out the Ask An Artist thread in our forums to find out how!