Hey folks, have you ever wanted to see what you’d look like cartoonified?
Well, you’re just in luck! As we present to you a template for you to easily create your own custom avatars in Aviary in mere seconds, in a feature we like to call, “Creating Custom Avatars in Aviary in Mere Seconds.” (Creative name, eh?)
Begin by launching the template above.
If the screen looks confusing to you at first, don’t fret! I’m here to show you all you need to know in order to create your very own custom avatar in seconds!
Unless you are in actuality a baldy no-face, the avatar might not look anything like you to begin with.
The template is open for as much customization as you desire, or as little as you want if you aren’t the dawdling, extensive type.
Let’s begin by changing the color of your shirt!
To change colors of any of the elements in the picture, follow these simple steps.
1. Click the element you want to alter, in this example, the green of the shirt.
2. Click the Color box from the Fill menu on the bottom right of the workspace.
3. This will bring up the Color Picker, from where you can select your desired color.
4. Click “Ok” and your piece will be altered with your selected color!
Next, we can begin to fill in the facial features. Of course, you are free to draw in your own facial features using Raven’s powerful drawing tools.
Or you can use the provided facial features in the template.
Let’s begin with the eyes.
To set a style of eyes for your character,
1. Click the arrow next to the layer labeled “SELECT YOUR EYES” from the Layers menu to expand your options.
2. Toggle the visibility icon next to the various eye samples on and off to view them and select the eye you want to use.
As with the shirt color, you can alter the color of the avatar’s eyes the same way, by selecting the iris’ and setting the color using the Color Picker.
Additionally, you can move, resize, and rotate any element in the design as you see fit. To do so, select the square box on the right of your desired layer from the Layers menu.
This will create a bounding box around the selected element from which you can drag to move, or drag the corner handles to resize the area.
Continue this process to add in your desired eyebrows, nose, mouth, hair, and any accessories you deem fit. If you’re already versed in vector editing, feel free to customize It further by drawing in your own features!
When you are satisfied with your avatar, select File > Save As and follow the onscreen instructions to save your creation to Aviary in case you want to come back and edit your avatar later.
Then, you can save the image to your computer by selecting Export > Export Bitmap, to save your image as a .jpg on your computer (Note: Make sure to save your image with the “.jpg” file extension.)
Then upload your avatar to your profile in your favorite online community for all to see you in all your cartoonified glory!
So, go on and try making yourself! Or make your favorite character or celebrity!
Can you guess who these are?
Check out some of these user created avatars showcasing various levels of customization you can incorporate into your own design:
Have you ever had the perfect idea for a t-shirt and wanted to see it in print? Do you ever find yourself perusing the t-shirt designs at your local clothing establishment thinking to yourself, "People get paid to design these???" Or are you just plain sick of being naked?
Whatever the case, you can satisfy any one of these problems by creating your own t-shirt designs and submitting them to threadless.com, where you can win up to $2500+ in cash and prizes, not to mention seeing your very own t-shirt design in print!
First, launch Raven, Aviary's Vector Editor, to draw your t-shirt design.
Then, it's all a matter of creating your brilliant idea using Raven's powerful vector drawing tools.
New to Raven? Here's a tutorial on the basic functions of Raven to help you get started creating vector art.
Here's the super hilarious design I drew for my shirt.
(Click to view layered file)
In the event your image is chosen for print on threadless, you'll need to provide them with your vector file. So, you'll want to export your design to .eps format.
To export the vector file of your image, select File > Export to EPS from Raven and click Save to generate an .eps for your design.
Once complete, simply press the Download button, name your file (remember to save the file with the .eps extension!), and save it to your computer!
Now that you have your design all created and ready to go, you'll need to prepare the submission files for threadless.
You will need to prepare two presentation images for submission; one low resolution preview of your design, and a 100px x 70px thumbnail.
Creating your submission files in Aviary is simple!
First, open the Threadless tee template in Raven, the Vector Editor.
Then, select which color t-shirt you want your design to appear on from the Layers Panel by enabling the "eye" icon next to the t-shirt color of your choice.
Next, you'll need to import your design into the template.
Select File > Import file, and select Aviary Library. From here, you can select your t-shirt design and import it directly into the template.
Then, you'll want to export a bitmap version of this image which you can upload to threadless.
Select, File > Export Bitmap and press "generate image" to save the bitmap image to your computer.
Finally, you'll need to generate a thumbnail of your image as well. You can do this by opening your t-shirt design file in Phoenix, and using the Image > Resize Image function to fit the 100px x 70px size specifics.
Then, it's all a matter of uploading your design to threadless using their handy submission form.
Then sit back, wait for the money to roll in, and do it all over again!
Go on and create some t-shirt designs yourself!
Fame and fortune await you!
Be sure to read through all the documentation provided on threadless.com prior to submitting your designs.
Aviary's Vector Editor, Raven, now includes the awesome feature of bitmap tracing. Allowing you to quickly convert bitmap pictures into vectors!
Simply import an image then choose the Object dropdown menu and select Trace Bitmap
Select what type of vector layers you would like:
Bam!
What are you waiting for, go convert your pics into vector art!
We are excited to announce that we have released Raven, the very first web-based vector editor, into the wild. Raven, Aviary's online vector editor, is the first and only tool of its kind to be available online.
Here's an example of the complex vector art capable of being created in it:
Octo Tea created by Mpeutz
It's not just limited to complex vector art though: It enables anyone to create the following right in their favorite browser for free.
* Logos
* Clip Art
* Complex vector art
* T-shirt & clothing design
* Large print-ready graphics
Here's a video of Raven in action as recorded by Mpeutz:
Aviary vector icons from mpeutz on Vimeo.
You can even view the layered file for Mpeutz's icon creation with out having to be signed into Aviary.
Here are some examples of raven files created by the community:
Logo Example
Aviary Logo created by MPeutz
view layered file
Simple Clip Art Example:
Snow Tree created by MPeutz
view layered file
A complete list of features included in this release of Raven here, along with the upcoming feature set.
If you are keeping score at home, Aviary's public beta family now includes 4 web applications that enable creativity directly from your browser.
* Phoenix, Aviary's online image editor
* Peacock, Aviary's online visual laboratory
* Toucan, Aviary's online color swatch application
* Raven, Aviary's online vector editor
============================================================== Aviary is a suite of powerful creative applications that you can use right in your web browser. Its easy to start creating, sharing, and collaborating with our community of artists. Sign up now for free!
Here's a video demonstration of Aviary icons being made in Raven, Aviary's vector editor, currently in alpha release to Aviary Pro members.
End result:
After lots of hard work, we're finally getting ready to release another one of our Flash-based applications, our vector editor Raven. The obvious analogy would be to desktop software like Adobe Illustrator, Corel Draw or Inkscape.
From a commercial standpoint, we're really excited to release Raven into the wild because vectors are infinitely scalable and are used in everything from logo design to t-shirts to clip art. In other words, whereas Phoenix is not ideal for native high resolution design, Raven is very well suited for it.
Many of you have asked about how vectors will integrate with other tools: so we'll confirm here that the code base will be ported to all tools in the suite that can make use of it.
- Phoenix: We'll add a Pen-tool for use in the creation of reusable vector paths for making editable shapes and selections.
- Horus and Owl, our font and desktop layout editors, will also make use of this engine to edit vectors directly.
Raven will be a phenomenal way of driving graphic design services through Aviary's market place. Can you imagine a website where an artist can be hired to design a logo, chat with the client, share revisions (and even edit live in front of the client), manage their work flow and finally provide the final source files right to the client who doesn't need any special software to open it, all from within a single interface?
Another situation where the technology would be useful is for online clothing design communities whose members will no longer need to purchase and/or troubleshoot install expensive desktop software in order to jump in and design clothing!
To be one of the first to get access to Raven, sign up at http://a.viary.com/ for an invitation. If you are already in the system, no need to resign up. Just drop us a note in the forums and we'll add it to your account as soon as we release it.
I wanted to showcase some of our talented Artist in Residence's work for our upcoming marketing campaign. This is the artwork and some rough text layout for the part of the campaign for Raven, our vector editor.
This particular ad is inspired by and parodies Marcos Chin's stunning work for Lava Life.
Our artist is Brent Koby, otherwise known affectionately to Worth1000 users as Meowza.
We are creating an ad for almost every tool on our list.
All Brent's artwork created for the campaign will be purchasable on mounted posters through our market once we launch (with or without ad text). We created everything to be stand-alone beautiful on their own.
Another example of an ad was already displayed on our blog (the artwork will also be used in our upcoming book).
PS. I've been told by some people they want this blog to focus on the tool development alone, but I have to disagree. Our marketing is just as important as the tools they help promote. It doesn't matter how great our tools work - without an attractive message drawing people in, nobody will ever want to try them in the first place. If you agree and would like to see more artwork for our upcoming campaigns, let me know in the comments below.
Update! Even our error messages were done by Brent. For instance, here is a nice easter egg for those of you who encounter any errors on our site.
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Try Out Aviary»
Aviary is a powerful suite of browser-based design tools for people who create. Head on over to the Aviary homepage to try the applications out and learn more. It's free to try our tools or sign up!
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