Character "Portrait" Tutorial
So, after being asked yet once more how to do the "portrait" images that kind of became a minor feature of our RPs, thanks to my friend @WaddleDaisy first introducing it to us (Yes, I know people did that before, but our semi-regular group got it from Waddle first, that's why I'm crediting them.), I decided to make it into a short tutorial just so that I could point people to it, 'cause laziness...
Anyway, without further ado, here's what you'll need to do it:
- An image you want to edit;
- GIMP 2.0 (or any other image manipulation software);
- An account at imgur.com.
1st Step:
Find the image you want to edit and open it on GIMP. I for once will use the image bellow, since I already have plans to use her to represent a character on my RP, Chasers: Boundary of the Crimson Sky.
Once open (I'll leave this step to you), GIMP's interface should look like this:
2nd Step:
Create new image to house your portrait. Click on File and then New, and set the size of your image (I use 240 x 240 px, because I think it's good size for both PC and mobile reading, but you're free to chose yours).
Important!
Before clicking OK, be sure to check the advanced options and set the image's resolution (again, I recommend 96 ppi for a balance between quality and size, but the choice is yours). Absolutely make sure that the "Fill with" box is set to Transparency, otherwise you'll have to do another step to clean the background color, which I'm not going to cover, since this isn't about what this tutorial is about.
That done, hit "OK" and t you should get this screen as a result:
3rd Step:
Crop the original image. Go back to the first image and select the "Ellipse Select Tool":
The result should be this:
Now, make sure it's configured just like the image above, before selecting the regiong of the image you want to use (size here doesn't matter), click once to confirm the selection and copy it with the good ol' Cntrl+C.
4th Step:
Resize, align and export. Go back to your emtpy canvas and paste your selection, then click on the "Scale" tool and click over your selection:
As you can see on my side it's outrageously larger than the size I want to use, so I do resize it from the box that pops up (Remember to lock the proportions, clicking on the chain lick icon):
When you are done, the image will probably be a random place on the workspace, so zoom out (cntrl+mouse wheeel) and find the selection ares, then select the "Align" tool:
Click on "Align Center" and then "Align Middle", to make you image go where you want it to, like this:
Now, click on file again and on "Export":
Don't mess with anything here unless you know what you are doing, just rename the file (if you want to and save it to the Desktop, to facilitate the next step). After being sure everything is done right, close GIMP and discard all the changes.
5th Step:
Upload to imgur. Log on imgur.com and click on upload image, the resulting screen is bellow:
Drag your image from the desk top to the imgur interface:
The resulting screen will pop:
Now start the upload, and once it's done, copy the direct link code and have fun! The result of it all is right bellow:
Orihime Tokisada, the Puppeteer
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