Webkinz Insider

guingal36 · 12-22-2011, 02:39 PM

< welcome! >
Over here my motto is, "No program? No problem!" This guide may be helpful for you if:
-you cannot download GIMP
-you don't want to pay for Photoshop
-you're just getting started with graphic making and you want to start out simple
-you're interested in learning how to use websites to make graphics
There's a lot in here, so be prepared to have fun!

< getting started >
This might be the hardest part. If you have no idea what you're doing, don't worry. You won't hurt anyone by experimenting. Let me introduce you to the websites we'll use:
-Weheartit- This is a great website for images.
-Lunapic- A wonderful photo-editing site that is easy to use.
-PicMonkey- Another great photo-editing site. Especially helpful when it comes to resizing and effects. Very similar to Picnik.
-Dafont- A website for finding amazing- and free- fonts!
Here are a couple generators that come in handy:
-Wigflip (Minifesto)- Makes scrolling text for avatars.
-Wigflip (Screedbot)- Makes scrolling text for signatures.
And lastly, the only program in this guide:
-Microsoft Paint- Good for Blawks. If you don't have it, that's alright. That just means you can't make Blawks the way I make them. There may be other ways that others use; try searching around for them.

< about this guide >

means the tutorial is something I've recently put up
[text like this] means that there's a button to click on
SPOILERS mean there's a picture to look at

< my tips for you >
1- Join the Graphics Designer Club here on WI. Post your graphics there, and people can give you pointers and help you if you have an issue.
2- Make a folder or an album of stock photos on your computer. If you see a picture you like, save it to the album and you can use it again later.
3- On your computer's notepad, keep a list of info you use often. Here's something to get you started:

-Avatar size I like to use: 100x100
-The max WI avatar size: 125x125 and/or 48.8 KB
-Signature sizes I like to use: 450x150, 400x132, 250x50
-The max WI signature size: 450x150 and/or 29.3 KB
-WI's avatar background color: #CDE0F0
-WI's signature background color: #DBE7F8

< other things you should know>
If you have any questions, feel free to ask. I'll try to update this guide as often as I can. Don't be frustrated if something goes wrong, just try again. I hope I can help you! Good luck, and happy graphic making!

< table of contents >
Post 1 (you are here): Getting started, tips
Post 2: Stock avatar, minifesto, saving a font to your computer, installing a font to your computer, blend, blend banner
Post 3: Text signature, Blawk, collage
Post 4: Project: Animations, Project: Custom Icons
Post 5: Reserved
Post 6: Reserved
Post 7: Reserved

guingal36 · 12-22-2011, 02:58 PM

< stock avatar >

website(s) you'll use: Weheartit, PicMonkey
picture(s) I'm using: butterflies in a jar

one: Find a nice picture on Weheartit or whichever image site you use and save it to your computer.

two: Open it up on PicMonkey by clicking [Edit a photo].

three: Crop your picture into a square by
1) Clicking the [Crop] button on the left side of the screen.
2) Depending on the size of your picture, crop it to a certain size square (such as 200x200, 400x400, 350x350, etc...).
3) Drag the square to where you want it on your original picture.
4) Click [Apply].

four: Once you've cropped it, click on [Resize] on the left side of the screen.

five: Resize it to 100x100 by entering '100' into one of the text boxes. The other side should change to '100' as well. If it doesn't, just enter '100' into that side as well. Click [Apply].

six: Click [Save] at the bottom left of your screen. Then click the drop down menu and select .png:

Spoiler: show

Save it.

seven: Upload your picture to your favorite uploading site, and you're done!

--

< minifesto >

website(s) you'll use: Wigflip (Minifesto)
picture(s) I'm using: none

one: Go to the minifesto website. (Link on front page).

two: Type what you want to say into the white box as shown:

Spoiler: show

three: To get certain colors, you need to type a certain kind of number into the bg (background) and fg (foreground) boxes. You do that by typing in a number on a chart that looks like this:

Spoiler: show

Basically, if I want a blue background, I'll type '#0033FF' (last row, fourth one) into the 'bg' box. Make sure you put the number sign (#) before your color and make sure all your letters are capitalized. Once you've chosen your colors, type them in the boxes.

four: Click [submit], then save it. You're done!

--

< saving a font to your computer >

website(s) you'll use: Dafont
picture(s) I'm using: none

one: Go to dafont.com.

two: Search for your font.

three: Click the [Download] button next to your font.

four: Go to [Downloads] on your computer, and find the font you downloaded. It should be in a zipped file.

five: Double click your file to open it.

six: Click [Extract all files].

seven: Delete your zipped file.

eight: You're done! Now this font is ready to be used for other things!

--

< installing a font to your computer (PC) >

Continued from < saving a font to your computer >

one: Right click the font folder.

two: Click [Open].

three: Right click on the TTF.

four: Open with > [Windows Font Viewer].

five: Click [Install].

six: You're done! Now your font can be used on MS Paint, Word, and PowerPoint.

Originally Posted by jenniferpro

Hi guin(: For installing fonts to macs, all you have to do is download the file, open it, and hit the install button<3 I didn't know either until I started using my school computer for graphics also<3

--

< blend >

website(s) you'll use: Weheartit, Lunapic
picture(s) I'm using: path, galaxy

one: Find and save two images to blend, from Weheartit or wherever. You can use more, but I'm just doing a simple one now.

two: Go to Lunapic and upload your first picture (the path picture for me) by clicking [Browse], finding your picture, and clicking [Upload Now!].

three: Hover over the word 'Edit' and click [Paste Image from Clipboard], as shown:

Spoiler: show

four: Upload your second image (the galaxy image for me) in the same way you uploaded your image to Lunapic.

five: Drag the second image around on top of the first image to center it. (If the second image is a little bigger than the first image, it doesn't matter if the edges overlap a bit.)

six: Drag the 'Transparency' bar to whatever looks best. I did 57, as shown:

Spoiler: show

seven: Click [Apply Pasted Image]. Then go to 'Save To:' and click [Your Computer]. Save it. When you look for your blend, it will be under 'Downloads' on your computer.

eight: Enjoy! Read on if you'd like to make this blend into a banner.

--

< blend banner >

Continued from < blend >

website(s) you'll use: Lunapic, Dafont
picture(s) I'm using: blend

one: Open your blend on Lunapic.

two: Hover over the word 'Draw' on the top of the screen, and click [Text Tool].

three: Click [Upload] (next to more, second row) and then click [Browse].

four: If you downloaded a font from Dafont (I used Unfolding Tragedy), click [Downloads] on your computer, click the font file you want to use, and click the words next to a little symbol that should say 'TTF' or have a little 'A' on it. That should open up your font on Lunapic. Click [Upload Font].

five: A sample of your font and some words should appear next. Click [Text Tool] (next to the words 'If that looks correct, you may proceed to the').

six: Type the words you want into the first text box. Click anywhere on the screen, and a preview of your text should appear. Fiddle with the size (third text box) and either click [Pick] in the color section to pick a color, or type the name of a color (e.g. 'lime green' or '#000000'). Keep clicking somewhere on the screen to refresh your preview. Here's what I had:

Spoiler: show

seven: Click [Apply Text]. If you want more than one text line, repeat step six. Here's my next text line:

Spoiler: show

eight: When you're done, click [Your Computer], as shown:

Spoiler: show

nine: When you save it, it should show up under 'Downloads' on your computer. You're done!

guingal36 · 12-22-2011, 02:59 PM

< text signature >

website(s) you'll use: Lunapic, Dafont
picture(s) I'm using: template

one: Open the template onto Lunapic.

two: Click [Add Text], as shown:

Spoiler: show

three: Click [Upload] as shown:

Spoiler: show

four: Upload the TTF file for your font. (If you downloaded it from Dafont like I showed above, it should be in the 'Downloads' section of your computer.) The TTF file looked like this for me:

Spoiler: show

I used the fonts Jellyka Cutty Cupcakes and Jellyka Western Princess.
five: Continue to upload your font.

six: Type in your text, and click [Apply Text], as shown:

Spoiler: show

seven: To keep adding more lines of text, repeat step 6. To upload a new font, repeat steps 3-6.

eight: When you like the way your text works, go to Edit > [Crop Image], as shown:

Spoiler: show

nine: Crop your image as small as you possibly can without cutting out text. Click [Crop] when you're ready and [Clear] to clear the box you drew:

Spoiler: show

ten: Click Save to: [Your Computer]. Your image should be under 'Downloads'.

eleven: Upload your image to your favorite uploading site or use it for your signature!

--

< blawk >

website(s) you'll use: MS Paint (it's really a program), Lunapic
picture(s) I'm using: template

one: Open the template onto Paint by going to [Paste] > [Paste From] as shown:

Spoiler: show

two: Move the template around to about the middle of your project.
Note* Once you're done moving it, you can't move it anymore, so make sure you put it in a good spot.

three: These are your tools:

Spoiler: show

Choose the Pencil tool.

four: Zoom in to 800% (bottom right corner of your screen):

Spoiler: show

five: Make your Pencil size the smallest possible and choose your color:

Spoiler: show

six: Use the Bucket tool to fill in your template's background. Then, pixel by pixel, start drawing on your Blawk template. Try to make all your pixels symmetrical. I know it's hard, but it makes your Blawk look better.

seven: Outlining what you drew on your Blawk with a darker shade of that color makes your Blawk look even better Go to [Edit Colors] and move down the bar on the right:

Spoiler: show

eight: Once you're satisfied with the overall look of your Blawk, zoom out to 100%, click [Select], and select a rectangle as close to your Blawk as possible. Once you've done that, click [Crop].

nine: Save your Blawk.

ten: You're almost done, but your Blawk probably has a white background. To get rid of that, open your Blawk onto Lunapic.

eleven: Go to Draw > [Paint Bucket Tool] as shown:

Spoiler: show

twelve: Enter #CDE0F0 (#DBE7F8 if you want your Blawk in a signature) into the 'Solid Color' box:

Spoiler: show

thirteen: Click the white background of the Blawk to fill it in.

fourteen: Click [Save to: Your Computer] to save it. Upload it to your favorite image hosting site, and you're done!

--

< collage >

website(s) you'll use: MS Paint (which is actually a program)
picture(s) I'm using: n/a

one: You'll need some stock avatars for this. (Find out how to make them by scrolling up a bit.) Four, nine, and sixteen avatars combined make nice even squares.

two: Open up Paint, and click [Paste] and them [Paste From]:

Spoiler: show

three: Pick your first picture, and it will come up on Paint.

four: Drag the corners of the picture so that more white space comes up. You'll want to make it pretty big:

Spoiler: show

five: Paste in your next picture, and move it (carefully!) so that it lines up right next to your first picture. If you make a mistake, you can move it again, but once you click elsewhere you'll have to start over.

six: Repeat step five until you have all your pictures. If you run out of white space to paste them in, just drag out the corners more.

seven: Once you have all your pictures, drag the corners (once again, carefully!) so that they line up with your pictures and there are no white spots showing. You may want to zoom in a little.

eight: Save your picture.

nine: Upload it to your favorite image hosting site, and you're done!