Paint.NET Signature and Avatar Tutorial

This tutorial requires nothing complex from you, except for the fact that you have Paint.NET, and can run it. Version 3.22 will be used in this tutorial.

Let's start off by going to File > New (or Ctrl + N). A window should pop up that says "New." We're going to start off with a signature. Standard signature size is 450 x 150 pixels, and a good resolution for the web is 96.00. Note that standard print is at least 300 resolution, and good quality is 2000 resolution. However, those take too long to load on the web, so 72 or 96 should be used.

Afterwards, you'll be left with the canvas, colored white, and some floating toolbars. Following the Photoshop model, we have, in reading order, the Tools toolbar (where your basic stuff is), the History (which allows you to undo everything up to the creation of the canvas), your color chooser (click the "More >>" button for extended options, including a Hexidecimal code area), and the Layer box that allows you to control your layers.

Users of Photoshop should instantly be able to see how much visibly lighter Paint.NET is, though more toolbars may be accessed upon command and with addons.

Play around with the tools a little, and see what all they do. Then move on.

Trimming and Placing Pictures

The most basic thing that can be done with a signature is adding outside pictures. These pictures allow us to make a more authentic feel to our signatures, avatars, and the like. The first thing to do is, of course, find the pictures. It doesn't matter where you find the pictures, really, just as long as they'll work for you. It is recommended, however, that you get them from the original source as often as possible. For example, consider the following two pictures:

http://www.smashbros.com/en_us/characters/images/snake/snake.jpg
http://baxaj.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/09/snaketn_1.jpg

The first picture is taken directly from the home site of the game, whereas the other was found using an image search. To the untrained eye, this means nothing except that one's larger. However, if you look closely at the second one, you'll see an odd cloud of pixels around the character that aren't in the first one. This cloud of pixels is a tell-tale sign of poor image quality, and you should avoid using those kinds of pictures. The clearest, and most appropriately sized pictures should be your first choice.

So, now that you've found a good picture, you'll need to get it into your art. Copy the picture, select File > New (or Ctrl + N) in Paint.NET, and the dimensions will already be set to the size of the copied picture. Click "OK," and then paste the image (Edit > Paste or Ctrl + V). There are also options under the Edit menu to directly paste the image into a new Layer or Image (you can find the shortcuts in the dropdown menu in Paint.NET).

There are a few things you may want to do from here. You may want to sharpen, "cut out" a character or object, or resize. Sharpening is a tricky process, since doing it too much will ruin the picture, and doing it too little will make it too fuzzy. If you don't have an eye for these things, then just leave sharpening alone, because you should be fine regardless. However, if you're going to do it, sharpen before doing anything else to the picture.

Before you resize, you'll want to do all trimming. If you resize before you trim, the resizing process may merge pixels and such in a fashion that will just give you problems when you go to trim. To begin trimming, you'll want to grab the "Magic Wand" tool. The Magic Wand will select all pixels connected to the clicked pixel that have a color relation to the degree set. This "Tolerance" can be adjusted on the bottom toolbar above the canvas area. A Tolerance of 0 will mean that only that color will be selected, while a tolerance of 100 will select everything on the layer (though Ctrl + A, which is "Select All," is much more appropriate for doing so). Generally, a tolerance between 30-40 will be enough to select all excess material. Set your tolerance and click somewhere in the background of the image. You will see the selected area surrounded by a crawling dashed border. If anything within the border is something you wanted, then try adjusting the Tolerance or selecting somewhere else. When you have a good chunk that you want gone, simply press [Delete]. Eventually you'll find that you'll run out of stuff that the Magic wand can grab without getting the character. When this happens, you will want to either switch to the "Lasso Select" or the "Eraser." The Lasso Select will allow you to click and drag an area so that you can be a little more precise about the deletion. The Eraser will simply obliterate the pixels it comes across. For this part, an eraser size of 3-5 is most appropriate, and make sure to turn the Anti-Aliasing (AA) off. If you don't, there's a chance that small, unnoticed specks of color will be lurking around to ruin your picture. Try to get most of the excess stuff away, but don't trim too close to the character at this point. Throughout this part, you may want to add another layer (Add New Layer, then click Move Layer Down) to the background. You can change the color of this layer to make sure that the pixels stand out, allowing you to see things you otherwisely may miss. Once you have your character surrounded in a nice film of background, get the Eraser, turn the AA back on, and set the size to 1-3. Then erase the last bits around the character. The Anti-Aliasing will get rid of the excess background while smoothing out the edges, which is always pleasurable.

Once you have all of that done, you may want to resize. To do this, simply go to Images > Resize. Do all of your resizing now, before you move the picture to your signature or avatar, as the Resize option will give you the best results (and remember your "Undo" ability on the History panel). Make sure that the "Maintain Aspect Ratio" box is checked, and then type in the new height or width that you need to get it to fit. The other parameter will be automatically changed to match the proper proportions, and you can select "OK."

As a note, more often than not it is better to have a character too large for the picture, and merely have only part of them in it. This will produce a much better work than having too many resized images that fit perfectly.

When you are ready to put the character in the sig or avatar, use Ctrl + A to select the layer that he's on, and copy it. Go to your sig or avatar that's being worked on, and create a new layer to paste into (or select the Paste in New Layer option mentioned before). If the picture is too large, you will be asked if you want to resize the canvas. Select "No." Move the picture around until you have it where you want, but note that de-selecting the image will result in anything not on the canvas to be deleted, so get the positioning right the first time (or, in the very least, keep the original image opened for backup).

Keep the pictures included to a minimum. Depending on the character and the theme of the sig, generally it's best to keep everything off-center. However, for more "technical" feels, trying to get everything exact may work best.