Social networks have firmly taken an important place in the lives of almost every member of the younger generation.
Communication, games, getting interesting and important information - this is not all that VKontakte users get. They are happy to share stories from their lives (real and fictional), invite friends to rate and comment on new photos in order to brag about the events that have happened. And setting an avatar (the main photo that is displayed on the main page) becomes an important process. Nowadays, few people will be surprised by a beautiful photo - thanks to the variety of different programs on the Internet, you can make a real work of art, partially or completely changing your appearance. And those who still don’t know how to make a cool avatar for VKontakte can use a few tips.
Cool avatar without editing
The hardest thing is to take a perfect photo without processing it in special programs. But if you don’t have Photoshop skills or want to make a natural, but cool avatar, then you will need the following:
- Camera
- Fan
- Lamp
- Good mood.
Remember one rule: never, under any circumstances, take pictures in a bad mood. Your posture will be constrained, your smile will be fake, and your eyes will be dull. If you want a really cool avatar, go to the photo shoot only in a good mood.
Second rule: do not hire an inexperienced friend or a person under the influence of alcohol (even a slight one) as a photographer. Nothing good will come of such an idea; it’s better to buy a tripod and install the camera on it. This will allow you to work on creating an avatar for an unlimited amount of time, without listening to your friend’s dissatisfaction.
So, the camera is ready, configured for natural lighting (based on the time of day, set the appropriate settings in the equipment menu). Additionally, you will need another light source that will be directed towards you. An ordinary floor lamp or even a table lamp, installed in such a way that your torso is fully illuminated, is suitable for this.
And now about the poses
Girls and boys should be photographed differently! In the pictures you will see the most interesting poses for girls and boys. It’s better to choose several options at once to see in which cases your best sides are revealed. For girls with long hair, you can use a fan, which will make the facial expression more sexy with a slightly tousled hairstyle.
Your face should be relaxed and your smile natural. Don't try to make yourself look sexually desirable by squinting your eyes and opening your mouth. It would be better to look at a photo in which the girl lights up with her beautiful, radiant smile, displaying her gentle character.
FaceQ
If you can draw, then FaceQ is for you. You can draw your own avatar! What if I can't? You can use built-in extensive libraries. Here's how it works. First you choose your gender, then you can choose your appearance features, such as hair, eyebrows, lips, nose, clothes, as well as backgrounds, emotions, text and much more. You can spend hours on FaceQ, perfecting your avatar and trying out different looks. FaceQ is free and ad-free.
Making a cool avatar in the program
Nowadays you can find many photo editing programs on the Internet. They are very convenient to use; just upload your best photo and create the desired effects. To make your avatar cool, use the following options:
- Red eye removal (this is mandatory);
- Photo aging effect – suitable for low-quality photographs when you need to hide imperfections on the face;
- Black and white photo - solves several problems at once, including the elimination of red eyes, age spots on the face, acne, figure flaws;
- Resizing – you can crop the photo as you wish, leaving only the face or eliminating the ugly background at the bottom or top of the photo.
How to make an avatar (ava) for a VK group, step-by-step instructions?
Having created a group, the first thing we do is create an avatar, the face of the group, thereby setting the main tone of the design. Remember that the photo format must be JPG, GIF or PNG.
- Launch the Photoshop program, in the “File” menu, click on “New”.
- Next you need to specify the permission for the avatar. Then you need to confirm the specified permission by clicking on “Create”.
Remember that the ava must correspond to the overall design of the group. Also, do not place a lot of text on your avatar, as when loading, a thumbnail will be created with automatic dimensions of 200x200 pixels, and some text will not be displayed. - After creating and editing a photo, you need to properly save the image in order to later upload it to the VKontakte group.
In a number of settings, check the box next to “Convert to sRGB”. - At the bottom of the window, click “Save.”
Now we proceed directly to uploading the avatar to VK.
- Once you open your group's main page, click on "Upload a photo."
- Then select the desired image on your PC. After uploading the photo, click “Save and Continue.”
- The next stage is choosing a square area for a photo or miniature. It will be displayed as the ava of your VKontakte group and will automatically adjust to the dimensions of 200x200 pixels. The thumbnail will be used in general lists of groups and in news. The thumbnail is small in size, but it is with its help that the group gains more subscribers. After selecting the desired area for the thumbnail, click “Save Changes.”
- Voila - your avatar for the group is ready.
Photo editing
If you don’t like the photo at all, you can change it completely. To do this, download any program (Photoshop, PhotoScape, etc.), upload a photo and start creating. These utilities allow you to make adjustments to your face, for example, change eye color, nose shape, make your skin color even, with a tan effect, and eliminate unsightly spots. In photo editing programs, you can change the background, set a frame, or move yourself to the seaside.
However, don't overdo it. Often girls try to make themselves “queens” in the literal sense of the word, placing their face in a ready-made sketch. In some cases it looks impressive, but without experience with such programs, the picture turns out funny and ridiculous. Try to create a natural avatar so that no one will understand that it has been processed.
First, let's choose a social network for which we will make an Ava. Let's start with Instagram. For Instagram you need an image of only 110x110 pixels. Let’s open our favorite program, I’m sure you’ve started to understand it and the interface no longer causes fear. I will make an avatar from such a funny picture.
Add a picture, click on the Crop tool and enter the parameters 110x110 pixels, select the area we need and press Enter. This is how an avatar is created. If you don't like the white background, you can change it, this is where layers come into play.
Make a copy of the layer. And we select the border of the image we need; in my case, it’s a car and a girl, for this I use the “Magnetic Lasso”, there is also manual selection of the image, but this process is quite long and painstaking, in the “Feather” panel you must set 2.5 px.
After everything is selected, press Shift+Ctrl+I and Ctrl+X, or click SelectInvert and Ctrl+X in the interface, and in the end we get an image without a background. We delete the picture with the background and create a white layer with the proportions we need and paint over it.
Here it all depends on your imagination, you can paint it as you want, you can also insert various patterns and text. Let's hide the layer with our background for a while and look at the picture, is everything okay? Maybe a liner is needed?
To do this, the layers interface has the “Add Layer Style” function. Photoshop offers a lot of choice, of course you can experiment with each function, but I will choose the stroke.
There is also a small nuance here, it is advisable not to set the stroke size to more than 3 px, and it is better to look at the position in the image, sometimes the inner stroke looks better than the outer one, the color is of course also your choice, but black will look better.
So, I have a turquoise background and a cut out image, it's time to combine them, remember how to do this? Click on the eye and make our background visible. It would seem that everything is ready, but not yet.
You can merge layers by right-clicking and selecting “Merge Visible” or using the Ctrl+E key combination. Voila, our cool avaka is ready, it only took a few steps.
Next on our list will be an avatar for the VK group and for YouTube. Research shows that people are attracted to bright and clear pictures. One of the keys to the success of a group is its design.
The minimum size offered by VKontakte is 200×200 px, the maximum proportions are 200×500 px, the ratio is 2 to 5, and on YouTube it is 800×800 px. The best option for an avatar for these social networks would be an image of a product or a logo, but there are also simple photos and also drawn characters.
We will look at the example of a product. Let’s take “Confectionery” as an example, make an image for the group, in which photos of finished baked goods are posted and discussions, competitions are created, video tutorials and reviews of baked goods are posted on the YouTube account. Based on this, let's try to create a cool, attention-grabbing picture. Let's go.
I think it would be advisable to create an avka with a maximum size. Let's return to our Photoshop. Have you chosen what you will use to create a masterpiece?
The principle of operation is the same as when creating an avka for insta, you just need to work with the proportions, and let’s look at some features, text, patterns, symbols. So, let's begin.
Professional avatar
There is another way to make a beautiful avatar. Contact professional editors who know how to turn any photo, even the most low-quality one, into a gorgeous photo. You will have to pay for this, but sometimes you won’t do anything for the sake of a large number of likes and comments on your VKontakte page.
When working with various photo editing programs, do not forget to save the finished results. Inspired by new ideas, you can become so absorbed in the process that you lose all the avatars you have made due to your own carelessness. And don’t rush to criticize the finished photographs - look at them tomorrow, perhaps your view will change, and you will fall in love with your own photographs.
Group Templates
Templates for VK groups can be found on sites such as:
- all-for-vkontakte. Here you can download menus for various groups, from salon themes to martial arts.
- mir-devil. Numerous covers, bright and attractive. You can download it for free.
- scriptmaster. Large VK design pack, including menu.
How to invite people to a community on VKontakte
Bitmoji
Bitmoji is one of the best options for creating emojis and avatars. Its advantage is support for third-party applications. Bitmoji works with SnapChat, Gboard, and more. Here you can use the keyboard to directly select and upload your custom avatars, for example, in WhatsApp.
Bitmoji will make an avatar that looks just like you. You take a selfie, and it reads features of your appearance, such as your hairline, beard shape, lip curve, and other features, to create an animated version of you. This way, people who know you personally will recognize you in the picture, and those who don't know you will get an idea of what you look like without even seeing a real photo of you. Once your avatar is ready, Bitmoji will create an entire library of you in different poses, doing different activities, and it will all be YOU.
Available for Android and iPhone.
MSQRD (project closed)
MSQRD (short for Masquerade) is a live avatar maker using vector art. Just launch it and you can see in real time how you look while trying on new looks.
MSQRD is an application with live filters that offers to mask your face so that something of you remains behind this mask, and at the same time you will be safely hidden. You can also create images or record videos. MSQRD is completely free and has no ads. The latter is quite surprising, since it was acquired by Facebook.
