Written for @SybaSigns in Australia - this is the full article that is also available for download on their site: www.sybasigns.com.au/its_a_cartoon_its_an_avatar.pdf or http://goo.gl/bq6XY

1. ARTICLE BY GWYNETH JONES - THE DARING LIBRARIAN
It’s a cartoon! It’s an avatar!
It’s 20 super sites to a new animated you!
Want to jump-start your web presence and connect with your Consider creating avatars for students who are
school community in a hip happening animated way? Channel blogging or contributing to wiki discussions.
your inner super hero with easy and fun character creators! Having an icon to speak from sometimes frees
Here’s a list of more than 20 websites that you can use to create students, especially the more shy or reticent, to
fun avatars. really express themselves without restraint.
Creating a signature avatar is also a fun way to create a brand This concept can work for shy grown-ups, too!
image. Though this article is aimed at teacher librarians Either way, having a fun signature avatar is great to
creating avatars for themselves and not with classrooms of use with Twitter, blogging, commenting, Slideshare,
students, there are several sites here that kids would dig and business cards, and a whole host all of social media
would also be appropriate to use with them. communications. Super hero cape optional!
1. Ultimate Flash Face v0.42b 5. WeeMee
http://flashface.ctapt.de/ http://www.weeworld.com/
Channel your inner CSI detective with this site, which is quite Use this site to create a wee
like a police photofit – very sketchy! mini version of yourself plus
you can add all kinds of fun
(and geeky!) accessories.
2. Make yourself in Lego There’s plenty of scope for
http://reasonablyclever.com/mini/flash/minifig.swf customization of your avatar.
Hint: Use the dropdown to select categories and browse
Produce a Lego character that looks like you. through your options and screenshot when you’re happy.
3. Mr. Picassohead 6. Mii Avatar Generator
http://www.picassohead.com/ http://www.wiiplayable.com/playgame.php?gameid=157
create.html
Like WeeMee (mentioned above) this is an easy way to create a
Become an abstract work of Mii style characters as found on the Wii computer console.
art in the style of Picasso with
Mr. Picassohead. Put your eyes,
nose, and ears wherever you 7. South Park studio
want! http://www.sp-studio.de/
Even if you’re a soulless
ginger like me, you too can
4. Simpsons Movie have your own South Park
http://www.simpsonsmovie. avatar! You can choose
com/main.html your clothes, jewellery, hair,
expression, and background.
Ever want to be a Simpsons Hint: Make sure to save
character? Now you can create one cartoon without a
your own Simpsons-style background for photo fun
doppelganger in the style of inserting “yourself” into other pictures. With Photoshop go to
the Simpsons. It’s pretty easy Magic Eraser and take out background and save as a .PNG. Now
and fun to choose the clothes, you can insert your cartoon into any background!
hair, etc, but do note that the
saving feature didn’t work for
me the two times I tried it so
when you get your character
the way you want it – take a
screenshot!
www.sybasigns.com.au

2. 8. WimpYourself 15. ToonDoo
http://www.wimpyourself. http://www.toondoo.com/
com/
Very easy to do and super
Cartoon yourself in the fun site to create your own
popular style of Diary of a comic strips! From the helpful
Wimpy Kid book series! ToonDoo wiki some of the
outstanding features: drag ‘n
drop assets, 1, 2 or 3-panel
comic strips, can be used with multiple languages, and the
9. HeroMachine 2.5 ability to choose from a vast variety of characters, props and
http://www.ugo.com/games/superhero-generator- backgrounds categorized into specific galleries.
heromachine-2-5
Turn yourself into a super hero character. This would also be 16. Toonlet
great as a part of a digital storytelling resource or story starter. http://toonlet.com/
Allows students to create their own comic strips populated by
10. Marvel’s Superhero Avatar Maker their own characters. They can choose how many frames they
http://marvel.com/games/play/31/create_your_own_superhero want for their cartoon, and the simple editor makes it easy to
drop their characters into a story.
11. Design a Marvel Superhero Comic Strip
http://marvelkids.marvel.com/shows/122/the_super_hero_ 17. Clay Yourself
squad_show http://clayyourself.com/
Sponsored by Hotels.com
12. Design Superhero Speech bubbles and Text Clay Yourself lets you create
http://www.superlame.com/ a version of yourself in
modeling clay. You can start
with the given facial frames
and then customize other
13. Hero Factory features. These features
http://cpbherofactory.com/ include hairstyle, eyes, eyebrows, glasses, eyeballs, nose, and
mouth. When you are done with your customization you can
Use this as an alternative to share your character on Facebook or Twitter. You can also
Hero Machine. download your character in JPG format or take a screenshot.
It’s Claytastic!
18. ArtisanCam
14. BuiLD YouR WiLD http://www.artisancam.
SeLF org.uk/flashapps/
http://www.buildyourwildself. exploreselfportraits/
com/
A quick way of producing a
From the Wildlife sketch version of yourself.
Conservation Society: Create Limited choices, for example
an avatar out of bits and I couldn’t get my red hair –
pieces of humans and other had to settle for pink!
animals – head, arms, legs, clothes, eyes, mouth, tail,
wings, shells … just pick the parts you like and assemble them
together, choose a background, and at the end you’ll get
animorphtastic name and description!
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3. 19. Mad Men Yourself 20. Go!Animate
http://www.amctv.com/ http://goanimate.com/
madmenyourself/ videomaker
NOT for the students. Finally, my favourite, and
Fans of the TV show Mad the site that has the comic
Men can create a sharp chops to make the most
dressed 60s-style avatar of customized avatars is the
themselves. Go!Animate Comic World Character Creator. Though this takes
the most time to master it has the most potential for avatar
greatness! And it makes those avatars characters in your
own animated cartoons! GoAnimate also has a very helpful
forum for questions and a friendly and responsive community
manager. Check out my wikipage for an animation example,
all the directions, and to get the Comic Tutorial.
Whatever site or style you choose, have fun and let your
imagination go when it comes to creating your super hero
animated avatar!
Some sites allow you to save the finished creation as a jpg. If
not, then take a screenshot, paste into a paint program, crop
and save as a JPG. One of my favourite new free digital image
manipulation sites is picmonkey.com. If one of these avatar
creation sites is blocked by your district filter or firewall, go on
to the next one ... OR ... do this at home! Be an Avatar Ninja!
Active links and more information to all these sites can be
found on my Daring Tech Character Creator wikipage
(http://thedaringlibrarian.wikispaces.com/Avatar_Generators),
and several postings with even more examples,
how-tos and tech tips can be found on my blog http://www.
thedaringlibrarian.com/
Now go forth and be animated!
Gwyneth Jones, along with colleague Dr Joyce Valenza, will be joining Syba Signs for a series
of seminars in July/August, 2012, in Sydney, Adelaide and Perth. See our website for more
information www.sybasigns.com.au/seminars
www.sybasigns.com.au