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How To Make Dolls

    Since so many people have asked me how to make dolls, and since the sites I refer them to are so out of date, I thought that I should make a tutorial on dolls. So if you you already have the Palace or are making dolls through a drag-n-drop, skip to #4 . If not, start at #1

1. Go to AvatarPalace.net (under DOWNLOADS) and download the Palace CLIENT software (Do NOT download server software).

2. Download and install the Palace software.

3. Go to PalaceNewz.com, and pick Palace U from the menu. Look under "Gettting Started-FAQ". This will tell you the basics of the Palace. You might also try this site: The Palace in Ten Minutes. (Sorry to send you to another site on this one, but how to use the Palace is something that I don't think I could explain in the short-term, so I'm recommending you to sites that have extensive info on the subject.)

4. Visit different Palaces and get "props" (Props are another way of saying clothes, heads, accessories, and all the other things you wear and use to dress your dolls). A list of a few of the THOUSANDS of Palaces can /abe found at www.flyace.com/palace.

5. Once you have props that suit your taste (or just make good dolls), Windows users can open up their Paint program (Go to Start: Programs: Accesories: Paint) to get ready to make dolls. Sorry Mac people, I can't help you here! Make the bitmap large enough for the doll to fit into.

6. On your keyboard along the top row above the letters there is a button that says PrintScrn and below it it says SysRq (The button is found after the F12 button). Press it and then go back to your Paint program.

Step 7

7. In Paint, go to Edit on the top toolbar (The top toolbar says File, Edit, View, Image, Colors and Help. Choose edit). Under edit, select Paste or just press your control (Ctrl) button and V at the same time. It will say "Would you like the bitmap enlarged?" choose "No".

Step 8

8. Once you have pasted it in the program and given it a file name, you now have a basic doll.

Step 9

9. For better-looking dolls, try this: Instead of leaving the background the same color as the Palace room, use the paint bucket option in your toolbar to make the space around your doll white. Then you can save it your doll. The white background looks better, in my opinion. Don't forget to save it. (If you don't know how to save a doll: In your pant program, click on 'File', then select either 'Save' or 'Save As'. If this is too complicated for you, you shouldn't even be making dolls.)

Now, if you are going to simply print out your dolls or use them at the end of your e-mails to make them prettier, you can stop here. If you want to make dolls for your (or someone else's) website, then keep reading.

10. Okay, now when you go to save the doll, you have three basic options of what format to save them in.

  • .bmp format-Bitmaps will save the quality of the doll, but they take FOREVER to download, especially if you have a lot of them on a page. I'd reccomend any other form but .bmp

  • .jpg (.jpeg) format-JPEGs are a hell of a lot easier on the loading time if you're going to put them on a site. They download much faster than a .bmp. However, they get fuzzy (the technical term is dithered) and you can't make their backgrounds transparent.

  • .gif format-GIFs are the best by far because they retain the image quality and download faster than bitmaps, plus you can give them transparent backgrounds so they can be used on any page. However, sometimes saving an image in a .gif format will make the color darker and mess up the whole image. If you want to save it in a .gif without messing up the color, there are other programs you can use. You can use Paint Shop Pro 7, which you can download for free from Jasc.com. Watch out though, it's only a 30-day free trial. However, if you're just interested in making dolls and a few cool graphics, then I highly recommend Ulimate Paint, which is freeware and does some pretty cool stuff for a free program. I've made all the graphics on the site with the help of this program.

    Step 11

    11. Now, if you want to get really spiffy dolls like I have, you need to go through a few more steps. Go to Colors on the top toolbar and select "Edit Colors". It will have Basic Colors and Custom Colors. Hit "Define Custom Colors". Then with your mouse, move down the color scale a bit and pick an off-white color. Then hit "Add to Custom Colors".

    12. Take your new off-white color and fill in all the white spaces on your doll while leaving the background pure white. (I recomment pure white because other colors might leave a funky-colored background when you try to transparentize it.) Don't forget to fill in the whites of the eyes. Once that is done, save it in the program of your choice as a .gif file.

    13. Sign in to your website and upload the dolls.

    Step 14

    14. Go to Transweb Transparent Gif Service and enter the image url of your doll. Once it is entered, press "Submit This URL".

    Step 15

    15. After that, click in the white area around the doll that is still in the blue border. The next image you see will be the doll without the border. That is your doll, but with a transparent background! Save it to your hard drive.

    16. For Geocities users: Now that Geocities doesn't allow image linking, you might not be able to use the above method, since when I tried to use the Image Map version, it showed an X. However, we can use the Form-Based Version of Transweb.


    17. To use the form-based version, go the above URL. Under "Image URL", put the exact address of the doll, like I've done. Under "Red" "Green" and "Blue", put 255. 255 is the RGB value of the color white. And if you read the directions, you should have left the doll's background white. You can use other colors, I believe. However, they might come out with a different color background that will show up and they won't be truly transparent. Choose the button that says "Decimal". Trust me. Then click "Submit These Values". The next thing you will see is your doll, transparentized and ready to go!

    18. Then go back to your website and delete version of the doll with the white background, then upload the one with the transparent background (Geocities users can just upload the new doll, and it will take the place of the old one. Angelfire users can click the "Overwrite" box and the new doll will take the place of the old one). Voila! A doll ready to be used with any background.

    Want more? Check out How To Edit.