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Avatars!

PostPosted: Sun Aug 24, 2003 12:27 pm
by Raf
just checking my brand spanking new avatar....

for those of you who wondered: this is my VBM Domobar

how?

PostPosted: Tue Aug 26, 2003 6:52 pm
by Sunnyfield
How do you load up your own avatar?

Eward

To get your own avatar

PostPosted: Tue Aug 26, 2003 7:55 pm
by phil
Update your profile. I switched this feature on.

PostPosted: Tue Dec 16, 2003 1:35 am
by Joey
Help please!
I don't find a possibility to change the avatar in my profile. I find the list with the .gifs with the numbers.... but where is the button that lets me upload my own picture?
Am I blind?
Thanks for your help!
Joey

PostPosted: Tue Dec 16, 2003 2:12 am
by Joey
Ok, I found out which "profile" button I have to use to upload an avatar - next problem:
My pic was a jpg with 6k, 45x45 pixels - in Photoshop. Saving it, it has 10K in my explorer.
I sampled it down to 2k, just 8mm left in size (ridiculous) and it still has 10K in the explorer.
I usually work with picture sizes almost every day - but this I don't understand. The jpg is already compressed to 5 points - what I usually hate to do...
Hmmmmm. I really am astonished.

joey

PostPosted: Tue Dec 16, 2003 8:58 pm
by Sunnyfield
I suspect it has to do with the cluster size of your file-system, ie minimum size is 10k. I could go into more detail if you wish.

PostPosted: Tue Dec 16, 2003 11:21 pm
by phil
10K is a bit big Eward (btw I started typing a more salacious response and checked myself - after all, I don't all of the people in this group as well as I know you! :lol:)

PostPosted: Wed Dec 17, 2003 1:57 am
by Joey
Sunnyfield wrote:I suspect it has to do with the cluster size of your file-system, ie minimum size is 10k. I could go into more detail if you wish.

Häääää? Yes please, more details. I don't even know what I don't understand. I mean, I do know how to resize a picture. The proportions of 6k and 80x80 pixel just don't seem to fit together... If it's 80x80 = way too big in k's. If I will downsize it to 6k - almost no size will be left. Compared to the CG site size of their avatar pictures, it must be pinhead size.
I'm thinking in 72 dpi for screen, am I right?
Joey :roll:

PostPosted: Wed Dec 17, 2003 1:07 pm
by phil
jpegs are compressed so they take up less space. My avatar takes up 5138 bytes and is 80 x 60 pixels, for example.

PostPosted: Wed Dec 17, 2003 1:10 pm
by phil
BTW Joey, if you're having problems, send the file to me and I'll sort it out for you. That applies to anyone else too. Oddly, the only thing I can't do is update your profile to include the avatar. I can delete an existing avatar, but not alter your profile to use a particular one (not without hacking the underlying database directly that is - and I try to avoid that whereever possible).

PostPosted: Wed Dec 17, 2003 4:17 pm
by Joey
Thanks, I'll try it one more time. If it doesn't work I'll send you the pic - which in the meantime I don't like anymore...gotta find a new one ;-)
Joey

PostPosted: Thu Dec 18, 2003 3:02 pm
by Sunnyfield
Most file-systems require your harddrive to be chopped up in small pieces (called clusters I believe). The smallest possible size of such cluster theoretically would be 1 byte. However in order for a file-system to work time-efficiently it cannot deal with 100 billion clusters on a 100GB HDD. To make it more manageable the cluster size can be reduced to for example 10kB. This means that it only has to deal with 10 million clusters. Unfortunately clusters cannot be shared between files. Therefore a 1 byte file will still use up 1 cluster of 10kB. So even if your picture is only 10 bytes, it still may appear as 10kB. When you transfer the 10 byte file to a different file-system, for example with 1kB clusters the size will now show up as 1kB. The more I think of it, this is probably not the reason the file is so big.

Another possibility is, it actually really could be 10kB. Your JPEG file can be filled up with zeros (0) by the software you use. Try using different software to save your avatar picture and see if that changes anything.

Perhaps there are other reasons. So I am not much help here.

ES

Btw, Phil, you think 10k is a bit big? You clearly do not know me all that well then! (and that is a good thing!) ;)

PostPosted: Thu Dec 18, 2003 4:32 pm
by phil
OT Sunnyfield - most NTFS systems have a 512 byte cluster. FAT32 - 2K or less.

On the other matter - dream on :lol:

PostPosted: Sat Dec 20, 2003 10:54 pm
by Joey
Oh I hate that!!!! It didn't work, again.
Look, for example:
I have a pic 80x76 pixel = 18k
Now I have 2 posibilities (Photoshop):
1) I reduce the pixels until I get 6k, that leaves me with a pic 45x43 pix, and 1,59x1,51 cm.
2) I leave it and just save a copy - compressing down to 0, which leaves me with still 8k, so I do it again later... or I reduce the size a bit AND compress it to O quality...

Anyway I end up with an awful picture, and trying to upload it it says "your avatar has to be 80x80 pix or 6k. AAARGH!!!

Sunnyfield, thanks for the explaination, I hear what you are saying, but I guess I don't understand it well enough to change anything. I'm just a tool-user...I know the photoshop very well, but now I feel like bouncing off a wall over and over again, like a rubberball.
joey

PostPosted: Sat Dec 20, 2003 11:01 pm
by phil
Joey my friend I hate to see you like this. Send me the picture. Now.