Make Your Own Avatar

Need an avatar for a website? Don't want to use a real picture? No problem! While you can't just take any picture on the web and use it as your avatar due to copyright laws, plenty of sites offer free avatars. You can also create your own from scratch or from your own photos. Here are five ideas to help you pick your avatar:

1. Simpsons Avatar (http://www.simpsonsmovie.com)

To promote the release of The Simpsons movie, Fox created a site where you can design your own custom Simpsons avatar. Even two years after the movie's release, this site is still popular. For your avatar, you choose the gender, hair, eyes, nose, mouth and clothes color, and voila! You have your very own Simpsons character. After you're finished, download your avatar by using the down arrow key.

Registration is required and in the fine print, you'll see that Fox will send you e-mails about Fox products. I suggest you use an e-mail address that you use for spam.

2. Yahoo Avatar (http://avatars.yahoo.com/)

Yahoo also provides free, customizable avatars. You choose the appearance, apparel, background, and even extras such as accessories, pets, flags, family, and issues.

To use your avatar outside of Yahoo, you must take a screenshot of the page by hitting "ctrl" and "prt scr," pasting it into a graphics design program-it can be as simple as Microsoft Paint-cropping it, and saving it.

You must register with Yahoo, which can be a pain if you don't already have an account.

3. Face Your Manga Avatar (http://faceyourmanga.com/)

Face Your Manga is one of the best places to create an avatar. It's more detailed than The Simpsons avatar creator and less of a hassle than the Yahoo version. You pick gender, hair, eyes, nose, mouth, clothes, accessories, piercings, and even make-up.

After you're finished creating it, Face Your Manga will ask you for your e-mail address, and they'll send you your creation. Your avatar should show right up in the e-mail, and all you have to do is right-click it and save it. They also give you the option of buying your avatar on the website.

4. Use Your Photos for an Avatar

If you have a photo of yourself but don't want to use it, why not distort it? If you have a professional graphics design program, you can use the filter button to distort your photo enough that you'll have a unique, unrecognizable avatar.

5. DIY Avatar

If you want to be really creative, do an abstract design in the GIMP, Photoshop or any graphics design program. Play around with the different features, filters, patterns, and gradients. Draw something simple. Sooner or later, you'll create a memorable avatar.