today I will show you how to make a custom a avatar in Illustrator perfect
for social media profile pics
what is up people welcome back to satori graphics home of graphic design
content is ended in two days but it feels like I haven't uploaded in a long
long time thanks for the feedback on my last upload where I use an on camera
style video I've been looking to do more of these videos in the future only when
I have my new camera because I want to keep the quality in this channel at a
high level anyway thanks to a subscriber suggestion today we'll look at how to
make a custom avatar illustrator before we start remember to subscribe if you
enjoy my content and once you do to turn on these little occasions so you never
miss an a plate for your custom avatar design in Illustrator you want to choose
an image of yourself I can fit it perfectly into a square with your entire
face and maybe even your shoulders in pure this image here that I'm using is
not very good example but I simply love this image of Johnny Depp it is on my
favorite movies 2 points if you can tell me this movie is from anyway I just want
to show you the tiny care so just keep in mind that you will need to choose an
image as good for yourself first we need to lock the image in Illustrator so
that's not going to move around Rita good of Avatar design with layers
firstly we want to make whole shapes so for example all the skin in one layer
and then then lenses on the glass in a different layer so zoom in by pressing
command and then you plus on your keyboard grab the pen tool and start
outline the head of your avatar for our skin layer
you can leave these searches outlines for now and fill them later at this
point I'd like to draw in the black areas to example the details such as the
nostrils or the gap between the lips use the pen tool to draw the outline and
then flick it over to a fill
so I may want to go into the nostrils here next and also the details around
the eyes so some details you may want to use the eyedropper for example here we
can sample a skin tone instead of using black for the contour the nose black may
be too striking for some details after making the line with the pen tool or the
stroke weight up and then add this stroke style could make a line have a
thicker thickness in the middle if you want you can even change the color to
black and changes either along with your avatar design for other details we can
use a width tool on our pencil lines so let's go into my details we can use the
eyedropper to copy the thickness and the color of a different line but we have to
have the stroke style again manually
now if you grab the waste tool and place it at a point on your line you can click
and drag to change the thickness like so
this would let you have much more control of the details on your custom
avatar design here I'm going to have a different stroke style the end is like a
rectangle which we do not want for our design but we can change that in the
stroke window you can round off the end of the line like so you will see here
that I have flicked the glasses from outline to a fill and then simply
lowered the opacity so I can still see a details of the original image below you
can also do the same in the skin layer add a color fill and then once you're
happy lower the opacity something very low or even zero until we're finished
with the design so this is where I am at the moment with the other car design the
skin tone is built in and so my details are as well as the nose the glasses are
set 80% of beta T and the frames I've been drawing as well
remember to use block colors the shading simply had a darker version of the same
color so on the arms of the glasses here I use a darker tone of bold for shadow I
also have the lips completed before I draw in the cigarette I want to add the
arch on the nose use the pen to us before and select a color that is a
little darker than the skin tone and follow the contour shape of the nose
I'm going to add the strokes out here
you can change the weight of your lines any stage here also you can use the rec
selection tool to edit your stroke lines as well part of the line can be hidden
if we hold down shift and select the objects we want to cover it and then
bring them to the front like so
remember if you want to have more control of the thickness of your lines
when your custom avatar you can use the whisk tool like I'm doing here
another tip is to select the line and now learn the stroke here this will then
allow you to edit the path with a direct selection tool in a different way even
though this starts - that was a flat avatar design I've added some blur
techniques so on the edge of the end of the cigarette here in the original image
it is out of focus so adding a Gaussian blur will add to the effect select the
preview box see how the blow will look when it's generated I've also added the
Gaussian blur on the lenses on the glasses to create a light effect and you
can even add it to the final details
here you can see where I'm utilizing the Gaussian blur to represent light you can
use block color to represent light if you want here you don't have to use a
blur as the background image is logged we can move our design anytime to see
how the progress is going and then hit command Z or control Z in a PC to go
back one step if you want to add a new length on a design that's going to be
behind the others crater as I'm doing here
on his shirt and then send it to the fire back and then bring it forward just
one layer
so here's my final design remember for your design make sure your photo will
work for a square design fit for social media pictures in Photoshop make a
square document you can then select the entire customer avatar desire in
Illustrator and then copy it by hitting command C or control C on a PC and then
hit command V or ctrl V on a PC to paste into place my original image was not a
good choice for profile picture I just love this image because it's one of my
favorite movies I just wanted to show you guys two techniques build up your
design in layers starting with hole shapes such as the head glasses lenses
etc you can also add a background image in Photoshop fairly easily too so did
you enjoy this Illustrator tutorial on how to make a custom avatar let me know
in the comment section below and drop a like on your way out share this video to
your friends if their design is too I have some cool stuff coming next week
such as hand lettering videos and also an illustrator technique so subscribe to
stay updated all of my graphic design uploads
until next time design your future today peace
you