It is often possible to upload a larger image to the site to convert it right there to the avatar. Size restrictions are often in place so that images that are to large or big cannot be uploaded and used as avatars.

The free Firefox add-on Image2Icon can turn web images into avatars effortlessly. Best of all, it works locally in the browser without third party involvement.

Once you have installed the add-on you can right-click on any image on a website to turn into into an avatar or favicon. Select Convert Image to Favicon from the context menu and then one of the predefined sizes or a custom size for the new icon. Make sure you know the supported avatar sizes before you create an icon from an image.

The new icon is then displayed on the same page from where it can be downloaded to the local computer. You still need to upload it to the service where you want to use it.

The extension has been primarily designed to provide webmasters with tools to create favicons (the little icons next to the website’s address) more easily. Considering that profile avatars are very similar to favicons it was only natural that the functionality of the extension was expanded to include custom icon sizes as well.

Users with basic image editor skills can create avatars manually as well. The core benefit of using Image2Icon is that it can create free avatar images in less than ten seconds.

Firefox users can download Image2Icon from the Mozilla Add-on repository.

Before I give Noah’s method, I’d like to mention that there is a way to create animated gifs directly with MPlayer. However, the resultant gif file can sometimes be very strange-looking so it’s not very reliable. Anyway, once you figure out what video clip to use, let’s begin. Fire up MPlayer and switch to command-line operation. Then type in the following command:

mplayer -ao null -loop 0 -ss 0:11:22 -endpos 5 file.avi

This command allows you to preview what your final gif will look like. In this instance, I’ve selected a 5 second clip and looped it so it keeps repeating. If you’re satisfied with the clip, proceed to the next step.

mplayer -ao null -ss 0:11:22 -endpos 5 file.avi -vo jpeg:outdir=gifmovie

This command tells MPlayer to export your 5-second clip as a series of jpeg images to the specified folder, which in this case is ‘gifmovie’. After this step, MPlayer’s work is done and it’s time to switch to Gimp. This is where you convert the jpeg files into your gif.

Open the first jpeg image in your directory using Gimp. Then, open the rest of the images in the folder as layers (File > Open as layer). Now, all you have to do is save the file as a gif (File > Save As). In the resultant dialog box, check the ‘save as animation’ and ‘loop forever’ options. Then, click on ‘Export’ and your animated gif is ready.

You need to play around a bit with the options in Gimp if you want to add fancy effects and things like that. I tried this out and I was quite happy with my gif file. It requires a bit of practice but once you have a basic idea of where things are, it’s a breeze. Have you ever tried making an animated gif file? What program did you use? What do you think of Noah’s method?