Recently I have been looking at different tools for creating avatars. Here are my findings, I’ve labelled each one with a number and below the pictures you can see more details on where to find that particular avatar tool. Have fun!
(1) South Park
This is quite a simple and very basic avatar maker, keeping with the South Park theme. It does not give you a huge range of features to choose from, I would have liked more choice in hair and glasses, but apart from that not a bad tool. It’s a Flash-based creator so you will need to take a screenshot to save a copy of your creation.
(2) Mii
I found this to be an excellent tool. Very accurate to the Mii creator found on the Nintendo Wii. There are other Mii creators on the Net but none of them compare to this one which even lets you export your creation when you have finished.
(3) Wee World
One of my favourite tools online for creating avatars, it gives you a huge range of features to add to your character. If you create an account and log in you are presented with an even wider choice of appearances with more hair styles, outfits and gadgets to keep you entertained.
(4) Yahoo
Yahoo’s avatar creator boasts a range of different facial expressions which allow for a bit more detail than some of the above mentioned. It also has a feature that allows you to change the mood at just a click of a button. The only downside to Yahoo is the lack of an export feature which means you are left using the “print screen” button to capture your work. This isn’t a huge problem except the avatar is animated so obviously this is lost in the process.
(5) Doppel Me
Very simple and basic avatar creator. If you want something quick and easy and don’t have a lot of time for lots of additional features Doppel Me is for you! The good feature of this is it actually creates an image file in the process so all you have to do is right click to save your efforts! Easy and would definitely be well suited to younger or low ability students.
(6) Marvel Superhero
Probably a bit on the extreme side when it comes to a simple avatar but I thought I would include it none the less. I would imagine it would be a good tool for encouraging the boys! There is a huge range of “superhero” features to add and you can even name it and export.
(7) Habbo
The Habbo site is mainly aimed at children/teenagers so is probably perfect for students. You have to sign up before you can actually create an avatar and again, no export feature. There is not a great deal of customisation you can use but I quite like the avatars you can create on here as they are quite blocky and unusual looking (maybe it’s just my geeky side coming out here though?)
(8) Manga
I really liked the simplicity of this site and the clean looking avatars it produces. The only point I found a little disappointing was the fact that I could not find a suitable hairstyle that really matched my own (but that’s just me being picky). There is a download feature to this site but you have to give your email address and some personal details so probably easier just to take a screenshot.
(9) The Sims 3 (Link to game website)
Not an online avatar creator but for students who have bought Sims 3 they can create a representation of themselves within the game and save it for later use.
(10) Meez
I was very impressed with Meez. You can create an avatar without logging in but creating an account gives you a lot more features. There are loads of features to add to your character, which actually looks 3D. If this isn’t impressive enough, you can also animate the character and export both stills and animations (saves as gifs). An example of which is on the right here.
(11) The Simpsons
There are two ways to create a Simpsons avatar, Simpsonize Me and Simpsons Movie.
With Simpsonize Me you can actually import a photo and it will automatically generate a Simpsons character for you which you can then tweek afterwards.
The Simspons Movie website allows you to simply create a Simpsons character from scratch.
(12) Portrait Illustration Maker
This is probably the site I was least impressed with. Although it probably holds one of the widest selections of parts for you to combine and allows you to download without having to create an account, the pictures it creates are very small which makes them unsuitable for most uses.
(13) Toonlet
This was the most entertaining avatar maker I found. The actual purpose of the site is to allow you to create comic strips with the characters you create (like the one at the top of the post). Once you create a character you can save multiple versions of it with different moods ready to use in your comic strips. The actual character creation mode is also probably one of the most detailed I’ve seen. It contains a variety of packs developed by other users containing objects, facial features, hairstyles etc. meaning you can create quite an accurate avatar. The only downside to this is that the pictures are in black and white. I intend to use this tool when I am creating guide sheets for my students. I think it will be a bit more entertaining for them to read if they see a little cartoon version of myself talking to them!
I hope you have enjoyed this whistle-stop tour of avatar creation, with the exception of Sims 3, all of the tools mentioned above are free. It is very difficult for me to say which I found to be the best avatar maker as they all excelled in different areas, it would entirely depend on the type of tool you are looking for. Have fun making your own avatars. Please comment if you have any suggestions or ideas.