Backwater Tutorials

      Screen Capture is exactly as it sounds. It is the method of capturing a picture of whatever is on your screen at that moment (the same principle as taking a photograph with a camera) 

       In the previous 2 tutorials I have been using pictures of my IMVU avatar. Indeed as you read this you will see a picture of the avatar behind this text. Many people like to use pictures of avatars for stickers, banners, backgrounds, etc. because they add that personal touch.

     There are 2 main methods of taking pictures of your avatar

1.  Using the picture capture facility provided by IMVU
2.  Using the screen capture method

     I always use the screen capture method because the resulting pictures are usually of better quality than the picture capture facility IMVU provides and much larger too which is exceptionally useful for editing to make backgrounds, product adverts, stickers, etc.

     I will use the IMVU 3D chat window and the Bionic White room for this tutorial. However this method will work with anything you have on your screen at the time (I usually use the White Room for taking my pictures because it is easier to remove the background as it is all one colour)

      First make your window as large as possible by clicking on a corner of the window and dragging it out to the size you require (the larger the better) or with the newer of the client just click on the maximise window button.

     Open your graphics program and open a new transparent canvas in that window which is the same size as your screen e.g. 1048pixels x 800pixels 

     Now position your avatar, in the chat window, into whichever pose you require and then using your keyboard press the 'Alt' and 'Prt Scr' keys simultainiously to 'capture' the screen (some laptops require you to press the Function' or 'Fn'  at same time also). The 'Alt' key can be found to the left of the 'Space Bar' and the 'Prt Scr' (sometimes says 'Print Scrn') can be found either above the arrow keys on keyboards or, on some laptops, to the right of the 'Function Keys' (F1 - F12)

     Click on your graphics program to bring that window to the front and then 'paste' your screen capture picture onto that blank canvas. This can be done by pressing 'Ctrl and V' or clicking on 'Edit' then 'Paste'

     So now hopefully your picture will look something like the example below, ready for editing and the addition of your creative flair

     Now that you have your screen capture picture you may want to edit it, perhaps to give it a transparent background or to replace the background with another picture. There are several methods to do this and it is a personal choice which to use. I will show you the method which I use.

     First 'Crop' the picture down to a more useable size by using the crop tool found in the main toolbar window and dragging the box over your picture

      Now using the 'Magic Wand' tool select the background by clicking on it (the dotted lines so the area of your selection) then press delete

      You should now have a transparent background to your picture (see above example) into which you can place whatever you wish