Hackergotchis for planet gnome, do and don'ts.

Some of the existing hackergotchis can be found at http://planet.gnome.org/heads/

Stuff to consider when creating a hackergotchi:

• If possible, try to arrange someone to take a photograph specifically for this purpose; the end result will pay off the trouble.
• Pay good attention to lighting: it makes sense to have the main light come from top left because the shadow should be on the bottom right of the hackerotchi.
• When setting up the shot, remember that the background needs to be cut out - this is made much easier if you take the photo against a white background and try to light it well. This makes it easy later since you can create a transparency mask from it.
• Take care with white balance - try to get it correct as much as you can, so the face has neutral colour and looks similar to other hackergotchis. For example photos taken indoors in artificial light are usually yellow or greenish (fluorescent tubes) unless corrected.

Dimensions and other format considerations

• The image needs to saved as PNG with full alpha channel for transparency
• The dimensions of the image should be approximately 115px×115px pixels or should roughly match the face size to other new hackergotchis
• Avoid using photos that show long hair or especially tall hats
• Make sure the photo is sharp: after you have scaled down the image, sharpen it
• Strong shadow (tip: use a copy of the face, make it all dark, offset it and blur it a lot)

Tutorial

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4X4kKejIj0Q

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FwrAw-Q8tXc

Common mistakes

• Shadow is cut off

• Face is blurry

• Head is too big/small

• Photo is too blue/yellow

• Neck is showing

• Not enough contrast in photo

• Not good enough freelaying