Not everyone wants to put a photo of his face just about everywhere, there is this little thing called privacy, but there are other ways that might help you get a nice profile image and not using an actual photo for that. I was looking for such an app to create a profile image for the Steemit Chat, as Steemit.com does not yet support users to set profile photos, and found a nice little app that does a very good job. The program is called Emoji Me, but unfortunately is available only for Apple iOS devices, there is no Android version available yet...
What Does Emoji Me Do
Emoji Me is a free application for iOS that allows you to design animated Emoji faces that look like you or somebody else with a helpful set of preset facial features and some accessories for both male and female Emoji. The application is originally designed for making animated Emoji icons that you can use in messaging apps and that makes it even better, because besides static profile image you will also be getting animated emojis with the face you have designed yourself.
Emoji Me is currently available on the App store for Free, it requires a device with iOS 9.0 or later version and works with iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch. Although the application is Free it does come with in-App purchase options that allow you to get things like extra accessories and such. The good thing is that there is no need to purchase anything extra in order to be able to design a decent looking digital version of yourself, even if not exact lookalike.
What I don't like very much in the app is the fact that the additional in-App purchases do not have any information regarding the price of the pack with additional extras. Supposedly the app developer believes that you will like the app so much that you will not care how much you spend inside to purchase some extra content... there is a big bundle containing everything available as extra.
Creating Your Digital Lookalike Emoji
The process of creating your Emoji lookalike is relatively easy, the application even lets you take a selfie or use a photo from your photo library and places it next to the digital version you are creating. This can be really helpful in getting as close to the real face as possible, though you are not required to do it to get a good result anyway.
You start by selecting the form of the face and the color of the skin from a number of available presets, you may not want to spend too much time on the first stage of the design process only, as you can return at a later time and do some changes. So move to the next step where you choose hair style and color, the colors available are not only the standard natural ones thus you can get a blue or pink color if you want to.
The next step in your digital recreation is the eye form and color. It is important to select the right type of eyes if you want to be close to the reality as they are one of the key features of the human face. You also have the option to show stylized eyelashes or not, it is up to you.
After you are ready with the eyes you can go to the eyebrows, they can be the same color or a different one if you choose than your hair. There is no option however not to have eyebrows. There is a very basic standard option available for makeup, though male avatars may not need it, female ones might want to use it though and this would mean you will need to buy something extra - there is an Eyeliner and Eyeshadow pack available as an in-App purchase.
Anyone up for a digital makeup tutorial post on Steemit that will make him/her thousands... :)
Next up is selecting your smile type, you can have one without and with lips and if there are lips visible you can also select from a number of colors to use, that option though is probably more useful for female users. Unfortunately the choice here is a bit limited, so you may not be able to find the best option that looks just like your smile or lips.
The next step is choosing the form nose and the shape of the ears that is visible. There are not too much choices available here, but the ones present should be enough to get you a good approximation to reality if you don't find the perfect match.
Time for some additional facial features such as adding freckles, wrinkles, shadows under the eyes, cheeks and so on. You can use these to add some aging to your avatar if needed to represent reality, or just to show that you are not getting enough sleep because of staying too much on Steemit... it is really up to you.
The next step is accessorizing with beards and moustaches, even if you don't have one, you may still want to try some of these to see how good it may look on you. Again you have the option to select from many different designs and change the color of the beard or moustache you choose, no need to match the one for your hair or eyebrows.
The last two steps of the creation process are for adding some accessories to your face. Starting with the glasses, there are a couple of more common designs available and you can also vary the color of the frame that you choose. You can of course skip this step and don't add glasses.
The final step is for adding a hat on your head, unfortunately here you don't have many options available, but you do get an offer to buy additional hats via an in-App purchase in the form of a Hats Pack. While for an Emoji adding a hat may be nice, for a digital avatar you probably don't need one, so not that big of a deal.
So How Does the Digital Emoji Me Looks Like
Here is my new avatar ready for the Steemit Chat, not exactly me, but a pretty close digital representation that can go well for a profile image instead of a real picture of my face...
Do note that the result you save with the application is actually an animated gif with a 400x400 resolution. If you do not need a static frame you can get one from the animated gif file, alternatively many services that don't accept animated avatars will just use the first frame of a gif animation.
If you have a question or want to add something, then please leave a comment below.
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