Hi all, take a look at my proposal for the Minnow Avatar Generator requested by 
In total, I created 4 options for each body part, and some extras, just for fun. The image above shows some of the new possible combinations.
I've been out of touch from Steemit for a while due to my freelancing gigs and life getting in the way, but I'm back! I really missed being in touch with you!
So, let me show you what I did this time.
Details
First of, I based my designs mostly in my own recollection of fishes from scuba diving, but mainly I used my imagination, especially for the crests.
I loved creating these quirky illustrations, even though it took me forever to come up with body parts in the same style as the original. I spent most of the time aligning the parts together. I can only hope my method worked out.
The steps for this project involved:
- Creating the artboards to match the final size 256 x 256px for each new part
- Using the base design body parts to get the location of each part of the avatar
- Creating guidelines to position the body parts
- Creating a color palette that would match the base design. I decided to use bright, saturated colors in secondary colors: greens, oranges/yellows, and violets and I think they looked pretty good along with the original.
Process
These screenshots show my process. I had to do a lot of micro-adjustments to match the base design. The first drawings changed quite a bit after the base crest didn't fit the fins, and so on...This was really challenging, I'm not gonna lie, but I finally did it.
Some of the things that helped with the consistency of the designs was maintaining the original proportions and a stroke-width consistency.
Overall, the style is flat and cartoony. I added a bit more of expressiveness and colors to make the minnow look more lively.
Benefits / Improvements
This design system will introduce several improvements to the current generator:
- Possibility to emote different expressions with the avatar, such as happiness, sadness, surprise, endearment or irritation
- Variety of colors and combinations, which translates in more interest and curiosity from the user
- Possibilities to expand from this system to other avatars
Tools
I used Adobe Illustrator for this project.
Original files
Located HERE, the folder contains:
- PNG files of the body parts
- Source files in vector (Adobe Illustrator CS5 and above) for body parts and combinations
They are much more organized and polished than the screenshots. I cleaned them up at the end.
Thank you
Thank you all for making it to this point. I will be posting more design and creative projects soon. If you enjoyed this post, or you want to know more about it, let me know in the comments below.
Enjoy the rest of your day!
Posted on Utopian.io - Rewarding Open Source Contributors