Create Avatars Online Without Any Image Editing

An avatar is a computer user’s representation of himself/herself or alter ego, whether in the form of a three-dimensional model used in computer games, a two-dimensional icon (picture) used on Internet forums and other communities

- Wikipedia

Your online avatar is the first thing people would notice about you or your profile. So it becomes important that you have a stylish avatar.

So you’re not an avid Photoshop user? No need to worry. Here are some solutions where you only need to point and click and you would have a cool avatar in no time.

FaceYourManga

FaceYourManga allows you to create avatar or what they call a “Mangatar” (which is essentially an avatar). You are presented with a basic avatar which you can build upon and customize to your liking. You can choose different hairstyles, customize features, eyes, nose, garments and apply some makeup if you are inclined to do so. There are plenty of choices for each of them and if you spend some time on it, you will get pretty close to what you were looking for when you started.

Yahoo Avatars

Yahoo Avatars offers a lot of choices. If you found FaceYourManga enough then you will certainly be overwhelmed with the amount of choices offered at Yahoo Avatars. If you were looking for something more than you should definitely check them out.

Here again you start with a basic avatar which you can build upon. You can customize the face, hair, skin tone and choose from extensive options for branded garments and other accessories. Put on some glasses or hats, have a dog besides you or whatever. There is plenty of stuff to keep you involved for some time.

Yahoo Avatars supports some animation in that you can have an animated smile, eyes and backgrounds.

While Yahoo Avatars appears with your Yahoo Profile, there is no option to download your avatar to use on other places. That said, you can always take a screenshot and use it on other sites.

Doppel Me

The same strategy: start with a basic avatar and build upon it with all the fancy bells and whistles the site has to offer.

While Doppel Me doesn’t provide as many choices as Yahoo Avatars, it still has plenty of options. I found the interface clean and well designed. Once you are done with the avatar you can download it and use the way you want it, or you can register. Registration of course provides some extra features like inviting friends, managing your avatars (doppleme’s) etc. You can also get the code to embed your avatar on web pages, social networks, etc so that changes you make to your avatars are instantly reflected all over the internet! Overall, it’s another good free avatar maker that we actually profiled earlier.

SP-Studio

South Park fans will love this. This site allows you to create and customize your avatar in a “South Park” style. Put in a hat, eyes, hair, mouth, body and legs of your choice and you have a South Park character avatar! There are plenty of choices to customize the avatar to your liking. You would have to make a screenshot to save it though.

Turn Your Name Into a Face

If you are the no fuss guy, don’t give a dime as to how your avatar looks or you just want an avatar with minimal effort then there are some options. You can pick someone else’s and claim its yours, fetch an image off the web and use it as your avatar or use “Turn Your Name Into a Face”. The site just requires you to enter your name and it gives you an avatar, which is not head turning but at least you can brag that you created it with your name!

Here are a few MakeUseOf names (using full names):

Aibek	Mark	Varun

Hmm.. Don’t mess with Aibek! 

Which site do you like the most? Or do you have some other favorite place to create an avatar?  Let us know in the comments and maybe turn your name into a face and share it as well?