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Dynamic Avatars via Dramatar.

DarkWolfDarkWolf New
edited November 2013 in Vanilla 2.0 - 2.8

Not so much of a question as more of a general statement. I wanted to bring to light a project I'd done some time ago called Dramatars. It's a dynamic avatar system which works via passing a hashed seed via an image call and creates a custom avatar for forum and blogs users.

It works right along side Gravatar as well and can be used as the default for it.

Here are a few samples of the types we offer, which include Blockies, Anime, Rag Dolls, Spirograph, Abstract, Arc and Boxy.







Making calls to create avatars is simple. Just use the following format:

http://dramatar.com/a/[TYPE]_[SIZE]_[SEED].png

TYPES are blockies, anime, ragdoll, spirograph, abstract, arc and boxy. I've also got a few others I'm working on and will release later.

SEED is the MD5 value of the members email address. If you don't want to use an email address, you could simply MD5 the sites domain name and user_id and pass that as a unique identifier. So long as it's MD5 encrypted, that's all the seed needs to be.

So, as an example: http://dramatar.com/a/blockies_150_eff450e17299d1a7af3e76a60d4b4f1d.png

I've used Vanilla in the past for a few projects and loved it, though at this moment I don't have my hands into any forum projects at all. Also not much time to develop plugins for various software.

Subsequently, I thought I'd simply post a heads up and see if any developer out there wants to slap together a plugin for this awesome forum software. If you do, feel free. Just ask that you link to the site somehow so that Dramatars are credited as the avatar provider.

If you'd like to see how a Dramatar would look with your info, simply go to the following and enter your email.
http://dramatar.com/showme.php

Speaking of sites, yes, it's a tad dated. I'm stripping it down to a simplicity site later with developer info and a rundown of the Dramatars offered. Simply not enough changes to warrant using Wordpress and having it run as a blog.

Any questions, let me know. If I posted this in an awful area, sorry! Feel free to move it. :)

Comments

  • x00x00 MVP

    I would simply look at the gravitar plugin, you could do it yourself.

    grep is your friend.

  • DarkWolfDarkWolf New

    I certainly could, but right now I'm bogged down. Still wanted to toss it out regardless to see if someone who would be much more involved than myself in the development community wouldn't want to put together a plugin though. :)

  • peregrineperegrine MVP

    @DarkWolf

    thx for sharing.

    it would be a good plugin for someone new at plugins to try to implement, since it would be a remodel of gravatar plugins (as x00 indicated) and a good learning experience. I would hope whoever creates it gives you credit and the author of gravatar plugin author credit.

    @jeongwee I nominate you.

    I may not provide the completed solution you might desire, but I do try to provide honest suggestions to help you solve your issue.

  • jeongweejeongwee ✭✭


    = =

  • DarkWolfDarkWolf New

    @peregrine My pleasure. I hope someone gets at least some enjoyment out of whipping up a plugin for it.

    @jeongwee I see you've got it already. Only thing I recommend is moving to the new /a/ structure stated above. Gravatar does not play well at all with ?variables= in the backup URL these days, regardless of them being correctly URL encoded.

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