Want to create your own uniquely personaised yet anonymous avatar like Quick Channel?
Click the button below and generate your own instantly!
New Avatar
How This Avatar Generator Works
This avatar generator works by magically calculating a graphical output based on your text input. You can type whatever you like - letters, numbers, spaces, periods, dashes, words, phrases, your phone numer or ip address - the avatar generated for a given set of text characters will always be the same. Its like an identicon generator with more 'human' results. The avatar on this page was generated according to the text ' echo $_GET['wat']; ?>'..
Small changes yield very different avatars, so if a particular avatar doesn't feel like 'you', try playing around with adding spaces, capitalising a letter, adding a dash. For example, these text inputs will all generate very different avatar results:
my username - My Username - myusername - my user name - My username - MY USERNAME - my.username
Get the idea? Give it a try and play around with it. The possibilities are pretty well limitless with around 12 billion graphical combinations!
What is an Avatar Anyway?
An avatar (also known as an identicon, profile picture or userpic) is a graphical representation of a user or the user's character or persona. It may take either a two-dimensional form as an icon in Internet forums and other online communities or a three-dimensional form, as in games or virtual worlds. Avatar images have also been referred to as "picons" (personal icons) in the past, though the usage of this term is uncommon now. An avatar can also refer to a text construct found on early systems such as MUDs.[5] The term "avatar" can also refer to the personality connected with the screen name, or handle, of an Internet user.
The advent of social media platforms such as Facebook where users are not typically anonymous led to widespread usage of profile pictures featuring a photo of oneself on those platforms, sometimes with filters.
The use of the term avatar for the on-screen representation of the user was coined in 1985 by Richard Garriott for the computer game Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar. In this game, Garriott desired the player's character to be his earth self manifested into the virtual world. Garriott did this because he wanted the real player to be responsible for the character's in game actions due to the ethical parables he designed into the story. Only if you were playing "yourself" Garriott felt, could you be judged based on your character's actions. Because of its ethically-nuanced, story-driven approach, he took the Hindu word associated with a deity's manifestation on earth in physical form, and applied it to a player manifesting in the game world.
Use of Avatars Online
Despite the widespread use of avatars, it is unknown which websites were the first to use them; the earliest forums did not include avatars as a default feature, and they were included in unofficial "hacks" before eventually being made standard. Avatars on Internet forums serve the purpose of representing users and their actions, personalizing their contributions to the forum, and may represent different parts of their persona, beliefs, interests or social status in the website.
The traditional avatar system used on most websites like twitter is a small (80x80 to 100x100 pixels, for example) circular or square-shaped area close to the user's post, where the avatar is placed in order for other users to easily identify who has written the post without having to read their username. Some forums allow the user to upload an avatar image that may have been designed by the user or acquired from elsewhere such as an avatar generator. Other forums allow the user to select an avatar from a preset list or use an auto-discovery algorithm to extract one from the user's homepage.
Other avatar systems exist, such as on Gaia Online, WeeWorld, Frenzoo or Meez, where a pixelized representation of a person or creature is used, which can then be customized to the user's wishes. There are also avatar systems (e.g. Trutoon) where a representation is created using a person's face with customized characters and backgrounds.
Another avatar-based system is one wherein an image is automatically generated based on the identity of the user. Identicons are formed as visually distinct geometric images derived from a digest hash of the user's IP address, or text that the user inputs such as echo $_GET['wat']; ?>. In this way, a particular anonymous user can be uniquely identified from session to session without the need for registration or authentication. In the cases where registration has occurred, the identicon serves as a means to associate a particular user with a particular geometric representation. If an account is compromised, a dissimilar identicon will be formed as the attacker is posting from an unfamiliar IP address.
Another use of the graphical avatar or identicon has emerged with the widespread use of social media platforms like Facebook, Reddit, Twitter and Instagram. There is a practice in social media sites: uploading 'anonymous' grphical identicons and avatars in place of real profile image, helping to shield a users privacy. This profile picture is however a distinct graphic that represents the identity of profile holder.
Using avatars as profile pictures can increase users' perceived level of social presence which in turn fosters reciprocity and sharing behavior in online environments. According to MIT professor Sherry Turkle: "... we think we will be presenting ourselves, but our profile ends up as somebody else – often the fantasy of who we want to be".
