You've probably noticed more and more people are using animated avatars all over the web. They have become especially popular on MySpace, and it's a lot of fun to browse through the different profiles and see the creative avatars that people have come up with. After seeing several avatars that intrigued you, you have probably decided that you'd like an animated avatar on your own profile.

There are several ways that you can create an animated avatar to place on your MySpace profile. One way is to use a couple of freeware applications which are called Gimp and Movie Snapshot. Movie Snapshot takes a thumbnail sized clip out of any video you may have on your hard drive, and Gimp is used to manipulate the video clip in order to create your avatar. Of course, there's more to the creation of an avatar with these programs than meets the eye. If you don't want to spend a whole lot of time fiddling around with a Photoshop clone, trying to get your image exactly the way you want it, then you need a faster and easier solution to get your avatar up and running. There is a much easier way, and it's called Meez.

Meez is a website which you can use to make an avatar of yourself. This avatar is a rendered, three dimensional figure that is amazingly lifelike and almost infinitely customizable. You will be amazed at what you can do with Meez! And, the avatar you make can be used anywhere on the internet. Some people try to get their Meez avatar to look as much like themselves as possible, while others go for a totally opposite effect. With a huge selection of items such as hair styles and colors, facial expressions, clothing and accessories, and backgrounds to choose from, you can change your look as often as you want.

You can use the Meez website for free. The only charge is when you decide that you want to purchase a premium item for your avatar, and even then the cost is minimal. You can definitely make a wonderful avatar with the selections available at no charge - there are a ton of choices in many categories to choose from! It only takes a few minutes to create an account on Meez, and then you are ready to create your avatar.

Meez allows you to have one avatar per account, but you can create and save up to five different versions of that one avatar, so it's possible to have five very different looks. To use your new avatar, all you need to do is go to the "Export Meez" area. You can download the avatar and save it as a JPEG file on your own computer or you can choose the Link option. Using Link allows you to host your avatar on the Meez website for free. You will be given an HTML code link for your avatar which you then use to place the image on MySpace. Go to the section where you edit your profile, and paste the HTML code into the About Me section. Preview your profile and if everything looks the way you want it, save the page.

To place a headshot of your avatar onto your profile, you will need to use the JPEG option. Simply go to the link for uploading and changing photos, and once you get to the upload photo section, click Browse to find the Meez jpg on your computer. Once you have chosen the correct file, just click Upload and presto! Your profile photo has been changed to your avatar! Hint - for best results, save the JPEG as a Large Headshot image.

Meez makes it both fun and easy to create an animated avatar for your MySpace profile. Enjoy!