As a sequel to The many usernames of SFF.SE, this is the definitive collection of SFF.SE users' profile pictures (avatars) and their meaning or significance.
There are some of our most active users whose avatars I've always been curious about. So I thought I'd create this thread for everyone to post answers about their pics.
Pretty basic, just my logo. The logo is CE (backwards E), based on the standard image for power buttons.
I've also did monthly avatar changes for awhile:
January-ish:
I cheated and reused January's from last year.
This February is a square, because my son turns 4, and it's red letters because that's currently his favorite color:
April-Whenever. I graduate from university in a couple weeks, so got my cap and school colors going on. (Last semester stuff is why I've not had time to update, but this weekend I really want to procrastinate, so ta-da!):
A snowflake for January (Re-used in 2017):
A missing image circle with the line through it, since I haven't had time to make February-themed one:
A green one for Spring, which officially starts on March 20th this year:
April showers:
May flower (It's my attempt at a wild daisy, very common in my area!):
June sunshine:
July patriotism:
Fall colors (technical issues and busy semester have made it hard to get anything out lately):
Xmas colors for December:
Once I was Simon Waterson, a college football star who was transformed into a frog by a slighted witch. Then I picked up a sliver of Mjolnir, and was granted the power of Thor.
Now I am Throg, the Frog of Thunder. Evildoers beware.
I learned about Throg a few years ago, and it was (and remains) one of the funniest concepts I've ever heard; it's completely bananas, I cannot get enough of it.
And yes, I call my dupehammer Frogjolnir (the real in-universe name of Throg's mini-Mjolnir, because there is a god and he works at Marvel Comics).
At the time of posting this answer, my current profile picture is a photoshopped version of my Twitter pic, courtesy of @MikeEdenfield.
It is something of a running joke at this stage that I hate everything thanks to my vocal dislike for Man of Steel, with other negative opinions of sometimes popular things only cementing my status as the SciFi.SE and Movies.SE "resident hater" - unearned, in my opinion, but it has stuck nevertheless.
In response to this, @MikeEdenfield took a copy of my Twitter picture and photoshopped it to mute the colours and include a Man of Steel poster, as well as changing the colours of the shield on my T-shirt to match those of the Steelers - an American Football team supported by @steelerfan.
After I referred to the picture as the anti-Dr R Dizzle, @randal'thor named this abomination Elzzid R Rd. Elzzid R Rd loves everything regardless of if it is any good or not, and is a huge fan of Man of Steel, which he considers to be "really deep, y'know?".
Update: My new avatar is a simple red & white "RC" for RedCaio. I made the RC as a watermark for my videos that is post on my RedCaio youtube cannel.
Icon:
Full logo:
Past Avatar(s):
My avatar was a minimalist drawing I drew myself depicting Kylo Ren:
I am a passionate Star Wars fan, so I draw Star Wars stuff for fun.
My username, Rand al'Thor, comes from the main character of the wheel-of-time series of fantasy novels. Originally my avatar was one of SE's auto-generated ones, but during the 2014 Winter Bash I wanted to have a real picture on which to wear my hats. The first one I went with was the image found in my username post, which epitomises the WoT series in a way (Rand, Mat, and Perrin standing with their armies against the Dark One), but then I settled for this picture, which I've always found amusing:
(I'm considering changing my avatar some time soon, by the way.) I changed it! That crown, and the reference to a British patriotic slogan, were making me too uncomfortable.
I use artistic depictions of a-song-of-ice-and-fire characters as my avatar.
NOTE: To embiggen the images, click on the thumbnails in the avatar grid.
Back when I had more free time, I got quite interested in using POV-ray - my day job is as a programmer, and this was a way for me to use some of those skills to be artistic.
My profile pic is a cropped version of what I consider to be my nicest rendering to date, something I simply called "Ring & Ball":
While it looks simple, at the time using the processor I had available, rendering a full size image such as this took (literally) many hours - on a more modern chip it's seconds, or minutes at most!
For anyone who wants to see an example of what POV-Ray code looks like, here's a few sections from the file that defines the image.
The blue sphere at the center:
#declare sphereSize = 2;
sphere {
<0,0,0>,sphereSize
texture {
pigment { rgbf <0.25,0.5,1,0.9> }
}
interior { I_Glass }
finish { phong 0.9 }
}
The silver "bands" that encircle the red torus are defined as a single band, which are two cylinders (defined as a cone that doesn't taper) with a slightly smaller one "subtracted" (using the difference command) from the middle of a larger one:
#declare band = difference {
cone {
<0,-0.25,0>,ringWidth + 0.1
<0,0.25,0>,ringWidth + 0.1
}
cone {
<0,-0.5,0>,ringWidth
<0,0.5,0>,ringWidth
}
texture { T_Chrome_5E }
rotate x*90
}
This band definition is then iterated over and revolved around 360o:
#declare rot = 0;
#while (rot < 2*pi)
object {
band
rotate y*(degrees(rot)+90)
translate <ringRadius*sin(rot),0,ringRadius*cos(rot)>
}
#declare rot = rot + (pi/3);
#end
I hope this was interesting, and gets you inspired to get making stuff! If you didn't already find it, make sure you checkout the POV-Ray Hall of Fame - there's some really great examples of what can be achieved.
Until recently, my avatar was an "On Strike" sign.
This reflected my decision not to participate in the site's ongoing moderation (editing, flagging, voting to close/open/reopen, etc.) until the end of my unnecessarily harsh chat-ban.
Fire and Ice
This is my shiny new, custom-made hotness, designed by our very own @CreationEdge.
It is an 'M' in the shape of flares with some of my favourite colours incorporated into it. I love that it still has that 'cool ice' feel to it, even though it represents fire; with Ice and Fire being my two elements.
I've had a few iterations of the same concept for my avatar, but they have all been derivatives of Nyanna bird logo of the Trance and EDM producer/DJ Tiësto.
First it was a plain black and white one (his first iteration as well):
Secondly I had a slightly more 'modern' looking version:
Then I followed it with a 'pink' cancer awareness themed one (which sort of stuck with me for a year or so):
Fourthly, I had one of the most recent iterations of the logo (which was also my favourite):
This one is great, my new favourite so far! It is a design by Erick Alvarez which I found on Twitter.
My avatar was Joseph Ducreux, a French painter known for breaking the fourth wall and having portraits far more expressive than the standard of his time.
A meme of the interwebs has established his paintings as the perfect place to post dated rewordings of musical lyrics. Here, we see Ducreux pointing at the camera with the chronologically correct reimagining of "Can't Touch This". It should be noted that this is not the version currently used in my avatar (the wording is different).
I abandoned my previous idea of using David Axelrod (the musician) as an avatar, as he quite simply doesn't sit still in a manner appropriate for hats. Indeed, I planned for the long haul.
In a show of solidarity with a fellow chatter... who is now a squirrel, I then changed my avatar to Vince Offer holding a Terrible Towel, with this pose, taken from a ShamWow commercial, as the base:
I also changed my name to Terriblefan.
With the departure of Major Stackings and his warning against sock puppetry, I then changed my name back and changed my picture to a heavy metal sock puppet:
It's noted as "Metallica Sock Puppet". While I don't care for Metallica, it is a fairly awesome sock puppet and I felt it reflected my name better than the KISS sock puppet or the Slipknot sock puppet.
With an avatar from Gallifreyan and a name from I Love You (because said user thought my name was Axe Lord and not Axel Rod, and making this change messed with the user's autocorrect), I have created my latest avatar-name combo.
I think it's pretty freakin' rad.
In light of incidents in chat, I have changed my avatar once again, to something more appropriate to the situation.
My avatar is consistent with my username. The avatar is actually a screenshot of a screenshot. It's what appears on the main viewscreen of the USS Excelsior near the beginning of The Undiscovered Country, to show Captain Sulu and his bridge crew what remained of the moon Praxis after this happened:
As my profile says, I am "SF&F's self-styled expert on The Thing" (as of December 2015, I am one answer away from getting the site's first ever the-thing-1982 tag badge). It is my favorite science fiction and/or horror film, so my avatar is the "red smoke" version of the poster for The Thing, featuring the tagline preferred by director John Carpenter and producer Stuart Cohen:
Man is the Warmest Place to Hide.
Carpenter and Cohen despised both the tagline and the poster design the studio opted to use: the "glow face" image and the phrase:
The Ultimate in Alien Terror.
They felt that the "glow face" design was confusing and had nothing to do with the movie, and they criticized the tagline for giving too much away and simply reeking of B-Movie cliche.
The advertising campaign had changed overnight - the somber, predominately black and white imagery (which we had been consulted on) replaced overnight with the now familiar "glow face" (which we hadn't), the tag line " Man Is The Warmest Place To Hide" dumped for "The Ultimate In Alien Terror", which I abhorred ("Man" was written by a publicist named Stephen Frankfort, who also came up with what I thought was the best tag line ever for ALIEN - "In Space, No One Can Hear You Scream". He was hired early on and his company also created the earliest teaser with the ice block. The "Alien Terror" tagline was concocted by a studio suddenly desperate to display the word "Alien" above the title). Both, I thought, represented a last minute demotion to "B" film status, something we had fought for years, and evidence that Universal was effectively throwing in the towel in trying to reach a broader, more mainstream audience.
- Producer Stuart Cohen on his blog, The Original Fan
I agree with Cohen and Carpenter regarding the taglines, but I like the "red smoke" poster slightly more than the black and white one they wanted to use:
I think the "red smoke" version conveys a sense of the movie's plot without giving anything away. It also scores points for featuring the superior "Man is the Warmest Place to Hide" tagline; I only wish it didn't also include the schlocky "Ultimate in Alien Terror" tagline.
I'm boring. My avatar is myself. The one I'm currently using is me after a bike race, with a balloon-animal monkey on my back (there was a balloon artist at the turnaround point and I thought it would be fun).
Meh.........
On the day I started writing it, it was Nightwing
Don't blink, it might change into Grumpy Dwarf, Charlie Pace, Arrow, Constantine, V for vendetta, Jason Voorhees, Babadook, Alaric Saltzman, Zach, Groncholverine, Indian gods form molee's art pieces, Captain America (Hydra Agent), Punisher and god knows what else. Occasionally I do use my own pictures too ( still visible in Area 51).
On the side note, My avatars are reflection of my current favorite characters mostly with some exceptions. Nightwing is my all time favorite character, not Nightwing but the whole D*** Grayson character, I even like him more then Batman. I like his continuous character development. But its not going to stick forever, so why to waste time discussing it more.
Wow, while writing it, my mind giving me more idea for my next 100s 1000s of avatars but for now I am sticking with it for a while.
Due to constant hearing about that people can't keep track of my profile picture changes, I am making a log here:
Image source linking under processing
I lost track of few profile picture due to using old upload methods or maybe I missed them in copy paste ;D I remember few of them, they were Jason Voorhees, Jason X and maybe Freddy Krueger , Ghsotface (Scream) etc. I even recycled few of them many times, so listing only unique ones.
My avatar is one of the first selfies I ever took:
It's just a picture of cheese in all its glory
But I could change it to something more like this (there's also Lambfear, Pies Sedai, Berrylain, Lemon Moraine pie...)
My tenth avatar is Morpheus, drawn by Yoshitaka Amano for The Dream Hunters.
Some examples of Yoshitaka Amano's stunning art can be found in this blog.
My ninth avatar is once again Morpheus, King of the Dreaming, Lord of Dreams, the Oneiromancer, Oneiros, the Sandman, King of the Realm that is Not, etc...
This particular version was drawn by J. H. Williams III and coloured by Dave Stewart, for The Sandman: Overture #1. In it, Dream appears in the dream of a flower - in an according shape.
There is an interview with Neil Gaiman from San Diego Comic Con 2013, where he explains how J. H. Williams came to be the artist of this miniseries; it starts at 5:08, but the whole video is rather entertaining, as it explains how Overture came to be:
My eighth avatar was Lucifer Morningstar, Samael the Lightbringer.
This particular image comes from Lucifer #65, "Morningstar pt. 3". The Lucifer series was written by Mike Carey, and drawn mostly by Peter Gross and Ryan Kelly.
The character began in The Sandman series, where he was created by the writer Neil Gaiman and artist Sam Kieth and Mike Dringenberg. His character was inspired by Lucifer's portrayal in John Milton's Paradise Lost (though I couldn't find a reference for this), while his appearance was based at least partly on David Bowie.
He is not the archetypal Devil that mingles in the affairs of mortals or makes deals with them in exchange for their souls. He is, in a sense, a refugee, who rebelled against the pre-destination of God's Creation, and was set over Hell as a compromise, since Hell is the farthest point from Heaven, where God resides.
Over the course of 10 billion years, Lucifer grew tired of ruling Hell - specifically by the views of Hell's inhabitants - and decided to abandon it all, giving the key to Hell to Morpheus (which is expanded in great detail in The Sandman - Season of Mists and At Death's Door).
He later resurfaced in Los Angeles (spot the irony), and established the best piano bar there - "Lux".
Lucifer's solo comic series started after a 3-issue series titled The Sandman Presents: Lucifer - The Morningstar Option, where Lucifer does a favour to the Heaven's host in exchange for the Letter of Passage, which grants one the exit from God's creation.
My seventh-and-a-halfth avatar was once again Morpheus, wearing his battle helm.
My seventh avatar is once again a puppet of the 12th Doctor, played by Peter Capaldi. I feel that I need to commemorate his character, since Peter has announced that he's leaving the show at the end of this season, along with Steven Moffat and Michelle Gomez.
My sixth avatar is Desire of the Endless, drawn by Milo Manara. I didn't pick it because I like the character (and I do, as with all characters in The Sandman), but because I find this particular rendition breathtakingly beautiful. Not only is it gorgeous, it also maintains the perfect balance between male and female features, which is what Desire is all about.
My fifth avatar is once again Morpheus, Dream of the Endless.
My fourth avatar is Morpheus, King of the Dreaming, one of the Endless. This picture is from A Game of You, the 4th volume of The Sandman.
My third and half avatar that lasted only an hour or so was, again, Morpheus
My third avatar was the Twelfth Doctor, playing a guitar. Taken from Doctor Puppet
My second avatar is a puppet of the Eleventh Doctor, from the Doctor Who series.
I googled for doctor who puppet and stumbled upon Doctor Puppet; they make stop-motion Doctor Who episodes.
My first avatar is a silhouette of the Eleventh Doctor, with a clearly visible bow tie. Bow ties are cool.
Until very recently I didn't have an avatar at all, but...
I'm trying to start a trend of putting the Fourth Doctor's hat and scarf on other Doctors. - BESW
Since I recently finished all of New Who and am currently watching quite a bit of Old Who, it seemed appropriate. So far I've put the Timey Wimey hat on the Tenth Doctor, the Twelfth Doctor, and (my current avatar) the First Doctor hiding in a Dalek shell. I'll probably change it at least a few more times before Winter Bash is over.
I eventually settled on the Second Doctor, Patrick Troughton, because he happens to be my favorite of the Doctors from Old Who.
One faithful Draw a Bird Day, I drew a bird. I took a picture of it to upload, so I could share it on chat.
Since I had no avatar back then, I used it as my avatar.
I found it works pretty well with hats.
I had to think long and hard about this one, but thought what better way to group my favourite tales with an awesome -scape. So I went with the "Tales from the Perilous Realm" cover by Alan Lee.
Original (and most often)
Which many may recognize as < SPOILER ALERT >. I just really liked the meta humor and since most fans fell in love with this character, it was just another example of GRRM butchering our dreams.
Next up I decided to show my love of things non-SFF and being one of the few that enjoys various types of sportsball I will be changing to one of Pittsburgh based teams logo (Steelers, Penguins, Pirates) based on their playoff performance:
2017 AFC North Champions, the Pittsburgh Steelers (January 2018) In keeping with "tradition" of changing my avatar when my favorite teams make the playoffs, this Steelers logo is to support them, and not confuse people in chat... (previously used in January 2017)
2016 Stanley Cup Champions, the Pittsburgh Penguins! (April-June 2016)
2017 Stanley Cup Champions, BACK TO BACK!! (April-June 2017) First time since 1998 and the first time in the salary cap era!
2018 Stanley Cup Playoffs, #3elieve
My avatar was an obvious and mandatory choice, given the existing choice of my username, as explained in this related answer. However, in pracitice it wasn't too easy to find a nice picture of TARS that I'd be satisfied with. This is also the reason why the actual execution of my idea to use this username was even delayed from its initial inception towards the day I got myself the BluRay of Interstellar and was able to capture a nice picture myself.
But even the manual capture of TARS in a fitting surroundings and a pose that emphasisizes his unique and simplistic structural form wasn't as easy as I might have expected. So I settled on a compromise, fueled by a little enlightenment: Why am I so eager to highlight his full body when avatars on these sites are usually rather face-based, especially due to the limited size of the final picture in its everyday use?
So with this insight and my incapability of finding a fitting full-body image, I just settled for a picture of TARS' "face", which is, like his whole body, deliberately non-human and pragmatically functional. And to lighten the mood as well as highlight his nevertheless unique persona, I of course chose a portrait with the joking cue light on.
My avatar is a cropped and edited version of this very Space Age-y picture because I like Space Age-y science fiction and frankly I am Space Age-y. This could well have been me in 1965 but it is not.
My Avatar is an artwork of Wolf Link & Midna on a Twilight Realm backdrop from The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, because I'm a massive Zelda geek and the artwork is awesome.
My handle is Pleurocoelus. A pleurocoelus (also called astrodon) is a dinosaur related to the brachiosaurus. My avatar is a picture of one with slightly modified lyrics from Walk the Dinosaur by Was (Not Was):
Open the Door. Get on the floor. Everybody walk the dinosaur.
There's no real meaning to my handle. It was an obscure dinosaur and I wanted a handle that wasn't popularthing1234. What can I say, dinosaurs are cool.
My avatar is a picture of myself; Dr Noonien Soong. It was drawn by Julianna I understand.
Mine is a (happy)Pikachu from the anime series of Pokemon
My older avatar was of Darth Revan, my favorite character from the old Star Wars EU.
I used it because I consider him the coolest of Star Wars' many 'rogue Jedi."
Recently i changed avatar to a poorly photoshopped collage of various things that I like.
I frequently add to it, and it currently features references to:
My avatar used to be a photo of me with a sword.. Then again, my user name used to be my real-name. When I eventually decided to go at least a LITTLE harder to track down, I changed my avatar to the symbol of The SCP Project, which is where I first ran across a link to this site, and where I spend entirely too much time.
A while ago, I had a badge made up for the SCP project; it uses the same original photo I had here.
I'm Girl With a Pearl Earring, using hats to defile Vermeer.
For anyone after WinterBash 2016;
There are some of our most active users whose avatars I've always been curious about.I'm curious to know who?