You know you have always wanted to have an animated avatar of yourself to put on your blog, website, MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, or upload to your Gravatar account but you’ve never figured out an easy way to do it – well that is, until now.

Cool Webcam Avatars lets you create avatars directly from your webcam using their website and you do not have to sign up for an account or install any software.

There are 4 easy steps to create your animated avatar and it takes about 2 to 3 minutes from start to finish.

There are lots of things you can record, not just your face, so be creative. You need to take into account that the finished avatar will show up larger on the screen than the smaller size some sites normally require. That means you need to record a clear picture so it is easy to see if a site you use it on resizes it.

Step 1: Visit Cool Webcam Avatars and click the Record Your Avatar! button at the top of the screen.

Step 2: A screen will appear which asks if this site can use your webcam. Click Allow.

Step 3: Click Start. You only have about 2 seconds to record but you can try again if you don’t like the results.

Step 4: When you like your results click Download Avatar! On the next page you can right-click on the avatar to save it to your computer. You do not have to signup for an account but make sure you save your avatar before you leave the page because it will not be saved unless you create an account.

Here are some avatars from their site that people have recorded to give you some more ideas.

If you decide to create an account, your avatar will be visible to the public. It will appear on the Cool Webcam Avatars site and you can show it to the world. Creating an account is easy and free. After logging in, the avatars will be assigned to your account.

Original Post: MakeUseOf