Actually I used to belong to a virtual community where we had contests making special avatars.
We started off with a photo, and did graphics to them and then waited in the contes room till our name was called, then we enlarged it  for show, and judging.
Normally about 40 people were in these contests..It used to be a riot.

"The happiness of a man in this life does not consist in the absence but in the mastery of his passions."