How Do I Use PHP to Call the Custom Avatar?

Specifically, I just want to call the avatar’s URL…

<?php echo user_avatar_get_avatar(get_the_author_meta('ID')); ?> shows the image html. I just want the image path.

I don’t know if there’s an easier way but in my functions.php I added this new function that seems to do the trick.

function user_avatar_url( $item_id ) {

	if( $avatar_img = user_avatar_avatar_exists( $item_id ) ):

		$avatar_src = get_site_url()."/wp-content/uploads/avatars/".$item_id."/".$avatar_img;
		if(function_exists('is_subdomain_install') && !is_subdomain_install())
			$avatar_src = "/wp-content/uploads/avatars/".$item_id."/".$avatar_img;

		$avatar_folder_dir = USER_AVATAR_UPLOAD_PATH."{$item_id}/";

		$file_time = filemtime ($avatar_folder_dir."/".$avatar_img);

		$avatar_url = $avatar_src;

		return  $avatar_url ;
	else:
		return false;
	endif;
}