SMILESCOLLECTION.COM
Let's smile and say "Thanks!" to Scott E. Fahlman for his brilliant idea!
MainSite newsHistoryArtworkLinksContactTell a friend!
ARTWORK - MAKING SMILEY. INTRO.

These instructions are for dummies (like myself) and they describe"how-to" in the way I personally make emoticons. The methodology is not my zone of expertise , so humour me - I am doing my best.
I would like to thank Karen Bridges from Emotipad team for transforming my very own english into it's official version. :)
If you have any question conserning that lesson you,could post it here.

Making a smiley.
The process of creating an animated smilie consists of the following phases:
1. An idea
2. Sketching
3. Realization
4. Animation
5. Optimization and cropping
6. Presentation of an immortal piece of art to mankind.

"An idea" is more or less as it says - each of us is a naturally born 'idea generator', so I'll skip this part and save my bla-bla-bla for another occasion.

"Sketching" is a drawn visualization of an idea, roughly on paper, with rice kernels, Lego and so forth. I prefer to make brief sketches on paper - keeps things clean and tidy.

Here's how it looks:

*You may be more talanted than I (yeah, right...) if so - you'll need all that sketching stuff like you need a hole in the head!

Software.

The Author of this article does not provide any software!

There are lots of programs for animation which I'm not going to tell you about - don't know, don't care. :). Though I would love to lie, I won't. I personally use Adobe Photoshop 6 and built-in animator ImageReady.

Here's what the Photoshop palettes we are going to use look like (for those who haven't seen it before):

Tools

Layers
Swatches

*This palette was customised by me especially for use on my smilies.

... and, in addition to the previous palettes which are practically identical in both programs, here are the palettes for ImageReady:

Animation

Optimization

Color Table


All other palettes can be closed as they are not needed and will provide more working space.

Copyright: Fool
Article source: http://www.foolstown.com/lesson_en01.htm

Tutorial Download [425Kb]


select step:
Introduction Drawing Animation1 Animation2 Optimization Cropping Presentation
^ up
 
Action
Affable
Aliens
Angels & devils
Angry
Animals
Cartoon
Color sets
Computer & TV
Confused
Drink, food, smoke
Employed
Erotic
Fingers
Fool's town
Holidays
International
Japanese
Jumping
Large
Love
Military
Musicals
Non-standart
Sad
Signs & text
Sleeping
Speaking
Sporty
Symbols & icons
Transport
Violent
Weather
Zodiac
Main
Site news
History
Artwork
Links
Contact
Tell a friend!