RUBY'S EMOTE LIST (Page 15) Corwin: Yeah yeah yeah... hold your frickin' horses, Jaxx.... .... do you wanna create these things?? Patience, people.... I'm doing the best I can.  Im GONE: I paid the 100 credits and changed my name, its not a fake profile. So all mods can easily see my old profile id's. Are you a trouble maker, zombie?  Mama2U: Corwin.... I'd like to be able to create some of the emoticons. Who would I need to talk to in order to get some approved? Do you use a special software platform to do them?? (Post deleted by ZombieKnife )  TranSpicy: I'd like to make a request.. A smiley getting a bloody nose, like in anime... the eys turning to "x" and the nose bleeding? Corwin: "Do you use a special software platform to do them?" Well, not a "special" software platform intended specifically for creating emoteys... I use the same software and hardware I use to digitally enhance my photography and create digital artwork. I have about 20 years experience in this field. But if any are interested in how I do it, I'd be happy to give you a rundown. For the emoteys, my program of choice is an older photo-enhancing program that I've used for years... it has terrific paintbrush tools, and also happens to have fairly decent tools to create animated GIFs Adobe Photoshop Elements 5.0. The characters and elements in the animations are drawn by hand, and I use a Waccom pen & tablet for that... a mouse is a clumsy tool for drawing. ------------- I'll use this one for an example --->  This is about 24 animation frames that run about 10 FPS (frames per second). - First of all, we're working with a very tiny canvas... in this case, 77 pixels by 42 pixels... so each pixel counts, and much of the detail is drawn one pixel at a time. - The original template for the animation is created using a layered PSD file with a transparent background. - Each animation frame contains several elements combined to create a single frame of animation... the flying saucer, the row of spinning lights along the center, the trap-door & vacuum hose, the little yellow-dude, and his eyes (both open and closed to create the blinking effect), the little puff of dust as the saucer lifts-off, different versions of the yellow-dude's facial expressions as he's swept away, etc... - As each element is drawn, it's moved to a separate PSD file "pallet" and saved as a "layer" for later retrieval to compose each animation frame. Including the in-between frames (known as "tweening" ) to create motion (such as the growing vacuum hose), I end up with a pallet of dozens of little elements in separate layers. - Each animation frame needs to be finished as a single layer in the PSD file... so for one frame, all the required element layers for that particular frame are dropped into place and arranged, then "merged" into a single layer... then we move on the the next animation frame and combine and merge layers to create the next frame (comparing back and forth to the previous frame to ensure proper continuity and movement). - Once all frames are assembled to complete the desired "story-board", the PSD file is "Saved For Web" as a GIF file, and the parameters are defined - assigning minimal coloring specs (to keep the file size low), FPS rate, things like that... ... it can then be viewed in action by opening it with Internet Explorer. - ... but it's not done yet... the first stab at it is usually a bit "jerky" or the comedic timing is out of step or too swift, perhaps not quite what my original vision was... so it's back to the drawing board, and the original PSD file is reworked. - Typically, additional "tweening" layers are needed to be inserted in strategic places, or copied layers added statically to improve the overall timing of the scene. As well as whole animation frames that need to be reassembled and re-merged. The PSD file is re-saved as a GIF, viewed again, then tweaked further... until I'm happy with the result... I end up with several versions before I have the "keeper" that is worthy of upload. The UFO emotey took me over 6 hours, but it's one of my most elaborate ones. These guys only took a few hours each --->    and I had the benefit of using elements borrowed from previous pallets.---------------- So, it's not like there's some handy emote program where you type in [make yellow guy scratch his head] - [press Enter]  Most would never guess the kind of work I put into these, but it's a labor-of-love... I love creating artwork that I'm proud of, and seeing you all enjoy them so much makes it all the more worth it. But I am doing this in my spare time... I also have paying clients and dead-lines to meet (not as fun as creating fun artwork, but it pays the bills ), and I also dedicate some hours each day helping to moderate this fine website... and I have my own photography and digital artwork that I am engaged in... also... I spent the earlier part of my career as a musician/recording artist, and I've been reviving that part of my life as well these last few years... so Corwin has a lot on his plate right now.  And lastly, even once I have a handful of new emoteys ready for upload, it's up to the fine Admins here on Wire to install them into the website for use... and they have lives outside of Wire as well, and can't just drop everything to cater to Corwin and his new batch of emotes. I have to exercise patience as well. I have a few more in the works, and hopefully we'll see them soon. (Edited by Corwin)   FEISTY_MS_QUEEN: , have I ever told you that you  ?..... ? well....YOU DO !!!!!  Thank you for all that you do  Mama2U: Thank you, so very much, for the information. I'm probably one of the few who DO realize how much work is involved in creating animated gifs. I do most of my photo editing in PhotoShop and have created many PowerPoint demonstrations. I know ALL TOO WELL the extensive amount of time involved in creating an animation that does all the things you want it to do...seamlessly. It's no small feat. Thank you for all the hard work and creativity you bring to the emotes that we use so frequently!! I also want to thank you for outlining the process...for those who don't know how labor intensive it is to create the animated emoticons. It certainly ISN'T something you can do it 15 minutes or with a ton of distractions. Corwin:   Careful... these forums have a rogue penguin on the loose... he's armed, and has an itchy trigger-finger... and he doesn't like drama-queens. Im GONE:  Can this penguin be paged ?!!! I could use him around !! Too many drama-queens!, and will he do the big needy babies ( I cant act my age) always begging for attention(I'm sad) ?!! I hate Drama, I love happy, mature people. |
