Making Smilies (so nag <s>Aeson</s> <s>Ming</s> ME to install)

[Buster Crabbe's Uncle]

Profound.

[molly bloom]

Profound.

My sauce does indeed have a certain 'profondite', as we say in French cuisine.

Read this and thought of you, Buster's Unc.

But in the online age, we are more likely to express ourselves using state-of-the-art technology… state-of-the-art technology invented in 1987. On the internet, retro will always be cool. If you want to indicate your happiness, shock or sense of humour today, you turn to three little letters: GIF.

http://metro.co.uk/2014/03/18/gif-me-all-your-lovin-all-your-dogs-and-kittens-too-how-gifs-won-the-internet-4626406/?ITO=news-sitemap

Thanks again for all the laughs- you're a bright spark in the abyssal gloom.

[Buster Crabbe's Uncle]

[shrugs] I am what I am. Some of these guys are going to grow up to be okay.

I used to be a punk, but I just didn't discover innerwebs forums young enough to truly embarrass myself...

[molly bloom]

I used to be a punk,

Me too. Still have the vinyl to prove it.

Have a timely song in celebration :

[Buster Crabbe's Uncle]

But in the online age, we are more likely to express ourselves using state-of-the-art technology… state-of-the-art technology invented in 1987. On the internet, retro will always be cool. If you want to indicate your happiness, shock or sense of humour today, you turn to three little letters: GIF.

I honestly don't care much for the use of the things as communication in place of clear writing; but other people do, and I just plain like doing little art jobs.

[Buster Crabbe's Uncle]

Dancing Lal & friends

So I'm a co-owner at Alpha Centauri 2, and I've been doing the same smilie project thread stuff there. I gather a good many of you are familiar with SMACX, so I thought I'd share something.

Back when we first got serious about making a go of the place, Rymdolov posted a weird animation of Brother Lal dancing. I was inspired to create this, which is our dancing/joy/banana-type smilie:



He's exactly two years and three weeks old today. (Astute observers may have noticed that I get a lot of mileage out of altering the banana's dance into something else - and y'all haven't seen buttdance.)

GeoModder recently suggested I do the same sort of thing with all the original seven leaders. We haven't come up with a lot of specific ideas that send me enough to make and install, but he suggested this:





And yesterday, I thought of a good one:





...Anybody got any funny ideas for Yang, Zak, Morgan and Santi?

[Buster Crabbe's Uncle]

Bumping because it's slow and that always causes activity somewhere else...

[Buster Crabbe's Uncle]

Huh. I can't believe that was topped almost an hour.

...

A certain someone at another forum took my name in vain yesterday, so-

[Dinner]

The Dale smilie should definitely be a panda.

[Buster Crabbe's Uncle]

Oh, this makes him madder, I assure you.

[molly bloom]

So I'm a co-owner at Alpha Centauri 2, and I've been doing the same smilie project thread stuff there. I gather a good many of you are familiar with SMACX, so I thought I'd share something.

Back when we first got serious about making a go of the place, Rymdolov posted a weird animation of Brother Lal dancing. I was inspired to create this, which is our dancing/joy/banana-type smilie:

[ATTACH=CONFIG]175457[/ATTACH]

He's exactly two years and three weeks old today. (Astute observers may have noticed that I get a lot of mileage out of altering the banana's dance into something else - and y'all haven't seen buttdance.)

GeoModder recently suggested I do the same sort of thing with all the original seven leaders. We haven't come up with a lot of specific ideas that send me enough to make and install, but he suggested this: [ATTACH=CONFIG]175458[/ATTACH]

Zakharov popping out of a test tube- or bunsen burner.

Morgan's head on a bank note or rolling around on a coin on edge.

Yang's head going in and out of a rabbit hole (w/rabbit ears).

Santiago as a rocket- somewhat like Grant Morrison's 'Bulleteer'

[ATTACH=CONFIG]175469[/ATTACH]





And yesterday, I thought of a good one:
[ATTACH=CONFIG]175459[/ATTACH]




...Anybody got any funny ideas for Yang, Zak, Morgan and Santi?

Oh shoot. I don't know how that happened- lack of attention... apologies.

[Buster Crabbe's Uncle]

Eeexcellent.

[molly bloom]

Eeexcellent. [ATTACH=CONFIG]175470[/ATTACH]

Thanks for overlooking my mistake. Domai as one end of a barbell (his profile has the photo of the weight lifting/bodybuilders competition) or a spanner.

Aki as a computer screen or image in one, or embedded in circuits...

Svengaard with eye patch, or possibly replacing the skull in a skull and crossbones flag.

Cha Dawn as the Caterpillar from 'Alice's Adventures In Wonderland'

[Buster Crabbe's Uncle]

[Buster Crabbe's Uncle]

Fixing up an old one

Hmmm. I saw a few days ago that the animation of the popcorn smilie was defective - I don't know why I never noticed before.

It was a problem I've encountered before; the (replace) and (combine) functions don't play well together when (replace) follows (combine) and something has to move against the transparent background. Took a very long time to track down all the details, but I finally got it, and added some shading/depth to customize in the AC2 house style while I was in there. \

Alas, the file size increased substantially between more colors and all the frames I had to convert back to (replace). But working animation definitely beats broken.

Side by side for comparison: