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

[Buster Crabbe's Uncle]

And Now For Something Mostly Different:

The trolling has been fun, but I thought I'd talk about some serious non-animated smilie-making stuff today.

The smilies here kinda suck. They reflect the ninties tech 'poly started with, being mostly tiny and unshaded. I'm not bashin' - just sayin'. But on that theme, here: I'll create the primal emoticon from scratch as a demonstration of the absolute basics.

In fact, I'll time myself, because it's that easy.

(-While I was doing this, my own forum abruptly got busy as ****. Also, never any Skype love until you're busy and inconvenienced. I had to start over and do it again to time it.)

First,


15x15 is the default size here, so


Which gave me a little 225 pixel square the background color in my toolbox. So-


[Ctrl]a (select all)>Delete.

Then, because GIMP has no stinking draw circle function, I used the Ellipse Select Tool to fill the box with a circle -WITH Antialiasing UNclicked (otherwise it will fuzz outside the circle a little and require cleanup)-


And used the Bucket Fill Tool to make a yellow disk


Then I switched to black and drew in the edges


And drew in a basic smiley face


Then Image>Mode>Indexed>set the colors to 2>Export>File>Save As...>entered "Smilie.gif" (it's easier to just type in the extension)>Save


(It pops up with "Created with GIMP". I say to have pride in your work and never skip an opportunity to sign it.)>Save.

Which gives us this

(Compare to the one in place )

-Two minutes, twelve seconds from File>New to Save, and I made a three word answer to a Skype during. Going back to make the screenies and writing it, on the other hand, up has taken an hour.


Next: I think I'll cover some more basic, but more complex, stuff before I get back to Advanced Teddy...

[Buster Crabbe's Uncle]

Ben, Kid; I'm curious about the coincidence of you guys seeing my trolls of you when you did. Did you just happen to get a PM from the waaambulance?

[Kidlicious]

No sir.

[Buster Crabbe's Uncle]

Huh. Amazing.

[Buster Crabbe's Uncle]

Believe it or not, this is nothing to do with trolling Sloww. Someone elsewhere asked for it today.

[Kidlicious]

Can you make a puppy licking balls on CA, but not to troll Oerdin?

[Buster Crabbe's Uncle]

Not to troll Oerdin? You're asking a lot.

"balls on CA" as in the state of California?

[Ben Kenobi]

I'm curious about the coincidence of you guys seeing my trolls of you when you did. Did you just happen to get a PM from the waaambulance?

I was curious and clicked on the thread. I didn't even see the troll until a couple days after. Might have been a function of us both being in the USA and in the same time zone.

[Kidlicious]

Not to troll Oerdin? You're asking a lot.

"balls on CA" as in the state of California?

I didn't mean the state's balls. That would cause Oerdin to lose it.

[Buster Crabbe's Uncle]

What's CA, then?

[Buster Crabbe's Uncle]

Speaking of saving 'poly...

I had a look at the smilies here in the dark background theme last night, and I'm impressed. I expected a lot more of them to have light pixel halos that look like crap. Props to whoever's already done a lot of cleaning up.

Here's what three look like against a black background


Not counting the 45 ciV civilizations icons at the bottom of the big list, most of which have problems. I noticed seven that needed fixing up. Some needed cropping as well, and all seemed to be saved with too many colors. So the following fix-ups are all substantially smaller files.



is off too, but it looks like it was supposed to be in a gold ring, and not being sure, I dunno what to do with that one.


There's plenty left to do along these lines, if anyone with the skillz loves 'poly - or just browses in the black theme and is tired of all those post icons and ciV smilies.

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See, the thing is, everybody b****es about the state of 'poly, but nobody DOES anything about it.

Do you think Aeson can fix this place on his own?

Hell no. I had a good opinion of the young man before he took on this decayed cesspool, and nothing has changed that. But it's too big for any one person. It needs a team - with YOU on it.

How many of you are pinging absent members to lure them back? (The ones you got along with, naturally; no one expects otherwise.) You never know who might still be getting email notifications of PMs and might respond. Well, if you think the state of this forum sucks, why are you sitting around p***ing and moaning instead of trying to build it in your own image? Apolyton is YOUR place. Step up and take responsibility. Look for opportunities to post good articles to the front page. Try to post on-topic in the on-topic forum of your choice regularly. Make a project of a dead one for a game you like. Look around for crap that needs doing and is up your alley.

Not everyone has the same things to contribute, but everyone has something. You come here to chat - this is how to draw more people to do it with. It's not brain surgery; it's just obvious things in need of people trying.

It won't be easy and it won't happen fast, but if you put in a moderate effort and stick to it, you will win. Everyone wins.


Now someone fix that awful greed post icon... In the dark theme, it's just plain broke.

[Buster Crabbe's Uncle]

Thoughts? Discussion?

?

[molly bloom]

Thoughts? Discussion?

?

I like Lindt's plain chocolate with wasabi.

[Buster Crabbe's Uncle]

Good to know.

What are you doing to promote Lindt's plain chocolate with wasabi at 'poly?

[molly bloom]

Good to know.

What are you doing to promote Lindt's plain chocolate with wasabi at 'poly?

Eating it and mentioning that I likes it lots.


Next up: cold Yorkshire puddings with chilli and garlic dipping sauce. Yum!