Smilies & Forum Graphics

[Buster Crabbe's Uncle]

Making a Samurai-Playing-a-Banjo Smilie: an Illustrated Tutorial

Reading through an old thread of smilie requests, I saw someone wish for a samurai playing a banjo - what the heck; I thought I'd do it. Probably not serious, but what the heck.

I'll be concentrating on technique in these remarks. The step-by-step process is showable/teachable. Creativity/art, well, I can show you how easier/better than why, but why's in there, too. Helping an ESL Italian AC2 member quite a few years ago w/ modding taught me to screenshot heavily to help get past the language barrier.

So fire up GIMP -it's a free download; google it- and follow along.

---

I begin, as almost always, with opening my stock blank smilie, in this case, the 15x15 model:

-Skips a lot of time wasted drawing in the same shading over and over, to have some stock blanks...

Next, I made some room for details, the banjo, hands and animation.

Image>Canvas Size...>20x20>Offset all 5 to the bottom, 2 for approximate centering - (I'll put the big end of the banjo on the 3 side). Thus:

-I'm trying to keep the smilies as small as possible; 20x20 is the ideal upper size. I'll end up revising this 2x wider; taking up extra width is less disruptive when mixed w/ text. Tall as x20 pixels spaces text a little extra, so it's worth going to some trouble to try not to exceed that.

Next, it's going to be an animation of at least two frames, so I'll need a Layers box. That's Windows>Dockable Dialogues>Layers:

Thus:

Now to make a second layer:

Right-click on the thumbnail in the Layers Toolbar>New Layer>make sure the bottom, Transparency, is checked>Okay. (Clearly, I went back and took some screenies out of order afterward; no refunds.)

The image/layer(s) is in an invisible box that needs expanding. SO -
siiigh. -I've hit the attachment limit one pic too early.


Next time: I draw the various elements and, one certainly hopes, it gets a bit more interesting.

[Buster Crabbe's Uncle]

Laughing Out Loud:

Basically, the Default w/ the topspace squeezed real tight. A few other minor refinements, witness the shading on the forum name bars. The theme name doesn't really mean anything.

[Buster Crabbe's Uncle]

Dark Blue:

If you like the Dark theme, or would if it wasn't for all that green and teal, this is for you. The PM backgrounds are fixed to be legible, too.

It chaps my butt that I've got all this serviceable theme stuff available that I can't simply turn on for the members...

[Buster Crabbe's Uncle]

I'd be game to try, if I had a screeny or two to work with...

I did a fake CFC Modern in SMF at AC2:

[Broken_Erika]

What about a classic theme?
I.E. pre-plomp era

[Buster Crabbe's Uncle]

[Buster Crabbe's Uncle]

Oh yeah?

Star Trek:

-I still can't get rid of the vB logo, but I can have a black version against a dark background, and white against white - so effectively invisible in about half the themes, maybe stand out less in some of the rest.

It's a mystery what the difference is between Default, Dark, and the rest. They all work FINE for me - so it's some settings problem.

I probably ought to do something fantasy themed after I straighten out the logos on the rest of the generic stuff...

[EPW]

Sigh. Very impressive.

[Buster Crabbe's Uncle]

[Buster Crabbe's Uncle]

...I believe I've finished the c6 smilies set. Check that **** out...

[Buster Crabbe's Uncle]

Ultimate:

[Buster Crabbe's Uncle]

Just look at it!

[Buster Crabbe's Uncle]

Flash:

Put on Liszt's Prelude in D, 'cause I'm gonna figure out how to make these accessible...

[Buster Crabbe's Uncle]

Light Blue:


Old School:


Orange Purple:


Pink:


Red:


Stripes:


Wood:

[Buster Crabbe's Uncle]

So I figure I'll add the Poly logo to all of them -which version depending on the color scheme- pick one on which to do an old-school Flash Gordon thing, and pester Solver for help figuring out how to turn on the lot for your optional use.

Gray Stripes:



Grunge:



Light Blue:




-Should be, at very worst, no harm in it...