Post by Sunjo on Feb 26, 2009 12:42:09 GMT -5
Alright, in this tutorial I will explain how to make the below animated emote.
I've included the PSD for this tutorial at the bottom of the post.
I will not explain how to make the BG transparent, and this won't have the typical emote shape, this tutorial will be using my own style of emotes, and teach you animation repetition.
Step 1:
First, you will need to know your background color, I will be doing this tutorial with a blue background (#2a5f72), but you may want to start out with white.
Open up Photoshop and create a new document, with the size 21x15 pixels.
Now fill the background with your BG color of choice, again - I will use #2a5f72.
Step 2:
Make a new layer, name it "circle".
Now zoom in to 1200% and create a circle like shown below.
Step 3:
Now select your gradient tool and make the following gradient.
Step 4:
With your "circle" layer selected, select the radial gradient
And use the gradient from the top right to the bottom left like shown below.
Step 5:
Now right click on the "circle" layer and use these settings.
Step 6:
Now this part is optional, but if you want your emote to have hands:
With your "circle" layer selected, make a selection like below, and fill it with a solid color (I used #85afc4) or gradient. (I won't go in-depth on this part.)
Step 7:
Now with the circle and hands out of way, we will start on the face.
Make a new layer and name it "face".
Now select the pencil tool and choose a 1px pencil.
Draw a face like I have below.
Note: for the color it's best to use the border color, here I used the color #123e5d.
Step 8:
Now I want to make the face smoother so use the same exact pencil but set the opacity of the pencil to 40% and draw like I have below:
Step 9:
Now make a new layer and name it "QQ".
Make a selection like I have below and fill it with a light blue color. (I used #afedff)
Step 10:
Now in this part we will do a bit of pixel art, make a new layer and name it "QQ lighting".
What I did here was select different shades of blue and made the stream look more "realistic".
Feel free to copy my colors exactly, or go with your own style.
Step 11:
Now here comes the tricky part.
Create a new layer or group and name it "tears".
Use the 1pixel pencil tool and make dots like I have below. (I used the color #afedff for the dots)
And it is 100% vital to the success of the animation that you make each tear dot on a SEPARATE layer.
Make sure your dots are close to the tear stream.
Step 12:
Now we are ready to animate, so save your PSD and open up ImageReady.
Open your PSD and duplicate your first frame 3 times so you have 4 frames total.
Step 13:
Now select the 2nd frame and move all of your "tears" layers down 1 pixel.
You do this by selecting 1 tear layer, then using the move tool to move it down 1 pixel, make sure you're zoomed in while doing this as it makes it easier.
Note: If one of your tear layers go off canvas, move it back to the top, in line with the top of the mouth, so it creates a endless stream of tears.
Step 14:
Repeat the last step until all 4 frames are done. (you may need to create more frames)
On each frame move the tears down 1 pixel, and on the last frame try to make repeat smoothly with the first frame.
Below I have shown the steps I did for each frame.
Step 15:
Now set the delay time for each frame to 0.1 seconds, and make it loop forever like I have shown below.
Afterwords go to File>Save Optimized As...>And name your file.
And there you have it, here is my end result:
PSD:
click here
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