Let's Make Smilies!

[Buster's Uncle]

If you're willing to put up with what will undoubtedly be really novice questions, I'll give it a try.

Valka, I live for answering novice questions. 

How difficult would it be to let the ears wiggle as well?

Not very.

[Buster's Uncle]

Obiwan Kenobi as a hot leather nun.   

[JarlWolf]

Not even the oldlings were spared. 

[Buster's Uncle]

Not even the frogs were spared.

[Valka]

If you're willing to put up with what will undoubtedly be really novice questions, I'll give it a try.

Valka, I live for answering novice questions. 

You may regret saying that. There are some things about computers that are probably as basic as breathing to you, but I just don't understand them.

Anyway, what is the first step - downloading GIMP?

[Buster's Uncle]

Yes'm.  Google GIMP.  It's free.

[Buster's Uncle]

Okay, I decided that for my next, whatchacallit, tootoreal, I'd make Teddy dance for your amusement.

First, I opened the waving version from the last lesson.  I thought I'd begin by having him wave both arms, so first I selected the straight arm with the Fuzzy Select/magic wand tool.  The subtext of this here intructional thingy is unintentional, BTW, and you have a dirty mind for noticing.



[Delete]>selected other arm>[Ctrl]c to copy.  (You don't have to draw the whole figure when it's symmetrical - an entire half you can copy/flip will do, as I did in drawing Teddy in the first place.) 

[Ctrl]v to paste



Layers>Transform>Flip horizontally

   

Drag it over into position



deselect



Now, two frames is enough for a basic animation, as before, but I want Teddy to wave his arms twice before he goes on to his next -totally innocent- moves.

So I right-click on the Background Layer thumbnail in the menu>Duplicate Layer

   

drag it past the second layer to the third layer position/top

     

and do the same with the second layer.



Now it's just a matter of renaming and putting the right commands in the text next to each thumbnail.



.gifs aren't picky about what you name each layer, as long as it includes a number higher than the layer before.  The easiest thing to do is copy/paste the text from Frame 2 (300ms) (replace), correcting the number as you go -




There's more to the dance teddy's gonna do, but that needs to wait, because bedtime.  Here's what we've got so far:



-And next time, Teddy's gonna bust some mad moves, yo.

[Buster's Uncle]

It needn't be dancing smilies! For instance, Miri could be incorporated as a smilie!

Okay.  Keep the ideas coming.

[Geo]

It needn't be dancing smilies! For instance, Miri could be incorporated as a smilie!

Okay.  Keep the ideas coming.

Marvelous!
Which other SMAC(X) smilie request are already in the pipeline?

  with a glowing saint's ring behind/above his head? Deirdre with this "LALALAA" smilie text and a little mouth movement with it? Santiago has a shotgun appearing in a hand next to her, and fires it?

[Buster's Uncle]

That's it, unless I'm forgetting something, or get inspired.  You said to do something with all the leaders, or at least the original seven.  I'm open to suggestions.

-Ah.  Ninja edit'd.  Let me percolate those in the back of my head.

[Geo]

Just added my previous post with suggestions.
But if for some reason a request isn't valid, you better say so.

[Buster's Uncle]

I wasn't satisfied, so here's a much improved Kermit.

[Buster's Uncle]

Teddy's next move is to put his paws on his hips.  The last frame of what I posted last night had his arms up, so I added a 5th frame, a copy of the first, and a sixth with his arms redrawn even lower


and then, elbows bent
.

Now the next part is tricky.  I want Innocent Teddy to sway his hips.  First, I copy the last layer and select everything from the bottom up to the middle of his paws


And use the Sheer Tool to skew the figure as below:


Leaving us this:


I make the level below visible and move the skewed selection over to match the position of the feet before I deselect


I select the rest of the torso, up to the top of the shoulder and leaving the neck-head out


And do all the same things again, yielding


And some cursory clean-up gives me


-Now, this is only eight frames of 16, so boring tl;dr how-to to go, right?  Well actually, we're sittin' in bamboo, 'cause that's all the figures drawn; the rest is just copy/paste stuff.

The next frame is a copy of the last, standing straight.  For the one after, that

-The left-skew copied and flipped. 

To get two shakes of the hips, then straight, left, straight, right, straight, and finish with a copy the paws out-down



For a final step I haven't mentioned before


(This auto-crops the individual layers and optimizes the smallest possible filesize.  That matters.)

And then, to check your work (use the optimize function, but don't trust it not to mess your animation up), in the new window/copy that results





If satisfactory, set the Mode to Indexed (it's a .gif thing - and animations need to be in .gif format)


Teddy's only three colors, so

-Which is important to keep the server load minimized.  Never go for the 255 default unless you have to - for instance, when using a full-color photo.

Now. save as a .gif - click Save as Animation in the Export File pop-up>Export.



And now, give it y'all, while the Latest, the Greatest, the Move-bustin'-est cuddly toy in InnerWebtown, INNOCENT TEDDY TEARS UP TH' DANCE FLO', F****ING S*** UP, OLD-SCHOOL!






Next: Dirty Dancing.  -You trust me by now, don't you?   

[Geo]

Erm... ;hide

Hey, perhaps Roze as a running away smilie, and  as an idea smilie.

[Buster's Uncle]

There are some things about computers that are probably as basic as breathing to you, but I just don't understand them.

You can't possibly be as bad as my 73 year-old mom, and the other grannies think she's teh haxxor now.  Check here on for more on that.  I posted some photo manipulation she did in GIMP on the next page.