MonthlyEmoticonist - January (BurgerBunny)

1. Hey there, wanna introduce yourself to the readers?

Yeap, my name is Qingyan, but most people call me Amity. I'm half Chinese and half Korean and I love fried chicken and the colour turquoise. And bunnies. And I am a pixel artiste.

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2. Some expertise in pixels is probably required to be a CV for icons. So, how long've you been making emotes?

Well, when I first popped onto dA back in 2008, I started making pixel dolls. I think I made my first emote a few weeks after joining, which received a DD shortly after. So I've been making them ever since, interspersed with other pixel related things.

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3. Wow, having the first submission to a gallery for an artist get a DD is a pretty nice accomplishment. What program(s) do you use the most to make emotes with?

Photoshop (currently rocking version CS6). I've messed about in Fireworks and even Paint too though, for a laugh.

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4. Photoshop is a pretty popular program, but it's nice to be versed in other options like Fireworks as well. Can you show us one of your greatest works / accomplishments that you're proud of?

Hm, well I have to say I do like my Swing the Girl emote, , which is the one that got the DD, it's also my most popular. I also was quite proud when I perfected my bounce technique in this emote:

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5. Both of those display your skill as an emoticonist very well, the bounce one especially since I think bouncing is a solid cornerstone of emote animation. So what do you feel like is the toughest part of making an emote?

Coming up with a good, original idea. The making of the emote and the animation is pretty straightforward for me now having made so many - but I can spend hours just sitting here thinking of a unique idea!

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6. That's true, even if your skills are top notch, you'll still have a blank canvas if you have no ideas where to start. Do you have any advice for someone that's new to the emote making game? Any suggestions for tutorials, words of wisdom, etc.?

Well, tutorials are a good place to start, though many would teach a style adopted by the tutorial author, and one of the most important things for a new emoticonist is to develop their own style. I think one of the best places to start is the group Emotication as this is a very good starting point for new and upcoming emoticonists looking for advice and ideas. Getting noticed is a difficult thing as well, so remember to submit your emotes to groups to get them out there.

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7. Those are all nice points, everyone agrees that Emotication is a nice place to go to for help. Do you look up to anyone in the emoticon community as a mentor, idol, something like that?

Well I've always been a fan of Krissi001, CookieMagik and DroneGuard. I like their style and their animation skills are spot on. Synfull has also been helpful to me, she has taught me to be a better person in the emote community.

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8. Those are names that I often see a lot for this question, they really are pillars of the community, in that respect. Where do you think you get most of your inspiration / ideas from?

Hm that's a tough one - I sometimes try to think of every day activities and make them funny or sometimes random stuff just pops into my head and I think, 'Hey, that's a good idea'. I've had many ideas though which I've not been able to really reflect well in an emote. Either because they were too difficult to do or I thought that it wouldn't come across well.

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9. That's always a hard part of some ideas, being able to potray them well enough, I've run into that problem a number of times myself. Can you name anyone who you think deserves more exposure?

Hm... Waluigi-Prower.

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10. That's a nice sentiment to me, I appreciate it. So what do you think is the best part of being an emoticonist?

People actually using my emotes in comments. It doesn't matter that they don't know who I am, the fact that they like them enough to use them makes me smile. I make emotes to make others happy and I believe I have been successful ^^

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11. That's a nice way of looking at it. With that new add media function, it always lets people use a wider variety of emotes, and it always does feel good to see people pick yours. As the last question of the interview, can you tell me the worst joke you can think of?

A man walks into a bar and orders a pint of beer and a packet of potato chips. He drinks his beer, puts the chips on his head and walks out. The bartender is like, that's weird. Next day, he comes back, orders a pint of beer and a packet of potato chips. He downs the beer, put the potato chips on his head and walks out. So the bartender is like, what is going on here? Anyway, the next day, the same guy walks in and orders a pint and a packet of potato chips. The bartender says, "We're out of potato chips." so the man asks for peanuts instead. He downs the beer, puts the peanuts on his head and turns to go. The bartender at the point stops the man and asks, "I've gotta ask, why did you put those peanuts on your head?" The man says "Because you don't have any potato chips!"

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