MonthlyEmoticonist - November (stuck-in-suburbia)

1. Hey, how's it going? Wanna introduce yourself to the readers?

Hi Readers. I hope you both enjoy this interview.

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2. I think they will! So, how long've you been making emotes?

Oh, pffft. Um, according to my research, the shift happened in the latter half of 2009. It seems impossible that I've been doing this for about four years.

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3. Four years well spent. What program(s) do you use the most to make emotes with?

Fireworks is my bestie. I rarely use anything else, and if I do, it's probably cause something has gone horribly, horribly wrong.

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4. Fireworks seems to be a very potent program. Can you show us one of your greatest works / accomplishments that you're proud of?

There are few emoticons that I've created that I'm proud of, and are honestly perfect. However:

Is one of the first that pins the expression perfect, has animation timing that I can find no fault in, and has perfect colouring.

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5. Animation timing can be difficult to pin down, especially when as little as 10 milliseconds can cause it to be off. What do you feel like is the toughest part of making an emote?

Picking how far to take it. You can make it static, you can make it animated. But how detailed? How much animation? How long of an animation? How involved? I always feel like I don't take them far enough, that there's something missing.

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6. That's a very unique answer, and I think that it definitely holds true. Taking it too far can cause errors to pop up, but not enough can waste potential. Do you have any advice for someone that's new to the emote making game? Any suggestions for tutorials, words of wisdom, etc.?

Start small. But don't be afraid to challenge yourself. Heavily reference. Also, this video is a fabulous bouncing reference (it's slow mo, so your animation does not need to be that dramatic).

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7. I agree, getting out of your comfort zone is one of the best ways to improve. Do you look up to anyone in the emoticon community as a mentor, idol, something like that?

Ha ha ha. Do I? It's more like, do I not? No matter how good you are at something, there will always be someone better than you at it. It is known. The number of people whose work I admire is too long to list fully, as I'll forget someone. However, there's always those standard people who blow your mind-hole, like Wooded-Wolf, a-kid-at-heart, Krissi001, Synfull, Web5teR, Emotikonz, BlissfullySarcastic, xxghost250xx, Xelioth ... I could continue, but it'll get a little ridiculous.

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8. All of those people do blow my respective mind-hole with their awesomeness on a daily basis. Where do you think you get most of your inspiration / ideas from?

Either something I want to try, a theme for a contest/challenge, or something from my own real life. It could be anything, really.

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9. Contests seem to run in people's thought process a lot. Can you name anyone who you think deserves more exposure?

Everyone but me. Specifically, happy-gurl comes to mind. Though a-kid-at-heart seems to think he's not as kick-ass as he is, so more people should feed that ego.

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10. Oh, definitely, those two certainly demonstrate a lot of skill. So what do you think is the best part of being an emoticonist?

Being part of such a young art form. There's tons of history, and you can see the evolution over time. But there's also so many things we can do, places we can still go.

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11. With some art forms having been existent for a few centuries, emoticons are definitely new, having only been around for a few decades. As the last question of the interview, can you tell me the worst pun you can think of?

My sister told me that's she's learning sign language. she says it's quite handy.

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