A little story of small faces

[664a6eefe81e1Kolya]

As you may have noticed I added a few new smilies lately and some old ones have changed. Here's a little story of them.

  The 3 eyed smiley that serves as our standard smiley is a reference to the Transmetropolitan comic by Warren Ellis. He hates it here.
  The original "down" smiley was created by TiefsieFool I think. Thanks TF! tto Sometimes I feel a bit bad about this little fellow. But then I remember that to be truly happy one must be retarded.
  This is a very new smiley, created in the last days or so. I wanted to have a smiley that expresses doubt. The design was based on this smiley but changed quite a bit during testing, as usual. I like that he also looks a bit stupid, like he doesn't understand something and that makes him angry. But that's subtext. Mainly he just thinks you're an idiot.
  I worked on this one a lot. I started with the thumbwink smiley which is still available by the way. This one has only 4 fingers and more contrast. The mouth and eyes are large and expressive. The eyes are actually still somewhat melting into his brows but he's got the expression I wanted. Not too cool, you know but happy and grateful for a solution. Basically he says: "Hey that actually worked! Thank you!"
  Well this had to be here. The classic headshot smiley seen in the SS1 intro cutscene on the hacker's shirt. I couldnt find one that was small enough so I created him. I'm happy that he found a use here: When someone makes a mistake (and notices) they post the headshot smiley to acknowledge their mistake.
  That's "shiny". I made this quite some time ago on TTLG. He's one happy Asian. Or he's just a smiley who's pressing his eyes together from laughing. He is kinda pale though.
  This smiley was the start of a major change in the smiley family. I miniaturised the now well known "awesome" smiley to 15x15 pixels. The reason for that is that I want all smilies to stay "in line", ie they shouldn't influence the line height in a post, because that leads to a perceived new paragraph where there is none. This smiley was an instant success and I too noticed that his bigger eyes allowed him to convey more emotion. From now on I was determined to give all my new smilies large eyes. To hell with single black pixels, they say nothing!
  The ninja smiley is still very new. I created him after this huge smiley. While it's always cool to have a ninja around, we also have a ninja editing function and I hope that he will find his place in that context.
  This remake of the winking smiley with a large eye and laugh has gotten quite popular in the few days it exists. He's brown because I made the previous winking smiley brown to differentiate him better from all the yellow smiles. I think I'd like to have a beer with him.
  This is another miniaturisation. I found the original version on Massassi. I like his weird bug eyes that give exactly the baffled expression that the text smiley back on IRC always seemed to have for me, sort of wondering and disbelieving.
  The good old sly smiley. Shevers used to love this one so much. It's one of a bunch of smilies that I took from TTLG, cleaned and fancied up with gradients. Later many of these changed into completely different versions like...
  the smiley with the sunglasses. He's just that cool. Deal with it.
  I found the "proud"-smiley somewhere on the net. It's a very simple smiley but it expresses that feeling very well. He's somewhat underused though. Maybe because showing that you're proud on something is an invitation for people to rip into it. But he also works well in irony.
  The "happyjoy" smiley is another miniaturisation I created from this original. The name refers to Stimpy's favourite song. He may appear a bit creepy but actually he's just too restrained to show just how happy he is. So the emotions all well up inside him and he has to bite his lips while his cheeks redden and his eyes fill with tears of joy and..you get the idea.
  I made this smurf from scratch without looking at any references. It was a bit daunting to get his huge cap into the picture without sacrificing anything. I like how he appears to have a nose, although he doesn't. He also looks smart and small as you would expect from a smurf.
  The classic (though cleaned) "tongue" smiley I took from TTLG. It only lately occurred to me that he may in fact be ill! 

To be continued.

[664a6eefe8561RocketMan]

Shiny is my favourite as it resembles the TTLG one I loved so much, save for the eyes.  Something about it seems genuinely happy.  The awesome smiley is also a favourite.

Winky face seems less like he's winking and more like he's in the process of refunding a lung while losing an eye to sulfuric acid.

[664a6eefe8717ZylonBane]

  looks more smug to me than anything. Probably because all the facial features are elevated, so it appears to be literally looking down on you.

  is my preferred expression of doubt, even though that's not what it's intended for.

EDIT: Actually, now the face kind of looks like the "fuck yeah" rage face to me:

[664a6eefe8c28Kolya]

  The sad smiley. He doesn't depict the common rather casual use of :( Instead this smiley is grieving. He's really very sad. Real feelings here people. So don't use it to display your minor annoyance. That's what is for. I tinted the sad smiley purple because that's the traditional colour of sorrow and loss and not of lesbians. But we'll get to that.
  ZB's favourite smiley of doubt is called "paranoid" here, because he reminds me of the well known Bruce Campbell image macro about Paranoia. On TTLG he was "shifty" or maybe even "shiftyeyes", which is possibly a better name because shifty can convey so many emotions, like "I can't say no more lest the mods kick me." or "She laughed!"
  Oh yeah, the good old condescending rolleyes. He knew it all before you did. When selecting/creating smileys I have a self imposed rule not to allow them to become too negatively loaded. It's got to do with Marshall McLuhan and the means of communication forming the message, etc. Anyway, rolleyes is closest to being an exception from that rule. Of course he could theoretically be used in a friendly fashion. Not likely though.
  This one has two names here, both "orly" and "serious" work (in colons). The original cropped up on TTLG at some point, although he was never an official smiley there. He was especially hard to get in line and while I'm proud of the folded arms I still think his face somehow looks slightly sadder and less detached and smug than it should.
  "Hardcore" was a an early attempt, possibly my oldest smiley still in use. He's not angry per se, he's just hardcore.
  The "hacker" (or "coder") smiley evolved from TTLG's "nono" smiley but turned into a completely different direction. He used to be static for the longest time, I only very recently animated him. I like how the light of his monitor reflects on his face. Also coding with sunglasses is the sign of a pro.
  The "cyborg" is actually a Borg. That's the name I found him under at least. I cut some his height, moving around some cables, but otherwise didn't do much with him. He still is a perfect match for these boards for obvious reasons.
  Oh, so many things I could say about Lulu. I wanted to create a smiley that conveys Louise Brooks' tomboyish mischievous and fatal sexiness. And in a rare stroke of luckgenius I actually managed to capture that look, down to minute details. Lulu is of course black and white, being a silent film star.
  Lola is the newcomer on the court. I derived her from this tennis smiley, making her smaller and removed the gloved thumbup and was pretty happy how well her hair turned out, despite the small size I had to squeeze her in. At first I was determined to find out what the hell she expressed beside being a girl. Sort of learned gender awareness I guess. Then I placed her next to Lulu and it clicked. Since then they are the female power duo, chatting about girl stuff, that I wouldn't understand. They remind me a lot of two geek girls I met during my studies, who actually were enthused SS2 players. As they explained to me, one plays the keyboard the other steers with the mouse. I was delighted.
  The pirate is a smiley I created from scratch like the smurf. I had this concept that it would be useful and fun to have a pirate on board and then I looked at some photos of Johnny Depp in Pirates of the Carribbean and only two hours later I got it. Again the details make him what he is and accidents turned into features. For example he was actually to have a big mouth, until I noticed that it looked like a beard. In order to keep his earring visible on our silver theme I had to place it in front of his face and hair which gives him a neat sideways look.
  The "stroke" smiley is the newest adddition to our smiley family. Appropriately he came to life as an accident when editing the "thumb" smiley. So they're like brothers, one says "Yeah!" the other says "NYAAAAh!".

To be continued (with the outtakes).

[664a6eefe8d1fZylonBane]

I swear to god, when I look at the pirate smiley, all I can see is a house.

[664a6eefe8df4Kolya]

Hahaha, a house? I don't even...

[664a6eefe8f95voodoo47]

well my story is short;

this is how I look
Image: http://forum.3dfx.cz/download/file.php?avatar=8.gif
this is how I feel
Image: http://www.3dfx.cz/smile/su_002.gif

[664a6eefe906aKolya]

Then go to bed my friend. Nothing here could be so important.

[664a6eefe933dZylonBane]

Hahaha, a house? I don't even...

[664a6eefe94b1Al_B]

Argh - now I'm not going to be able to see the original any more.

[664a6eefe9666voodoo47]

looks so very comfy - makes me even sleepier.. too bad, I have the graveyard shift today tonight. mmm, maybe I should take apart a bunch of office pcs, just to keep in shape.

[664a6eefe9760Kolya]

  Oh god, it's a HOUSE!


hehe Oh well, since I tend to keep working on these smilies, maybe one day this will be more than a house that vaguely resembles Johnny Depp.

[664a6eefe9886RocketMan]

°luluZB did you draw that from scratch just to make a point??  I refuse to believe you just came across that on the net.

Kolya:  Lulu

needs

a

body

!

[664a6eefe997eZylonBane]

Yup.

[664a6eefe9a56Kolya]

.

[664a6eefe9b62RocketMan]

You will be adding that to the line-up, maybe with a "floor vent effect" .... right?  right?   right?....

[664a6eefe9c53Kolya]

Haha, no. But it is a usable smilie (via :ohlulu:) should you ever feel lonely in your post box.

[664a6eefea279Kolya]

And here come the out-takes. Most of them I didn't make myself unless noted otherwise.

:biggrin:
:2grin: This is the laughing smiley from TTLG, cleaned up and fancily mirrored.
:dropsdead: 
:bluegrin:
:blush:
:boom:
:cowboy: Pretty sure ThiefsieFool dragged that cowboy in.
:droog: I made this Clockwork Orange inspired smiley that may be a bit hard to see or understand, just like the film. The word "droog" is taken from the fictional language Nadsat that Anthony Burgess invented for his novel and means "friend". While the film may not look like it, it is actually a science fiction story. Now for some good old ultraviolence by our friend Ludwig van, because Alex would appreciate it.
:spigot: When I had to make all moderators into admins for a while for technical reasons TF didn't hesitate to use his new found powers for weird stuff. I think that's someone from the Chaos City webcomic, but I'm not quite sure. Something about his left shoulder always makes me think this was a shortcut.
:'( 
:ebil:
:eek:
>:(  
:eww:
:girl: One of my first smilies, which I made for my younger sis. It's got a somewhat stary stare I think.
:gmorning: I might actually have to redo that in a proper size sometime, because we all feel like that in the morning.
:help: Just like the dropsdead smiley this was actually used quite often by newbies, but it grew annoying quickly.
:infinity: Stuck in a loop I guess.
:kitten:
:lol: The classic laughing smiley also from TTLG.
:madhatter: Ah, now that's an interesting one. For this I recreated the original Tenniel drawing of the Mad Hatter (he's mad as a march hare) from Alice in Wonderland in 18x16 pixel. It is pretty much perfect, except the black parts bleed into a dark background. And it may be a bit small, yeah.
:mrgreen:
:neutral:
:nono:
:nuts:
:pale:
:popcorn:
:porn:
:puppydogeyes:
:rambo:
:redface:
:salut:
:scratch:
:wah:
:shodan:  Locked away for security reasons.
:silly:
:boring:
:smile:
:suicide:
:sweat:
:thumbwink:
:twisted:
:weird:
:o
:wtf:
:wtfu: Another TF creation.
:wtfuftw: Experimental animated PNG.

[664a6eefea38bKolya]

Drinks your booze, asks for toilet money and then vanishes for weeks before you see her with another guy.

[664a6eefea52aRocketMan]

Oh K, there's just not enough room on this green Earth for a heart as big as yours.  Somehow I knew you'd come through

edit:  You might as well call this :rocket: because I'm the only one who's gonna use it haha... just joking, ohlulu is better

Image: http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v483/planetmie/ohluluw.gif
yeeeaaaah 

[664a6eefea66aKolya]

Haha, nice. Funny enough I'm, playing American Mcgees Alice currently, where you can drift up in upwinds on a billowing skirt. I had ordered the second Alice game but the DVD was damaged, so I decided to play the first one again. And boy am I having a good time following the white rabbit.

[664a6eefea9e7Schatten]

Needs more
Unfortunately I have lost the gif somewhere but TF might have it around

[664a6eefeaad8Kolya]

Well I'm looking forward to that one...

R-Man, I took up your changes. Good work on the pantihose.

[664a6eefeabbeSchatten]

lol found it. Made that in 2004, jeez

I'm feeling old