Interview with emoticonist :devSynfull:!

Mar 25, 201317 min read

Deviation Actions

Published: Mar 25, 2013

2.2K Views

March is dedicated to the Customization Gallery here in ArtHistoryProject! I had the chance to meet and interview great emoticonists of our community!

Today, we will be interviewing Synfull, a well known artist! (This was supposed to be posted on Saturday, but I had connection problems, sorry for the incovenience. Also, I am sorry but my Membership ended and I can't use the group's skin).

Hello and welcome to this interview `Synfull! Introduce us yourself.

Hey everyone. My name is Karen though I'm also known as 'Syn' around the community. I've been a member of deviantART for 7 years now and have been an emoticonist for around 4-5 years. In the offline world I'm currently taking a gap year out before starting work and in my free time love watching films, helping at Scouts and solving Rubik's cubes.

You are a successful emoticonist. Can you show us your first ever emoticon and talk a little about it?

I have various 'first' emoticons depending on when you class me as becoming an emoticonist.

I made this emote back in around 2006 in an IT class where we were tasked to make an animation. At the time I didn't really understand how to make pixelated images so drew each circle using the circle tool resulting in the variety of circle shapes you see. I also used this style to create a number of 'Syn' avatarswhich I used for my account.

During 2007 I then went on to make a few emote piece using the standard 15x15 circle. However, I still didn't count myself as an emoticonist at this stage as emoticons weren't a huge focus and just something I did once in a while, mainly for avatars.

This is the emote I always credit as being my first 'real' emoticon. It was made in June 2008 and by this stage I had decided to wanted to become an emoticonist and really committed to the art form and paid close attention to what I was doing with the aim to improve.

These were an amazing start! So, you have a nice series of tutorials. How and why did you start making them?

I got into making tutorials as people started to ask me how to do various things, both when making emotes and around the deviantART site/community. Whilst I don't mind explaining things, it can be rather time consuming and hard to explain things in such a small space. Therefore I find it easier to explain things in a tutorial, and simply link people to the deviation when they ask how to do something.

I've equally found that if 2 or 3 people ask me the same question, there are often many more deviants out there wondering the same thing. So by posting a tutorial it allows them to hunt out the knowledge using deviantART search instead of trying to find the right person to ask.

Do you believe there is the perfect emote shading? How did you develop your shading style?

I don't think there is such thing as perfect emote shading. Whilst I have a preference for some styles over others, I like ability to be unique such that art pieces can be easily recognisable.

For the first year I used a gradient shading, and when I became friends with ~nillemotes she convinced me to switch to hand-shaded bases. I found this a really good decision as it lowers the number of colours used, helping with creating longer/more complex avatars and using more colours in .gif files.

I developed my shading by looking at a couple of tutorials and then just having a go. I made sure not to copy the tutorials exactly so I got a more unique style, but they did help me get the general concept and develop something myself. I can't say I am completely happy with my style, but I feel I have more important areas of my emotes to improve. It has also kinda grown on me, and I think I would have a hard time giving it up after so long.

Many people find emoticons amazing and want to make some themselves. What would you suggest them?

In the emote community we have a really useful tutorial and resource group called #Emotication. It hosts a wide range of things including tutorials on shading, animation, specific motions etc along with useful knowledge such as recommended programs and general FAQs.

I would also recommend finding some emotes that you like and zooming in on them to see how they have been made. you can learn a lot from other people's work, and provided you only take away inspiration and not copy specific parts, there is nothing wrong with it. It is also a good idea to get involved in community projects and contests. Even if you are only starting out, they can be good ways to challenge yourself and integrate with other emoticonists.

My last piece of advice is not to be scared to ask questions or talk to 'well known' emoticonists. The emote community is friendly environment and if you ask for some help, most people will be willing to lend a hand, leave feedback or direct you to a more appropriate place. Just because someone is well known doesn't mean they wont be interested in helping you out. Just remember to be polite.

So, why do you like emotes so much?

I love the flexibility of the art form. One minute you can be making an emote for use in the conversation, the next putting it in a large pixel scene or stamp or combine it with other art mediums like photography, digital art or vectors. It is equally nice to be at the front of the development of the art form. You can develop a whole new style or genre and it could go on to be adopted by the community and used by generations to come.

I also enjoy the fact that you can walk in to the emote community knowing nothing and pick up all the skills from deviantART. You don't have to be an already skilled artist or have fancy equipment to become an emoticonist. Many of our best known emoticonists are home grown with no prior experience.

What's your favorite piece of emote art?

Out of my own gallery, I would have to say it is a tie between these two:

When it is opened up to the wider community it is impossible to pick one. However, a few of them are:

Great choice! Finally, what or who inspires you most?

The emote community is what inspires me most. Seeing others make awesome emotes and leave feedback on my own encourages me to carry on doing what I do.