These instructions are for dummies (like myself) and they describe"how-to" in the way I personally make emoticons. The methodology is not my zone of expertise , so humour me - I am doing my best. I would like to thank Karen Bridges team for transforming my very own english into it's official version. :)

The process of creating an animated smilie consists of the following phases:

• An idea
• Sketching
• Realization
• Animation
• Optimization

"An idea" is more or less as it says - each of us is a naturally born "idea generator", so I'll skip this part.

"Sketching" is a drawn visualization of an idea, roughly on paper, with rice kernels, Lego and so forth. I prefer to make brief sketches on paper - keeps things clean and tidy.
Here's how it looks:

*You may be more talanted than I (yeah, right...) if so - you'll need all that sketching stuff like you need a hole in the head!

Software

The Author of this article does not provide any software!

There are lots of programs for animation which I'm not going to tell you about - don't know, don't care. :). Though I would love to lie, I won't. I personally use Adobe Photoshop 7 and built-in animator ImageReady.

Here's what the Photoshop palettes we are going to use look like (for those who haven't seen it before)::

Tools	Layers	Swatches *This palette was customised by me especially for use on my smilies.
	... and, in addition to the previous palettes which are practically identical in both programs, here are the palettes for ImageReady:
Animation
Optimization		Color Table

All other palettes can be closed as they are not needed and will provide more working space.

Interesting facts Do you know there is a chance to redeem your piece if something goes wrong by stepping back in History palette? Same effect may be achieved by pressing Ctrl+Z keys.