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Description
I'm not really one for avatars (the most I've done with mine is remove the face), but I'm launching a resource group this week and needed an icon. I'm new to pixel art (and digital animation for that matter) and wanted to try an ambitious first project, so this took quite a long time. But. It was so much fun!

I've been putting this together for about the past 10 hours, nonstop, overnight. I just couldn't stop, I kept having new ideas I wanted to create. Pixel art is so shiny. There are so many options but so many limitations, it's such an exquisite practice. I definitely want to be doing more of this, but not for a little bit, I need to regain the ability to focus my eyes.

So about the icon itself. This was created for the group #Forum-UTILITIES , a dynamic resource for the DeviantART forums (or it will be in a few days, more on that later). I grabbed two of the devART icons that represented the idea of the group (the forum symbol from icons-small-modules.gif ) (the config tools from mc3.gif ) and combined them to create the symbol for the group. DeviantART traditionally puts the wrench on the left of an icon to indicate that it is some sort of support or management (you can see this in the Manage Deviations or Manage Portfolio pages), so I decided this would be an apt way to create a support symbol for the forums. I wanted a button format for the full icon, because it just looks nice. I referenced the icons for #fella and #printscommunity to teach myself how to make the fancy beveled edges.

But then came the narrative. I had to show the meeting of the symbols and the creation of the group. Thus, animation. The little emotes were built from scratch, and they were great fun. They aren't the best, but I zoomed way in on a few emoticons to get an idea for how they worked (the primary sphere never changes). The hands are the best though, they just fly around like mad.

Inspiration for the building scene is from eyezmaze .

EARTHQUAKE. That took a while.

About the group itself. #Forum-UTILITIES is designed to provide a location to host commonly requested resources for the forums. Ideally, this is in the form of dynamic stickies. Currently Guidelines stickies on the forums are locked and infrequently updated; this system will allow users to maintain their own stickies (and potential make them more relevant and useful than the static ones). Our current project is updating the Common Suggestions sticky in the Suggestions Forum, after that we'll be putting up posts for the common technical questions in Art Scene.

You can take a look at the group now if you would like, but as of yet it only plays host to a few structuring drafts. (No content has been put up yet.) The group should launch within the next week.

Special thanks to ^vanmall for being the wonderfully inspirational Pixel Art GM. It was through a conversation with him that I became intrigued in this art form.

Tools :
1. Adobe Photoshop CS4
I was only using the Animation panel in Photoshop, I didn't have any other software that rendered to GIF. I have a feeling that I used far too many layers though. If anyone has technique tips (quick rotations? -), I would love to hear them.

Music : (Various Artists)

Time : 10 hours (approximate)

Description
I'm not really one for avatars (the most I've done with mine is remove the face), but I'm launching a resource group this week and needed an icon. I'm new to pixel art (and digital animation for that matter) and wanted to try an ambitious first project, so this took quite a long time. But. It was so much fun!

I've been putting this together for about the past 10 hours, nonstop, overnight. I just couldn't stop, I kept having new ideas I wanted to create. Pixel art is so shiny. There are so many options but so many limitations, it's such an exquisite practice. I definitely want to be doing more of this, but not for a little bit, I need to regain the ability to focus my eyes.

So about the icon itself. This was created for the group #Forum-UTILITIES , a dynamic resource for the DeviantART forums (or it will be in a few days, more on that later). I grabbed two of the devART icons that represented the idea of the group (the forum symbol from icons-small-modules.gif ) (the config tools from mc3.gif ) and combined them to create the symbol for the group. DeviantART traditionally puts the wrench on the left of an icon to indicate that it is some sort of support or management (you can see this in the Manage Deviations or Manage Portfolio pages), so I decided this would be an apt way to create a support symbol for the forums. I wanted a button format for the full icon, because it just looks nice. I referenced the icons for #fella and #printscommunity to teach myself how to make the fancy beveled edges.

But then came the narrative. I had to show the meeting of the symbols and the creation of the group. Thus, animation. The little emotes were built from scratch, and they were great fun. They aren't the best, but I zoomed way in on a few emoticons to get an idea for how they worked (the primary sphere never changes). The hands are the best though, they just fly around like mad.

Inspiration for the building scene is from eyezmaze .

EARTHQUAKE. That took a while.

About the group itself. #Forum-UTILITIES is designed to provide a location to host commonly requested resources for the forums. Ideally, this is in the form of dynamic stickies. Currently Guidelines stickies on the forums are locked and infrequently updated; this system will allow users to maintain their own stickies (and potential make them more relevant and useful than the static ones). Our current project is updating the Common Suggestions sticky in the Suggestions Forum, after that we'll be putting up posts for the common technical questions in Art Scene.

You can take a look at the group now if you would like, but as of yet it only plays host to a few structuring drafts. (No content has been put up yet.) The group should launch within the next week.

Special thanks to ^vanmall for being the wonderfully inspirational Pixel Art GM. It was through a conversation with him that I became intrigued in this art form.

Tools :
1. Adobe Photoshop CS4
I was only using the Animation panel in Photoshop, I didn't have any other software that rendered to GIF. I have a feeling that I used far too many layers though. If anyone has technique tips (quick rotations? -), I would love to hear them.

Music : (Various Artists)

Time : 10 hours (approximate)