Animated Smilies

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This tutorial requires Paint Shop Pro and Animation Shop Pro.

In this tutorial I will teach you how to create a basic animated smilie. (). To begin with, open up a new image on Paint Shop Pro sized 13x12. Make sure the image is completely filled in solid white.

Using the brush tool at a size of 1px and a colour of #5A63C6, move two pixels down from the left and draw a line that stops two pixels always from the bottom. Repeat this step on the right side, and join the lines up by adding one dot on the diagonal up and moving it across.

Use the fill tool to fill in the image. I've filled it in with the color #C1C1EB. One you have filled it, it's time to add shading. I've split my smilie up in three sections, the first section has been coloured #DEDEF7, the middle section has remained the same colour, and the last section has been coloured #A5ADDE.

Now it's time to add features. It's really just about drawing lines in the right places. I've drawn my eyes in black and mouth in black. I've also drawn a two pixel line for the cheeks in light pink. However, what you want to do with the face is up to you.

Once you have finished the face, you can paste your image onto Animation Shop Pro. To make it transparent in the background, whilst highlighting the fill tool click 'To Canvas Color'.

Now that the background is transparent, you are free to play with the features. I'm going to show you how to do a basic nodding smilie. Firstly, duplicate your first image so that there are two of them. Now, zooming into your image, move everything on the face one pixel DOWN. You can do this using your paint brush at a pixel of 1. All you have to do is delete and re-add things.

Just by moving your pixels around like this, you can change your smilie to have any expression, and to be doing anything, like winking. ().