So Does NY1 here know how to design an emoticon?
 

What programs do you use? Adobe
Imageready?
And does anyone have any usefull hints/ tips

thanks

If I was going to attempt it, I'd create the individual frames for the emoticon in Adobe Photoshop and then animate it using Ulead GIF Animator. But I haven't done emoticons really, so other people who have might be able to give you a better suggestion for how to go about doing it.

-RoG-

If I may ask: Where can one get Ulead?

Kazaa.

can you do it in Flash? Or would that stop you saving it as a gif?

You can 'publish' animations in Flash as gifs, but you'll need to fiddle around a little with the publishing settings if the colors get screwed. Also, the file sometimes comes out blurred, and you don't get a transparent background (but someone from here can probably fix that for you when you're done).

What I usually do is copy/open an existing emoticon like :) into MS Paint (or Photoshop, or Paint Shop Pro) and change it frame by frame, copying each frame into a gif animation program. Most animation programs probably also have a function to erase the background color and make it transparent, but I've never worked with Adobe Imageready.

I use PSP7 for stills and Graphics Gale for animated gifs.

thanks, i'll give it a go!