hey, thanks for the inquiry! i've been meaning to make a post like this for some time now.
NOTE: this will only cover how i make my blinkies. if you want me to go in depth about how i make stamps, please send another ask! i just think they're kind of self explanatory in comparison >_>
MY BLINKIE MAKING PROCESS
for this demonstration, i will make this graphic of Acht Mizuta from Splatoon 3. it's free to use btw:
i make my graphics in Krita, which is great for editing pixel art, but does not have an option to disable font antialiasing. this leads me to generate my pixel text through external online services, but i usually generate it on blinkies.cafe and get an editable template to go along with it. my go-to is the simple purple template, since it has a simple palette and the text has its own color so i can put it in a separate layer easier.
i import it as a single frame that i will animate later. usually what i do first is cut+paste the inner content of the blinkie into a separate layer:
then i remove the background with a fill erase on the third mode, and move it around as i see fit. i put it in a separate layer before this so it's easier to color and add things like outlines.
let's import graphics! usually i find a transparent png and overlay it onto the background, but in this case i'm using a full background, so it needs to be prepared:
(source: splatoon 3 side order locker reward banner)
i import the image into a new file with the same resolution as the blinkie. i edit it to have a wider resolution so it fits better:
i use a lasso tool to put acht in a separate layer (so they stick out of the frame)
i import the two layers into the original file with the text. though i feel the images could use a little color grading...
at this point i begin to mess around with the layout a little, trying to match the original "sanitized" theme i had in mind. i also do color grading on the render of acht and change out the background. now we're getting somewhere! i also color the text at this point to be a nice gradient green.
let's color the outer part of the blinkie! i thought i would make the border a transparent black, with the lights being neon green and a dark magenta respectively.
i also want to make the text have a nice little border around it, so i put a stroke filter on the text layer with the following settings. these usually change depending on graphic but the thickness is always 1px (any more and it gets antialiasing)
that's it for designing the blinkie, now it's time to animate it! i do this internally in krita, since it has an animation feature:
i make a new frame for the animation and change the colors and positions around. i also set up my clip settings - ending at frame 1 (2 frames - frame 0 and frame 1) at 6fps.
that's pretty much it! the gif is ready to export, just make sure you export it in the right format and don't accidentally compress it or make it too big.
the gif is ready!! wahoo!! i hope this was somewhat enlightening, i'm not the best at explaining stuff but i tried to go in depth as much as i could
hey! this might be a bit of a silly question, but how do you recolor blinkies?
This is not at all a silly question, especially for blinkies with more advanced animations! Though I'm assuming you're recoloring simple one or two color blinkies, for which it's probably more convenient to do this process via the simple method I'll detail here.
I can write another tutorial for editing more advanced blinkies in a program like Krita, if you're interested.
Tutorial: Recoloring Blinkies
My blinkies are free for recoloring as long as you do not claim them as your own. Other blinkie creators have different guidelines, of course, so make sure you check with the makers on whether or not they allow recolors!
Let's run through some examples using this blinkie I made but never posted:
First things first, you need to get a link for/download your image, then import it into the ezgif effects editor.
Method 1.1: Hue-shifting
You can hue shift the image in the Colorize window as well as adjust its saturation/lightness. You can also adjust the image's brightness/contrast to match your desired outcome, though this is usually not recommended:
Method 1.2: Manual replace
You can use the "Change background color" option in the Color presets window to change one color in the image to another. For example, let's take the red (#ff0000) and replace it with a yellow (#ffff00):
You can repeat this process by reimporting the image or clicking "effects" under the generated result to change multiple colors.
Method 1.3: Image tinting
You can also tint the image to one corresponding color by selecting the grayscale and tint options simultaneously:
This isn't a graphic request, but I read your post about how the web graphics community often doesn't credit creators, and this made me wonder if I was "underselling" myself ?
For context, I always say people don't need to credit me to use my graphics because I'm afraid requesting credit would discourage people from using them at all, and seem a little… presumptuous ? Even when I really like the graphics I had made and would have preferred to be credited, I couldn't shake off the idea that people just wouldn't care about them if they had to credit me.
But your post made me realize that's not quite normal ! I also do regular illustrations, and I wouldn't fathom not being credited when people use my art. But seeing all those graphics reposted without credit on Tumblr and various sites did make me feel like my graphics weren't worth a credit.
I might make credit guidelines too now, so thank you for posting that !
Have a nice day !
It makes me so happy to see graphics creators who value their work. Web graphics are as valuable as any traditional form of (pixel) art and their creators should get credit for their work ALWAYS; Even if it's only for reposts and not for webpages, like I do for mine.
I recently purchased a new Krita plugin which should hopefully make graphics creation a whole new process for me, so I felt it was best to start my platform from scratch so my old work isn't grouped in with the new. Still, I'd appreciate if you could support me on the new account, too!
This means requests are also open, by the way! I'll try to close them more cause the amount of requests was burning me out last time. Make sure to read the new pinned before submitting anything though.
Hiya, I’ve got a question cause I’m trying to learn about how blinkies are made, for the character images do you import or draw them? I wanna send requests to a few blogs including yours but mine includes characters that would be hell to do pixel art of so I’m trying to find out,,,,, sorry if my question is dumb!!
Hey, thanks for the inquiry! For my blinkies I usually import preexisting renders of characters, but I manually draw out things like symbols and whatnot. Feel free to submit whatever characters you'd like!
