Thursday, October 30, 2008

How to Resize Custom Emoticons on MSN - Part 2

How to Resize Custom Emoticons on MSN - Part 2
or How to Create a Two Frame GIF Image Using GIF Animator


This is a step-by-step guide to help you make your two frame GIF images for use with MSN Messenger Custom Emoticon Creation. You are going to have to click on the images to see them full size, sorry about that.

I picked this photo to work with:

Imagine That

I turned it into this photo (you will see no difference, but if you save both, you'll notice the different file format):

Imagine That GIF

Step One:

Open GIF Animator Software and click Add Image in the File Menu.



Step Two:

Select the file you wish to work with and press "open"



Step Three:

Take a look at the picture. Not really a step itself, but you can resize the image, rotate, color, trim, etc.



Step Four:

Right Click on the Image in the Frame bar and select Duplicate Image.



Step Five:

You'll now notice that there are two images in the frame box. Success.



Step Six:

Go back to the File Menu and select Save File As - GIF File.



Step Seven:

Name Your File.



Step Eight:

Create your Custom Emoticon (tutorial coming soon) and take a look. In this pic I made one of each, stationery and animated. You'll notice the size difference. In hindsight, I should've used a different image as the writing is still too small, but you get the idea.



I tried to make this pretty straight forward.

I hope I've helped.

Let me know if you need anything else.

Thanks for reading.

How to Resize Custom Emoticons on MSN - Part 1

How to Resize Custom Emoticons on MSN - Part 1
Resize MSN Emoticons
Resizing custom emoticons - Mess with MSN Messenger
How to stop MSN Messenger from Resizing your Custom Emoticons
MSN Custom Emoticon Resize Issues
How to Make Your own MSN Emoticons That Aren't Tiny
Anybody who uses MSN Messenger to chat with friends will most likely know of the problem I am writing about. When making custom Emoticon images, you can only have them as 19x19 pics. 19x19 isn't big enough for anything other than the simplest characters, but we are stuck with it.

The strangest thing in my eyes is the fact that animated Emoticons are given the 50x50 size limit while the stationary Emoticons are stuck at 19x19. The logic behind it doesn't make sense, I understand that animated Emoticons need to be larger to allow you to see the animation clearly; I just don't see any reason for the limit on the stationery Emoticon images. Maybe it's just me, but I doubt it, I've seen countless people ask how to make the custom Emoticon images bigger, and I've seen those same people told that there is absolutely no way to do it.

I did some searching, I messed around, and I finally figured out how to make your Custom Made Stationery Emoticon images bigger. It's incredibly simple, so simple that I am sure just about anybody can do it.

The sizing issue lies within MSN itself and how it detects pictures used for Emoticons. One frame images get the 19x19 size, multiple frame images get 50x50 size. I tried to change the files to .GIF files in hopes of tricking MSN, but it actually looks for multiple frames, and not just image type.

To get past the sizing problem, you simply need to use a GIF Animator to create a multiple frame image file. It might sound confusing, but it's simple, you load the picture into whatever GIF Animator you choose, duplicate the frame, save the file as a .GIF image, then use the saved file to create your Emoticon.

Once you've done that, test out your Emoticon and enjoy the 50x50 size you now have.