Hi! I'm Megumi, and since I started streaming, I'm often asked for emote tips - so I thought I'd make a tutorial out of it! The whole thing is also available as a video tutorial with a bit more blah blah.

 

 

New Document

Create a new document in A4 with a resolution of 300 dpi. I personally prefer gray as paper color over white, because colors can be better judged on it.

Fancy some squares?

Drag with the Rectangle Shape tool to draw a square on a blank layer. If you hold down Shift, the aspect ratio will remain the same.

There are two ways to copy the square:

1: Select the square with the selection tool and use "copy and paste" in the selection menu. Then select the "Move Layer" tool, hold down Shift, and move the new square to the right. By holding the Shift key, it remains aligned with the original position.

2. Make sure you have selected the layer you want to copy, and then select the "Move Layer" tool. If you now click and drag on the layer, CSP creates a duplicate of the entire layer. Once you have the copy "in hand", you can release Alt again and re-enable the orientation with Shift. In this way, create six squares and combine the layers with "Combine with layer below" in the Layers window directly above your list of layers.

To save yourselves trouble, lock the layer with the small padlock icon. This way, you can neither accidentally paint on it nor influence it in any other way, as you no longer need to do so.

Sketches

Create a new layer and name it "Sketches" or similar. For sketches, I use the "Light Pencil", one of CSP's standard brushes. I also like to draw in black at this point so I can better concentrate on the silhouette.

If there's no template yet, sketch your character in the first box so you can use it as a reference later. The more accurately you do this, the more support you'll have for the emojis you build on it. Here are a few design tips:

 

1. Consider the figure for what it is - a communication tool. What you want to convey with it are feelings! Therefore, give the figure what it needs for its expression, and OMIT what it DOESN'T need. Unnecessary elements make the emote difficult to recognize at small resolutions.

2. The smaller the emoji becomes later, the clearer the expression must be. For this, the facial expression is of course important, sometimes also extremities like hands, but also the silhouette. Angular and jagged conveys tension, round shapes convey warmth or coziness. Characters with animal ears also say a lot about the ear shape!

3. Don't be afraid to deviate from classic proportions for the sake of expression. Sometimes you have to exaggerate to convey what you want to get across effectively.

 

Once you've finished the sketch, give the layer a layer color, then set the layer to "Multiply" mode and turn the opacity down to about 30%. This way, you have the sketch nicely in the background, it stands out in color so you don't confuse it with others, and by multiplying it remains clearly visible on any paper color.

Line Art and Coloring

There are many techniques for line art, which I would like to discuss another time. Here, I simply use my "Light Pencil" again in 100% black and hardness level 5, because I really like the slightly soft edges of this brush. Add a new layer above the sketch layer and name it, for example, "Lines".

I'm not too terribly precise with the lines, because you won't see them very well in the end anyway. But be careful not to zoom in too close, because then you always tend to make the lines thinner! Keep an overview of the overall picture. Lines separate areas from each other and thus also the shapes that later make up the expression. Alternatively or in parallel, you also work with enough contrasts between the color areas. When you are finished with the line art, hide the sketch layer and create another layer under "Lines" and name it "Colour".

Again, there are several ways to color. First, it's important that all areas are fully opaque, so I'm using a marker from the same brush tab as the drawing pens here.

Alternatively, you can fill closed areas with the Fill tool. The lines don't even have to be on the same layer! Cool, right? For this, select the "refer other layers" bucket. You might also need to set the fill area to expand by a few pixels so that you don't have an empty edge.

To add a few more shadows without making it too complicated, you can lock the transparent pixels with one click. Now you can no longer paint over the edges. Choose a brush of your choice, maybe an airbrush? And decorate the color layer until you are satisfied. I'll keep it very simple and just add a colored shadow and a little highlight.

Bringing into a ready-to-use form

From here on, it becomes more or less specific to emotes as they are used on Twitch. Depending on the platform, the required or allowed size of the emote varies, and sometimes also the format. Find out what you need, and then create a new document according to these specifications. For Twitch, the specifications are 112x112, 56x56, and 28x28 pixels. So, I will create a file in 112 x 112 pixel format.

To transfer everything from the previous document, you can again go two ways - the first would be to directly combine the Lines layer with the Colour layer and copy out the emote as it is. This is of course somewhat "more destructive", because the layers are then flattened together and changes are no longer as easy to make. Alternatively, you can select the emote area with a selection tool, and then select both layers in the Layers window. If you copy now, the contents of both layers will be copied and also pasted as two layers into the new document.

Now you just need to adjust the emote's size. If the layers are separate, make sure to select both so you resize both at the same time. With a click on the eye icon in front of the "Paper" layer, you make the background invisible. Save the result as .png to preserve transparency. Done!