This is not an ego trip. Really, its not.

I will edit out details in some pictures as this gallery is about visual effect. Where I use the same or similar images in my actual instruction guides, they are unedited there to keep them authentic.

What we have are profile displays, abuses in Paint, ASCII and random little exertions.

Friends know I am an obsessive anyway and have ranted at them about ideas when making the guides. Yawns all round. People who want to learn can hopefully get something from the other guides.

This gallery will not restrict itself to emoticon art - that is what I started with but there are so many more ways to have fun with images on Steam. That said, I may as well start with some of my favourites. Not the big pieces and not the ones that I used on guide branding. Stupid dorky comments sized ones.

Enough talk, more walk!

Mostly I try to use emoticons in other ways now - to augment a funny phrase, to give visual impact or another perspective. Comments/chat are where most of us start though, then build confidence.

These are my favourites of my own comments pieces - other people can make their own gallery. :)


While this stuff is mostly self-evident, there are some I wanted to mention. The awful pun with the Dr Agon was compounded when I realised I could use the cliché with "will see you now."
There is a special hell reserved for people like me.

The Tron with the 2 part bike surprised me. Like with a lot of things, I worked with whatever icons had arrived - in this case the triple line emote and the bike were recent additions and they went together perfectly so "Tron" seemed appropriate. I enjoy the use of fonts in emoticon art - they are emotes just the same and designed to be attractive, like Letraset of past years.

The superhero one on the right is barely readable but spells "Top Secret WARS". Notice that there are no spaces used. If I had not used the secondary frame, the double girder, it would have been cluttered and would have required spacing at top, bottom and even the sides. Define an area and you control it.

The paranoid guntoting line was to show the effect of the interlocking brick. The rough shapes making a rock go down a slope are all from the Ichi set - it was pleasing to combine them. All the parts of the money tree except for the gifts underneath are different cash emotes.

The groaner Gorillas in the Mist had a spoiler format for the revealed title underneath.

Comments fields will always create vertical breaks in things that would be solid in a showcase so the "Broken Hearts Will Mend" was designed to exploit that weakness. Usually what I do is use icons for vertical framing that do not join together anyway to avoid any ugliness but you might find ways to exploit the faults, like in the Further Info box - you can use BBOX which will separate into lanes.

In light of that, if you look at See it in their eyes, you will notice that the green block does not meet left to right - this was compensating for what would happen vertically by picking a normally imperfect block. There is a small difference in the horizontal/vertical gap sizes when you look carefully.
And if I wanted to be really awful, I would replace that last paragraph with "See it in see it in their eyes."

That is all stuff that goes in Comments or Chat but bigger emoticon displays are for Custom Info where your rows do not separate themselves and you get to really Express Yourself:

Made a level 5 badge for the Royal Quest ones - got 2 of my cheap little blob guys and 2 of the ridiculously priced hearts emote in the border. I had a week till they were marketable and thought I would make an image, screenshot it THEN sell them. I liked the image but cash is cash.

For my generation, Pink Floyd and Tetris were key parts of the culture. Tetris was a version of the Rubik's Cube that was doable and playable by everyone, something most computer games did not manage to tap into. Unicode hammer in the title - I love that the Custom Info box allows Unicode.


I had tried to make a maze before then a kind soul pointed out these emotes from MinosMaze:

This one brings together a lot of things I have been doing with letters and art. The middle section separates the 6 main images but also manages some nice symmetry. The aim is not to look too cluttered and empty space is as vital as any emote:

https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2075995198
This setup was mocked-up to centre on the requested trade for a card I have been hunting for months and was never designed to be permanent. Yet I chose this one - why?

There are so many other displays which capture the full ensemble effects I have been aiming for over the last year but this one has something they do not and probably never will - a tiny piece of lucky timing - the Recent Badges on the right has weirdly given a little tank battle. If I was going to construct it I would have used the tank on fire badge I made at the same time but I am not that clever.

So one odd little moment makes this slice of time the profile I hold dearest.

Details then - Fable inspired elements are obvious, Victor Vran background. Five badges are from The Room trilogy of games, one from Gray Matter and one from Might and Magic (featured). The game collector contents are obviously modified through Chrome as you cannot own Fable 3 yet and the showcase contents would not normally appear in the blank bit of the badges showcase.

There have been other images used in my items for trade showcase but I think these ones will stay a while - I liked them enough to use them as branding images for 2 guides and this gallery. The achievement set is a mixture of things I like in a little happy rainbow display.

Build round backgrounds and they can be the key to a great effect. This one was only £0.04.

Some other profiles I have used. Not just showcases linked together but where the background contributes to the effect. So while some of the images will be taken from the showcases guide (and tinkered with for aesthetics) most of it will not be there. I still think the art showcase used to display a full background is fantastic but that would be inappropriate to show here.

The top section of that previous image took up nearly 1/4 of the capacity for direct uploads for a guide. (To be more precise, the limit is 8mb, that image was 1.8 meg and the bottom half was 0.5.)

So we are now improvising, as always. A stone wall is just something to climb to get somewhere else.

Widgets, my friends. They are not part of the magical 8mb.

https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1906740095 Other options for the 6th badge included a Lone Ranger one but the football is fine.

https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1906745058
While I loved my dragons display, I discovered I had another background which changed things but after using her with the dragon hoard for a while, the noir elements attracted me more. I think the dragons take us a bit away from Marlowe and noir but hey, if it works it works.
https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1907313266

This is a good point to mention editing these pictures for a gallery use. I am blanking out details but the best way to do that in Paint is to use the colour picker tool (looks like a pepette or eye-dropper) to select the colour nearest the section to be wiped and then use brush or pen to apply this new colour. You can use that for general editing too if you are transposing other images in and want to help them blend. (You can sometimes get away with a block of colour being pasted over the offending area.)

What is significant with this picture background is that it is very light so it shows through the steam skin in the central section. This means you will get colour variance in the bits you are editing.

And that brings me to the one I really want to use, altered with a little artistic license:
https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1912180923 But this is art, of course. Kinda. I am not saying "You can make this profile" - I am saying "You can make this picture and show it in a guide as a gallery."

Sometimes the detail that drives you is pretty much invisible to others - like the badges in the Rangers profile each saying "Ranger" on that level. Again here, the small writing on one badge was enough to spark it - as long as profiles are attractive, who cares if strangers understand your reasons?
https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1910837528
https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1912612567
https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1912115303
I think if Deadpool was sad enough to make a profile he would be pleased with the tinkering:
https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1912159347
Now did you notice what I sneakily did there? There was actually quite a lot of text involved in this section but by having the parts directly relevant to the construction of the images on the artwork description, it is not all visibly impacting here. The widget may have a small image but once clicked, the full art makes the text with it a minor detail. If you imagine all those pictures full size and all that total text then it would have been a huge section, even if the upload limits allowed it.

And then it hit me. I am still limiting myself. So this happened:
https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1913131261
I am hoping this is the last one but as counterpoint to the highest level profile mimicry, the "lowest":
https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1913229904

The workshop is a great wee place to use images you make. These ones are all displayed using Monstercakes as a way of getting them into my workshop showcases. No foul there, Monstercakes is not about creating maps of level or mods, it is simply about images.

This was my first. The image is one I made years ago though I had to get a friend to help me make it on PC.

I took my knight's tour (64 square path touching each square once only by knight moves - a fairly common idea and this one is not the most clever you will find) and then put a 64 letter message on the route. That way the puzzle was designed to be solvable using 2 methods - the chess method and the wordplay, each helping the other.

If that sounds obsessive, you can only imagine - I used to only make puzzles, poems and stories based round chess.


The letters guide was my 4th guide and I was stumped what to use as an image. The first 2 had been for games so game images were right and proper. The 3rd was art with emotes so I just picked a little scene and pasted it. But for letters?

I decided finally to get an image of a grinder, signed up to Pinterest, modified it till I was happy with it and made the little "order from chaos" metaphor come to life. It is nothing in art terms but I have never had confidence artistically and this helped me a lot with what was to come.

Other images for the guides also landed onto Monstercakes submissions - it was never any fervent aim to have them accepted; I just wanted them in a showcase. Which ties into this pic - made for the guide about showcases and styles in them. But what a demand that placed on me to perform for the branding image, with zero to little artistic ability or confidence.

A good idea goes a long way and it was not a major step mentally to an idling notion of showcases before Steam being huge lumbering furniture that were carried about. So I found an image, squared it to fit the workshop item and added pasted content using badge images and emotes.

Again, this is not about ego. It is a lesson I learned about my need for an image driving me to get over my insecurities and improvise a solution. To build on that and tackle images more easily with every one I produced - not private images for poking at in my shed but ones to go out as banners on my guides, the first things seen. Yikes. Looking back, I am still surprised. But like they say "needs must".

Sadly I have no talent at drawing or painting. I do however like to modify images. Improvising is fun and the ideas are the most important thing. These first 2 images were in basic Paint and were an important if sloppy step on the way to where I want to be, in terms of building a little confidence.

https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1906267254
https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1893873213
Before Jude gets a restraining order, I want to remind him there are many possible permutations involving "law" that I could have used, right up to Jude Lawless as Xena. So back off, Mister Law.

This would be the line we cross where it is no longer about Steam images but about sharing rubbish we have been tinkering with - social media. Oh gawd, what have I become? It is pretty harmless though (stop crying Jude) and I would rather spend my time doing that than uploading a gif.

This on the other hand is something I want to develop more, relying totally on Steam images:
https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1914908784
Okay so I have Paint Net now and I thoroughly recommend it. This is my first new picture with it:
https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1915967373
The sacrilege continues. Screenshots make a good base image, just for impact or comedy:
https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1921389069 This was originally a Yugioh card (Jinzo) being made "Prismatic" - used Paint Net to measure the exact pixel area of the original Jinzo and then sized the Pikachu to those dimensions. Some of the text was simply added after blanking the target area with copied background while some bits were pasted over from screenshots of other cards - no need to reinvent the wheel, it is about finding the simplest path.

This is my latest attempt at an avatar, to go with the about to be complete profile, based on the Wildstar badge which followed the same Mounted Head theme as my profile.

The carrots are the foil Goat Simulator badge cropped of their orange background. The joining of the two cartoon slogans makes more sense than the originals seemed to till you read up on the Doc one.

Again I am finding more and more that is possible. It is all a journey.

Chrome is pretty incredible. You can lift out all sorts of images and in some cases parts of an image. With the Saliens Showcase you can take the glass part out. That led me to this:
https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1931669647 I hope to get better at this but I tried to edit out the original Salien and then resize a Predator image, putting the glass bubble over as another layer. Problem was I could not get the snowy part right so just accepted I had to make some changes. The effect is what matters, not trying to win any awards here.

With Chrome you can save an image from Market, badge progress, achievement list, profile, etc.

https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1942759868 This one is more subtle. The screenshot is from Kaiba vs Yugi Moto but I grabbed the moment of drawing the last piece of Exodia so I could splice in Grandpa, who is not in Duel Links (yet) - in the cartoon Kaiba beats him at his shop and we only get to wield Exodia with a skill called Grandpa's Cards. So here we cut the whole show short by having Grandpa use the skill the lore states he had.

https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1974711855 Excellent game that sadly lacks any PVP so decided to invent some. The floor could be better but I did not want to actually deceive anyone, hence the name of the opponent "FulmiWance".

No, don't get excited.

Extending the idea of using Steam resources in a collage effect, this is a lot simpler yet I hope more original. I want to try to make a series of comic strips using only Steam backgrounds.

Simplest of all, two backgrounds edited together. The concepts are what matters.
https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1962017167
A little story in 4 panels, or an object lesson.
https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1962235487
A gameshow of sorts:
https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1962936573 The decision not to use a border on this one is purely based on visual effect. The borders are more essential where backgrounds vary a lot. If you try this then just visualise what works.

And of course cats. There are always cats.
https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1963787702
A bit more adventurous, this next project. I had so many ideas of things I wanted to include with the AC images that it was about to get out of control then it hit me - out of control is my middle...er, ethos? So I grabbed the tail of the tiger and thought about it. Eventually even a fool sitting in the dark finds the lightbulb. The art showcase has 3 zones down the side (easy to forget when you always do the extended showcase trick) which made it perfect for a way to display 3 linked pictures.
https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1987077733 https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1987078523 https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1987079240
While it is possible I could do more this way, I would need to see some backgrounds that appealed to me. I have made the point about the possibility but after the set of 3 it feels like time to move on.

So my aim for a long time has been to combine ASCii with emoticons. I will put in what I have as a holding image but it is only that.



That is all I have for this gallery for now. I must stress: this is mainly an experiment in adapting what we have for what I want to do. It will get larger as my own techniques develop and once the other guide in progress is finished I will have more time - though what it takes to do certain parts of that guide is the learning part I need to get on with ASCii. When worlds collide...

That is not to say there is nothing to learn here, Mr Moderator. Wink.

Right so this was no professional display. What it is though is some fun I am having that mostly costs very little. I have mentioned the program Paint Net - although MS do charge for a version, there are earlier versions available as free downloads online as well as tutorials and forums.

I make mistakes all the time and although it would be easy to fix them in the image on my pc, it would then mean uploading to Steam again and honestly mistakes are human. (Err....?)

What I hope you take from this is:

Confidence. If I can do this then you certainly can. If I pick up an actual paintbrush I would probably shoot myself in the foot with it. When we had mandatory art exams at school at age 12, I might just have been the only kid to fail it whose parent was an art teacher. Yeah, so I suck but I can still produce a few things that I am happy to share. Nervous grin, waiting for applause.

Ideas. While I hope that I find every possible idea, none of us can. The reason I was looking at the Ichi set (the little composite emoticon pic with the ball rolling down the slope) is that I want to try geometric shapes used to make larger images but who knows what else is out there to try. While I dislike the idea of using a program that assembles an image for you, someone else who does use that system did share the idea of using one icon repeated to make a larger version of itself and that intrigues me. Any ideas anyone can share are more than welcome.

Community. Every ripple we make can influence someone else. I started making what passes for art (I hope) after seeing a basic image of a house made with emoticons and I hope what I have done so far influences other people to have a go. And that those people influence other people too. I will not go out there and say "oh I made X guides, you must like and favourite them so people notice them" - I am hoping that ten people see a guide and do something, that ten more people see their stuff and go "Aaahhhh". Not so they then come to my guides but so that the ideas live.

But what does it cost? For art with just emotes, that takes careful trading and patience. For the rest of it, nothing at all. You view backgrounds as full size on the market and then save as picture. If you go through browser you can lift individual emote images like in the Negan picture. Similarly the avatar I use costs nothing to make - so many badges have great detail and are sized perfectly for the centre of an avatar. Pinterest clip art is usually free for some of the small pieces I did for guide branding images.

We are only limited by our imaginations.