Everyone makes/edits blinkies differently. I learned how to make them completely on my own using Photoshop and Animation shop about 8 years ago. I find the way that I add text to my blinkies to be time-saving and makes blinkie-making pretty easy. When I'm making blinkies I make ONE set of boxes, save it as a blank, copy and paste the text onto the boxes as I do in this tutorial. Then I simply just paste the boxes onto the pixel/the pixel onto the boxes. It's very simple and it's how I'm able to make so many at one time. Anyway, on to the tutorial...

This is a very basic and easy tutorial on adding text to a blank blinkie.

I made blanks of a very simple blinkie for you to use (included behind the cut).

Included are pictures to help you figure out where things are.

I haven't written a tutorial in a long time so I hope that you guys find it pretty easy to understand. If you have any questions please feel free to leave me a comment here!


TUTORIAL
This is a very simple and basic blinkie tutorial. Using one of the blanks below, I'll teach you how to edit it with your name.

Programs Used:
Photoshop v. 7 (shouldn't be too different from other/newer versions).
Animation Shop 3



These blinkie blanks are free to use for learning or for yourself. They aren't to be used as "freebies", and please don't claim them as your own work. Thank you!

Step One:
In Photoshop, open up the blinkie blank that you're going to use. The following warning will pop up:

Hit "OK". This will give you the first frame of the blinkie to work with.

Step Two:
In the lower left hand corner change the zoom option to atleast 400%.


Step Three:

Using pixel font 04b24 at 8px (make sure you have the anti-alias set to NONE), type the first letter of your name in the first box and center it. The font color that I used was #003163 (the dark blue on the outside of the boxes).
Then do the same thing for the rest of your name...


Step Four:
Delete the bottom layer (the blinkie blank) so that all that is left are the letters.

Go to File > Save As, and then save the transparent image somewhere on your computer - you'll be using it again in a moment.

Step Five:
Using Animation Shop open the animated blinkie blank. Use the magnifying glass and zoom in to atleast 3:1 or 4:1.

Step Six:
Select all of the frames by going to Edit, Select All.

You may also use Ctrl + A to do this.

Step Seven:
Go to File > Open, and find the transparent image of the letters you made earlier with photoshop. Right-click on it and Copy.

Step Eight:
Make sure that Propagate Paste is selected.

With all of the frames selected, right-click the first frame, and Paste > Into The Selected Frame. This should paste the letters into each frame for you.

YOU'RE DONE! Easy right?!

Your blinkie should look like mine once you're finished:

If you want your animation to go faster just Select All and go to Animation > Frame Properties and put a lower number as the display time and save the blinkie.

I'll add this entry to the community memories and there is also a "blinkie tutorials" tag on the community sidebar now. More tutorials to come! :)