DSO: Bouncing Cat Smilies - the complete collection

Not all smilies are yellow. There are green smilies, there are blue smilies, there are red smilies. And then there are cat smilies.

I first encountered the cat smilies at a board where PurpleMoggy was admin. (I later became moderator at that board.) I have never remembered to ask where he had found those smilies, or if indeed he was the one to add them to the board. I loved them, however, and apparently he did, too. When we started ClawsOrPaws, with a cat theme for elegance, we quickly agreed to use the cat smilies as default smilies at our board.

We also found more cat smilies on the net. At one site, they were called "Japanese Cats". I still do not know their origin.

The collection of cat smilies that we have retrieved from the net has one amazing character. There are so many variations on negative/aggressive expressions and positive expressions, respectively. It's fascinating to study the small differences in expression between the different negative or positive smilies. To be honest, though, I am far from sure I would understand those fine distinctions without a "dictionary", and the opportunity to compare them.

The "negative" ones:

badmood	crushed	cynical	defensive	determined
embarrassed	enraged	envious	frustrated	furious
guilty	irate	mad	moody	nauseated
ouch	pissed	predatory	rejected	scared
stressed

The "positive" ones:

applaud	cheerful	ecstatic	excited	flirty
hopeful	impressed	jubilant	kisses	lol
relieved	satisfied	smile	wub

Apart from the multitude of "positive" and "negative" smilies, we also found some cat versions of standard smilies on the net. By "standard" I mean smilies that one would expect in practically any smilie pack. Common smilies, in other words.

cool	devil	eek	huh	oh
quiet	saint	sleep	tongue	wacko

But, there was an abundance of other smilies among our net retrievals, too. Arguably some of these could, perhaps, go in some other category, but, anyway... Here they are:

bouncy	coffee	cold	dirty	ditzy
dorky	drained	drunk	energetic	exanimate
full	geek	giddy	horny	hot
hungry	hungry2	hyper	numb	rejuvenated
rush	singing	smoke	suprised	tired

Right. You would think that there were enough cat smilies there for anybody. But, no, in spite of the large number of cat smilies we found, there were still some more or less common ones missing. So, I had to get to work. These are the ones I basically copied from ordinary yellow smilies. That is, I studied how the yellow smilie expressions were achieved, then "translated" them into cat-smilieness.

bump	cry	dontknow	drool	grin
hmm	ninja	rolleyes	rulez	sad
unsure	wave	whistle	wink	(basic blank)

In a few instances, I actually made something slightly different for the cat version of common smiles, and I also made a couple of sci-fi cat smilies. (To be sure, some day I will make the "hide" smilie better, either by giving it a piece of cloth to hide behind instead, or by toying with transparency.)

blush

rofl

hide

cylon

borg

For the most part, I could (as I said) basically copy expressions from existing yellow smilies. The special bouncing character of the cat smilies gave me problems with a few smilies, though.

For the hug smilie, I could basically copy the action from the yellow smilie, but I had to let the huggy kitten move with the bounces, so that it practically leaps up to the other one. When I got the idea to let the cat-in-need-of-hug stay inert when not hugged, I realised that the restriction that the bouncing character places on the making of cat smilies also can be a strength. I think that detail made it even more expressive.

As for the yes/nod and the no/shake-head smiles, they look fine now, in my opinion. It took me a long time to get them made, though, mainly because of the initial problems with the yes/nod smilie. I tried to incorporate the nodding with the bouncing, and it looked just plain stupid. It wasn't until I let it nod (and, in the other case, shake its head) very quickly in the down position that I felt I had got it right.

I would like to make a grouphug cat smilie, too. I think I know what it should look like. Cats moving in leaps in order to get closer, just like in the pair hug smilie. They would not be inert when not hugging, though, they would bounce in different time patterns, but when they got close enough to grouphug, the bouncing would be synchronous. Sounds nice, doesn't it? Some day I will get around to it. There's just a lot of logistics involved to make it work...