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Description
I’m pretty sure that anyone that has recently visited the emote gallery will know that it's in a bit of a state. If you dig through it enough you can find a good number of emotes, but for every decent submission there appears to be at least 2 miscats (deviations placed in the wrong gallery) or policy violations (deviations that are not permitted due to copyrighted or inappropriate content) in there too.

Whereas a lot are placed there because a deviant doesn’t care which category they place their image in, a few are placed there simply because people do not understand what belongs in the emote gallery and what other categories there are out there to place their deviations in.

This tutorials aims to shed some light on what should be placed in the emote gallery, and also highlight categories that are better suited for some of the deviations seen in the gallery

What belongs in the gallery

What is an emote?

The first thing to address is exactly what an emote is. The official dA info states:

“Emoticons, also known as "emotes" or "smilies" intended to represent facial expressions, actions, or situations.”

The term emoticon actually covers a wide variety of images. Whereas the norm for dA emoticon is a 15x15 pixel ball, emoticons can vary in shapes and sizes. The can be animated or static and are allowed a background. They do not necessarily have to be pixelled but this is recommended for anything submitted to the gallery.

We then have the following categories

Chat Friendly

The chat friendly gallery is designed to hold emoticons for use in conversation. This may be through IMs, forums or chatrooms. Due to their use, chat friendly emotes should have a small canvas size and normally contain a transparent background

Chat Friendly > Animated Emotes

An animated emoticon is an emoticon made up of multiple frames such that the emote moves

Chat Friendly > Static Emotes

Emoticons made up of a single frame such that the emote does not move

Visual purpose

Visual purpose emoticons are emotes designed purely as pieces of art. This covers those with large pixelled backgrounds, large body sizes or those with no use within conversation

Packs

A pack is a single downloadable file which contains 2 or more emotes. Packs are usually created on a set theme and are most commonly saved in .zip or .rar formats.

Projects

A project is a free to join collaboration of emoticonists. Projects generally set a theme, template or background around which entries are created.

Projects > Bases + Templates

This section of the gallery is designed to hold the main project files and any set templates that must be used

Projects > Entries

This subcategory houses all of the entries for projects within the community

Misc

The Misc category is designed for all those emotes which struggle to fit in other categories. These may be avatars, stamps, emote doodles, non-pixel emotes etc.

What doesn’t belong in the gallery

Avatars

Customizations > Icons > Avatars

Even if an avatar contains an emoticon it should really be placed within the avatar gallery. The main purpose of emoticons is for them to be used by other deviants in addition to text. Personal avatars are generally personalised for one deviant and not for free use within forums or conversation. As for free for use avatars, these are better placed in a category where deviants may look if searching for an ‘avatar’ or ‘icon’

Pixel Art >

Pixel Art

If an image is simply a pixelled background the deviation should be placed within a pixel art gallery or scraps. However please remember the pixel art gallery is stricter on is requirements and any deviations using gradients should not be placed in here either.
The pixel art gallery does accept animated images

Stamps

deviantART related > Deviant Stamps

dA has its own category for stamp deviations. Even if a stamp contains an emote it should really be placed within the stamp category as that is its main purpose, and it will make it easier for other deviants to find your stamps.

Animations

Animations + Games > Digital

This gallery should be the home for any digital animation not containing an emoticon or created in Flash. This includes the animated paint drawings, carameldansen images or any other miscellaneous animated images

Sprites

Pixel Art >

If you have created a pixel sprite sheet these should be uploaded within the pixel art gallery. However, sprite sheets taken from internet sites should not be uploaded to dA at all as they are considered policy violations and will be removed when found.

Dolls

Customization > Dolls

Pixelled dolls also have their own gallery. This counts for all dolls whether you have pixelled them from scratch, created a base or used an existing base.

Gaia Dolls

Scraps

According to FAQ #502: Can I submit 'Dolls', 'Characters' or other things which I made on certain websites in games or with 'generators'? gaia dolls and other images created through generators are allowed on dA but only within a deviant's scrapbook

Memes

deviantART related > Devious Fun

Although technically emote memes can be uploaded within the emote gallery, a gallery such as ‘devious fun’ is usually the better gallery to submit such things in, since deviations in the emoticon gallery should be useful on forums or chats and memes are just for fun.

Tutorials

Resources and Stock Images > Tutorials

Emoticon tutorials should really be submitted within the tutorial gallery. The two exceptions for this are animated tutorials (as the resource category doesn’t accept .gif files) and tutorials in which you wish to place an alternative preview image.

Vector Emotes

Vector + Vexel > Vector

Large emotes created as vectors should be placed within the vector gallery as that is their primary art form. Note that small vector emotes may still be better placed in the emote gallery than the vector gallery, if they are small enough to be considered chat size.

Hand drawn/crafted Emotes

Traditional Art > Drawings
Artisan Crafts >

The definition of an emoticon doesn’t actually specify that an emoticon must be digital or pixelled, however hand crafted/drawn emoticons are generally better suited within a traditional art/ artisan crafts category
Emotes created using other’s emotes

Scraps

Emotes created as adaptations of existing emotes (for example or ) shouldn’t be placed within the emote gallery without the original artists approval or a creative commons on the original deviation. For adaptations such as :eeknod: or :al: the emotes should be placed within scraps as they are generally created for use within dAmn as opposed to being a piece of art.

All adaptations should also credit the original creator and emote, with links if possible. To find out who created an emote in the official emoticon legend, open up the legend and click "creators" up top and then search for the code of the emote with Ctrl+F.

Notes

The majority of the information above is based on common logic, experience and personal opinion. While your opinion may differ from what is stated above these are all of the categories I would personally suggest. If you feel there are better alternatives available, please let me know and I will consider updating the list.

You can find all of my other tutorials on this page: [link]

Description
I’m pretty sure that anyone that has recently visited the emote gallery will know that it's in a bit of a state. If you dig through it enough you can find a good number of emotes, but for every decent submission there appears to be at least 2 miscats (deviations placed in the wrong gallery) or policy violations (deviations that are not permitted due to copyrighted or inappropriate content) in there too.

Whereas a lot are placed there because a deviant doesn’t care which category they place their image in, a few are placed there simply because people do not understand what belongs in the emote gallery and what other categories there are out there to place their deviations in.

This tutorials aims to shed some light on what should be placed in the emote gallery, and also highlight categories that are better suited for some of the deviations seen in the gallery

What belongs in the gallery

What is an emote?

The first thing to address is exactly what an emote is. The official dA info states:

“Emoticons, also known as "emotes" or "smilies" intended to represent facial expressions, actions, or situations.”

The term emoticon actually covers a wide variety of images. Whereas the norm for dA emoticon is a 15x15 pixel ball, emoticons can vary in shapes and sizes. The can be animated or static and are allowed a background. They do not necessarily have to be pixelled but this is recommended for anything submitted to the gallery.

We then have the following categories

Chat Friendly

The chat friendly gallery is designed to hold emoticons for use in conversation. This may be through IMs, forums or chatrooms. Due to their use, chat friendly emotes should have a small canvas size and normally contain a transparent background

Chat Friendly > Animated Emotes

An animated emoticon is an emoticon made up of multiple frames such that the emote moves

Chat Friendly > Static Emotes

Emoticons made up of a single frame such that the emote does not move

Visual purpose

Visual purpose emoticons are emotes designed purely as pieces of art. This covers those with large pixelled backgrounds, large body sizes or those with no use within conversation

Packs

A pack is a single downloadable file which contains 2 or more emotes. Packs are usually created on a set theme and are most commonly saved in .zip or .rar formats.

Projects

A project is a free to join collaboration of emoticonists. Projects generally set a theme, template or background around which entries are created.

Projects > Bases + Templates

This section of the gallery is designed to hold the main project files and any set templates that must be used

Projects > Entries

This subcategory houses all of the entries for projects within the community

Misc

The Misc category is designed for all those emotes which struggle to fit in other categories. These may be avatars, stamps, emote doodles, non-pixel emotes etc.

What doesn’t belong in the gallery

Avatars

Customizations > Icons > Avatars

Even if an avatar contains an emoticon it should really be placed within the avatar gallery. The main purpose of emoticons is for them to be used by other deviants in addition to text. Personal avatars are generally personalised for one deviant and not for free use within forums or conversation. As for free for use avatars, these are better placed in a category where deviants may look if searching for an ‘avatar’ or ‘icon’

Pixel Art >

Pixel Art

If an image is simply a pixelled background the deviation should be placed within a pixel art gallery or scraps. However please remember the pixel art gallery is stricter on is requirements and any deviations using gradients should not be placed in here either.
The pixel art gallery does accept animated images

Stamps

deviantART related > Deviant Stamps

dA has its own category for stamp deviations. Even if a stamp contains an emote it should really be placed within the stamp category as that is its main purpose, and it will make it easier for other deviants to find your stamps.

Animations

Animations + Games > Digital

This gallery should be the home for any digital animation not containing an emoticon or created in Flash. This includes the animated paint drawings, carameldansen images or any other miscellaneous animated images

Sprites

Pixel Art >

If you have created a pixel sprite sheet these should be uploaded within the pixel art gallery. However, sprite sheets taken from internet sites should not be uploaded to dA at all as they are considered policy violations and will be removed when found.

Dolls

Customization > Dolls

Pixelled dolls also have their own gallery. This counts for all dolls whether you have pixelled them from scratch, created a base or used an existing base.

Gaia Dolls

Scraps

According to FAQ #502: Can I submit 'Dolls', 'Characters' or other things which I made on certain websites in games or with 'generators'? gaia dolls and other images created through generators are allowed on dA but only within a deviant's scrapbook

Memes

deviantART related > Devious Fun

Although technically emote memes can be uploaded within the emote gallery, a gallery such as ‘devious fun’ is usually the better gallery to submit such things in, since deviations in the emoticon gallery should be useful on forums or chats and memes are just for fun.

Tutorials

Resources and Stock Images > Tutorials

Emoticon tutorials should really be submitted within the tutorial gallery. The two exceptions for this are animated tutorials (as the resource category doesn’t accept .gif files) and tutorials in which you wish to place an alternative preview image.

Vector Emotes

Vector + Vexel > Vector

Large emotes created as vectors should be placed within the vector gallery as that is their primary art form. Note that small vector emotes may still be better placed in the emote gallery than the vector gallery, if they are small enough to be considered chat size.

Hand drawn/crafted Emotes

Traditional Art > Drawings
Artisan Crafts >

The definition of an emoticon doesn’t actually specify that an emoticon must be digital or pixelled, however hand crafted/drawn emoticons are generally better suited within a traditional art/ artisan crafts category
Emotes created using other’s emotes

Scraps

Emotes created as adaptations of existing emotes (for example or ) shouldn’t be placed within the emote gallery without the original artists approval or a creative commons on the original deviation. For adaptations such as :eeknod: or :al: the emotes should be placed within scraps as they are generally created for use within dAmn as opposed to being a piece of art.

All adaptations should also credit the original creator and emote, with links if possible. To find out who created an emote in the official emoticon legend, open up the legend and click "creators" up top and then search for the code of the emote with Ctrl+F.

Notes

The majority of the information above is based on common logic, experience and personal opinion. While your opinion may differ from what is stated above these are all of the categories I would personally suggest. If you feel there are better alternatives available, please let me know and I will consider updating the list.

You can find all of my other tutorials on this page: [link]