Streamer Milestone Unlocked: Emotes!

When starting as a Twitch streamer and becoming an Affiliate after a while, you have to be looking out for subscribers - whether you like it or not. Sure, you weren't expecting them but having them is part of a streamer's life. I did not anticipate it myself! But, when the number of people subscribing to my channel started to increase, I felt like people were throwing random amounts of money into the air but getting nothing back.

As part of my thanks to these kind people, I've wanted to make subscriptions more meaningful by having channel emotes! But how can one have those? How do you throw them into Twitch?

Generally, there are two ways to have your emotes. You can create one or have one commissioned. If you have the time to make them, you can use tools such as Adobe Photoshop, GIMP, or Canva. Just make sure to take note of Twitch's requirements for static and animated emotes.

Static Emote:

• Have a maximum file size of 1MB
• Be of resolution between 112 x 112px and 4096 x 4096px
• Not be animated
• Be a square shape

Animated Emote:

• Be a square-shaped .gif
• Have a maximum file size of 1MB
• Be of resolution between 112 x 112px and 4096 x 4096px
• Cannot contain more than 60 frames

I would have taken the creative route if I had more time on my hands, but I don't, and it's been a while since I've drawn anything. Next course of action was to get them done by someone else.

Commissioning art is not new to me. I've had my Minecraft skin done by a friend, and even my avatar was a commissioned work, too. So I hopped on again to Fiverr, Facebook and Instagram to look for emote creators who have art styles I really liked. I reached out to shnev.art (IG/Fiverr) and hydrg34 on Fiverr, ordered a total of 11 emotes (plus an extra from shnev.art!) for around USD 55. Below are the emotes currently available for my Twitch subscribers. In the future, I would also like to put out basic emotes for the rest of my followers!

If you're wondering where the rest of the emotes are, they'll be in my storage for now; or be the subjects of my gif animation practice! I've asked shnev's and hydrg34's permission for me to attempt animating the works they provided as I have two animated emote slots left. Can't wait to get my hands working on them!

And that's the latest update on my streaming adventure. I ever succeed, fail, or get lazy with the gif creation - I will be sure to tell you about it! Thank you for stopping by. See you around!