How to Turn Your Dog into A Slackmoji

“Turning my dog into a Slackmoji was the best decision of my life!” - Anonymous ThinkShout Employee

Do you ever wish you could bring your dog (or cat) to work? Has working from home fulfilled that desire, but still, you have an insatiable urge to brag about just how cute your little cutie¹ really is?

Well look no further. This step-by-step guide will show you how to use Photoshop to turn your furry friend into a Slackmoji, which, honestly, is just the right amount of obnoxious.

¹or medium cutie, or big cutie.

Step 1: Find a picture of your pet.

Requirements for this picture? It’s got to be a clear shot of their face and it’s got to be cute.

This is my Pug Oats. Note that this photo is both clear and cute.

Step 2: Create a Photoshop file and open the picture of your friend.

1. Click “File” and select “New” from the dropdown.
2. Select, “Custom” and set the size to 1080 pixels by 1080 pixels.
3. Drag your pet pic onto the art board.

New custom file.

Step 3: Rasterize

Since you can’t edit a smart object, you’ll need to rasterize your photo.

1. Right click the layer with the little cutie on it, and select “Rasterize” from the drop down menu.

Just rasterize it!

Step 4: Cut out your pet’s head.

For this step, you can use the selection tool of your choice. For a photo where the head has good contrast with the background, I usually use the Quick Selection tool. If the contrast is low, your best bet might be the Lasso tool.

1. Select your pet’s head.
2. Find the “Select” option in the top toolbar. Choose “Select Inverse” from the drop down menu.
3. Press “Delete” on your keyboard. This should leave your dog’s head with no background.

Oats’ head.

Step 5: Polish.

Likely, your cut out isn’t perfect. It’s ok! In the end, it will literally be the size of an eraser. But we can still feather for good practice.

1. Reselect the head. This will be easy with the Quick Selection tool now that the background is transparent.
2. Go to the toolbar and hit “Select”. From the dropdown menu, hit “Modify” then “Feather”. You’ll see a dialogue box prompting you to select the number of pixels. Choose 3 pixels.
3. Now, go back to the toolbar and hit “Select” “Inverse” (Similar to our previous step.) Once you’ve done this, hit delete. Your pet’s head should be a little less “in your face”.

Oats’ head, but feathered.

Step 6: Make it big, and save as a PNG.

1. Transform (Ctrl+T) the layer of the head to take up the whole artboard.
2. Unlock the background layer (the white background) and delete it. No one needs it!
3. Go to “File”, “Export”, “Quick Export of PNG”. Name it whatever you want.

Save as a PNG.

Step 7: Upload to Slack.

1. Hit the emoji panel in Slack, and in the bottom left corner there’s an option to Add Emoji. Click it!
2. A panel will come up, and you can upload your PNG and name your emoji.

Slack “Add Emoji” panel.

Now you can use it!

Just click the emoji panel and search for the name.

But be prepared. Coworkers will probably get jealous real quick and want THEIR little cuties turned into Slackmojis. (A good way to become popular in the office!) Luckily, this whole process takes less than 5 minutes once you get your flow down.

An example of how many emojis you’ll have to make with this new skill.

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