Emoticon designer a Tropfest finalist
Tropfest Best Comedy winner Jayce White's other claim to fame is creating the emoticons for Yahoo Messenger. We talk to him about the design process, upcoming smileys and his favourite emoticon.
Jayce White has racked up an impressive list of accomplishments recently -- his short film Between the Flags, which he wrote, directed and produced, took out the Best Comedy and Best Actor awards at Tropfest 2007.
The film also had the distinction of being the most tech-focused title of the night, with its two characters -- members of opposing sides during the Cronulla riots -- bonding over the features of a mobile phone and the subtleties of in-car sound systems.
While CNET.com.au was chuffed to see so much tech content on the big screen, we were just as impressed by White's other claim to fame: a Web animator by day, he designed the animated smiley faces used in Yahoo Messenger.
We tracked down the man behind the emoticons as he hit the Tropfest 2007 red carpet and asked him about the design process, upcoming smileys and what it's like to have your animations used in online conversations all over the world.
For more video coverage from Tropfest 2007, take a look at our red carpet interviews with filmmakers and our chats with punters on filming and sharing video.