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Probably many times you have created a masterpiece of emoticon art but those background issues where keeping it one step from perfection. You have found an emoticon that has ALMOST similar color as Steam background, but it name was too long, and Steam character limit couldn't let you use it. Shortest emoticons are almost ok, but :N4: is too bright, and :AD: is too dark, and they still can be seen. You where dreaming about nearly ultimate discreet emoticon like :Memot:, but it is not avaivable on the market, even overpriced. Maybe you tried to replace emoticons with spaces but they are either non stackable or different width and using them disrupts the entire art.

I hope the solution I have found will solve all those problems. I researched all alternative empty space unicode characters. Checked which ones are stackable, which ones look the same in Steam client and different browsers, and which ones could be used in a combination that will be just as wide as one emoticon. The result is what I called 'the void' and you can find it between the brackets in the first section of this guide - for easy acces.

Make a transparent art using your preferable "background" emoticon. I Made this skull out of skulls, and my background emoticon is :N4:. On this blue background in group it doesn't look very well.








Edit it, and delete only those "background" emoticons, that are at the end of the each row. If any row has two or more at the end, delete them all. If there is a row that is entirely made out of "background" emoticons, delete them all, but leave 'enter' so steam will recognise one empty row.

In this case it is possible on Steam, but if this is an art you want to post on someone's profile, use simple text editor like notepad. Now check the result, and move to antoher step.








Copy 'the void' from first section of this guide (all three empty characters between the brackets).
Edit your art again, but this time replace each "background" emoticon with one single paste of 'the void'. If there are three emoticons, that you want to replace with emptiness, simply delete them and hit 'ctrl+v' three times.

Now check the result. This looks much better.







You can use it in profile comments and profile showcases as well. Here is an example of empty frame. With :N4: emoticons and with 'void' replacements.








If your mosaic is bigger or have a lot of "background" you can make your life easier with this guide:
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1167190805
Just use the 'void' instead of desired emoticon code.

If you want to check how to create emoticon art picture instead of generating it:
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1130380323

If you want to create pixelart style emoticon arts:
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1166204116

If you want to create pointilistic style emoticon arts:
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1167189751

If you want to crop your emoticon art much more efficient, than mossaticon allows you to:
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1167191674

Hope you will find many ways to use this 'void' in your arts. I'm looking forward to any innovative applications you will find, or any cool arts made with it, so please share. And as usual, if you found any mistakes in the guide, or anything that could be improved, don't hesitate to write about it.

I would also like to thank my friend sub357, who is a creator of impressive abstract emoticon arts. I had no idea how to call this guide, and he came up with a catchy and unambiguous title, and also suggested the word 'void', which I used as a name of the said empty space.


Have fun with emoticons.



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