I was endeavoring to work on my "How many years of emoting" challenge given by *a-kid-at-heart (which I plan to eventually do) and was trying to sort through my gallery to find the ones to feature.  I ended up doing  a filter on my most Popular emotes. In my stats, my top 20 deviations are all stamps, so I rarely know what is popular emote-wise.  Well, it was quite a surprise to me. I'm going to list my top 10, and then pick a few choice ones in the 11-20 category.  

Feel free to do this yourself.  I think it's important as an artist to see what our fans like and be proud of what we've accomplished


1. Top Spot - Surfing the Web



No surprise.  My first DD.  You can tell this is primitive.  A gradient emote and my original emote face design. Still, it's an amazing piece and my top emoticon piece with 13,000+ and 2,000+ faves (in contrast, my top deviation ever has 10,300 views and 4,527 faves)


2. Carpet Ride



Despite the similarities, this was not an Aladdin emote. My second DD. It was a pain doing the carpet on this, but I love how it looks.  So many people told me they loved it, and I'm glad they did.


3. Emoticon Amusement Park



Of all my emote DDs, I am most proud of this.  Synching so many details and getting that darn coaster right.  Doing an emote coaster was one of my lifelong pixel dreams, so it was amazing to see it finished and I'm glad my fans liked it.


4. Friendship is...2



Beyond shocked this is in the #4 spot.  But, I think it shows how important friendship is to people and how we all want to be loved and appreciated for who we are, no matter what other people think.  I feel so fortunate to have friends who love me, even when they are criticized for it.


5. Blah



Testament that a simple static emote can be amazing.  I had so many comments how people could totally relate to that little blue emote.  I am of the mind my chat-emotes stink (which is why I was stunned I won the title of Best Chat Emoticonist of 2011--what were you people thinking?!).  It really made me happy to see one of my chat emotes in the top 5.


6. Winter in the City



For a contest...I didn't win.  Again, a simple and sweet mood.  My daughter told me it reminded her of the movie the Rescuers!  It does, but it was unintentional.  I'm so glad so many were touched by this scene.


7. Santa's House



A Christmas Day DD.  What a lovely surprise.  My only regret is that I didn't animate the snow like I wanted to.  Otherwise, this was such a sweet gift on a special day.  


8. Plants vs. Zombies



Very surprised this is on the top 10, but maybe I shouldn't be.  This is such a fun game (even though I've never played it, but watched my kids). I wanted a cute zombie piece for a contest and I got one.  I really love the emote designs of the characters.  If I could, I would go back and re-do the grass and background.  Maybe some day...


9. Snail



Another static emotes and proof that cute sells.  I make cute emotes.  People like them.  End of story.  


10. Thanks for the Llama Sign



I created this for the great Llama Fool.  I have a secret--most of the signs I create I make because *I* want to use them.  I just am geeked others use them, too.  I was amazed how many of these I saw around, and how often this sign is still used.


13.  Lemmings



My first complex animation ever, and one of my first uploads to dA.  It's amazing this is so popular beause it's good, but not great.  The animation could be much better--I just didn't have the skills at the time.  But I refuse to update it because I feel it's a good benchmark to show my (pretty good) skills back then and my growth since.


15. Willy's Factory



One of my favorite pieces.  I love doing fan-art emotes.  This was so much fun and I think it turned out great.  Though I was quite a bit bummed it didn't place in the contest.


18. LOLZ Comic



Again, really shocked this is so high on the list.  But I was super proud of the pixelling and loved the punny-ness of it.


20.  Noah's Ark Animated



I was surprised to see this so high.  I thought this piece had blipped off the radar.  This took me forever to do and, at the time, I was really sad that no one seemed to pay it much notice view/fave-wise.  But it's a testament that pieces can get there over time.



3 Emotes I wish were in the top-10

Then there are the pieces you are so uber proud of and you wish people would take notice of, but it never seems to happen.  How many artists, musicians and such talk about the frustation that their "crap" pieces get popularity, but the ones they love sit collecting dust.  Here are 3 pieces I wish would have gotten more exposure, but simply never did.


1. Seasons of Life



This was actually #22, but I wish it had been much higher.  I put so much emotion into this piece, and I have gotten some amazing feedback on it, but overall it just never was the popular emote I hoped it to be.  Perhaps because it's so sad...


2. Jumping the Shark



I was/am so proud of this piece.  I worked hard to get the motion and the jump right.  I was so uber-geeked to have it turn out so well. But, alas, it just didn't really click with people.  Probably because "nuke the fridge" was the key phrase by the time I made this.  Still, I wish it would have gotten a few more views.


3. Monkey Pirate Ship



Created when I was new to the site, I think this would have gotten more looks had I uploaded it now, with a bigger fanbase. But still, I was pretty heartbroken this piece never really got good exposure.  It's one that I'm still most proud of to this day.  I think the fact that it was static hindered it, but I wanted it to be more of a storybook page, where you look at and take in all the detail.

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`Ravenswd did this too.  Go look at it now! ---> [link]