jpivot

[jpivot]

do you have any tips for makign the pngtuber?! it looks so cute, are they just idle animations or do they actually move when you draw etc?

it's just idle animation, the movement on the drawing/gaming ones just use the blink slots to randomly change between the "normal" pose and the "doing something" pose. i used veadotube mini so the only thing I directly control is the shift between talking/not talking and switching between the different states (standing/drawing/gaming). they're quite simple, it's just the movement of animation giving it the illusion of complexity. I know there's a way out there to map mouse/controller movement to your vtuber thing, but I didn't look into it because... well. I didn't want to lol

things can be as simple or as complicated as you want it to be. I'd recommend keeping the designs simple so it's faster to draw and make variations of. it took me one night to work on this one and I learned a lot about better ways to organize/set up my art/file for exporting as I was making edits. if I had a really intricate-looking drawing to start with, I'd have spent more of my time just drawing a single pose instead of being able to place an image in the program to see how it works and how things look in it. I started with just 2 static images and then went "what if it moved a bit" and then added things as I went. breadth vs depth, I guess.

hmm... as for tips...

the talk mouth is on a layer that covers up part of the face when I unhide it. this was nice because when I made a change to the animated drawing/controller poses, I could export out the talking variation immediately by just turning 1 layer on, instead of having to swap/redo changes between multiple layers (annoying). I also had the parts that moved (the arms) in a separated group, so when I changed the thickness of a line on his vest I didn't have to redo that change over and over again across 3 more frames. I still had to redo it for the 3 poses, but that's just 3 times total instead of 1 + 3 + 3 = 7 times total. if I were to do this again, I'd have things set up in a way where the different variations use as many of the same layers as possible, so changing something in one place automatically works for every pose.

and you can keep your life simple. for the animated frames I didn't redraw the arms from scratch for each frame of movement-- I just used the liquify tool to nudge them slightly and fixed up any small sections that looked weird. it ends up looking very intentional but with less work. it's easy to make it look bad though if you don't keep it subtle, I just had to feel it out by doing it.

...and you don't need to do any animation if you don't want to!! I just think it's cool and also a fun challenge. all the stuff I did on this one is built upon my experience making that older one I linked in my post, 2 years ago. the goofy crying pose i made for that is where I learned you weren't restricted to static images for the stand/talk/blink/blink-talk poses.

the drawing sprite in my new one has the default pose set as a looping "drawing" animation, and the blink is set as a "paused drawing" image. it used to be the other way around but I found a limitation with how setting the random start time and duration of the blinks worked, so I switched them.

#pivasks #the entire learning process is about trying to do something specific and finding out all the ways to do it bad. #and eventually you solve enough problems to end up with something less bad. perhaps good eveb #I tried the liquify thing because I wanted slight movement without the full effort of redrawing... #the only reason it worked out is because I've used liquify and done enough animation-adjacent things in the past to know what to avoid lol #that's experience I guess. look at the difference between my old one and this new one. that's experience!!

[jpivot]

my friends have been making so many cute pngtubers/etc lately, i got inspired to remake my guy. originally it was just because i couldnt find the file but it ended up looking a lot cuter than my old one from two years ago imo. tee hee

#metthew hammock #pivart #i traded expressions for activities. i think it was worth it. but itd be nice to bring some of those expressions back too

[jpivot]

birthday drawing! i took too long on it and its 2am now whoops

#pivart #dats me #i need to get a haircut it grew out to be a mullet again.

[jpivot]

cat reference

#thought about this again. #reblog #i still like how the animation for that blink-lookaround came out lol #even if you do have to wait like 10 seconds to see it...

[jpivot]

continuing the tradition, heres my art summary for 2023! (though i must admit, i cheated on december's by working on it a little more during this january)

as always, heres a link to last year's. and hey, while im at it, heres a link to all of the previous years. wow! thats 12 years worth of art

#pivart #art summary #soooo much tagcen in here. its 75% tagcen. i love my ocs......... its almost as if i made them in a lab. specifically. for me. (i did) #i didnt end up posting march or july anywhere online... ahhh... im sorry... #also didnt post december but thats cuz i wanted to find the actual photo source first and... i havent had much success on that front. help #everything else can be found on my sketchblog. well... besides may. which was posted here on main #should i put together the links for each month's full image posts? #i like the idea of doing that but i dont know if that'd be cool or useful or helpful for anyone to justify the effort. #and if its just for me... well... i know how to search my own blogs. im confident i could find whatever quickly

[jpivot]

my friends and i when destiny 2's season of the deep came out a few months ago. i was pretty excited for the return of my favorite shotgun pre-sunset.

was surprised that the reissued guns had their perks switched up, tho. RIP grave robber and etc

#destiny 2 #destiny #it took me the entirety of the season to finish drawing this comic. i am not timely #sequential stuff #pivart

[jpivot]

aew wordart champion

#cm punk #aew #wrestling #pivart

[jpivot]

my destiny 2 clan has been talking about our guardians lately. here are some comics i made about my des2ny guardian oc a few months ago

#destiny 2 #pivart #sequential stuff #oh man maybe i shouldve named the ghost ''the life'' so they can be the life and times. i will consider this

[jpivot]

YESSSSS

finally got my hands on my silly little punk standee!! it's so cute 🥺 i love how well it came out

it's cute!! aaaaaaa

#cm punk #wrestling #it took a while to get around to making this real but yaaaaay

[jpivot]

He’s here!! :D Thank you, he is very holdable :)

im so glad! yay! yeah my friend mailed out the orders the other day, im surprised theyve reached people so quickly lol. i have to wait a whole week to see how the alyx pillow turned out for myself (sob!!!)

#pivasks

[jpivot]

if spotted please notify the black mesa research crew. they miss him very much

#half life #gordon freeman #pivart #my friend said i should make this into a sticker so. i guess im doing that

[jpivot]

self portrait. physical form

#pivstuff #went to social event (college alumni weekend) & there were photos taken. so now i get to look at the photos & point saying ''there i am!'' #ive also been too busy lately to look at my haircut & form an opinion about it. but now ive found the time & i think its cool #and i like it a lot! #also wow this is my 600th post. congrats 2 me on 600 posts on main

[jpivot]

YESSSSSSS IVE BEEN WAITING FOR THE PILLOW TO RETURN IM SO SIKED!!! :'D

hee hee!! sorry about the wait. i felt bad that the gordons sold out very quickly last time but i could never pony up enough "manufacturing cost" up front to get more than a handful at at time. i also didnt want to open up preorders until i finished alyx, but then i got too busy to work on it...

anyway!! i hope everyone who wants one can order them now!

#pivasks #preorders are scary cuz if a boat with all your stuff on it sinks in the ocean people will get mad and you can get in trouble for delays.

[jpivot]

EDIT: the order has been sent in! so uh. i guess preorders are over! we got a number of extras for any straggling purchasers however, so you can still make orders down at the link below. anyway, i am now going to edit the rest of this post to be in past-tense!

hi! it was april the 5th in the year 2023!!

you could once again order "a small pillow shaped like gordon freeman" from my friend hexselenas' online store. this time it was a preorder that was open for a week, so people could order it without it selling out after one (1) day like the last two times. previous to this they were last available over a year ago, so as you can see i'm not very timely about selling these. this was your chance! i hope someone told you!

also! you could order "a small pillow shaped like alyx vance" for the first time, as well! i haven't gotten one yet so i dont know for sure how it'll turn out. hopefully: good. but life is full of many surprises and holds no guarantees

additional product details:

these are 16 inches tall. i consider it a good size to hold, hug, or display.

they are soft. i believe the fabric is "minky" in texture.

there is a zipper along the edge and if you open it and take the stuffing out you can wash it in a washing machine.

you can order them stuffed or you can order just the unstuffed pillowcase (for a few dollars cheaper!) and fill it with your own stuffing.

i like mine and i have heard back from people who also own them that they like theirs as well.

i've brought pillow gordon on an airplane trip and used it to rest my head and found it very effective and comfortable for this purpose.

here is a photo of my friend's dog appreciating gordon pillow's company. as you can see she is experiencing the kind of comfort only a pillow shaped like gordon freeman can provide

hey!!! wait!!!! im not done taking product photos!!!!!!!!! come back!!!!!!!

#pivstuff #once again i am hawking my wares

[jpivot]

fussiest aew world champion, mjf

#MJF #wrestling #oops. i edited this to add a hint of tattoo because i always forget it

[jpivot]

hello I am helping my friend (hexselenas) sell things at "lvl up expo" in las vegas this weekend. here is a picture and a map she made. if you find yourself in vegas, and specifically at lvl up expo, come gander at her wares

there's also a wrestling event in the exhibitors hall so im prolly gonna be hanging around there sometimes too. did you know lvl up expo hosts wrestling? it does

#pivstuff

[jpivot]

yesterday was hourly comic day! err, i guess the day before yesterday now. midnight passed while i was writing alt text. ANYWAY...

here were my hourly comics for 2023! i was expecting to draw like 8 panels of me just sitting at my desk, but truly the day was full of surprises. i was gonna do these last year, but didn't. so this year: i did

you can find my hourlies from previous years here.

#pivstuff #hourly comics #sequential stuff