Subtitled timelapse! [short]

I did this late last Nov/December 2023 but only now I feel brave enough to put it out here haha

Previous design at the top right!

Expression sketches – but I didn’t want to make all of these as it’ll make it hard to use as a PNGtuber! I don’t have the pricey software/tech to utilise multiple expressions easily either. I don’t want to spend too much on something I’m going to be terrible at (streaming I mean) and I’m just testing things!

It’s me! Hermit Dragon Leonie!

I just wanted to have a dragon girl avatar ;P

Changed it back to antler dragon horns! Can’t help but iterate on my pngtuber again :0

Leonie rambles about…streaming???

So I am planning to stream with this PNGtuber eventually!

And do little test study streams at my Youtube channel. It’ll be no mic and I’ll be doing text chat.

Slowly ease myself into it and face my performance anxiety – that is the hope!

I don’t mind not speaking if I can get away with it and just keep it to studies and practice. I’m not willing to do illustrations on stream because I don’t want my video to be scraped to do fake process videos at normal speed. I’m already not sure if I should keep doing sped up timelapses as well when it’s all getting scraped and genAI videos are improving incredibly fast :/

The fears with genAI for videos – should I stop making videos?

No promises with schedule because I have ongoing health tests things going on still (see below for the update). I’ll keep my discord updated about streams and maybe schedule a youtube stream? I’ll keep it impromptu.

Maybe at least once some time early next month.

If streaming doesn’t work out after I give it a good go, then I’ll just stick to youtube videos with watermarks :0

Twilight | ContraPoints (on romantic fiction)

• I’m trying to figure out my own dark void of emptiness, lack and how I use trashy romantic fiction for escapism too :’)
• wonderful food for thought into the psychology of fantasy, politics, racism, gendered power dynamics and how the default is the dominance of men and trying to be special, valued, loved by being with/chosen by them (+ patriarchy throughout history)
• forgoing responsibility, insecurities and shame when it comes to fantasy and wanting to be desired, valued, special, loved and cherished and getting emotional needs met
• gosh yes I do not want to be treated like prey/meat in reality
  • that’s what it feels like in the club/bars sometimes especially if you’re around people you can’t rely on for safety
  • Stressful and horrible :/
• yes in romantic fiction to want to be both the hero and the object of desire and how stories use powerful, rich, handsome, competent, dominant men for women to live vicariously through and/or become an equal/special/chosen/beloved/beside them
  • gosh it makes so much sense!! To be able to be in control within the safe romantic fantasy/emotional drama
  • how a lot of male characters are vicious, violent, abusive, terrifying and extreme (for the intense drama, power dynamics, emotions and ridiculous situations that’s not based in reality)
  • how people don’t always want to be in control/the hero nor always be the object of desire, love and protection – having a complex mix of both focuses more on getting emotional, affectionate, life, etc needs met on an equal and mutual understanding of needs
• learned more about things that are not my cup of tea
• very much made me more self aware why I get sucked into some kinds of romantic fiction and I still need time to slowly understand it :’)
• I enjoy lots of interesting underdog heroine/villainess stories for instance and sometimes they’re relatable with flaws, other times they’re terribly Mary Sue either in a boring, predictable way or an emotional, compelling, relatable way when they grow through character development and/or hardships
  • meanwhile male leads are a hit or miss as fleshed out characters (can be too tropey/predictable)
  • sometimes I don’t like the final pairing either (not my preference, toxic or for some other reason) but ah well
  • overall it does get tropey and predictable :’)
  • it’s great when you fully support the romantic relationship and the anticipation of them meeting, getting to know each other and growing together
• if only I can not get carried away reading romantic fiction so I’m not so addicted to filling my emotional needs this way :’P
  • I did hear that the more you quit the more likely you can actually quit
    • I guess I will keep refraining from reading them too much :’)
  • I have quit since my health scans as a self bargain to not let myself get addicted to them again (life is short) and it’s hard whenever I have the need to read more – I manage to not get tempted thus far!!
  • I don’t want to lose sleep and time from being addicted to reading them :’)

Feature requests and investigative critique on Cara

• Luna’s findings on how to best tackle Cara / my notes:
  • the feed settings are rigged for large accounts who don’t follow much people & you have to post high tier art
  • the site needs to show the best to keep people there
  • don’t use hashtags that match category tags
  • likes gives more exposure to art on the home feed so the more popular someone is, the more likes it gets
  • comments don’t bump art in the home feed but it does to followers?
  • reposting lots is annoying for those following you
  • sitewide feed settings don’t actually give diverse art, you have to find it yourself from tags you like
  • seems like only portfolio pieces get more reach but I think if you’re large then it won’t matter as much
  • how it’s likes driven and that the likes are visible
    • makes smaller artists miserable due to not being able to hide likes
  • if you like something it serves to friends
  • who you follow is more important – so you need to follow less people to control your feed better
    • this is because you get shown pieces that the people you follow pressed “like” on
  • previous version of this post on “sitewide” feed settings and comments
  • getting followed by big artist boosts your reach and you see artists you don’t follow because big artists follow them
  • how Cara’s home feed works / is geared towards huge accounts and the art really has to be good
  • popular artists have to succeed for the platform to succeed and thrive – large artists don’t have much time though so they only have a small circle of friends, or here to have a portfolio, do business or they’re not here much to see/like anything
  • to get a good feed, follow around 300-500??
    • Gosh I don’t follow enough though I want to take it slow and small :S
    • I’d rather follow if I’m interested in someone’s work, not because they’re expecting it from me and they like and/or comment on lots of my art
    • I think I felt guilted into following back already at least one time when I was more on the fence – I don’t mind it too much for their case
    • I don’t want to be pressured nor pressure anyone to follow either :’)
  • how Cara is not for the beginner/low follower artist pool and the fact that people tend to not follow people at their own level
    • lots of people follow artists better than them and that inspires them (true)
    • how it should be better visibility for all
  • coding suggestion to improve visibility at the explore/home page
• I guess I’m stuck in the midzone as I’m mid tier – I guess this is confirmation that it’s not different from other platforms (in terms of the likes that is) and that it’s a lottery if you’re luckily shared by a popular/top tier artist
• I am giving my likes freely to support other artists though!
• To tackle this is to talk/interact with other artists to boost each other
• Another artist’s findings
• Also Cara feature wishlist that I also added to in the comments – I want a lot of these!
  • I may repost more if reposts were separate from my own art and post feed!!
  • I would want category tabs/filtering for notifications as it’s hard to track comments, likes, etc :’)
  • I would like to schedule posts
  • private password protected portfolio options (for subscribers I guess?)
  • ways to do group collaboration
  • to be able to see Open Talk/Discussions as its own page / dedicated places for topic driven conversations
  • to be able to follow a hashtag and to block them too
  • formatting in posts (nice to have)
  • to be able to turn off likes (mental health reasons)
• I’m sorry but… Cara won’t kill Instagram. Nothing will. (Kelsey Rodriguez)
  • But as people pointed out in the comments of this video, Cara is not meant to replace instagram when it’s an artist community and more to replace Artstation so this video is a tad clickbaity ;P
  • she’s not saying anything new that a bunch of other artists already brought up – you need to go where your customers are if you’re not selling/focused on other artists
  • still other artists can be customers and are happy to support other artists too
  • I’m sure things will change when Cara does subscriptions but I’m just happy to see more art really
• I trust that in time Cara will improve over several years – it takes long for development to happen after all
• What I’m focusing on with Cara
  • trying to let people know that I’m not here to follow for follow
    • only follow if you’re interested in the art and posts :’)
  • I don’t consider myself a big artist but I actually get some likes, reach and interact with some peeps on Cara :’)
  • I do believe me having done so much work and mileage plays a part too
    • I’m not a beginner artist but I’m nowhere close to top tier famous – somewhere in the middle where there’s lots of ups and downs and the mundane
    • I often plateau because I am not really out there as a hermit and I can’t keep up being social all the time
    • people aren’t interested in what I do? Or I struggle to find people who would enjoy what I do :<

Crossy Road, Disney Crossy Road & Shooty Skies (Voxel art I did from 2016 to 2018)

Today I finally got over my personal burn out with this and took the time to make a video compilation version of a lot (but not all) of the voxel art I did for Crossy Road, Disney Crossy Road and Shooty Skies during 2016 to 2018! It’s still a lot (14 minutes) & a huge file even though I didn’t capture all the Disney Crossy Road worlds I did 🙁

This was when I was still part of Mighty Games and I was contracted out to work on Hipster Whale projects.

Original mega collection & gifs of all the art I’ve done in better detail with detailed credits & links to dedicated art study blog posts: blog.leonieyue.com/2019/03/mgghw…

Includes:

• 2016 Crossy Road – baby animals update
• 2016 Crossy Road – Dinosaurs update
• 2016 Disney Crossy Road – Alice Through the Looking Glass (movie) update
• 2016 Shooty Skies – Anarchy from the 80’s update
• 2016 Disney Crossy Road – Nightmare Before Christmas update (I don’t have gameplay; separate studies blog post only)
• 2016 Disney Crossy Road – Mulan update (I don’t have gameplay; separate studies blog post only)
• 2017 Shooty Skies – Lunar New Year of the Rooster update
• 2016 & 2017 Disney Crossy Road – both Pirates of the Caribbean updates (no gameplay visuals)
• 2017 Disney Crossy Road – Beauty and the Beast update, both original Disney movie & live action (I don’t have gameplay; separate studies blog post only)
• 2017 Disney Crossy Road – Lilo & Stitch update
• 2017 Crossy Road – Space update
• 2018 Crossy Road – New Zealand update
• 2018 Crossy Road – Ocean update
• Disney Crossy Road credits – I made & got my avatar in there!

After this, I worked for them as a contractor on & off since Sept 2019 and became part of Hipster Whale as a part time artist from Feb 2021 :0

Gratefully I still continue to work on Crossy Road projects as one of the artists! So there’s even more Crossy Road art shenanigans I’ve done that is not shown here because I blog about it along the way instead (so see my blog’s side bar for more recent things) ;D

So I finally left instagram and twitter behind after many years of indecisive, frustrated, anxious social media venting :’) (original Cara post)

And then this post got lots of comments than I’m used to – goodness! I’m not talking to a void!?! It’s amazing and I’m not used to it! Then it calmed down back to quiet after the first 8-12 hours haha

There’s some who still use instagram for business/to survive or using instagram for personal communications so that’s fair!

It’s great that I wasn’t alone in leaving instagram/twitter behind too!

(Are we really drawing for ourselves anymore? (mini rant on sns burnout) by artist youtuber I don’t know, sakuraopal on the anxiety of putting work out there and the metrics affecting self worth and sleep.)

I am emotionally moving on from instagram and it’s a relief with a mix of sadness. Since I know there’s more people who I probably won’t see around anymore (at instagram or twitter) – it’s kind of a goodbye for them too. Not that they’ve been actively in my life on a mutual basis though – only one friend that I know left me a kind comment (Edit a few more comments happened since). Though a lot of people I don’t see around anymore actually saw and some even liked my farewell post – they’re actually around!! :0

Twitter is also not somewhere I get any/much replies either. They’re both consistently not social places for years for me. How I don’t feel that my time is valued at twitter and instagram – they want you to pay for it and even then it’s not worth it.

I did feel pressured that I should be on twitter and instagram because some people are still on it and occasionally/rarely interaction does happen :’)

And stressing that it’s super nice to know that “oh that person still sees, supports and likes my work randomly/sometimes/often”. I do appreciate the supportive likes (as that helps)!!

It’s just that I don’t really get much interaction beyond that while Cara actually fills that need and is less of a void for me :’)

CW Scary health update part 1/3 (breast cancer check)

So after seeing a specialist late last week, she was super reassuring and understanding in explaining the how, why and the process to me and the plan ahead (seeing how anxious and traumatised I am by my mother’s battle).

She says it’s likely that it’s benign though because all else is normal (a relief), they’ll check my mother’s (maybe genetics too) history and we’re just making sure of things through the process. In the next few days I am going to get a biopsy (I’m going to get stabbed ahhh) and get results just to check and make super sure that whatever I have isn’t malignant. Because I don’t want to wait 6 months and monitor it that way :’)

Hope things turn out alright :0

Also I finally watched Godzilla -1 (spoilers)!

I did enjoy this really good movie but I don’t want to watch it again.

Spoilers: It was incredibly tropey and cheesy with all the characters like an anime, super main character focused, lots of things were super predictable/convenient and the female characters were just there as sacrificial house wife or keeper for the majority of the film (matching the times??) The little girl tried her best with crying.

The start of the movie, main themes, emotional moments & Godzilla scenes were incredible though! Lots of why doesn’t she push herself with him into the alleyway? Now she’s got Godzilla regenerative genes (or symbolising how radiation poisoning will take her life away eventually given the history of the bombs).

Oh also Adobe’s finally getting sued for their dodgy, hidden cancellation fee (not their genAI stuff but ah well – it’s also something they did).

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