Time flies that it’s been 2 years since I started streaming, so I want to celebrate it! I’ve been very grateful that I have been able to stream, get to know new lovely people and make plenty of fun memories that gave me something to look forward to each day even when things in my daily life get rough. Things have been busy that I had to be away without computer for some while so my last stream was on June, but thankfully I managed to slip in time for this stream event.
I learned new things along the way – from technology things like how to use OBS and make a Live2D model to how to play FPS hahaha. I’m thankful I gave it a shot and for the time I got to do it, despite things have got busy and I could do it less this year, at least I can still be around and achieved some things I wanted to do.
For example, making this website is something I’m happy I finally managed to make. Finally having a space where I can write long and edit things as I want without the shadowing nervous feelings of the timeline algorithm and numbers of social media feels nice, so let me ramble away for some time!
(damn I spent quite long on drawing that flower board thing in the picture hahaha)
New Model – Dev is Now 3D!
The biggest announcement I had this year was I get to reveal my new model – an adorable 3D Vtuber model made by Welloy! I’ve been always curious to have my own 3D model and I wanted it to be a chibi one but it was quite hard to find, so when I saw Welloy’s work I fell in love and glad my commission request was taken!
One of my long term goals is to make my own Live2D model for nonchibi and update my chibi one to match my latest design, but I know it will need to take a long time haha :” but I’m happy to have a new 3D model now! It’s something new for me to explore the new software and definitely something new to get used to.
For using the model, currently I’m exploring between VSeeFace and Warudo, and also tried out VRChat. One of the things I’m happy about that now I can do some hand gestures when talking! Since I usually do some hand gestures when talking even when using Live2D and it didn’t translate to the screen, so now you can see it when I stream, haha.
I don’t have proper hand tracking yet but will be nice to save up for one someday, though I feel I won’t be that physically active to do a bunch of stuff. Thankfully I can still use my webcam to do some basic hand tracking with this tool. I plan to go more on this in another post once I settle and understand things more!
New Stream Assets!
I started streaming back then from Instagram live using Yellowduck to connect it to my OBS, and I haven’t really changed my stream assets since then even though I’ve made a lot for others’ commissions.
So one of my goals is to upgrade my stream assets for each anniversary one step at a time, even if it’s not a major makeover since I have no plans to change my character’s branding or theme anytime soon.
Last year I managed to make my character sheet and changed my character’s outfit, and made a half-body non-chibi reactive PNG set. This year thankfully I managed to make new screen designs and I had fun with it!
I made new starting, BRB, and ending screens. At first I wanted to put only the grandma me at BRB screen but I got a cute Liter Kokoba from Torakami which I feel immediately fitting :p and for the ending screen I used my new 3D model from Welloy with dancing animation from Warudo software (I physically can’t even dance like that, let me virtually have some cool moves lmao).
This year I also learned to make a transition stinger! Animation is pain it took me hours to make this since I’m not familiar with motion graphics editing ;w; I wanted to adjust it a bit more but I couldn’t make it on time for the anniversary stream, so hopefully next time I can explore and practice more.
I kept mostly the same colors and themes, but I cleaned up some things that was a bit uncomfortable for me since my last design, like I feel my overlay got too cluttered and hard to organize since I often add or move things around.
To be honest I wish I could do more, I often see others’ channels and wish I can add this and that, but I am aware of my time and energy limitations so I try my best to adjust my own expectations on myself to take things to upgrade one step at a time. For now I’m pretty happy what I managed to do on time for the anniversary stream despite the tight schedule especially these past few months.
Looking Back on Memories
During my streaming days, I also get to collab and meet new friends along the way, and tried out new games I probably would not think to try out before! Like, I didn’t think I’d play Phasmophobia, Chilla Art’s games, or even stuff like Overwatch and Valorant years ago before I update my laptop. I mean – I didn’t even realize Genshin was supposed to look that good because I always played on mobile phone before!
I discover my joy for cozy and wholesome games (despite me not really being a ‘chill and cozy’ person when playing games and can get quite slow to be honest hahaha), and looking forward to try out new games in the future. I have fun discovering new parts of a game and share the experience together with others!
When I started streaming I realized that most of my Vtuber friends have their own Discord servers, and I was quite hesitant to make my own since I felt I’m too socially awkward for socializing a lot or managing a community. I finally made a server that I manage with my friends, and I’m glad it turned out well. We did a bunch of fun events like movies watch together, scary story sharing, puzzle together, Minecraft server, secret Santa, and hopefully we can get to organize more events to come! Over the years people come and go since life gets busy and interests change which is understandable, but I’m glad for the memories spent together.
Some of the other things I’m happy about that I managed to make a bunch of different commissions since I started streaming. I was quite unaware about what overlays, Live2D, panels etc. are like before so I mostly did only illustration commissions before, so it was pretty fun to learn to design them. I’m thankful for the clients who believed in me and let me discover that I can create designs more than I made before.
Unfortunately it seems I will have to take less commissions with tight schedule in the future (which to be honest frustrates myself as I compare to my past, but also understandable as I have things to juggle in my time and other things I want to do), I do hope I can still do some more commissions in the upcoming year.
For those who are interested in my commissions and had to be in a waiting list, I’m sorry for the inconvenience and thank you for the support and interest in my work, I hope I can get to do more soon!
Merch Updates
I talked a bit about my future merch plans – I already secured a booth at Comifuro 16-17 December 2023 and Doujima Singapore May 2024! I hope I can make a bunch of new merch stuff others can enjoy.
I revealed a bit one of the new thing I’m working on, I call it Project Ngeng Ngeng (Project Vroom Vroom as in car Indonesian sound effect lol), I’m planning to try out to make 3D cartoon car charms on Vograce so I hope production will go smoothly >_<
We also did the merch giveaway announcement I hosted on Twitter and Instagram, thank you to everyone who participated! Kokoba has been spinning and decided fate and I’m in touch with the winners to arrange shipping soon! Currently my merch giveaway was only for Indonesia since overseas shipping is still quite tricky in my country. I plan to do some other types of events like art raffle or a different merch giveaway in the future!
I’ve been making merch since 2015 (I talked about it more here) and postponed for some years thinking I’d retire from merchmaking, but now I got persuaded back hahaha. Streaming gave me the encouragement to try out making original merch like when people recognize my Kokoba blob with its name – so I wanted to try to make some more original merch in the future, while also making some fanmerch of things I like. Maybe expect more Genshin, Star Rail, Nikke, and others? For now I plan to focus more on paper-based products with some experimental ones.
Here Lies my Hopes and Dreams
Frankly speaking, I’m quite nervous to hold up my plans or make specific goals since I am aware my schedule is quite unstable and I’m even adding more things I want to do (like wanting to make merchandise on top of just streaming and commission in the previous year, so of course it makes sense that it’s hard to juggle them all properly), but it’s okay to make some wishes and hopes right?
I’m spending some thoughts these days thinking about how to manage my time and energy better, how to keep track of my tasks and achievements more efficiently while also being able to take time to spend quality time with others dear to me. I hope I can work out a certain system or habit to make it work better.
So for those who are reading this far and has been part of the journey, thank you. I don’t know what the future will be like, but I want to savor the moment as much as I can and try my best to be grateful for what I still have. Having something to look forward to is something that keeps me going to push through, and the hope that what I do can cheer up someone else’s day even for a bit makes me happy. (This blog is a space where I can be as cheesy as I want so let me be okay? hahaha)
