Nuki News #80 - Why do I Stream?

If you go to Picarto.tv/ArtieNuki you'll see my Picarto page states I've been streaming since 2016; but that would be a lie! I've been doing it since 2013, at least as far as Picarto is concerned.  Hell even earlier if I try to remember dormant memories of 'livestream dot com' haha. 

But to answer the question in the title, I stream because I didn't want to be alone with my work. It's nice to have people around watching to give you that motivational push to not give up on a difficult piece. People are there without distracting me as actively as say, someone sitting next to me. At least, it's geared to have folks more focused on what I'm doing. And hey, I wanted to encourage people to do art along with me if they were feeling listless and wanted to do something. 

Make connections, pretty much too! 

Back when I started to take streaming seriously(as in, doing it regularly, once a week) I was thinking about what would make my streams good. I had to ask myself, "What would get me to stick around and watch someone stream?" And the answers were threefold:

1) Have a microphone on loud n clear! Nice music helps but I know I'd like to stick around if the streamer is talking. Getting to know them more is always interesting.

2) Notice me Senpai streamerrr! It always felt good to me that the streamer was active and not just happenstancedly streaming a daily occurrence as if no one is around.

3) They're doing/drawing something I enjoy seeing! I actually put this last because it's not totally prominent that keeps me sticking around. 

So that's what I did; set up my microphone in OBS, made sure my audio balance was decent and didn't drown my voice out with the music I was playing. I also make sure to greet people who come to my streams and interact/read my chat. I also make sure to draw what I enjoy, so if I get people coming to my stream it's because they like what they see too.

Picarto is a small small pond compared to the streaming behemoth that is Twitch; to me though, it feels safer because of that; I'm not gunna get harassed by non-furries who aren't into my work, and everyone who shows up is generally there for the art, as opposed to games. 

I bring that up as a disclaimer to what I say next; over the course of the last 7 years I have made a place quite a handful of folks(around 20-25) regularly show up to see what I'm up to. It's amazing. I'd rather have 25 relatively responsive folks who all engage with chat now n again than 250 where only 2-5 people are talking. 

Another cool thing is Picarto allows for me to stream right beside fellow furry artists and we get to share an audience too with multistreams. I've gotten to meet quite a few furry artists this way; they just randomly show up and go 'wanna multistream' and sometimes I say 'yeah let's'! and I get a look into their creative window while I work too. It rocks. 

I've gotten to cultivate a zest for streaming over the years, it's gotten to the point an extended break of 7 days or more feels like forever to me, and I gotta get back on it.  With that in mind, let me round out this post before it hits midnight here with tips: 

-When starting out and you have trouble talking or knowing what to say as a streamer- Bring a friend along in a call! I did that with my dear pal Jellybean/ImagineInk for the first 2 years of streaming regularly. Having someone to bounce off of and interact with naturally makes a stream much more interesting when a conversation is already going on.

-Have a plan for the stream! You're not gunna have a good time if you don't have a goal in mind for what you're streaming. For the longest times I made sure to already have a drawing done, for instance, because streaming while tackling a blank canvas was too much pressure for me. But coloring something doesn't take much mentally by comparison.

-Don't like webcam? Try Vtubing/PNGTubing! Not as free or easy as a webcam, but for me, I dislike webcamming. But a Vtuber- a 3D model of a character that can mimic your movements/gestures/expressions via webcam feed, gives that much desired level of interactivity with a real person while giving a more comfortable layer of separation for privacy or self consciousness of what you look like irl.  PNG-tubers can literally be 2 transparent images that activate when you talk or don't talk, so they're easy to make even if you aren't into 3D modeling(like me, hah!). I recommend checking out this site for the general PNG-Tubing: 

https://olmewe.itch.io/veadotube-mini

And this for that hand/arm cursor tracker:

https://sadwhale-studios.itch.io/spud-tablet

Thanks for reading til the end, haha! I'll share what I worked on in my last stream seen above; my raichu Benji with Dracozolt legs! Ahaa, I plan on doing a Your Character Here thing later in the month and got to discuss interest in the concept on the stream too.