So if there is one question that I keep getting asked, time and again, on my Livestreams, it is this: Is that character I hide behind through FaceRig a Raccoon, or a Fox? There have been a few other guesses along those lines, as well, but it generally comes down to Raccoon or Fox for most people, myself included, until recently.
You see, I did a bit of investigation on the Googles, and it turns out this isn’t just an anthropomorphized Trash Bandit or whatever, it is actually a Red Panda. Which of course isn’t a real Panda, but it is quite Red, and the facial markings give it away completely.
Anyway, so Mystery Solved™!
Well, this now leads me to a bit of a dilemma. You see, now that I know what the beastie actually is, I’d like to use it in branding for my site and channel. Of course I can’t use the images straight out of FaceRig (unless I’m not actually making money, such as my current “Offscreen” image on Twitch), but since I want to be able to make what the kids call “Merch” (merchandise) someday, I need some real branding made.
Fiverr to the rescue!
You see, several years ago, I commissioned an artist on Fiverr to draw me a cartoon character I could use as branding for my then-main website, Pthppt.com. I asked for a mostly-hairless cartoon bear (with just the odd tuft of hair here or there), who was wearing a weasel as a loincloth, wrapped around the standing bear’s waist. We decided that the weasel should be rather miffed by this situation, and expressing that through giving the viewer a “raspberry” (which just happens to be how I got the name Pthppt! in the first place).
It was awesome, and came in at a reasonable price of just $11 dollars, so we concluded the transaction and I’ve made great use of that image over the last few years. Unfortunately, a Hairless bear doesn’t really match up well with the Red Panda character I mostly use on Twitch, with or without a Weasel loincloth, so I decided it was time to get new graphics!
Back to Fiverr!
Luckily, I remembered my login to Fiverr (eventually), and sent a message off to the very same artist with whom I had worked before. I enjoyed her style, and felt she could develop some fine graphics for use on this site, the Twitch channel, and perhaps even as Merch someday.
So, here is what I requested:
- A generic “Happy Red Panda” character, standing, with white headphones being worn. Transparent background.
- The same character with headphones, but sitting at a computer desk looking angry, while smoke rises from the laptop on the desk. Otherwise, transparent background.
- Three separate Emoji headshots of this character:
- Head cocked to one side, winking (Wink)
- Clearly exhausted (Tired)
- Surprised, while a hand boops them on the nose (Boop)
- Finally, a full artistic scene, which I shall not even try to describe here. It’s just too damn cool to do it justice in words.
Anyway, we discussed the commission a week or so ago, and not only did we come to an equitable agreement, you should be seeing this artwork very soon on the Twitch channel and this very website!… including on the Merch? Store, for some of the pieces.
