Today we take a look at my first spotlight nomination from a previous entrant. Honey recommended Pumpino for this weeks article. Why would she recommend her? What is her content like? Why did she decide on her specific avatar? That and more will be answered today, so let us check her out!!
Quick disclaimer: as always, all the art shown and discussed is not owned by be or done by me in any way. Any, and all credits will be linked should the creators wish their names be known, but regardless I am not the owner of any art or content discussed or previewed here. With that out of the way let’s check out Pumpino.
Story.
First off, as per usual, I asked her about her story leading up to becoming a vtuber. What follows is what she was kind enough to share with me to share with you all. Some parts are a summary on my part, and others are word for word from her.
Pumpino’s story starts off before the whole Covid-19 situation that we have all grown so fond of. She was working at a bar at the time the worldwide pandemic hit, thus she took a blow to her financial security and was no longer working. She worried about whether or not she would find a job, and had always wanted to become a streamer and even tried streamer before she was a vtuber, as she did not know about vtubing until quite recently. Her dream was always to work from home because being around others can trigger her anxiety and make her feel physically ill, Yet she was working to try and work through that anxiety. That is something that I can wholeheartedly identify with, as this is my way of working out of my shell and often being around others can make me physically ill as well and it can be debilitating.
Now that her previous line of work was scarce because of the aforementioned issue, she decided to take streaming more serious. She decided on streaming because she has always wanted to build a community around herself with others. She always thought about those who may not have friends, family, or a community of their own, and she wished that her community could be there for those wayward souls looking for solace with common interest companionship.
Her Boyfriend is the one that got her into vtubing, because he was a huge Hololive fan. He would often send her clips from vtubers and this is how she found out about vtubing. Just like many of us, when she thought about vtubing she thought it was something that she was unable to do herself. It wasn’t until she was about to move out on her own that Hololive English dropped and she decided within herself that she might have what it takes to become a vtuber herself as well!
She grew up an artist, drawing for most of her life. Because of this, she was really excited that she got to draw her own character/vtuber model. She was really into fantasy/fiction so she was happy that she could be whatever her mind could think of. That has to be one of the biggest draws for vtubers, the fact that who they are is only limited by their imagination, and not even by biology. If you look around you will see so many interesting and creative vtubers out there, and trust me when I say that Pumpino is no exception! But what is her vtuber model? Why did she settle on it?
Why your model?
Pumpino was nice enough to share with me the story behind her model and some of the lore that was attached to it. She stated that she loved fall/autumn and the color orange, she she had decided at first to go with a pumpkin vutber, hence the name Pumpino. She then later received some fan art from one of those twitter threads we all have seen around, where they ask for your png and they will do fanart of your character. What was the result?
The result of this fanart is what would be the massive inspiration for her final character and model design. When looking at Pumpino now, you will see that this fanart is quite insanely close to her final design. This was a happy little surprise that helped her cement how she wanted her model to look, and moving forward she needed some lore for her new found model.
Originally, she was just going to be a pumpkin girl. Only one problem arose, she was unable to think of some lore or a good story for this new character she had decided on. This led to her and her boyfriend doing a brainstorming session for a good story, and they settled on the idea of a scarecrow. She loved the idea that scarecrows appear to be human, and that theme is so great with the journey we all take of trying to fit in and look like others, then eventually becoming ok with who we are and that we don’t need to be like everyone else.
Stream Content.
As far as vtubing and content creation goes, Pumpino went the route of streamer as stated before. She streams over on her Twitch, where you will find all kinds of content from her. Pumpino does a lot of gaming streams and art streams. If you want the specifics on what games she plays pop on over there, as there are a myriad of games ranging from Mario kart, to rim world, and a lot more.
How would I, as a viewer, describe her streaming style? I have tuned in live to two streams, and also watching some bits and clips of various other streams, and the one sort of style that I think describes all her streams best is inviting and bubbly. She has an infectious laugh that you will hear a lot, which is the best thing ever because if shes laughing you are at the least smiling and having an amazing time. The fact that she wanted to build a community for herself from day one of streaming definitely shows, because if you are a viewer who shows respect to her, you will have a friend for life in her. She is incredibly kind and loving to each and every viewer I have seen on stream, even when my auto correct changed getting that dub to getting dumb! I felt so bad about that but I fixed it of course.
She does a great job of creating and maintaining a community of fans by just being her amazing, bubbly self on stream. This alone makes it worth stopping by, but of course there is more. She has established lore for all of her viewers, as well as commands that I would like to go over as well. .
You may notice in the featured image that she has an alpaca behind her in the featured image. This is her profile picture on twitter and I asked her about it. She said that during one of her first streams they came up with some lore, and it boils down to the fact that she is the pope of crowstianity, and that you may join this religion by following her on twitch. These followers are called the crowsaders, and when they expire in life they are reborn as alpacas.
as far as the commands go, in her words “I am really bad at remembering stuff”. Because of this they have created commands such as:
- !no brain, which will cause it to say only flame
- !teacheck, which is basically hydrate but for her tea
- and !ovencheck, because she has left her oven on before during streams.
As a final addendum, she also has games nights on saturdays with her subscribers in discord. That is how she ties together her streaming and community, but there are also other side projects that are not directly related to streaming that she has going on as well. Time to take a look at that.
Non-streaming content.
Pumpino has a couple of non-streaming content that she also does on the side. Some are aspirations and ideas, and others are current works that you can go and check out today. As mentioned earlier, she loves art. You will even see that some of her streams are just art streams! Naturally she wants to start an art business. But what kind?
Well, her and her boyfriend Crowphet, are working on what she described as “lil…chibi…models” right now. They want to expand their modelling business and handle more than the chibi models, and she is currently working on two normal models at the moment. below is a direct tweet from her on what she is doing. I was unable to check it out because she is sold out at the moment, but when she opens up for more please go ahead and check them out.
Her and Crowphet are really inspiring as I was always too daunted to make my own model! The entire process seems hard and that is why Pumpi and Crow open their own commissions, to help those who want a model but are not able to make them get some while also supporting an amazing person and artist! If you want a tutorial there is a blog I covered recently that has their own guide on how to make models as a beginner! You can find it over on Dereproject.com!
Lastly, she aspires to create a game. She wants to do this when she is settled into streaming and has her art business worked out. She has two that she has already started work on that would most likely be her first two gaming products. A visual novel type game, and a side scroller action fighting game as she describes them. I really look forward to seeing them when they come out!!
Closing.
Pumpino is an excellent streamer, a very kind and fun soul, and an amazing person. Please do go check her out after this and become a crowsader yourself if you haven’t already. She gets a very high recommendation from me and she has been nothing but a joy to work with. I am glad to call her a new friend in the community, and I know you will too if you just go and give her a shot.
Hiya everyone, and most likely fellow vtubers. Thank you all for reading till the very end and I hope this article meets your expectations, it has to be one of my favorites I have worked on yet. None of my other posts bring me as much joy as my vtuber spotlights, and I hope you feel the same. Please if you enjoyed this article follow me over on twitter, and leave a comment here or @ me on twitter. I will respond to every single one. I really appreciate every single read and I can not wait to see you with next weeks vtuber spotlight! until next time
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