What's Helios been up to? Click the video to find out!

https://drive.google.com/file/d/14CAASTMUyemOLCBYMT9JYhGzEHtUP644/view?usp=sharing

Alright, it's time once again for another one of those RP prompt journals that make me look like a really desperate weirdo with no stable partners.

But I'm bored so I don't care.

ANYWAY, this time we're doing something different. Instead of making the bird sing, the bird (i.e me) is going to be making *you* sing! (That sounded a little better when I was writing it).

With that in mind, being the particular bird I am, here's what I'm looking for.

-Female/herm victims only this time around. Sorry fellas, but I got tits on the mind today (though I do have some genderbending equipment available, just throwing that out there)
-Preferred species; avians (obviously), dragons, raptors, equines, canines. Pokemon and Digimon are allowed as well, though with the former I'm looking mainly for legendary pokemon (as well as avian ones) and Digimon...basically just Renamon and Garudramon, that's pretty much it. With all that said, if you don't fit the exact requirements listed here but are still interested, let me know and we'll see if we can work something out
-Must be ticklish *all over*. Not just looking to tickle paws/feet or whatever here. Need to have good spots all over you.
-16+ only. I know this sounds rather obvious, but after reading Roo's last FA journal...yeah I don't want to take any chances.
-Also this is not an absolute must, but if you like/are open to transformation, that's great as well :D
-Yes, you may get a chance to make the bird sing if you're good :P

Anyway, anyone interested in being a tickle toy for the day, let me know!

Gonna be working on a new animation tomorrow. Got a cute gal who needs some tickles :D

See you then!

Emergency situation here at home. I'm okay and everything is (mostly) in one piece, but I won't have time to stream tonight.

Expect an announcement tomorrow regarding the next one.

So I don't usually put out these feelers on this site, but I figured I'd give it a shot.

Day off today so I'm bored and looking to get tickled for once, so here's your chance :P

Doing some more work on rigging OC's tonight so I won't be able to stream since this process is something I can't disclose right now.

In other news, art flood will be coming soon after a couple commissions I'm waiting on are finished, so be ready for that!

Okay, things are all sorted out so time to get back to SFM. Tonight, some lucky gals (or even guys) will be playing with some ghost hands!

Stream starts, as usual, at 7:00 PM EDT on the Picarto channel. See you then!

I know, try to contain your dissapointment.

I'm kinda bogged down with RL commitments atm, so sadly I don't have the time to dedicate to a stream.

I'll be back at it next week. See you then!

You'll notice that I'm switching the schedule up once again for the streams. This is mainly because I'm still trying to figure out what works best for schedule wise. All of this is very much experimental with a lot of trial and error involved.

To that end, this week we're only streaming on Tuesday and Thursday, and the lineup will be the same: Animation for the first hour, and art pack work for the second.

The animation on Tuesday will be the one of 2Shy's character, though I may be working on another animation on Thursday, we'll see.

As usual, the streams will begin at 7:00 PM EDT.

See you then!

That's right folks! It's time once again for your good friend Helios to announce yet another major project!

Uh, you sure that's a good idea? Considering what happened with your last several major pro-

SHUT UP ITALICIZED ALTER EGO.

Anyway, this one goes out to all the SFM artists out there who also dabble in tickling art. So what is the project? I'm so glad you asked.

The Tickled Pink Art Pack (Working Title)

Description
-This is an art pack primarily centered around the tickle fetish; from playful tickling to straight up tickle torture and everything in between.
-This pack will primarily be NSFW, though SFW submissions will be allowed.
-Expected release date for this pack is early July.

What I'm looking for
-OC's to be featured in the pack.
-Artists to contribute content.

For OC'S
-Need OC's to be featured in the pack. I will try to do at least one picture of each OC.
-If you wish to feature your OC you must send me their base files (models+textures, etc).
-OC's can be human, furry, pony, etc. Only requirement is they are bipedal/anthro and organic (so no robots).
-Male, Female and Herm (Futa) are all allowed
-You do not need to contribute any content yourself of your OC getting tickled but you are encouraged to do so.

For Artists
-Looking for pictures and animations
-Pictures should be rendered in 4K and animations should be rendered in 1080p at 60fps
-If you cannot render at that resolution, send me the .dmx file and I will render them for you
-Content can be SFW or NSFW, though NSFW is encouraged
-Can range from playful tickling to full on kinky fun
-Characters can be OC's or canon characters
-Characters can be pony, furry, human, whatever. Only requirement is they are biped/anthro and organic (so no robots, wise guys)
-Male, Female, Herm (Futa) all allowed
-No limit on number of chars per pic/animation
-No limit on number of submissions each artist can contribute
-Finished submissions should be sent directly to me via Private Message
-Deadline is 23:59 EDT on June 30, 2018

Misc.
-If you know anyone who works in SFM that might be interested in lending their OC or contributing, let me know and I'll send them all the details.
-If you're interested in contributing but aren't quite sure how to go about rendering/animating tickling, feel free to contact me. I'll be happy to provide tips and/or ideas
- I'm CONSIDERING making this a "Pay-what-you-want" pack. This is not a sure thing yet, but I would very much like to perhaps financially compensate anyone who contributes (even if it only ends up being like 5 cents a download).

So ya, that's what I'm workin on. Any of you SFM folks out there interested in contributing art or chars, let me know!

So we got a 2 for 1 streaming update right here.

First off, no gaming stream tonight. I know, I know, second time this week I'm cancelling. My excu-err reason this time is we got some pretty nasty weather heading our way that's supposed to be here right around stream time and I'd rather not be looking over my shoulder constantly in worry that the lights are going to go out or worse.

Secondly, a bit of a change up for tomorrow's stream. Instead of continuing with the anim, I'm gonna be working on a one-off pic with a bunch of OC's and other female chars I have laying around. Like I said on Tuesday, I'm in a female mood so I'll be a tad motivated to work on this as opposed to a male animation (but that doesn't mean Dreamy is gonna be safe for long...)

See you all tomorrow! Same bird-time! Same bird-site!

Time, once again, for the Tuesday SFM stream. Let's go tickle some ponies.

https://picarto.tv/HeliosPhoenix

As expected, I won't be able to stream tonight due to doing stuff with the family.

I'll be back at it tomorrow with some SFM work.

To my fellow Americans, enjoy your holiday, but never forget those who paid the highest of prices for your freedom.

Alrighty folks, it's time once again for me to give you the schedule for this week's stream.

So this week, we're going to be back to the regular schedule of two gaming and two SFM streams. And, as teased, the gaming streams will be taken over entirely by Detroit: Become Human

I did a playthough of the game off stream, and it was amazing. This is easily one of the best games I've played these past couple years. Too early to put it in my top 5, but it's almost certainly got a spot in the top 10.

So I was deciding how I wanted to do this stream and I decided to take a page from my friend Liati and do a walkthrough stream. I'll be showing you guys how I got the results and endings I got in my playthrough of Detroit (and hopefully I'll be able to fix a few mistakes I made along the way).

So with that in mind, here's the schedule.

Monday: Detroit (may not stream if I'm doing Memorial Day stuff with the family, I'll let you know)
Tuesday: SFM tickle stream (Image pack + animation)
Wednesday: Detroit
Thursday: SFM Catch Up-Random project stream
Friday (if available): Detroit

Hope to see you all there!

So I'd thought I'd try something in regards to streaming. Every week I post a journal saying if there's gonna be any changes to the schedule of what/when I stream.

So with that in mind, this week we're streaming SFM stuff only, until Friday.

Now why is that? Because on Thursday I'll be seeing an early showing of Solo, and thus I won't have time for two game streams and two SFM streams. There's a lot in SFM that I want (and have) to get done, so this week we're doing 3 streams.

Now I know what you're saying. "Why not just do the second stream on Friday?"

Because Friday is when Detroit: Become Human comes out, and that's gonna be the game stream that day. In fact, there's a chance (depending on scheduling) that Detroit could take over all the game streams, we'll see how that goes.

So again, just to recap: 3 straight days of SFM from Monday to Wednesday, no stream Thursday, and Friday is Detroit.

And the streams will all start at the same time: 7:00 PM EDT

See you then!

You all may have noticed that there's been a lack of commissioned pics recently, which you may or may not have taken to mean I haven't been able to get any done this year.

That's only half true. I haven't gotten any commissioned pics in a while, but I do have a bunch done and I'm waiting for the time to post them.

At any rate, one of the things I like to do when it comes to commissioning pics is to get pics of chars that usually don't get tickled. There's some exceptions of course (*coughFirebirdcough*) but for the most part I try to keep it fresh.

So with that in mind, I'm looking for some new blood. If you have an OC you'd like to see get tickled, or you know of an OC that you'd like to see get tickled, let me know.

All I ask is that the suggested chars meet one of two requirements:

1. They've never been in one of my commissions before
2. They've never had a tickle pic of them done, period. (Preferable)

And as always, any pics of OC's that are not yours are contingent on the approval of the owner of said OC.

So if you got some new victims for me, let me know!

So in an attempt to drum up some kind of actual work ethic and try to stick to a schedule for once in my adult life, I'm here to announce my latest project: Streams!

Streams every day of the week (barring unforseen events).

The reason I'm trying to do this is twofold. The first is that I would like to do game streaming as a hobby on the side if nothing else. The second, more important, reason is I've been trying to get some solid motivation to work on SFM pics (esp since I have outstanding commissions) and I figure a bunch of people watching has to help me out, right?

So with that in mind, here's the schedule for streams that will start next week. I'm gonna try to get these streams started at about 7:00 EDT. They'll run for however long I feel like it but I'll try my best to keep it going for about 2 hours.

Metro Mondays: Game stream as I do a playthrough of the remastered Metro games for Xbox One. Fallout in Russia, what's not to like?

Tickle Tuesdays: SFM stream. I might be working on original projects or unfinished work, but whatever I am working on will be tickling related! I will also be taking in stream commissions, more info on that later.

Wargame Wednesdays: Another gaming stream, and the games that I play on this stream will be War themed. So it could be anything from a shooter to an RTS. I'm not quite sure what game I'll start with but I'm thinking XCOM: Long War.

This Shit Needs To Get Done Thursdays: SFM Stream. This is gonna be a catch-up day for me. I'm gonna be chipping away at outstanding commissions and other stuff that I've had on my plate for a while.

Freestyle Fridays: The stream on this day will be whatever I feel like. Maybe a game, maybe SFM, maybe both? We'll see! I might also take this day off if it's been a particularly long week.

So yeah, this is a stream schedule I'm gonna stick at for at least a week or two and see how it all shakes out. Hopefully you guys can stop by to watch me make SFM poon and/or scream obscenities at virtual soldiers in games.

Either way, I think we're gonna have a lot of fun :>

Helios.

Alright so I'm gonna add a quick addendum to the SFM commission thing that I'll put on the actual sheet later on.

No FNAF characters.

Because the models are impossible to work with. There are no flexes on any of them. Everything that would be controlled via flexes on modern SFM models are instead controlled by bones.

Which means all the fancy stuff like face posing? Ten times as difficult with these.

So yeah, in the future, no FNAF characters. If you want me to make art of them, make a better model.

Also on a more practical note, I think in the future I'm only gonna take one image pack at a time. In hindsight, agreeing to take 3 at once (and thus committing myself to 30 SFM pics) may have been a bit more than I can handle. I would like to get to a point where I can get large image packs out quickly, but sadly I'm just not there yet. I'm also debating on a price increase, but we'll see how that goes.

One more thing: as some of you may know I have a Picarto account that I occasionally use from time to time. I'm considering offering in stream single pic commissions, and was curious if anyone would be interested in that? Let me know!

Alright, back to work. Do More, Say Less, remember?

That's right, friends! I'm taking SFM commissions! For real this time!

Check out my commission tab or take a look at the price sheet on my DA and let me know if you're interested!

https://ringoffirexl200.deviantart.com/art/SFM-Commission-Prices-728516296

That’s right folks, as we count down the hours left until the new year, it’s time once again for Helios’ fucking awesome review of the year we just had.

I think it’s safe to say that 2017 was a very...weird year. That’s probably the best was I can describe it. And I’m not just saying that because somehow a reality TV star became the (supposed) leader of the free world, it just seemed like there were a lot of things that happened this year that just made us wonder, as a species, “Just what the heck are we doing?!”

But, like Taylor Swift, I’m not going to act like the year was all gloom and doom (and fuck you Buzzfeed for trying to pretend that’s all it was). Cause even though 2017 was full of things that seemed bad, or even just weird, there were still a lot of good things that happened as well, and we need to remember them. Because I’ll be damned if I’m going to let clickbait distract us from the fact that there were moments where we lit up the darkness.

Here’s some of them:

*The Women’s March on January 21st was one of the largest protests ever with 2 million people taking part.
*Scientists in China discovered our oldest ancestor yet, a 540 million year old Saccorhytus
*The New England Patriots won Super Bowl LI capped by an incredible comeback in the second half, Tom Brady wins his 5th ring and arguably cements his status as the greatest NFL QB of all time.
*Adele won best song and best album at the Grammy’s.
*A mostly underwater continent called Zealandia was discovered in the South Pacific.
*7 planets roughly the size of Earth were discovered around the star Trappist-1, 3 of which could possibly support life.
*“Moonlight” upset “La La Land” for Best Picture at the Oscars (literally at the last moment!)
*The world’s oldest golf club in Scotland voted to admit women as members for the first time.
*Carrie Lam became the first woman to be elected chief executive of Hong Kong.
*The largest Dinosaur footprint ever measured (at 1.7 meters) was found in Western Australia.
*Bob Dylan won the Nobel Prize for Literature.
*Edward Enninful became the first black man to become editor of Vogue.
*France declared mandatory labeling of digitally modified photos of fashion models.
*Emmanuel Macron defeated Marie Le Pen in France’s Presidential election.
*MTV became the first major awards show to adopt gender-neutral categories.
*Apple became the first company to be worth more than $800 billion.
*Brazil declared the national emergency as a result of the Zika virus was over. Puerto Rico also declared its own Zika epidemic had ended.
*A global ransomware attack was halted after a 22 year old UK blogger stumbled on the kill switch.
*Japanese researches reported the birth of mice that were fertilized by freeze-dried sperm stored on the International Space Station.
*The Golden State Warriors won the 2017 NBA championship after posting an unprecedented 16-1 record in the postseason.
*Facebook reached 2 billion users.
*Columbia rebel group FARC disbanded after 52 years.
*France announced it will ban petrol and diesel powered cars by 2040. Great Britain soon announced a similar ban.
*Tesla produced it’s first mass-market car, the Model 3. Elon Musk is of course the first owner.
*Jodie Whittaker became the first female Doctor on Doctor Who.
*Despacito became the most streamed song ever.
*John McCain cast a decisive vote to strike down an attempted repeal of the Affordable Care Act.
*Gene editing in human embryos to eliminate disease causing mutations was successful performed for the first time.
*Scientists identified a deficiency in nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD) as being a major cause of birth defects and miscarriages.
*A 100 year old fruitcake was discovered in Antarctica in a hut used by the expedition of Robert Falcon Scott, and it was almost edible!
*Paris and Los Angeles were announced as the hosts for the 2024 and 2028 Olympic Games.
*The Cassiopeia Jellyfish was discovered to be the first brainless animal that can sleep.
*The first woman graduated from the US Marine’s Infantry Officer Corps.
*The first Ichthyosaur fossil was found in India.
*The painting “Salvador Mundi” by Leonardo Da Vinci sold for $450.3 million.
*A rainbow in Tapei was recorded lasting nearly 9 hours, the longest ever.
*Gay marriage was legalized in Australia.
*Doug Jones became the first Democratic Senator from Alabama in 25 years.
*The Vatican rediscovered long lost painting by Raphael.
*The Asteroid Oumuamua was discovered to be an interstellar object.
*Two neutron stars collided and confirmed the existence of Gravity Waves.
*SpaceX launched and recovered a reused Falcon 9 rocket for the first time.
*How about the movies that came out this year? Spider Man, Guardians of the Galaxy 2, Wonder Woman, Thor: Ragnorok, Star Wars.
*The Michigan Basketball Team won the Big Ten Tournament after surviving a plane crash.
*THE GREAT AMERICAN ECLIPSE. How can anyone forget that day?

As you can see, there’s a lot that happened this year! A lot of stuff that ranged from interesting to amazing. And even though there people in this world that are still hell bent on convincing us that everything has gone to rack and ruin, we must never forget that there are still a lot of good things that happened this year, and will continue to happen in the year ahead.

Even so, there’s been a lot of talk this year about where we’re going as a culture, a society and a species. There’s people who feel, for a variety of reasons, that we’re heading on the path to destruction, or at the very least have strayed from the path we should be on. And everyone seems to have the same question; “How do we get back on the right track?”

Well, here’s a suggestion for creating the world you want to live in:

Try spending the next year doing the things you want to do and being the person you want to be.

You don’t need to post a hashtag or join a protest to make a difference. Donate to a charity or help a friend in need. Maybe offer to drive someone who’s not feeling well to the doctor, or go clean the yard of one of your elder neighbors. Or just do what you can to promote the values you believe in. Why wait for a day of action or some galvanizing event? You can do this stuff right now.

You don’t need an incendiary tweet to take action, just try to do the right thing every other day.

Instead of trying to focus on how you can get the entire world onto the right path, why not start with just yourself and your immediate friends and family. Become an inspiration for your fellow citizens, lead by example.

And most of all, never forget to look for the light. It’s hard to light a candle, and much easier to curse the dark instead. But as President Kennedy once said, we do these things “Not because they are easy, but because they are hard.”

Now as always, there’s one more good thing that happened this year, and you are gonna tell me what it is. Because I guarantee you that even if you’ve just had the worst year ever, there was something good that happened. Maybe someone got you a gift you really wanted, or you reconnected with a friend you didn’t even know you were missing, or maybe you finally did something you’ve wanted to do your whole life.

I can tell you that all three of those things happened to me, and that’s why I can look back and say I had a decent year. And I bet that if you give it some thought, you can say the same thing.

Share it below, tell us what awesome thing happened to you this year. And use that positivity to attack the new year with an enthusiasm unknown to mankind!

I hope you all have a wonderful New Year’s Eve, and a fucking awesome 2018.

Well. That wraps up this year’s Festivus. Hope you all enjoyed the art dump, or at the very least you’re spending time with the people you love this holiday season.

And now, as time slips irrevocably into the past, we come to today. December 24th. Recognized around the world as Christmas Eve.

As well as my birthday.

Despite my best efforts, I am now closer to 30 than I am 20, for I have spent 27 years on this Earth.

And right now I’m trying to figure out WHERE THE FUCK THEY ALL WENT!

Followers, I’m going to be more real with you all than I’ve been in the last few years. For most of this year I toyed with the idea that this would be the last year I commission tickle art.

Not because of RL stresses, mind you. But I just felt like I was done. There’s only so many ways you can tie someone down and tickle them silly, you know? And I’m the kind of guy who feels that once you’ve done all you can do with something, it’s time to move on to something else.

There’s also the financial aspect. You may notice that the overall number of pics in this dump made the dump a dump in a purely academic sense. Hell half the pics were either nude edits or just one continuous sequence. To be clear, I don’t blame the artists for this at all. They all did a wonderful job and I’m more than happy to support their efforts. But as of late, money’s been a bit harder to come by.

So I thought about stopping. But then some things happened. People started to take notice of the things I cobbled together in SFM. I made a concentrated effort to learn how to actually animate in SFM. And some new developments on the SL front too; new toys and new folks to help us put them to good use.

And not to mention a long, long list of furries yet to be tickled.

So...I’m not leaving.

As my theater teacher drilled into my head during 4 years of High School, “The Show Must Go On.”

So, what’s next, you ask? Well I’ve got some ideas in mind that I really think you guys are going to like. Not just potential commission projects with artists, but stuff on the SFM front as well.

Oh and before I forget, you remember how I asked you a couple weeks ago to pick 12 ponies to tickle torture?

Well, here’s the lucky winners!

1.Celestia
2.Luna
3.Cadance
4.Chrysalis
5.Zecora
6.Fluttershy
7.Ember
8.Tavi
9.Daring Do
10.Applejack
11.Lotus
12.Maud (I’m going to troll you guys so hard with this one)
Now there is one more decision you’ll all have to make in regards to how they get tickled. What that decision is shall be revealed in the future.

But for now? My plan is to take a page from the dad of the dude who’s birthday I kinda sorta share, and rest.

I’m taking the last week of 2017 off. No SFM work, no polls, no sending out feelers on SL or f-list for new victims, none of that stuff. I’m gonna take some time to enjoy the holidays, catch up on my shows, shake the rust off a couple games, and most importantly try to fix my fucked up sleep cycle.

You’ll be getting my annual end of the year post, but besides that there will not be anything new here until 2018. So I’d once again like to take this time to thank all of you for your continued support. Whether that’s drawing me art, offering up your chars, or just faving the pics, it really means a lot to me. I honestly could not do this without you guys.

I really think you guys are gonna love what I have in mind for next year.


But until then, Helios out.

As we approach the end of the year, there are a slew of holidays that we observe. Times to celebrate with our friends and family.

One such holiday is today. I am of course speaking of Festivus.

What is Festivus? I’m so glad you asked.

The origins of the holiday remain cloaked in mystery, but legend says the holiday was started many years ago during the Christmas shopping spree when a father when to buy a doll for his son.

The father reached for the last doll available, but so did another man.

And as the father rained blows upon the other man, he realized that there had to be another way. A way to avoid all the materialistic and religious fervor that had come to be associated with the holidays.

And so it came to pass that the doll was destroyed, but out of its destruction a new holiday was born:

A Festivus for the Rest of Us!

Festivus has its fair share of traditions. The centerpiece being an aluminum pole instead of a tree, the “airing of grievances” where you say all the ways you’ve been disappointed by the people around you in the past year, and of course the “feats of strength.”

But it is the true holiday spirit to not only keep traditions, but create new ones.

So today I am adding a new tradition to Festivus: the celebration of labor; a time when you honor and recognize all the work that people have done for you over the last year.

To summarize: today I will be celebrating Festivus, I shall air my grievances (by snarking about CNN articles in my Discords), I shall partake in feats of strength (by playing TF2, Overwatch and possibly Smash Brothers), and I shall celebrate the artists that have done work for me this year by showing you all the fruits of their labor.

To summarize the summary: commission art flood coming today, get ready.

So for the past day I’ve been working on another pony tickling animation in SFM. I mean how am I supposed to go forward with that project I vaguely mentioned in the description of the Starlight animation without getting better at this stuff, ya?
At any rate, the meat of the animation is done. In the sense that I have a victim, I’ve stripped her down, I’ve tickled her, and all that is animated. So why, you may ask, is it not posted?
Because I want to try an experiment that combines some neat tricks the Source Engine can do a long with some fancy video editing. And for that, I need your help.

That’s right.
IT’S TIME, ONCE AGAIN, TO VOTE ON WHO GETS TICKLED.

This poll will be conducted in two parts. The first part will be done now, the second will be done when the animation is further along, so it might take a little while. The practical upshot is the poll will be open for some time!

In this first part, you’ll be asked to select from a list of MLP chars 12 victims.
Why 12? Because I like to go the extra mile.

Note that the names are those of ponies that I can make an anthro version of in SFM. In a related story we’re not using OC’s this time around, even though the main victim is an OC and there’s certainly a few OC’s I’d love to use, we’re just gonna use canon chars to avoid possibly stepping on people’s toes.

So without further ado, go vote!

https://goo.gl/SbVvTR

So in between a bunch of other things I'm doing in the Source FIlmmaker, I managed to whip up another animation.

This one isn't tickle related, sorry to say, but instead it's a demo reel for a possible music video project.

Since I can't upload it here due to the Powers that Be, I'm instead giving you all the direct link to my dropbox. If you'd like to see this expanded into a proper music video, let me know!

https://www.dropbox.com/s/52h6lppc4iqh436/vinyltavidancefinal.mp4?dl=0

So this journal is a bit different than the last couple.

As those of you who watch me on Deviantart know, I've recently started taking steps towards doing some legit artwork. By "legit artwork" I mean making pictures in Source Filmmaker.

Of anthro ponies.

Three years later my SFM skills have gotten to the point where I'm seriously considering opening up commissions for them. But I'd like to get some more feedback on the pics and build my audience.

But I've been hesitant to upload these pics here for 2 reasons:

1. Furaffinity has historically had a rather rocky relationship with 3D artwork (I got in trouble on my old account because my gallery was nothing but SL screenshots)

2. The relationship between the furry fandom and the brony fandom makes the relationship between the Sunni's and Shia's look like brotherly love.

So, would any of my FA folks be interested in seeing my take on the characters from My Little Pony? I'll only upload the pics here if I feel there's genuine interest (and I'm reasonably sure I won't get flooded with angry comments on the pics)