Today’s bit of animated confection comes in the form of a scrumply little gargoyle named Ivy, from the Valve multiplayer game Deadlock.
If you’ve never played the game before, this is probably your first exposure to Ivy. In the game’s back story, she came to life in Spanich Harlem, and dedicated her new life to protect a young human girl and her family, the Arroyos, from attackers. The little girl gave her her name because ivy was what she was covered in when the little girl first found her. After her awakening, she spent nearly 20 years fighting a local crime group called the Mendoza Syndicate to keep her neighborhood safe.
And now that that’s done, Ivy is looking for work. Not because the Arroyos would ever think of charging her rent, but because she feels a responsibility to help out with things like paying the rent and buying groceries.
It’s from a professional 3D animator living in France who releases videos under the handle “That Gray Cartoon Pony“. Apart from his full time work on in the animation industry, he makes comedy style animations using multiple techniques, including using Gary’s Mod, Blender, and traditional 2D animation.
That Gray Cartoon Pony says that this video is likely the most ambitious project of his entire YouTube career, which he’s been working on since October of 2025. He says it’s part of his journey to learn Blender and DaVinci, and building a production pipeline similar to the professional ones he works in using Maya and Animbot.
We love this peek into who Ivy is as a person. Ivy seems friend shaped to us. We hope you enjoy this slice of Ivy’s life, and we encourage That Gray Cartoon Pony to keep going. Wonderful creations lay ahead.
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