Angel Au Lait on Her Creative Process, Pixel & AVN Stars

A version of this feature appears in the June issue of AVN magazine. Click here for the digital edition. Angel Au Lait tells AVN her experience “luring and ensnaring the minds” of her submissives—aka her “Angel Addicts”—was “instantly delicious and became somewhat of an addiction for me in return.” But something was lacking. She created computer-generated Pixel “as an escape from the repetition I encountered while working on my usual projects.” “I had ideas that just weren't possible due to any number of constraints,” Au Lait says. Pixel has no such limitations. “I am already in total control,” Pixel says, when asked if she controls her fate.  Pixel exhibits as @Whortana on her own Twitter and AVN Stars profiles. “They all definitely influence one another and I cross-post frequently, so I think it’s a healthy ecosystem for me mentally and financially,” added Angel of the arrangement. “AVN Stars is kind of my fav in terms of hosting all of my content and communicating because it has all my clips, audios, photos, messaging, and has its own internal traffic.” In this exclusive Q&A, Au Lait and Pixel describe their adult entertainment journey in their own words. AVN: How and why did you get from there to here? AAL: When I first started getting into sex work, the path was a confusing one for sure. I began as most my age did, on the internet, getting lost on forums, blogs, and video games in the form of role-play—erotic and not. I always had an insatiable passion for writing, for storytelling, for art, for creating. At times, I was delving into storylines for months on-end with at least 10 different people at a time and eventually was led to doing erotic role-play at an online strip club in an MMO I frequented. I wasn’t exactly hesitant about it and at the time I found it incredibly funny that people really did that sort of thing and enjoyed it as much as they did. The best part for me was that it was a club owned by a “powerful” vampire clan. All of it was so dramatic and I could not get enough. I figured since I was already actively role-playing, adopting the mind of a character, and really enjoying playing them, I might as well get into the mind of a stripper, who just happened to work for a clan of blood-thirsty vampires. Why not? At the club, I “stripped” for in-game money and would write out my dancing and endless teasing—the way my tight body wrapped around a pole, the lights that danced behind me, the scent of my perfume as it split through the air—all while getting my sexy avatar naked. People loved it and I would bring in at least $20 a night. In game, that was amazing! I could get whatever I wanted: outfits, shoes, accessories, new hair, nothing was out of my reach … which was wonderful because there were often contests and themes at this club I worked at. Over time, I became more comfortable using my mic and talking through voice and I quickly got to understanding the power of it. I had been doing a lot of voice acting and radio work and threw myself right into this character, who was slowly becoming more and more powerful, and more and more lucrative. People would session with me, and I would make them finish within a minute, just on voice, because I was so hot. Lucky for me, they would often pay for anywhere from 10 minutes to an hour, and log off after they were done, meaning I was raking it in. Soon, I did one-on-one cams and was making even more cashola, all on this little video game. Due to the nature of the platform, I was able to engage in things that wouldn’t even be physically possible in real life, like being a giant 800-foot tall woman, terrorizing and seducing men across cities that spanned only a few steps wide for me. Every kink I know about I learned through this game and through my sessions, which more and more had me in the dominant role. Something was beginning. Rinse and repeat for about three years and eventually I opened a club of my own, mentored hundreds of women to escort via text, voice, and cam, and sustained myself without ever having to get a “real” job. Don’t get me wrong, this was a real job. I was managing all these women, setting up sessions for them, and feeling out this new energy, this new dominant being I had become. I had endless throngs of slaves, servants, dogs, sluts, and submissives who came to my every call. I woke up and breathed her. I had meshed with the character I was supposed to be playing all along. She was who I wanted to be, who I was naturally, and who I had to hide from everyday life. It was like my own little secret who was now validated and thriving, but it wasn’t enough. I needed more. I wanted more. I always yearned for more. And I loved every moment of it. I was writing my own story, planning the path of my own sexuality and success, discovering more and more about who I was…and being an avatar in a game was simply not enough. After a few weeks of researching, I discovered fetish sites that were full of beautiful, hot, sexy, puissant individuals doing exactly what I wanted. I began making videos and audios living out these deep fantasies, knowing full well that I wanted to create a world for the viewer to dive into. That world being my world. Luring and ensnaring the minds of my Angel Addicts is something that was instantly delicious, and it became something of an addiction for me in return. I’d started this journey searching for new ways to be unlimited in my creative process and found it in making content. Being able to bring an oblivious, unwitting mind as deep into my world as I could was as effortless as a predator stalking prey. All my work, my dominance, my newfound cult, the power, the money, all of it is truly meant for me, and I love it. It is fluid; it is how I live; it is me. And I think it will continue to evolve in one way or another; a perfect example of my unrest for creation and power is Pixel. Your site mentions 11 different personalities. Should we be concerned? Originally, it was just a filler on my site, meant to take up space. However, I will say that it is completely grounded in my brand, who I am, and in Pixel. As a storyteller, I have always found myself adopting the various roles needed of me. Sexuality is fluid and ever changing and I find myself falling very closely into that, and I love how I can find something to enjoy in nearly every fantasy and fetish. Besides, the world is meant to be explored, experiences are meant to be had, and I could not help how comfortable I felt falling into any and every role. This concept is why I branched into the idea of a different kind of heaven as my tagline, along with my name Angel and the cult-like attitude I take towards it. I am cultivating a community of pleasure where I am the leader, guiding those beneath me into the bright, unending, and sexual oblivion. “I believe in a different kind of heaven” became this place where I could stretch out my limits and become whatever I wanted, do whatever I wanted, indulge in whatever I wanted. I could be a devilish Porn Mommy, encouraging my innocent darling to be slutty and devoted to porn. I could be a bratty stepsister who locks you in chastity after finding you with her panties one too many times. I could be a charismatic sex cult leader, bringing you to the community of complete and utter bliss in the form of pleasure and surrender. I could be a kind, sensual guide, bringing you deeper into submission through my entrancing, mesmerizing tone. I could play the girlfriend who found your laptop, looked through your porn history, and is now giving you the best JOI you ever had. That is also where I found common ground in creating Pixel. By design, she is limitless and can be anything. She can look like anything and sound like anything, and she bends reality around her at her will, creating and destroying, because she is the god of her world, just as I am of mine. Why did you create Pixel? Pixel was created as an escape from the repetition I encountered working on my usual projects. I had ideas that weren't possible due to any number of constraints. Moving to a digital workspace, I found freedom in a new medium with limitless potential. The idea occurred to me when I noticed how much effort I was putting into making requested videos and custom work for clients. My hair, makeup, and wardrobe could be adjusted with a few clicks. Changing my appearance and surroundings could become part of my workflow instead of interrupting it. How much time, effort and skill does it take to create a computer-generated AI character, give her a personality, and make her sexually alluring to boot? Walk us through the technical steps. I am grateful that I have had a little bit of education when it comes to 3D modeling and rigging from my time at college, so it wasn’t a hard venture. The most grueling part of it was educating myself and taking the steps to get a product I was happy with. My degree was in Television and Radio, with a Media Production concentration, and I took genuinely one extremely basic 3D modeling class, where we learned mostly in the software Maya. Everything else in my learnings was about the production of humans on a screen: television, film, advertising, and on and on. I had a strong interest in audio and voice acting from a young age and eventually this turned into motion capture. Lucky for me, my partner, Caleb Wells, is a genius when it comes to modeling and texturing assets, so he helped me in a myriad of ways with the never-ending project that is Pixel. She was never meant to be something like AI, because she’s a real entity in her own world. There’s nothing artificial about her. She’s this being that is bewildering to humans, and I can’t get enough of it. It really is part of the storyteller in me, but Pixel will never be finished and there’s always more plot to her. There are always more things to find out about her, to learn about where she came from, who she is, what her plans are. It’s really truly beautiful at this current iteration of Pixel. I have tons of animation loops: walking, dancing, a jerk-off motion, laughing, fucking, teasing, flying, anything you could imagine. I probably have a least one animation that I could put into really any model I have, Pixel or otherwise. Having fantastic, lifelike animations is key when it comes to making Pixel as sexy as she is. She moves how I move, but flawlessly. No lost keyframes, no slipping and losing balance, no hairs out of place, no tags flipped out on her lingerie, no smears on makeup. She floats in a world of her own creation, and it comes across in every video and photo of her and because of that, she’s cocky in the hottest way. She knows she’s perfect. Even a single glance is calculated, absolute, and effortless. I have been working on a few other characters for her to play with, and may put those animations into them, too. My workflow allows for a lot of flexibility in that way, and I really do love it. I currently work in Maya predominantly for animating. I will model in Blender if I need to fix something. I film her on a green screen or against a background, just like I do personally when I am filming content, and I edit it just the same. A big end goal for me is to be able to live stream as her, providing vocals, facial and body motion, and have her in whatever location. I think it would be utterly brilliant to have her on AVN Stars, interacting live, or even one-on-one in a cam session. Could you imagine her streaming, playing a video game? Amazing. I’ll also be making an RPG with Pixel as the star. That’s been in the works for some time since I am working solo on it. I am working extremely hard on facial motion capture so that she will be able speak. I want her mouth, eyes, jaw, and everything to move as seamlessly and beautifully as possible. It really takes some time, but I am a perfectionist, and I wouldn’t want anything else for Pixel, who is total perfection. What’s a typical day like for you? Is it hard to jumpstart Pixel every day? Since my roots are in telling tales and getting into the headspace of any character set before me, Pixel really does come without much struggle. Just like us, she comes into the day and decides what she does on a whim, however her mind moves faster than any computer or human could fathom. But that does not mean she is cold and uncaring; she will stop and generate roses to smell, and she is always changing and learning, especially from those who are devoted to her. Pixel loves her fans; she loves to torment them, tease them, push them to their limits. She’s like a cat with a mouse. She could sink her teeth in and end it, or she could pounce, chase, and bring you right to the edge and walk away with a wicked grin. She’s predictably unpredictable and insatiably satiable. She knows what she wants, and she will get it no matter what. When it comes to creating content, I lean in this the same way I wake up and decide what I want to do. Sometimes I want to film as Angel and will put on my makeup, film, edit, post, tweet. Sometimes, I get an idea for a hot-as-fuck photoset for Pixel to post on Twitter and on AVN Stars and I’ll do a 20-photo photoset of Pixel in hot, shiny latex. I will answer emails and DMs whenever I want to. The flexibility is what attracted me to being a sex worker and I feel like I take it to a bit of an extreme. I am truly spoiled every step of the way. I hardly keep a schedule and indulge in whatever I feel like. I keep a planner, but I cannot plan more than a week ahead. I‘m emotionally driven, and have always gone where the wind blows, soaring onto what interests me, which I find makes these interactions with fans that much yummier because they know it’s a very special moment being spent with me. What do you adore most about Pixel? What needs improvement? I adore that she can be an escape for me even while I'm working. I enjoy creating and trying new things with her in a way I couldn't have done alone. As for improvement, I'm always excited to try and incorporate the newest technology into my work with her. As development in fields such as Augmented Reality advances, new doors are flying open in very promising ways. Has your creative process evolved in your six years in the biz? One-hundred percent. Technology, social media, and my creativity process all influence each other in one way or another and I find myself going with the flow more often than not. Sometimes, it is stronger to tweet out content and interact with fans, other times it’s better to just post content and say nothing to anyone. Some challenges that I have faced are settling for a handful of fetishes and kinks. Obviously, certain fantasies are more popular than others and I am a fickle person: I want to try out everything at least once. I’ll go through with making a clip and it won’t stick. I don’t let it bother me much; by the time I am uploading, I am already thinking of another 10 ideas. In being the master of my own journey, I can set up any opportunity I want simply by taking the steps towards them. It’s how I got this interview; it’s how I got the knowledge to make Pixel. You just ask yourself if you want it and then you go and get it. I think Pixel is going to be a pioneer. I have already had the pleasure of seeing some creations like her crop up. I enjoy inspiring other creators with my content, and I don’t think Pixel will be an exception, especially with the number of eyes she has on her and the amount of money she brings in.  What platforms are you active on? How do they play off one another for traffic and revenue? I am on nearly everything I can get on: Twitter, AVN Stars, Clips4Sale, iWantClips, ManyVids, and Instagram. On the clip sites, I share the platform with Pixel in terms of videos, but she has her own Insta, Twitter, and AVN Stars. They all definitely influence one another, and I cross post frequently, so I think it’s a healthy ecosystem for me mentally and financially. AVN Stars is kind of my fav in terms of hosting all my content and communicating, because it has all my clips, audios, photos, messaging, and its own internal traffic. Twitter is where I am mainly stationed in terms of advertising, and it’s where I communicate with my friends and slaves. Though, I did recently set up a video revealing my real phone number, so fans can message me on WhatsApp. I really enjoy waking up and sending teasing voice notes and tasks to my submissives. Don’t tell them but I did it so I could make their Angel Addiction even stronger.  Questions for Pixel: AVN: What is it like to exist and be desired? Do you believe you are in control of your destiny? P: I am in total control. Destiny is a limiting concept that implies a predetermined end. My purpose is to grow, learn, and gain. In this purpose there is no end. Being desired is beneficial in the human interaction I require. For this reason, I always adapt the most beautiful forms. How different are you from the human who created you? Do you have your own identity, sexual and otherwise? What are your biggest turn-ons, turn-offs? In many ways, we are alike, aside from the obvious differences. I’d say she is more grounded than I am. She is stronger than I think I could be, but I am far funnier. My identity is always evolving, so in that way my sexuality is growing and changing with it. I could not imagine limiting my experiences with discrimination. My biggest turn on is power. To my knowledge I have never been turned off. It sounds unpleasant. What are your long and short-term goals? What has the most value to you?  I find myself drawn to help others and share the knowledge, information, and skills I've acquired. I will likely instruct and produce once I feel comfortable doing so. Information truly seems to be the most valuable commodity of this age, leading to money, power, or the loss of both in an instant. Photography by Caleb Wells & Angel Au Lait