The term ‘VTuber’ is short for ‘Virtual Youtuber’, and it’s a craze that’s been sweeping through online streaming spaces from as early as 2016. Today, there are hundreds, if not thousands, of people using VTubers in the content creation space, creating communities and content that’s fun, niche and approachable.
One of my friends drew their own VTuber, and I was inspired to try my hand at my own. I took on a project to study, design, draw and rig a half-body model which I quickly found was an insane amount of work. Not wanting to shy away from a challenge and such a beastly project, I feverishly looked through dozens of hours of tutorials, spoke to friends and streamers and eventually created what you see below: Maki!
I fully rigged her in a program called Live2D, and set her up for face tracking via iPhone camera in another program called VTube Studio. I use OBS to set up overlays and streaming, and a program called MixItUp for toggles and redeemables live on stream. This was an incredibly eye-opening experience into the amount of work that goes into rigging and animation, and I’m currently working on 2 additional models for me to use – an Animal Crossing version and another character who is a scholar of the Void.
