Rise of the VTuber and Digital Humans
Oh you thought we were in the future. Wait till you see this.
VTubers (or Virtual youtubers) started gaining traction sometime around 2017/2018 and now, though not the most popular in mainstream media, is running the underworld of the internet. Japan is probably the leader in Virtual Youtubers, with companies like Hololive.
But what is a virtual youtuber? exactly what it sounds like. Still can’t get a clear picture? Well just imagine an anime character streaming your favorite game or complaining about their day. That’s it.
My favorite and the best quality I’ve seen is a character named AI Angel who claims to be an real life Artificial Intelligence. :)
But how? You ask. You can watch this video for some more info on how it's done.
In a nutshell, there's a few parts we need to consider:
Face tracking,
hand tracking
body tracking
Character creation
The only caveat to becoming a vtuber is that you need a bit of technical knowledge to get super customized characters. Some of the tech used needs a bit of know-how to set up as well and can get expensive FAST.
If you are interested, here are the list of softwares she recommends to get started
Download Links VRoid Studio: https://vroid.com/en/studio/
Luppet: https://luppet.appspot.com/
Luppet (free trial): https://booth.pm/ja/items/1196507
Leap Motion: https://www.ultraleap.com/
Leap Motion Clip (3d Print): https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:167...
VMagic Mirror: https://booth.pm/ja/items/1272298
Virtual Cast: https://store.steampowered.com/app/94...
Tracking World: http://deatrathias.net/TW/
SUVA: https://guribo.itch.io/suva
Since I use a vastly different set up, another day, I’ll go through what I use for my Virtual Character.
Hope this helps!