This past weekend I wanted to see how quickly I could make a vtuber from scratch. "Vtuber" is short for "Virtual YouTuber", however most vtubers I watch nowadays are on Twitch or TikTok. You may have seen some of them around the internet, like girldm.
Here's a short clip of the end result:
Software:
- Procreate for iPad ($10)
- Live2D Cubmism (Free 42 day Trial, $15/mo after)
- Prpr Live (Free)
First, I drew my character concept in Procreate. I really like the "Hellboy" comics, so I drew basically fanart of the character. I intentionally didn't add a lot of clothing or lots of hair so that I would have lets parts to animate later down the line.
Next, I needed to make the official character model. This would be the one that I would eventually use in my rigging software. I didn't know exactly what I was doing, but I knew that for animation later I would have do divide all of the different parts of the character into different layers using a photo editor. Granted, I could do this completely in Procreate, but it felt way more natural to me to separate most of the parts on my desktop computer.
So, I watched a YouTube video on what parts I needed to sketch out and separate, and made a sketch 2.0. You can see the time lapse of the drawing below.
Next, I exported the file as a .psd and opened this with GIMP. The model was basically all drawn, but I needed to copy and edit the layers so that the things that I drew symmetrically in Procreate so that each individual part had its own layer. This mean duplicating the layers, deleting respective halves of things. In the future, I think I will do a better job at this.
I exported the file as .psd again, and now I was ready to rig! I dutifully followed this 8 part YouTube series on how to do just that, and I highly recommend giving it a look.
I used Live2D Cubism to rig my model, per the recommendation of the YouTube tutorial I was following. The main obstacle here was time and patience. For each part of your character model, you had to name and assign folders and layers and hierarchies. The first half of my Live2D work was making sure everything was assigned to the right folder, then I assigned Warp Deformers and Rotators, which are basically the puppet strings for controlling your rig.
In this step, I realized that I should have separated a lot more of my layers, specifically the individual eyes and eyebrows. Further, mouth animation requires the mouth to be divided in 4+ parts so that it can mimic the many different shapes of human speech. I concluded that I would learn the nuances of mouth rigging another day, and for the time being I just wanted to get a quick-and-dirty vtuber up and running.
After assigning all the deformers, I had to go into each part of my vtuber's model and define how the model would change in response to facial input. Another way to say this is that I was assigning keyframes, so that my rig could transition expressions and movements from point A to point B. This was also tedious and time consuming. I broke up the work over 2-3 days.
I took some shortcuts in the interest of time (skipping hair physics, pupil movement, clothing physics, or nuanced mouth movement). I was impatient, which I think is my preferred learning mode for a first stab at a project. When I do this again, I'll have a better idea of what needs more time and attention, and I can plan accordingly.
I exported the Live2D model into the compatible format for our preview software, Prpr Live, which is a free download on steam. This software takes input from your camera to move the parts of your vtuber. It tracks your face and body movement, then finds those parts and parameters you assign in Live2D to make the character move. And viola - a fully functionally vtuber, ready to take the internet by storm.
Key Takeaways
- I think a week is a reasonable amount of time for me to try and make another vtuber from beginning to end.
- Each step is tedious. I recommend breaking up each step by program and taking breaks between each software change.
- I need to dedicate time specifically for learning how to rig mouths in a way that is efficient and responsive.
- Making a vtuber is fun! And I am happy that I am trying to get a handle on it more.
Useful Links
- How to Make a 3D VTuber Avatar From Scratch, Part 0: Considerations https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y5FfJ4btBN8
- How to Make a 2D Vtuber Model https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y7AIL_0ybLw
- Live2D Full Guide and Tutorial [ Part 1/8 - Setting Up The Essentials ] 【VTuber/Artist】https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kU7csuuEozA
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