Currently streaming, Philian took to the center stage of a huge arena, illuminated by purple spotlights and surrounded by throngs of fans holding penlights. The streamer opened the show wearing a bright purple skirt, magenta bow tie, and high white boots that matched her jacket. This is a luxurious version of her avatar’s regular sailor style school uniform. Philian said in his opening remarks, “’Please be patient. This show uses a lot of technology and is truly live.’ It’s not rocket science, but it could be.” Philian, a streamer with over 766,000 Twitch followers, hosted his first annual event VTuber Award last weekend. Like many of his VTubers (a portmanteau for “virtual YouTuber”), Philian keeps his identity secret, streaming using a digital model of himself instead of revealing his real face. Filian was physically hosting the ceremony from a sealed green box in WePlay’s Los Angeles studio, a space typically used for esports events.

The virtual reality awards show is the first of its kind for VTuber as well as for his production company WePlay, which has focused primarily on hosting and producing in-person gaming tournaments from studios in Los Angeles and Kiev for the past decade. One of his first ever.From a niche streaming genre billion dollar industry in recent years. The show was a first for VTubers and WePlay, which produced a live VR event.

The event combined WePlay’s physical production space with a VR stadium. VTubers are also widely recognized in other shows.of streamer award has a “Best VTuber” category, and VTuber Ironmouse won at this year’s Game Awards. He became the first animation streamer to win Content Creator of the Year. However, neither award takes into account skills unique to VTubers, such as avatar design, technological innovation, and hosting virtual events. For example, the Best Technical VTuber award went to vedal987, a streamer and programmer who developed the chatbot VTuber. Mr. Neurouses text-to-speech and AI to play games and communicate with your Twitch audience.

“VTubers are often treated as a footnote, sometimes as something unique and weird at any award show,” Filian said in an interview with TechCrunch. On January 8th, I did a stream where I tried to teach Neuro to play to defeat the spire. She couldn’t even get past the first boss. Attempt 2 is going well. pic.twitter.com/aISW0poN5v — Vedal (@Vedal987) October 12, 2023 VTubers are often looked down upon as obscene anime streamers because they usually wear animal ears, exaggerated facial features, or vulgar costumes. An offshoot of idol culture, it took off outside of Asia when VTuber production company Hololive debuted its first English-speaking streamer. The VTuber Awards will recognize not only individual content creators, but also VTuber viewers, as fans have propelled the genre into mainstream recognition. In addition to the Most Avid Fanbase category, the VTuber Awards also includes a category for his VTuber Clippers, who clip, curate, and post VTuber content online.

“YouTube, which in many ways created a huge demand for VTubers,” Philian continued. “When VTubers finally came to the West, it was poised to explode. I can’t stress enough how important the VTuber clipper was and was for VTubers to be where they are today. There’s no such thing as too much if… In many ways, VTubers are typically more engaged with their fans than many other creators.” Although motion capture technology is not new to the film and video game industries, incorporating it into live streaming events has been difficult. In a control room, a crew member juggled dozens of screens and displayed Philian’s avatar on a virtual stage and others who participated or presented awards.

Each physical camera can capture multiple angles in VR. Image credit: WePlay Studio Although the live stream depicted a vast arena, Filian’s avatar is essentially confined to a small circular stage surrounded by screens, a virtual construction of WePlay’s physical production stage. In a control room a few feet away, a crew member juggled dozens of screens and displayed Fillian’s avatar on a virtual stage, IRL Fillian in a motion-capture suit, and others who called out across the stream to host the pre-show. Displayed visuals of VTuber. Give or receive an award. The VTubers who appeared at the pre-show and presented awards appeared to be at the venue on the stream.they got it done simultaneous streaming We’ve provided WePlay with access to Filian’s broadcasts and streams, allowing us to seamlessly integrate comments into our shows. VTubers who appeared on the stream and received awards appeared on the screen on the virtual stage. WePlay used Discord to organize behind-the-scenes logistics with other streamers. This isn’t because of any unique platform features, but because Discord is already a “familiar tool for all gamers,” Chuhai said during a walkthrough of the studio. Like many VTubers, Philian is fiercely protective of his privacy. A crew member stood for a photo.Image credit: WePlay Studio Fillian, meanwhile, hosted from a separate green screen room with only a teleprompter. Footage from his motion capture suit and helmet was displayed and crew members helped ensure his privacy was maintained.

Source: techcrunch.com