To stream as them My mysterious alter ego is a VTuber named Mai. M41H41, typically had to juggle at least four to seven different programs. However, doing everything at once was not only mentally exhausting, but also taxed the computer and could cause it to overheat in the process. If the program crashes, you have to destroy the characters to fix it. “In many cases, you don’t actually need to use all the programs,” Mai told TechCrunch during a Discord call. “So I literally told the community, ‘Sorry, you can’t like, throw videos, chat interactive videos today. Because we literally can’t do it right now.” ” VTuber A portmanteau of “virtual YouTuber,” who streams as a 2D or 3D model rather than showing his or her actual face. This burgeoning genre has produced some highly successful streamers, but the barrier to entry has been high due to the upfront costs and technical skills required to stream as an animated character. Obscur, an all-in-one broadcast application, wants to make VTubers more accessible by allowing users to create 3D models and interactive environments without any technical skills. The company premiered several new features at TwitchCon, including Character Creator, which was officially released last week. Obskur’s broadcast software essentially combines multiple different programs into his one platform, which can be easily integrated with Twitch. This is a big attraction for her VTubers like Mai. Obskur’s Character Creator and user-generated content marketplace is particularly unique in the VTuber space. Character Creator allows users to customize his 3D model by choosing free hairstyle, facial features, and body type. Users can adjust features to change their shape and size using sliders, and select feature colors from a color wheel. For further customization, users can browse an integrated marketplace where artists sell ready-made models and his 3D assets such as costumes and interactive backgrounds. “It needs to be advanced enough that people can create a character that’s so unique that they feel like, ‘This is me and this is my brand.’ But it also needs to be easy enough that they don’t need to know anything. ” Obskur co-founder Andranik Aslanyan told TechCrunch. “It’s like you don’t have to understand rigging, modeling, textures, etc. Just select a few options and it feels like a video game. If you can play The Sims, our application You should be able to use it.” Image credits: Provided by Obscur Mai says she started using Obksur regularly after testing the demo at TwitchCon. Previously, I used up to 12 applications to run streams. One is for running models, who often have flowing seafoam-colored hair, pink moth-like antennae, and ruffled black tops; It is meant to improve body tracking. Additional software was required to perform basic animation. For example, something as simple as a VTuber making a model cry or flirting with a subscriber by bouncing her chest can involve technical subtleties that viewers rarely see behind the scenes. . Mai has to use third-party programs for her chat interactions, such as being able to throw things at viewers or sprinkle flower petals, and also says that she has to use third-party programs to make those interactions a part of her Twitch earnings. It was necessary to use additional third-party software to integrate with the features. She also needed a program to upload models into her 3D backgrounds, ranging from a basic living room to an extraterrestrial planet. “And that’s before you even think about the type of content you’ll create that day,” Mai continued. “And you need to learn how each of them works as an application on its own, but also how it works as an application in conjunction with other applications you’re running. There are a variety of models. There were probably 10 to 12 applications that I downloaded for the part.” Next is cost. When Mai first became interested in her VTuber last year, she tried to create her own models by drawing with a mouse using her free software VRoid Studio. They said it was impossible and “looked all sorts of awful.” They ended up paying another artist about $100 to $120 (the industry’s “absolute rock bottom”) to model. A high quality She 2D model can cost thousands of dollars or more, depending on the quality of the original artwork, custom She mesh and textures, and various animations. Even 3D models that are less complex to animate are still expensive to commission. Additional assets such as new costumes, hairstyles, and backgrounds are expensive and difficult to source. While many artists focus on custom commissions, others sell preset assets on Etsy, Patreon, or other online marketplaces scattered across the internet. Some large marketplaces, like Booth, are “absolute monsters in and of themselves,” Mai said, as they are offered entirely in Japanese. “In that case, you have to download them and hope they’re in the right file format. If you don’t speak the language, no one will understand,” Mai said. Aslanyan pointed out that chat interactions are not only cumbersome to use, but also difficult to look at. On Twitch, users can purchase bit, prices start at $3.00 for 300 pieces and go up to $308 for 25,000 pieces. Twitch pays streamers 1 cent per Bit, so streamers typically offer special perks to viewers who spend Bits while streaming. VTubers often encourage their viewers to consume Bits by providing certain interactive features. A viewer can, for example, “throw” objects such as electronic money to her VTuber by spending 100 bits, and change her outfit by spending 1,000 bits. Streamers needed to get into character and engage with their viewers while manually triggering interactions in the third-party software they were using. Image credits: Provided by Obscur Obskur’s Twitch extensions and apps make features like viewer interaction more seamless for both streamers and viewers. The app allows streamers to determine different stages of interaction, which are automatically triggered when a viewer consumes a Bit. Obskur receives the standard 20% developer share set by Twitch. Aslanyan hopes that by making the process more seamless, monetization opportunities will become more accessible for streamers. “The idea behind it is to give viewers a reason to spend some money, because if you look at the return on bits compared to things like subscriptions and direct donations, it’s on the lower side. ” Aslanian said. “The reason is that there is no real incentive to donate to Bit.” It may be easier for streamers to monetize their work, but do artists risk losing their commissions? VTuber 2D and 3D design has grown into a digital cottage industry since 2020, with many artists looking to make full use of it. Time relies on commissions for its income. Neither Mai nor Aslanyan are worried about Obscur’s Character Creator pushing out artists. Instead, they said, the platform’s user-generated marketplace creates opportunities for artists to expand their clientele. Mai described Character Creator as a “baseline” opportunity for complete beginners to step into her VTuber career without paying a fortune or learning complex animations. “I think there’s still a lot of desire for specific art styles with specific designs that are unique only to individual artists. They’re still doing that craft in other mediums, and a lot of artists are moving into this field. “I mainly work in Obscur because the marketplace allows you to make money from the assets you’ve already created,” Mai said. Additionally, if streamers want to use more complex and highly specialized models for their streams, they can import commissioned works into Obskur. Image credits: Provided by Obscur Image credits: Courtesy of Obxul Aslanyan added that Obskur considered feedback from artists when designing Character Creator. An artist known as the art director of Obscur. art gunis known for designing the model for Ironmouse, one of North America’s most popular VTubers. According to Aslanyan, she oversaw the development of the character creator and also helped launch the marketplace. “From my point of view as a creator, the market size is expanding,” Aslanyan continued. “The basics are one-to-one. In our case, we can create a cool jacket, and then in the marketplace people have almost instantaneous access to the character, and we can sell that jacket many times over, and we’re able to sell that jacket many times over. You can potentially generate more revenue than spending months creating a jacket for a single character. It’s more of a scale business than…

Source: techcrunch.com