---
title: 'Beginner Intro to Live2D Rigging (FREE ver tutorial) - GeekCon DX 2025 Segment'
source: 'https://youtube.com/watch?v=yeUOnzb7Y4Y'
video_id: 'yeUOnzb7Y4Y'
date: 2026-07-28
duration_sec: 1652
---

# Beginner Intro to Live2D Rigging (FREE ver tutorial) - GeekCon DX 2025 Segment

> Source: [Beginner Intro to Live2D Rigging (FREE ver tutorial) - GeekCon DX 2025 Segment](https://youtube.com/watch?v=yeUOnzb7Y4Y)

## Summary

Kira Omorei, a VTuber rigger and illustrator, provides a beginner-friendly introduction to Live2D rigging. She covers essential tools, terms, and a step-by-step workflow for rigging a simple duck model, from setting up art meshes to adding physics and body movements.

### Key Points

- **Core Live2D Terms** [01:20] — Art mesh (each PSD layer becomes an art mesh), deformers (warp, scale, rotate meshes), and parameters (save shape changes with keys).
- **Editor Workspace Tour** [02:29] — Work area, toolbar, parts palette (PSD contents + deformers), deformer palette (hierarchy), and parameter palette (organized into folders, not nested).
- **Key Tools Overview** [03:31] — Warp/rotation deformer buttons, selection tools (arrow, lasso, brush), and vertex editing tools (deform path edit, deform brush tool similar to Photoshop's liquify).
- **Setting Up the File** [05:37] — Import PSD by dragging, organize parameters into folders, delete unused parameters, create art meshes (auto or manual), adjust meshes for better edge control, and set clipping for blush layers.
- **Rigging Order** [07:34] — Rig facial features first (blinking, mouth, brows), then physics (hair sway, accessories), then body movement (head/body turning), and finally special emotes/toggles.
- **Rigging Eyes (Blink/Wink)** [08:06] — Select eye art meshes, key to EyeOpen parameter, modify closed eye shape to match open eye, use deform brush tool, and clean up transitions by adding intermediate keys.
- **Rigging Eye Smile** [09:57] — Key eye smile parameter, use deform brush tool to make duck smile, limit to max two parameters per art mesh/deformer for beginners.
- **Rigging Mouth** [10:49] — Select bottom beak, key to MouthOpen parameter, use deform path edit to set anchor points and move them to open beak, then deform brush tool for top beak.
- **Physics Rigging** [11:24] — Create deformers for parts (e.g., feathers), key to physics parameters, use extended interpolation for smooth rotations, and set up physics groups with inputs (angle X/Y/Z), pendulums, and outputs.
- **Hierarchy and Pivot Points** [16:55] — Rotation deformers should be parented correctly (e.g., knife under wing). Change pivot points by holding Ctrl and dragging the center. Synthesize corners for combined parameters.
- **Body Turning (Angle X, Y, Z)** [19:25] — Create deformers for face, beak, and head separately. Rig angle X and Y, synthesize corners, then create parent rotation deformer for angle Z. Organize deformers in folders.
- **Squish Physics** [20:35] — Create a large deformer covering all child deformers. Create four parameters (two for X, two for Y squish). Rig and set up physics groups with angle X and Z inputs.
- **Q&A: Interesting Model** [22:08] — Most interesting model was Bows Bow mascot due to rigging liquid for the first time.
- **Q&A: Hardware Used** [22:48] — Uses a display tablet and a Turbox (macro pad) for hotkeys to speed up workflow.
- **Q&A: Learning Live2D** [23:13] — Started because she was broke and wanted to be a VTuber after seeing Pekora clips. Learned from old YouTube tutorials.
- **Q&A: Live2D Version** [23:46] — Doesn't always use latest version due to bugs; waits for stable releases. For collaboration, team uses roughly the same version.
- **Q&A: Rigging Time** [24:20] — Averages 60-100 hours per model, depending on complexity.
- **Q&A: Sleep and Work** [24:42] — Prioritizes sleep; only pulled one all-nighter in college as last resort.
- **Q&A: Career Advice** [25:11] — Learn client communication, behave professionally, have good terms of service. Start with low/free commissions for portfolio. Price based on demand and skill. For VTubing, be consistent with content and try different formats.

### Conclusion

Kira provides a comprehensive beginner's guide to Live2D rigging, covering essential tools, terms, and a step-by-step workflow for a simple duck model. She emphasizes proper file setup, hierarchy management, and offers practical advice for aspiring riggers and VTubers.

## Transcript

My name is Kira Omorei. I am a VTuber
who rigs and illustrates other VTuber
models. I'm a VTuber maker. I have been
rigging for about four years now and I
have brought to life several indie and
corporate VTuber models like Emirichu,
Lafy, Lumen, and Phoebe. And recently, I
also rigged the model of an Apex Legends
voice actor, but they haven't debuted it
yet. I've also received a live 2D
creatives award and I have built my
channel by posting live 2D tutorials
hopefully more this year and I'm also a
member of a guild called rigger mortise
and I'm surrounded by a lot of awesome
people. This is the overview of my
segment for today. First I'll be going
over live 2D tools and features and then
rigging basics. Live 2D has a lot of
things that you could use to the point
where it gets overwhelming. I'll be
introducing a few tools and features
that are most essential so we can take
things one step at a time. And before
you start rigging, you'll need model
art, but you don't have to worry about
that since I'll be providing you with
free resources. Just take a picture of
this slide for access to exclusive
content for this segment.
There are three things or terms that
modelers use a lot when talking about
Live 2D. Let's start with the art mesh.
Each layer in the PSD is going to be
imported as an art mesh in Live 2D. And
the vertices/ dots that surround it can
be created automatically or manually.
Next up is deformers. Deforming using
the art mesh itself is going to be
cumbersome at times. Deformermers allow
the rigger to change the shape of the
mesh without having to select each
vertex or dot and move them around.
These are good for rough to
semi-detailed shape changes.
Deformermers can warp, scale, and rotate
art meshes. They can also modify the
opacity and color of the meshes, too.
parameters allow you to save the shape
changes that you make using deformers or
moving the vertices around the art mesh.
Each green dot that you see here is
called a key. Each key can have a
different shape or change and the
inbetweens are automatically created. So
you don't have to worry about the
transitions between each key. Now we've
got those important terms out of the
way. Let's tour the editor workspace. We
have the work area where you'll be doing
most of the work stuff. It's similar to
the canvas area in drawing programs.
Next one is the toolbar at the top. I'll
be going over some of the most important
tools later. Next is the parts palette.
This is where Live 2D shows you the
contents of your PSD file plus the
deformers that you create. The folders
in the PSD carry over, but there is a
limit to the folders that you can create
depending on what version of Light 2D
you're using. Next one is the deformer
palette. This shows which deformers
modify art meshes. Deformermers can
modify other deformers too. And also you
can see the hierarchy of the deformers
and art meshes here. Lastly, the
parameter palette. It just contains all
of your parameters and they can be
organized into folders too. The folders
cannot be nested though unlike the
folders in the part palette. And let's
move on with an overview of the tools.
These buttons create your deformers. The
curved square one creates the warp
deformers and the other one creates the
rotation
deformers. Live 2D has different
selection tools. The first one is the
regular arrow tool which is most similar
to a regular mouse pointer. The next one
is the lasso tool which allows you to
select things by enclosing them in a
circle. Lastly, the brush selection tool
allows you to select things as if you
were shading with an airbrush. The next
tools deal with moving around vertices
in different ways. The first one is the
deform path edit, which sets control
points on the art mesh and allows you to
move vertices with a single curve. The
next one is the deform brush tool, which
is my absolute favorite. It's super
useful for making small changes. And if
you are familiar with the liquify tool
in Photoshop, this one is pretty
similar. Okay, Live 2D looks like this
when you first open it. But if you want
to have dark mode, go to file and
environment settings and just change the
color theme. You would need to restart
Live 2D after changing this
one. Click on okay. And for the pallets,
you can actually drag them around. I
prefer to have my pallets on the right
hand side since I use a display tablet.
Um, it's easier for me to see the
changes that I'm making. Like I move the
parameters around and see what's
happening to the model. Yeah, it's
easier that way if everything is on the
right side. You import the PSC by just
dragging it into Live 2D. And you will
see that there are a bunch of parameters
in the parameter palette. The first
thing I would do is to organize a
parameter into folders. And I'll also be
deleting some parameters that I think I
won't be using for this model. You can
create new folders by clicking on this
button and just double click to rename
it. Just select the parameters that you
want to be in the folder and just drag
them in. I'm going to be doing it for
the other parameters, so I'll be
speeding that
up. The next step would be creating the
art meshes. You could select all of the
art meshes and create the meshes
automatically by pressing on control A
and clicking on this button. Sometimes
automatic mesh generation doesn't result
in the best meshes. So what you can do
is to edit them or create the meshes
manually. To do that, click on the mesh
that you want to edit and click on this
button over here. And you have several
tools under the tool details palette to
help you create your meshes manually.
I've sped the whole process up. So this
is just me adjusting the meshes. It is
important to adjust the meshes manually
sometimes because you can see here that
when I drag these vertices, there's some
weird
um modification going on. So, it is
important that I place the vertices
properly so I could control the edges
better. It's also a good idea to keep
the meshes not super dense, especially
when the rig is going to be really
simple. So, you can delete the vertices
inside these automatically generated
meshes like this one in the on the
inside and replace them with a very
simple shape. And after you're done with
the meshes, you'll notice that the
blushes of the duck's cheeks isn't
clipped properly. So to do that, just
select the part where you want the
blushes to be clipped to. Right click on
that part, click on copy, select both of
the blushes, and then go to the
inspector palette, click on clipping ID,
and paste the ID of the head. And now
the blushes are clipped to the head of
the duck. I think I spent around 30
minutes just setting up the file for
rigging. So, it is very important that
your file is properly set up before you
do any actual work. For rigging, I
usually rig the facial features first,
like the blinking, mouth opening, the
brows, and then the next stage would be
the physics, like all of the hair
swaying, accessories swaying,
jiggling, and lastly, the body movement,
the turning of the head, the turning of
the body, maybe some arm movement as
well. And if the model has any special
emotes or toggles, I reserve those for
last. And so for this cute little duck,
I'll be rigging the eyes first. I'll be
making it blink and wink. I first select
the art meshes for the left eye. Left
and right are actually flipped in live
2D if you're wondering. And then select
the IL open parameter and click on this
button to set the keys. And after that,
I can start rigging. So, what I'm doing
here is modifying the art mesh of the
eye close layer and just making it fit
to the eye open one. This is actually
for the eye open key. But yeah, I'll be
fixing that later. I just make it match
so the transitions will look really
smooth. Okay, this is the point where I
realize that I did it wrong. So, what
I'm going to do is to select a key and
wait for that little menu to appear and
click on reflect. And now it's on the
proper key. Next thing I'm going to rig
is the closed eye shape. I'm going to be
using the deformed brush tool for this
to easily manipulate the mesh. I try to
hide the eye open layer inside the eye
closed layer so it doesn't look jank.
And then there you have it. Theisle open
is rigged. And then I noticed that in
between these keys, the eye open doesn't
look super nice. So I'm just going to go
to a certain value and then click on
this button to set a key for the art
meshes. And then right here, I am just
going to be doing some cleanup. It is
important to do the cleanup after you've
rigged the main keys because if you do
it at first, you would have to rig each
key. And for this one, since the
transitions have already been generated
by Cubism, I can just easily set a key
anywhere and make it look cleaner. The
next time I'm going to rig is the eye
smile. For art meshes and deformers, I
usually don't go beyond keying more than
three parameters to it because the
combinations will get complicated. For
example, all of those IL open keys are
different for each IL smile value. So
this set is different from this set. So
it's important to just have maximum two
parameters keyed to art meshes or
deformers for beginners. And for the eye
smile, I am just going to key that and
use the deform brush tool to make the
duck smile. And after that, just do the
same thing for the other eye. And we're
done. Doesn't that look so
cute? And after we are done with the
eyes, the next thing that we're going to
rig is the mouth. I'm just going to
select the bottom part of the beak and
key it to mouth open. I'm going to be
using the deform path edit. so I have an
easier time controlling the art mesh.
Just click on where you want your anchor
points to be. And you have your
deformation path. Make sure that you are
at at value one. And then just move the
anchor points to make the beak open. I'm
then going to use the deform brush tool
to modify the top part of the beak. And
now the duck looks like it's opening and
closing its mouth. After rigging the
facial features, we can now move on to
the physics. you know, all of the
jiggling and stuff like that. It's
important to rig the physics first
because deformers can get pretty
sensitive with the hierarchy. Physics
movements are also generally under the
control of the angle movements. So, for
example, in my model, the hair swinging
is categorized as a child movement of
the head turning. Breaking the physics
first allows you to avoid any problems
with the deformer hierarchy because you
always have to make sure that the
movements the parent movements have big
enough deformers that can cover the
child movements or child deformers and
art meshes. So for the physics I'm just
editing some existing parameters over
here changing the name and ID of the
parameters. I'm going to be using just
two parameters for the feathers. To
start rigging the physics, we need to
create deformers. So, select these parts
which correspond to one of the feathers.
After clicking on that, just rename your
deformer. And make sure that as parent
of selected object is selected. I also
changed the number of conversion
divisions to 6x6 because it it just
looks neater because the vertices go
through those green bezier control
points. Deformermers have these
properties that you can modify, namely
the number of conversion divisions,
bezier division number, and bezier edit
type. Those are the most important ones
for now. You can change the shape,
scale, and orientation of the deformer
by holding down on control and moving
around the bezier points or the red
bounding box thing. And after that, we
can start rigging the physics itself.
I'm going to key this deformer to the
first feather parameter and then hold X
and move the pivot point to there so I
could make some really nice rotations.
And you can see that there's some weird
shrinking and
inflating shrinking and scaling up going
on. So to fix that, we go to this menu
and click on extended interpolation.
Choose ellipse interpolation. And I'm
just going to set the points to three.
And now it looks smoother. This is good
to use when you are doing rotation
movements using warp deformers. After
that, key the deformer to the second
feather parameter. And using the deform
brush tool or maybe even moving the bezi
control point, just move the tip of the
feather. For physics in general, the
first parameters are the bigger
movements and then the movements get
smaller and smaller and closer to the
end of the object for the latter
parameters. So the first parameter here
is a big rotation at the root of the
feather and then the second one is a
smaller rotation closer to the end of
the feather. That is one of the ways
that you can rig physics. And after you
rig both of those parameters, select
both of them. Click on this menu and
click on synthesize corners. Make sure
that both of the parameters are there at
the top and click okay. And now it's
waving. And then we're going to do the
same thing for the bigger feather. To
actually make the feathers move, we need
to go to the physics window. So click on
modeling right here and click on physics
settings. You'll see this window. The
first thing you have to check is the
FPS. We usually set it at 60 because
that's what most VTubers use for
tracking. The next thing that we're
going to do is add a physics group for
the feathers. So, click on that button
and rename it to feathers. The first
thing that we're going to do is add the
inputs, the parameters that will control
the movement of the feathers. For this
one, it's going to be angle X, Y, and Z.
For more complex models, there are going
to be separate physics group for each
angle, but usually it's angle X and Z
and then angle Y. Make sure that your
effectiveness is not zero. And for each
angle input type, it should sum up to
100. You can see here that angle X and Y
are at 50. That adds up to 100 and angle
Z is at 100 cuz it's the only input
parameter for the angle type. And then
we're going to add two pendulums for the
two parameters. And lastly, add the two
parameters as an output. I'm going to
drag my mouse around. And you can see
that the feathers are shaking. You can
click on increase or decrease output
over here just in case the output
numbers right there are below or above
100. And after that, I'm just going to
play around with the pendulum settings.
Duration is the length of the pendulum.
Shaking influence is how much it shakes.
Reaction time is how fast it responds to
the input. And then acceleration is just
how fast it shakes and goes back to its
original position. Just in case you want
to reset everything for the output
settings, you can just click on reset
magnification and reset output maximum.
And there we have it. I'm pretty
satisfied with that. And now I'm going
to continue rigging the physics for
other parts of the model.
Just take note of how I created the
deformers for this one. The rotation
deformer of the knife is under the
rotation deformer of another wing
because the wing rotation deformer is
apparent movement of the knife. And you
can see here that the knife is
influenced by the wing deformer. And
then modifying the rotation deformer of
the knife controls just the knife. And
then I change the pivot point of the
rotation deformers by holding down on
control and selecting the center of the
deformer and dragging them to where I
want them to be. And after that, we just
need to create two more parameters for
the wings and rig them like so. And just
like what we did earlier, just create
some physics group, put in the inputs,
create pendulums, and assign the physics
parameters as outputs. And after that,
you can just play around with the
settings until you get the movement that
you want. And there we have it. It's
jiggling. I'm going to do the same thing
for the tail, but I'll be putting it
under a warp deformer this time. and we
are going to key it under the feather
parameters. For this one, you don't need
to create new physics groups for the
tail. And after that's done, we can
proceed with rigging the turning of the
model. I'm going to select all of the
facial features and put them in a single
deformer. And I'm going to key that
deformer to angle X first. rig that by
moving things
around and then key it to angle Y and
rig. I created a separate deformer for
the beak because I want the beak to move
differently compared to the rest of the
face because the beak is going to be
more forward. I do still want it to be
controlled by this main face XY
deformer. So I create a deformer under
it. And lastly, since the head is going
to be moving in a different way than the
face, I create a separate deformer for
that that is not under any other
deformer. And I just rig the angle X and
Y for the face and the head.
After rigging those two parameters, I
select both of them and synthesize
corners. Sometimes the corners that you
synthesize don't have the best results.
So you can go to those corners and make
the modifications that you want. And
after that, we'll be rigging angle Z.
Select the face XY and head XY deformers
and create a parent rotation deformer. I
noticed that the default name of the
rotation deformer is labeled as eyes. So
that just means that the rotation
deformer is being created under the eyes
folder in the parts palette. So at this
point, it's a good idea to just look at
everything, create new folders, and
organize your deformers. Be careful not
to drag deformers under other deformers,
or else you might mess up your
hierarchy.
And right here you can just hold on
control and put the rotation deformer in
different places and rotate the deformer
to figure out what has the best look for
the head tilting. Then you can enter
specific quantities of angles here to
have a consistent amount of rotation.
And after that we are going to rig the
squishing of the model. I reserve this
as a last step. Even though it is
technically physics, I reserve this as
the last step because it needs to cover
all of the deformers that's in the
model. So I need to create a deformer
that is quite big and covers all of the
movements of its child deformers because
the whole model is going to squish and
move. Then I create four parameters. Two
parameters for the X direction squishing
and then two parameters for the Y
direction squishing. Feel free to resize
your deformer. It doesn't need to be
very small. It can be as big as you want
to give yourself some allowance in case
you want to create more child deformers.
So just select the body squish deformer
and key it to the squish parameters and
rig them like that. And after that I
create the physics group for the squish.
And this time the inputs are just going
to be angle X and angle Z. create your
pendulums and put the squish x
parameters there. And now the duck is
swaying swinging. Now we do a similar
thing for the squish Y, but this time
create a new deformer called body squish
Y. And you can takeick off this option
so you don't have to worry about the
size of the deformer. And then you can
proceed to rig, create the physics
groups and the pendulums and all of
that. And your model is done. Isn't the
duck very, very cute? Do you guys think
the duck is menacing? Thank you so much
for watching the segment. So now I'm
just going to be answering some
questions that I've received in the
previous leg of the event. And one of
the questions I was asked was, "What's
the most interesting model you've ever
worked on?" I remember that my answer
was um Bows Bow mascot. It is the most
interesting model I've worked on because
of the water there. It's It was actually
my first time rigging liquid. It was
like a pretty long process because like
how do I even rig liquid? How do I make
the liquid look really liquid? Another
question I was asked was what hardware
do you use for rigging? So, currently
I'm using a display tablet. Some of you
guys might have caught that earlier. And
I'm also using a Turbox. A Turbox is
super useful when the program that
you're using has a lot of hotkeys and
you don't really, you know, want to make
weird positions with your fingers. Yeah,
it's been like one of the best things
I've gotten to really speed up my
workflow. Another question was, what
made you want to learn live 2D?
Basically, I was really broke. I didn't
really have money to have a VTuber model
made. It's not like a lot of people had
live 2D commissions open at the time I
started. I wanted to become a VTuber
because I saw clips of Peekora from Hol
live on YouTube and I was like, "Oh, I
want to be an anime girl." So, I just
watched some really, really old
tutorials on YouTube. Tried to create my
own V2 model and documented the whole
process. That's how it all started. Is
it okay to use old versions of Live 2D
or is it recommended to use the latest
version? I personally don't always use
the latest version because sometimes
there would be new features that would
bug out and not make light 2D work as
intended. So I I wait a bit really
before updating until I see a feature
that I really really like. But if you
are collaborating with a lot of people
like what I do in my guild, uh we have
to make sure that we use like roughly
the same version so nothing breaks when
we're exchanging files. What's the
average amount of time it takes for you
to fully rig a model? I haven't been
closely tracking some of the projects
I'm working on, but the last time I
checked, it takes me roughly around 60
to 100 hours. I know that's like a huge
range, but it highly depends on the
complexity of the model. Quite related
to that question, do you still get some
sleep with all of the complex rigging?
Um, surprisingly I do. Sleep is one of
the things that I can't really, you
know, give up. That applies to, you
know, with other things that you do.
Sleep is something that you shouldn't
compromise on. Like, please, I'm telling
you, even in college, I think I only
pulled an allnighter once and that was
like the absolute last option. And
lastly, what advice do you have for
someone who wants to start a career in
Vtuber rigging or Vtubing in general?
For V superri rigging, I highly
recommend that you to learn how to
properly communicate with clients. I'm
pretty sure there are resources out
there for that. And also behaving
professionally, like not ghosting your
clients for a really long time. And also
making sure that you have a good terms
of service before you start. And when
you're starting out, it's okay to kind
of announce that, oh, I'm I'm doing this
service for free or for a really low
price, so I could have something on my
portfolio that's okay to do. That's
actually how I started. Like, imagine, I
only charged like $100 or $200 for art
and rig for a VTuber model, which is
very, very far from what I charge now.
Also carefully consider how you price
your stuff. So you'll be kind of
balancing, you know, pricing based on
your notoriety or your demand and also
the skill level that you're at. As for
starting a career in Vtubing, I I don't
really have advice that's going to
guarantee your success, but for content
in general, I highly advise, just from
what I've observed, I don't really apply
these since I barely have any time for
creating content. A lot of the people I
see that kind of gain popularity, there
are pretty consistent with the content
that they put out. So, they make a ton
of YouTube shorts and then post like
every other day or three times a week.
And also try posting a lot of different
kinds of content. So, you can kind of
just see what kind of I don't know what
do you call that strikes
accord with with whatever audience these
platforms give you. And yeah, that is it
for my segment. I hope you guys are
currently having a fun time. And again,
I hope that this segment helped you
understand the inner workings of Live TV
and creating a BT model. I'll see y'all
next time. I don't know. If you guys
want to see me rig and do commissions, I
go live on Twitch every weekish. Yeah,
I've been consistent with it recently.
And I also do art and illustrations and
merch making and stuff like that. Bye
guys.