[0:00] How to take your VTuber model from
[0:01] looking like this
[0:04] to looking like this without even
[0:06] changing any of the rigging. Hey, hey,
[0:08] I'm Ray. I'm an award-winning VTuber
[0:10] artist and I'm going to teach you how to
[0:11] get the most out of your model using V
[0:14] Studio. Let's get started.
[0:19] All right, so I went ahead and opened up
[0:21] V Studio and went to the model tab,
[0:24] which is a little person. We're starting
[0:26] with the original Accari model which
[0:28] comes free with Vip Studio. I'm just
[0:30] going ahead and testing out the model
[0:31] here. I'm tracking using my phone. So,
[0:34] obviously tracking will look a little
[0:35] bit different depending on what you're
[0:36] using. I go ahead and make an item
[0:39] version of Aari. The reason that I'm
[0:41] doing this is because that way the item
[0:43] doesn't actually take our updated
[0:45] rigging, so we can see the updates as we
[0:47] go. So, I thought that that'd be useful
[0:50] for seeing the differences as we're
[0:52] making them. I'm going to go ahead and
[0:54] also quickly scroll through all of the
[0:55] settings tabs in YouTube Studio so you
[0:57] can get a feel for what's in there. I
[0:59] have a few plugins. I have the Live 2D
[1:02] plugin, the Twitch stuff, um, and things
[1:04] like that set up. Most of that is just
[1:07] pretty basic. We have the camera
[1:09] settings. So, if you're using webcam,
[1:10] this is where you will adjust all your
[1:12] settings for that. There's also blink
[1:14] sensitivity,
[1:15] filters, and the screen effect, which is
[1:18] how some YouTubers will do their like
[1:20] model lighting up based on what's on
[1:22] your screen. But the thing that we're
[1:24] going to be mostly messing with today is
[1:25] actually our model settings, which is
[1:27] the little person gear. There's physics
[1:29] settings, which you can adjust to adjust
[1:32] how reactive your physics are. 50 is the
[1:35] default. That's going to be what your
[1:37] model is actually rigged for, and 100 is
[1:39] going to be very crazy. But if you don't
[1:41] like your physics, you can always, you
[1:43] know, tone them down or turn them up.
[1:45] Uh, generally, I'd suggest, you know,
[1:47] maybe talking to your rigger about this
[1:49] before the model's finalized because
[1:51] those are also easy to change in the rig
[1:53] itself. Um, I also am not really a fan
[1:56] of the models moving around, um, kind of
[1:59] sliding on the screen. So, I go ahead
[2:00] and set those to zero as well as
[2:01] deactivate. The reason I do this is cuz
[2:03] if you're using something like Vbrger,
[2:05] it might still use those movement
[2:07] settings. So, I go ahead and turn those
[2:08] off.
[2:10] And now we're actually into the settings
[2:12] for the model itself. Really quick
[2:14] before we get into actually messing with
[2:16] our tracking, I want to explain every
[2:18] aspect of this tracking setting square.
[2:23] At the top is just a name. You can
[2:25] change it to whatever you want, whatever
[2:26] makes it the most obvious to you. This
[2:28] is the default name of like face left,
[2:30] right, rotation. Basically, that's
[2:32] determining your face looking to the
[2:34] left or to the right like shaking your
[2:36] head. No. The input is the value that V
[2:40] studio is looking for. This will be face
[2:43] angle X will be that left to right
[2:45] motion. Think of it as like on a graph.
[2:48] The Xaxis is the left to the right. And
[2:51] the param angle X is actually the value
[2:54] the model is using. This is the default
[2:57] name for the parameter in Live 2D. If
[3:00] your rigger changed it, it may look like
[3:02] a different name. or if it's a value
[3:03] that wasn't originally on the model, it
[3:06] may even be something just like param
[3:07] 27, just know that that's going to be
[3:10] what the live 2D model associates with
[3:14] that movement. Next, we have the
[3:16] smoothing setting, which will determine
[3:19] how much V Studio basically buffers your
[3:23] movement from your face to the model.
[3:26] The higher that this value is, the more
[3:29] it's going to
[3:31] kind of flatten out that movement and
[3:33] make it a lot softer. So, if you're
[3:36] shaking your head left to right
[3:38] violently, it might just barely even
[3:41] move because it's just kind of taking
[3:42] that as noise in a sense. Whereas, the
[3:45] smaller it is, the more it'll just take
[3:47] your raw movement and into the output. I
[3:52] like to have at least a little bit of
[3:53] smoothing on most things because there
[3:55] does tend to be a bit of noise,
[3:57] especially if you're in low light. But
[3:59] the greater it is, the more it will be
[4:02] hard to move that particular parameter.
[4:05] So, just keep in mind that the more you
[4:07] smooth it, the kind of more slow and
[4:10] almost like jelloy, for lack of a better
[4:14] phrase, it'll feel. Just a thing to keep
[4:16] in mind. Auto blinking is going to
[4:18] basically periodically have this value
[4:22] go. So like the name says, it's very
[4:25] commonly used for a blinking for maybe
[4:28] like a pet character or something like
[4:31] that. You can also have it if you don't
[4:32] blink a lot and you want to make it look
[4:34] like you blink a lot. Please blink. It's
[4:37] good for your eyes. Auto breathing is
[4:39] going to just slowly pan up and down
[4:42] this value. It is good for a breathing
[4:45] parameter. It can also just be good for
[4:47] again things you want to move
[4:49] periodically and slowly, but generally
[4:52] that's going to be on a breathing
[4:53] parameter. And finally, we have the
[4:56] actual tracking values.
[5:00] The left side, I will say this a lot in
[5:02] the video, is your face. This is the
[5:05] movement that you are making with your
[5:07] body. This is what the camera or your
[5:09] phone is seeing. And so you'll see the
[5:12] value go up and down depending on how
[5:15] you move with the associated input
[5:17] parameter.
[5:19] And the right side is the output that is
[5:23] being sent to your model. This is the
[5:25] value of the parameter of what's
[5:28] actually moving the model itself. So if
[5:32] you have
[5:34] the left side moving, it will translate
[5:36] to the right side moving. But the right
[5:39] side is the actual movement of the model
[5:41] and the left side is the actual movement
[5:43] of your face. We'll go into a bit more
[5:45] detail on what that means and how to
[5:47] work that. But that's what all of these
[5:49] numbers mean. Um the kind of very faint
[5:54] 30 max 30 min on this example is the
[5:57] values of the model itself. So if you
[6:01] need for reference what your model's rig
[6:04] can actually do, that's where you can
[6:06] look. Okay, let's actually go into
[6:09] fine-tuning our rigging.
[6:11] So, the first one is face left right
[6:14] here. Um, and the way that I go ahead
[6:17] and set up any of my model settings is
[6:20] on the left is actually what my face is
[6:23] doing and on the right is the output
[6:26] that's being sent to the model. So, I
[6:28] usually only adjust the left side and
[6:30] keep the right side to what the model is
[6:32] rigged for, you know, within reason. I
[6:34] also go ahead and really quickly change
[6:36] the emote settings on this model because
[6:39] they're all just plain numbers and so
[6:42] that gets a little annoying when I'm
[6:44] trying to type in like, okay, do 20 and
[6:47] it sets off an emote for the model. So,
[6:50] I'm going to go ahead and do that really
[6:51] quickly and we'll be right back. I will
[6:52] also say in case you're wondering, the
[6:54] way that you can set up emotes like this
[6:56] in V Studio is pretty simple. you just
[6:59] add a hotkey and add either an
[7:01] expression file, which is where you can
[7:03] set specific values to your model as
[7:05] positive or negative, and also play
[7:08] animations. And that's how Aari is set
[7:10] up. But we're going to go ahead and get
[7:11] back to customizing the model's
[7:13] tracking. Um, and I'm doing my up and
[7:16] down motion with my head, as well as the
[7:18] head tilt, which was uh severely limited
[7:22] on the original model. Um, so I kind of
[7:25] really exaggerate that movement because
[7:27] I think that that's fun. As well as I
[7:29] invert the movement of the body because
[7:31] that's really popular right now is that
[7:33] when you lean to the side, your body
[7:35] actually leans the opposite direction.
[7:37] And the way that I do that is that's
[7:39] where I go ahead and I change the output
[7:41] where I have the output be inverted.
[7:43] Instead of going from positive 10 to 10,
[7:45] I go from - 10 to 10. If that makes
[7:49] sense, up to down. And that's going to
[7:52] inverse that movement because basically
[7:54] you're sending the opposite value to the
[7:56] model that then what its default is. So
[8:00] that's how you can pretty much invert
[8:02] anything on your model. If you're like,
[8:03] oh, I want to look the body to look the
[8:06] opposite way of my head, which is also
[8:08] very popular right now, you can do the
[8:09] same thing. And I go ahead and do the
[8:10] same thing here. I keep the side based
[8:14] off of my actual body the same because I
[8:16] want to keep what my body is doing the
[8:20] same as and just change what the model
[8:22] is being told when it comes to edits
[8:24] like that. Otherwise, I want to keep my
[8:27] face expressions the same. So, I guess
[8:30] as a rule of thumb, when do you change
[8:32] the left side of the tracking versus the
[8:35] right side? For me, the rule of thumb is
[8:38] this. If you want to make your face more
[8:41] sensitive and more nuanced,
[8:44] that's when you change the left side.
[8:46] The left side is going to take what
[8:48] you're doing with your face and
[8:52] translate that into model movement. So
[8:55] the left side, for example, when you
[8:57] make that range smaller, it's going to
[9:00] mean that smaller movements will have a
[9:02] bigger effect. So if you go from like 0
[9:04] to one from from 0 to one to 0 2 to 08
[9:09] it's going to be a greater
[9:12] movement from smaller motions because
[9:14] basically you're changing the minimum
[9:15] that'll be counted as zero to 2 and the
[9:18] maximum that'll be counted as the
[9:19] absolute max. Anything bigger than that
[9:21] is just set to the maximum value. Um
[9:24] instead of one it's8. So you're making
[9:26] that range smaller so it's more
[9:28] sensitive. When you change the right
[9:30] side, you're making it more reactive.
[9:33] So, you're taking the same motion from
[9:35] your face, but blowing the movements of
[9:38] the model is going to do up more. So,
[9:42] when you change the maximum or minimum
[9:44] values, you're saying, okay, it's always
[9:47] going to be at least this value or at
[9:50] most this value. And if the model isn't
[9:52] rigged for that much, it'll just stay at
[9:55] the maximum value that it can be. So, a
[9:58] lot of times when you do the auto setup
[9:59] in V Studio for a Vtuber model, you will
[10:02] end up with a mouth that's always open
[10:05] because it sets the mouth's maximum to
[10:08] 2.1
[10:10] generally from what I've seen. And that
[10:12] makes your mouth open really wide even
[10:14] for little movements. So, you lose a lot
[10:16] of nuance in the movements when that
[10:19] happens. If you're curious what your
[10:21] model is riked for, you can actually see
[10:23] the numbers on the right side. you'll
[10:26] see that it says like one max and
[10:28] negative 1 min or you know one max zero
[10:31] min or something else if your rigger
[10:33] rigs it a different way and so that's
[10:35] how you can go ahead and edit um to your
[10:38] model you'll be able to see oh okay the
[10:40] rigger rigged this so that it's you know
[10:43] has a maximum of one so I can work
[10:45] within that I generally wouldn't
[10:47] recommend going too much higher above
[10:49] what the rigger rigged because it can
[10:52] kind of make things look really weird It
[10:56] makes things look really, really
[10:57] exaggerated to the point where it looks
[10:59] off-putting. At least in my opinion. And
[11:02] so, if you ever seen people whose VTuber
[11:04] models mouth is either completely closed
[11:06] or completely open, that's probably
[11:08] what's happening, is that their mouth is
[11:10] set to 2.1. And so, their mouth is
[11:12] pretty much either at the minimum or at
[11:14] the maximum. And there's not a lot of in
[11:17] between. So, like I said, even if they
[11:19] messed with the left side, because the
[11:21] right side is still so large, it's still
[11:24] going to exaggerate whatever they end up
[11:27] having it set to. So, that's my general
[11:30] recommendation when it comes to setting
[11:32] up a VTuber model in Vup Studio is
[11:35] three-fold. Go onto the left side and
[11:38] make an expression that feels
[11:40] comfortable. Don't necessarily
[11:41] overexaggerate when setting up your
[11:43] model. do things that you would
[11:44] comfortably and set your maximum
[11:47] minimums that way. So like close your
[11:49] mouth, see how it goes, open and close a
[11:51] bunch of times. Set that to the minimum
[11:52] for mouth open. Open your mouth wide
[11:55] without it hurting or really stretching
[11:57] it and set that to your maximum. And
[12:00] that'll help your mouth move when you're
[12:02] just kind of talking naturally. And then
[12:04] look at what the model is rigged for and
[12:07] generally work close to that for the
[12:09] right side, if not exactly that. I keep
[12:11] it exactly that 90% of the time. So, I'd
[12:15] generally recommend just keeping that
[12:17] side to the model unless you really want
[12:20] something to be very exaggerated.
[12:22] [Music]
[12:23] Then once you've done that, if there's
[12:26] anything that you want to invert the
[12:28] movement of, that's when you go ahead
[12:29] and you change the right side to be the
[12:31] inverted values that you set before to
[12:33] like negative one on the maximum and one
[12:37] on the minimum, things like that.
[12:40] then you should have your model being a
[12:42] lot more expressive than it used to be
[12:44] and feeling a little bit more you. Even
[12:47] if your rigger sets up your model for
[12:49] you, I generally think it's important to
[12:51] go in and feel it out with your own face
[12:54] because everyone's settings won't be the
[12:57] same because everyone's faces aren't the
[12:59] same and everyone's setup isn't the
[13:01] same. When I smile, it looks different
[13:04] than when you smile. So, you want to
[13:06] make sure that you're paying attention
[13:07] to your own numbers and how they might
[13:10] differ from what your rig are set up for
[13:12] you. Now, they might be great. They
[13:13] might be perfect and they you don't have
[13:15] to do anything, but at least knowing how
[13:17] you can can put a lot more control in
[13:19] your hands to making your VTuber model
[13:21] feel like yours and feel connected to
[13:24] your movements and to your face. Now,
[13:27] that said, you do still need to puppet
[13:29] your model. your model is still, you
[13:33] know, a representation of you. It is not
[13:36] just your face. And also, they're
[13:40] animated. So, you have to move a little
[13:42] bit more animated to get the absolute
[13:44] most out of them. If you just talk
[13:47] really stoically and you don't move a
[13:51] whole lot, there's not going to be
[13:52] anything for the model to pick up on, no
[13:55] matter how sensitive and fine-tuned
[13:57] you've gotten your tracking to be. that
[14:00] can't make movement out of nothing. And
[14:02] if it did, it would look really weird.
[14:05] You can have some stuff like an idle
[14:07] animation for like breathing, but it's
[14:10] still not going to look interesting if
[14:13] you aren't moving. So, you know, I tend
[14:16] to lean my head to the sides a lot. I
[14:18] tend to bounce up and down because all
[14:20] of the movements are going to be
[14:22] primarily, if not exclusively, based on
[14:24] how you move your head. So, just an
[14:27] important thing to keep in mind is your
[14:29] head is your model. So, if you nod or
[14:33] shake your head or tilt your head,
[14:35] that's going to determine the way your
[14:37] model moves. And so, you want to be sure
[14:40] that your head isn't just still. You
[14:43] want to move around. You want to bounce.
[14:45] The the Vtuber dance is tilting your
[14:49] head side to side and nodding to the
[14:51] rhythm. There's a reason for that. It's
[14:53] because that's how you get your model to
[14:56] move. And I find myself now doing that
[14:58] dance all the time, even when I'm in a
[15:00] car and people can visibly see me. It's
[15:03] a curse. Being a VTuber is a curse for
[15:06] yourself now. No, I'm kidding. Um, but
[15:09] yeah, that's the essence of how V Studio
[15:14] functions when it pertains to actually
[15:16] tracking your model. It's translating
[15:19] the movements of your face to numbers
[15:22] that the model is rigged for which are
[15:25] basically like you know zero to one from
[15:28] the minimum of that motion which might
[15:30] be you know either zero of nothing like
[15:33] mouth closed and one mouth open or
[15:35] negative one which would be like all the
[15:37] way to the left and positive one all the
[15:39] way to the right. So, knowing how to set
[15:41] that up for you and for your face and
[15:43] for your setup can really make the model
[15:46] shine in a way that you can't do without
[15:49] it. You can have the nicest rigging in
[15:51] the world, but if you don't set up your
[15:54] model for you and you don't react well
[15:56] with your face, it's not going to look
[16:00] good. So, just remember your setup, your
[16:02] face is going to mean different things
[16:04] than your rigger setup and your rigger's
[16:06] face. And you want to be sure that your
[16:09] model is reacting in a way that's
[16:12] appealing by reacting in a way that's
[16:15] appealing with your own face. The reason
[16:17] you want to tweak the your model from
[16:19] there is to just make that puppeting
[16:20] more comfortable. The less you have to
[16:23] exaggerate the face, the less you have a
[16:24] chance of hurting yourself or making
[16:27] your face sore from how big you have to
[16:30] smile, etc. I hope this helped. Uh, if
[16:33] you have any questions or anything else
[16:34] you'd like to know about V Studio or
[16:35] Live DD, feel free to ask it in the
[16:37] comments below. I've been Ray. Have a
[16:39] great day. Bye-bye.
[16:41] [Music]
[16:50] How to make your VTuber