---
title: 'How to get the most out of your VTuber model - A VTube Studio Tutorial | VTuber 101'
source: 'https://youtube.com/watch?v=uutuYbqEXaw'
video_id: 'uutuYbqEXaw'
date: 2026-07-28
duration_sec: 1013
---

# How to get the most out of your VTuber model - A VTube Studio Tutorial | VTuber 101

> Source: [How to get the most out of your VTuber model - A VTube Studio Tutorial | VTuber 101](https://youtube.com/watch?v=uutuYbqEXaw)

## Summary

This tutorial teaches VTubers how to fine-tune their model's tracking in VTube Studio to make it more expressive without changing the rigging. The creator explains the tracking settings, how to adjust sensitivity and reactivity, and emphasizes the importance of personalizing settings to your own face.

### Key Points

- **Opening VTube Studio and Model Tab** [00:19] — Open VTube Studio and go to the model tab (person icon). Start with the default Accari model. Create an item version to see updates without affecting the original rigging.
- **Model Settings Overview** [01:25] — The main settings are under the model settings (person gear icon). Includes physics settings (default 50), movement settings (set to zero to prevent sliding), and tracking settings.
- **Tracking Settings Explained** [02:14] — Each tracking parameter has: name, input (e.g., FaceAngleX), parameter (e.g., ParamAngleX), smoothing (higher = softer movement), auto blink, auto breathing, and left/right tracking values (left = face movement, right = model output).
- **Fine-Tuning Tracking** [06:09] — Adjust left side for sensitivity (smaller range = more sensitive) and right side for reactivity (larger range = more exaggerated). Invert movement by swapping min/max on the right side (e.g., -10 to 10 instead of 10 to -10).
- **Common Issue: Mouth Always Open** [09:58] — Auto-setup often sets mouth max to 2.1, causing mouth to snap fully open. Keep right side close to rigged values (usually -1 to 1) to maintain nuance.
- **Three-Step Recommendation** [11:30] — 1) Adjust left side to comfortable expression ranges (close mouth, open wide without strain). 2) Keep right side close to rigged values. 3) Invert movements on right side if desired.
- **Importance of Personalization** [12:40] — Everyone's face is different, so tweak settings to your own movements. Even with good rigging, personal setup is key for natural expression.
- **Puppeting Your Model** [13:27] — You still need to move your head (tilt, nod, bounce) to get the model to animate. The model can't create movement from nothing.

### Conclusion

Fine-tuning your VTube Studio tracking settings to your own face makes your VTuber model more expressive and comfortable to use. Remember to adjust sensitivity on the left side and keep the right side close to rigged values, and don't forget to move your head to bring the model to life.

## Transcript

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