‘Have you heard of a Vtuber before?’

  • kbal@fedia.io
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    2 months ago

    One time, I accidentally said “pngtuber” in conversation with an elderly person. I decided to flee in embarrassment rather than try to explain what it meant.

  • Please_Do_Not@lemm.ee
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    2 months ago

    I’m not even 30. What are vtubers and pngtubers and all this shit? Pretty sure they aren’t potatoes, and those are the only tubers I know.

    • missingno@fedia.io
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      2 months ago

      Streamers who use an animated model (or 2D PNG for the latter) instead of an IRL face camera.

      • HubertManne@moist.catsweat.com
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        2 months ago

        I don’t see how that makes them different per se. Its like having a word for people who use their real picture in their profile vs an image vs nothing.

        • Carrolade@lemmy.world
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          2 months ago

          There’s a certain fascinating aspect to it. They use some sort of facial monitoring tech to observe their faces so the animated avatar can replicate them in real time with a variety of pre-programmed animations.

          This is a pretty well-known one:

          https://youtube.com/shorts/JvuGCJtl53c

          • HubertManne@moist.catsweat.com
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            2 months ago

            don’t the face mod things on cell phones pretty much do the same? I mean tech wise. I mean I get the naming but seems like its just an option to me. Its the content to me but I don’t really watch youtube or any other tube really for titillating content so much and I guess that just makes it all meh for me.

            • missingno@fedia.io
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              2 months ago

              Similar tech, sure, but the point is how they use this technology to play a character onstream.

            • Carrolade@lemmy.world
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              2 months ago

              No clue, I’m not too familiar with the ins and outs of filters and avatars and stuff. But yeah, I don’t think it’s anything super new.

            • IGuessThisIsForNSFW@yiffit.net
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              2 months ago

              It’s worth noting that one of the most popular setups (vtuber studio) for doing vtuber capture is to actually use an iPhone for your motion capture because they’re so good at it. There is an android version, but it’s widely regarded as inferior though you can get decent results with it.

        • elliot_crane@lemmy.world
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          2 months ago

          Some of them have a certain… element that makes them different. That element is usually jiggle physics on the 3D model…

          • vxx@lemmy.world
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            2 months ago

            I always assumed that avatars with big jiggly boobs have them to cover up their oversized bodies.

            • elliot_crane@lemmy.world
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              2 months ago

              Couldn’t tell you personally. I just do 3D modeling as a hobby but some folks I know from the hobby space do commission work, and apparently jiggle physics on anime boobs is a commonly requested feature.

              • vxx@lemmy.world
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                2 months ago

                So you might be able to tell me that vtuber boobs jiggle differently than your models.

                It looks more like a mask than a 3D model to me.

                • elliot_crane@lemmy.world
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                  2 months ago

                  Well the only time I ever messed with jiggle physics was to animate a bunch of jello cubes falling from the ceiling, so yeah I’d say that’s pretty different than boobs.

        • missingno@fedia.io
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          2 months ago

          You can consider it a subcategory of streamer. Livestreaming is all about your public face and persona, it’s a lot more front and center than just an icon off to the side here, so someone choosing to present themselves as a character matters a lot. And for many VTubers, they literally are playing a character onstream, there’s an entire subculture surrounding VTuber personas.

          It’s just kinda cute to see Bernie learn about this whole subculture like this.