Darthsuki model 2.0 + Emote || Work showcase
Hello hello everyone! For those who may not know who I am my name is Reaper Wolfson and I am @darthsuki's vtuber mama! (I made the art and rigging for the vtuber model)
Today was the 2.0 for the vtuber model, including a new alternative outfit, toggles and accessories, also addition of new emotes that came with the new outfit
Since the outfit has officially been shown off and everything shown on stream by darthsuki I can show off the artwork and get into the nitty gritty of it as I know some enjoy it!
So strap in, grab some water. this is a long deep dive into the new additions, explanations for how things work and more, it's so long in fact I'm supplying a chapter index- so if there is a certain thing you wanted to see you can find it
The newer outfit model in particular is using the base deformers of the old outfit with some newer additions, that is why some pieces like the sash, shirt, front coat, and legs look familiar,
It makes it so I can use the old outfits rigging while also not fully changing to much, saves me time, and also a few braincells along the way
Any unique pieces such as the scarf, front shoulder pin, necklace to the longer coat have to be rigged with new deformers to accout for the fact that they are brand new additions with no prior similar rigging, any new additions to a model must go through this process
The bald toggle in particular now has the ability to get rid of the horns fully with the hair, and is compatible with both outfits and with the cat features toggle as shown below.
Since the new model has additions to the horns those can also fully disappear when the option is given for the horns to be hidden
As the two toggles for bald are seperate you can switch between them, such as only losing hair but keeping the horns, losing both, or just having the hair and no horns,
The cat feature is one of the more simple toggles shockingly but once seen can seem very complicated so I'll break down what it is fully doing and how it acts
The cat ears are split into just 3 layers the front, middle fluff and back- and are moved depending on where you look to create the illusion of depth with 2d art
Also if your eyebrows lift they perk up and when your eyebrows furrow they lower creating the illusion of reactive ears while still being applied to only one facial tracking parameter, other angles can be added but that is something I declined to add due to personal preference
The base pointed elf ears on the model are hidden when the cat features come on so you aren't having 4 ears at once
The tail is created all in one layer, and is created using a deform path and skinned to create rotation automatically,
Rotations are the applied to a physic group (aka the physic settings), the output is your rotations while your input is your breathing parameter
What is a breathing parameter?
A breathing parameter is a parameter that goes from 0 to 1 back and forth at a continuous rate, you can use that motion to make automatic movement such as the model breathing, to even the ears and arms slowly moving as you breathe which is shown below 👇
Physics settings and or physics groups are what you create in live2d to create a objects reaction movement without them, your tail wouldn't move, the coat wouldn't flick when you shift or your hand wouldn't wave
For the new facial tracking due to the use of a iPhone which used apples advanced facial tracking systems, I could apply a vast variety of facial tracking options. Such as seperate eye blinking (which you can use to wink)
Tongue tracking (aka the ability for your model to blep it's tongue/stick it's tongue out)
Mouth/jaw shifting (when you shift your jaw back and forth for a side smirk)
And cheek puff (you put air into your cheeks when you pout)
All of these options can be used while you talk normally and can be used simultaneously, and apply to all angles of the head. So there is no worries of your tongue just floating off your face if you look right to far-
The Bell toggle in particular is quite simple in the rigging it's treated like a normal toggle, applying the angles and physics but once imported into vtube studio is where the sound actually happens
First you will require a sound file that's quite short maybe about one second long and multiple of that kind, for the bell toggle I had chosen a recording i took personally of me shaking my cat's own bell collar a few times. Cut it up into 5-6 portions of very apparent sounds and set those files in the same place your live2d (vtuber model is stored)
Once those files are in, you can access your model, go to your parameter window, press customize model, then configure sound triggers and adding a new one.
You will have to select those files as an option in the "sound file" button, I selected all five, set the pitch, and volume, then apply it to whatever parameter your bell is on (aka movement) I set it to bell physic x2 which is the bells movement of back and forth when you look left to right.
Next I applied some cool down so it isn't ringing constantly at a high rate, added the ability for every ring it may change volume or pitch a small amount, and added a range so it can only happen at a certain speed.
You will also if this is on a toggle such as what I did. apply "only play if (param)" and set it as your bell toggle, then turn it to when the toggle is on. if this option is not applied to the sound trigger the sound will play even when the toggle is not active. Creating a constant bell noise even when you can't see it.
These toggles are not overly complicated but are the new additions I haven't explained yet. That I don't find as important and don't want to spend to much time explaining. Or I have explained how they work in the past.
The blanket toggle is a basic in and out toggle with new art. Nothing fancy
And the spray bottle is another basic in and out toggle the only thing unique is that it runs on a looping animation, which I have explained or you've seen before as it runs on the same animation loop the wave does.
For the models new outfit I created a new batch of emotes to match with it, as these emote are the model with the new outfit.
When making these I tried to lean into the style you see most twitch emotes use although it is not something I normally do so it was a new and Franky fun experience
There was supposed to be 2 more but those have been postponed and or neglected due a medical emergency I had when creating them. But I'm still glad I managed to create 6 of the 8 emotes on time
If you've made it this far into my autistic rant Thank you all so much for reading and enjoying the brand new outfit for the darthsuki model and spending time watching the stream
It was a blast and a joy to continue working on these things and the model.
Ill continue to work on my art and hope to work with darthsuki in the future for other things/projects if that comes to pass.
If anyone has any questions for me, feel free to send an ask to me. If you wish to contact me the ways I can be contacted are in my pinned post
Still thank you all so much and I hope you have a lovely timzone.