Editor's Introduction: Today, when live idols frequently collapse, virtual idols are like a sudden rise, and the interaction with fans forms a unique community effect. On the one hand, the development of Internet technology and interactive technology and the growth of users are driving virtual idols to the public; on the other hand, with the concept of meta-universe, virtual idols have derived new meanings, and their development prospects have also changed. This article expands on this, let's take a look at it.
On February 26, the original virtual anchor "Trip Love" officially announced that he had entered an indefinite dormancy after his online concert "Hello World 2022".
Although it is an extremely important event in the two-dimensional circle, in today's increasingly popular virtual idols, the existence of tripping love is no longer special.
Nowadays, with the intervention of AI bloggers, virtual models, and even metaverse concepts, we are getting closer and closer to the sci-fi imagination shown by the original second dimension, and even seamlessly connected.
First, what is a virtual idol
Virtual idols are essentially inseparable from 3D rendering, and it is actually a three-dimensional image built by digital technology under the development of the Internet, which realizes the connection between online and reality through holograms and achieves offline interaction with us.
However, virtual idols are not new, as early as the 1980s, the heroine of Japan's 2D animation "TimeLess Fortress" and "Battlestar Galactica" Lin Mingmei not only released a single but also held concerts, which was considered to be Japan's first virtual idol virtual idol 2.0 at that time.
Chrono Fortress Akimi
In 2007, Japan's Crypto Future Media developed a sound source library based on the speech synthesis program of the VOCALOID series, creating a virtual Katsuhime "Hatsune Mirai" heralding the arrival of the virtual idol 2.0 era.
A green ponytail and a leg-revealing modification of a sailor suit are also in line with the otaku's fantasies of a girlish sickness.
A go-toe with a green ponytail
In 2012, Shanghai Henian produced the first Chinese VOCALOID Chinese sound library and avatar Luo Tianyi based on Yamaha's VOCALOID3 speech synthesis engine.
As a famous Luo Tianyi at that time, its original birth was also from the hands of the well-known Japanese electronic music production company "Yamaha" (Hatsune Mirai's creative agency), for the era when idols at that time were mainly singing singles, coupled with the interpretation of the voice actor "Yama shin" with a very girlish voice line, this Chinese virtual idol gradually broke the circle.
The image of the blue national wind of the second dimension Luo Tianyi
Prior to this, virtual idols were also considered to be the only product of the second dimension, mainly to meet the needs of major fans and otaku men and women to chase stars, most of them still appeared in the image of Ge Ji, with concerts or network singles to increase activity.
With the development of VR, CG, AI and other holographic projection technologies, virtual idols are appearing in front of people's eyes in another form that is almost real, which also means the arrival of the virtual idol 3.0 era.
Second, virtual idols are the stage of capital
When face capture, real-time rendering of such film game technology gradually penetrates into various industrial brands, capital really can't sit still.
This ingenious technology has created virtual idols that are more aesthetically pleasing than real people, and when they appear on stage, fashion magazines and even everyday life in this surreal image, they are given a more human sense.
1. Lil Miquela
Lil Miquela is essentially a three-dimensional animation created by Trevor McFedries and Sara Decou to be hailed as the first computer-made CG fashion icon in history.
Her first Instagram post, uploaded in April 2016, started out as a purely digital art project, but now it's much bigger.
Lil Miquela was cast as a 20-year-old Brazilian Spanish mixed-race girl living in Los Angeles, but also a model and singer, releasing singles is a daily category, but also attends various fashion events, wearing fashion big names and celebrities for photos, she is the latest IT girl on Instagram, sitting on millions of fans.
Such a girl also called for equal rights on social media and has been naked on the cover of paper media.
She even posted her "life photo" on the Internet, and earlier, she also announced online that she had peacefully broken up with her boyfriend.
This girl who is rich in social life, on closer inspection, finds that there is a big difference from real people, the bangs are too flat, the eyes have no spiritual void, and the texture and dynamics of the skin are not so natural. But that didn't stop him from going viral on the online media.
2. but
Imma, a Japanese girl with a pale pink Bob head and a delicately dressed personality, posted her first photo on her official Ins account in July 2018, after which imma became popular in a short time.
Her true identity is a 3D portrait designed by Modeling Cafe, a Japanese 3D imaging company.
Imma's standard image photo
More realistic skin and hair treatment
Such a look is more like the bold pioneer of Japan's Shibuya girl, but it is also extremely in line with the aesthetic standards of Asian young people, and also has the fashion fanaticism of short hair BOBO head, we will feel that she is too much like a real person, in addition to more refined digital technology, but also because the key to creation lies in virtual reality.
Like Lil Miquela, all photos are first taken by real models in real-life locations and then replaced with Imma's avatars, so most of the media social platforms are still photos.
Social life sharing is no different from real people
The protagonist of the magazine cover
3. AYAYI
On May 20, 2021, AYAYI officially debuted in Xiaohongshu with an image with a strong light and shadow, she is the first MetaHuman (hyper-realistic digital person) built based on Unreal Engine in China.
Compared with other virtual idols, she has a closer image to a real person and quickly became popular on major social platforms.
Since then, AYAYI has not only reached cooperation with luxury brands such as Guerlain and LV, but also been invited to participate in offline activities at Disney, Universal Studios, and Kongshanji, and even joined Ali.
AYAYI's Ali employee ID card
For AYAYI, she is created on the basis of contemporary young aesthetics, with a strong topic in itself, and refuted by real people, her technology can make herself adjust its image with social needs, and in general, it can only become more and more "beautiful" and does not have the possibility of human aging.
AYAYI with a star
Third, celebrities on social media
In a book, a large number of virtual bloggers have quietly risen, in the face of the full efforts of the companies behind the creation and technological maturity, the country has also quickly become popular a number of very fashionable and distinctive images appear in front of people's eyes.
Little Red Book Virtual Blogger Leaderboard
Since the first note released by the virtual person Axi Angie on social media, it has aroused widespread discussion among netizens.
The number of likes has accumulated to 40,000. The video with the highest number of likes was only five seconds, and it was the moment she looked back with her headphones on, and received more than 3,000 likes.
Axi Angie and Zhong Xuegao cooperative advertisement
The virtual person ALiCE is more focused on the fashion circle, sharing daily wear and brand cooperation from the perspective of a fashion blogger, which can be said to be a role that has gathered the ability of fashion banknotes from birth.
Share everyday ALiCE
ALiCE in collaboration with GUCCI
Reddi, which focuses on fashion wear, intervenes in fashion in the direction of daily OOTD, and it is also quickly popular in a book, and the exquisite Chinese hairstyle plus trendy wear has produced a wonderful aura.
In addition to female virtual idol roles, there are also male idol characters.
Vince appears in the social media circle as a virtual trend musician, interspersing the mainstream fashion culture by sharing the daily life of music creation, as if creating a music idol with a unique personality and mystery.
In addition, we can also clearly feel on various platforms that with the development stage of digital virtual people, various types of image levels are endless, but most of them are mainly fashionable and daily sharing, with the help of true and false atmosphere to shape the light and shadow effect.
However, a slight technical deviation will make the image particularly disharmonious, and whether the overly beautiful appearance and personality can be truly integrated into the needs of the current society.
Fourth, the distance between virtual idols and reality
Although the virtual idol is currently moving towards the mainstream vision, in the eyes of many people, it may still be the image of a 3D character, even if it gives the personality and life scenes of real people, due to the too sophisticated and gives the color of light and shadow, people may not be able to deeply substitute for it.
And as a media platform, virtual people grow grass goods or recommend experience, in the eyes of many people, some of them are "deceived" psychology, and the definition of virtual people is temporarily ambiguous, and many AI face-changing technologies are also used by various platform special effects as celebrities with live videos.
The avatars on the live broadcast of major platforms bring goods
A large part of the psychology that appears is due to the fact that the virtual person behind itself is artificially created, there is no real sense of life story, the so-called experience and feelings will also be considered advertising marketing, the daily life released in the media may begin to attract the public's clicks and makeup imitation.
The daily routine of the virtual idol Lingling
However, with the increase and repetition of content, aesthetic fatigue in addition to the rendering technology of virtual people always requires online, but also puts forward higher requirements for the complete richness of human design, which is also a limitation of virtual people, but if the direction of real people continues to build, which will lead to the contradiction between virtual and reality.
Virtual people are slightly unnatural when they make exaggerated expressions
The only thing that can be confirmed is that human development is destined to move towards digital and technological, and when we are accompanied by the metaverse, it may be a virtual wall in the true sense, just like the movie cyberpunk, not only the virtual person in 3D, but the combination with the robot to create the future man.
We cannot predict whether the morality and technology will be balanced in the future, or whether the body will be discarded and the spiritual meta-data will be uploaded to achieve immortality.
The male protagonist of the movie "Upload New Life" accidentally died spiritual meta upload network forever
The heroine of the movie Alita is a mechanical modifier with a virtual reconstruction appearance
All of this is currently impossible to judge and interpret, but it is a myriad of doubts caused by virtual people.
Whether the technology that is currently only active in entertainment media will really lead to life in the future, perhaps at the moment when the metaverse is truly realized, the digital attribute will be given more meaning to us in the future.
Author: BING; Public account: Ccism
This article is published by @Cc Doctrine with the permission of Everyone is a Product Manager, and reproduction without permission is prohibited
The title image is from Unsplash, based on the CC0 protocol