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Meta-universes and virtual characters have ushered in a concentrated outbreak since last year, and in the past six months, with the upgrading of the industry ecology and the expansion of application fields, it is even more fiery cooking oil, full of opportunities. In 2022, what will be the direction of the metacosmity and virtual human industry? TOPHER reporters bring you the metaverse and virtual character development predictions of 2022 from the perspective of virtual person attributes, content trends, marketing, technology and regulations.
PART 1, "Social First Attribute" is just needed to become a virtual character
If the metaverse is a new form of human society, people will undoubtedly usher in a great migration of life scenes. In the era of Web 2.0, social networking is the place where the Internet industry must fight, and the metaverse is also "the one who gets social gets the world".
After the renaming, Meta updated the VR social platform Horizon Worlds, as an extension of Facebook's social functions, Horizon Worlds users can not only interact with real-life friends in the ideal world, but also meet new friends with a new digital identity, and social needs are likely to become an opportunity for new users to step into the door of the metaverse.
Domestic ByteDance is also planning to launch a meta-universe social app "Party Island", which is said to allow users to use avatars to socialize, chat with friends, shop, and participate in online activities.
People use their avatars to interact with another person, and although these exchanges are based on a digital background, the relationship between people is real. The interaction with the completely virtual character is user-centered, and the user can choose the virtual character that meets their expectations, and can also make it more intelligent and intimate through in-depth communication.
Part 2, "sensory immersion" of personified virtual characters is still the mainstream
In the virtual space of the metaverse, users can rely on technology to obtain a sense of visual, auditory, tactile and even olfactory experience, and this sensory immersion experience is the biggest attraction of the metaverse.
Therefore, virtual characters with a "sense of reality" are the most popular styles.
For example, Lil Miquela, a Brazilian-American who is created according to the trend aesthetic of young people, this mixed-race girl with a wheat complexion and cute freckles, the first character to appear on Ins is a model and musician, she posts her own songs on social media, shares the trivial daily life and love diary, and soon became an IT girl with millions of fans on Ins, at first, Lil Miquela did not explain the identity of her virtual character, It wasn't until another virtual character hacked into the account that Lil Miquela admitted for the first time that she wasn't a real human.
The most popular ultra-realistic digital person in China, AYAYI, just debuted in Xiaohongshu, and attracted everyone's attention and the imitation makeup of beauty bloggers with its authenticity and perfection, and then not only punched in various art exhibitions like a real Xiaohongshu blogger, but also reached cooperation with major brands, and even joined Alibaba as a digital employee.
These activities, which are highly similar to humans, make the audience seem to be paying attention to live bloggers, and the sense of realism enhances the immersive experience, coupled with the scene of real and virtual mixing and matching, allowing netizens to get a close viewing experience with these characters.
Part 3, virtual idols need to rely on good stories and fans to establish emotional connections
Among the personified virtual characters, the most influential is the virtual idol.
If a virtual idol wants to establish an emotional connection with the audience, only the perfect appearance and fashion aesthetic are not enough, it is necessary to have a standing story background to increase the emotional capacity, make the character's personality and behavior more "standing", and help the audience build the most critical element of the emotional bridge with the character.
For example, although the virtual talent Liu Yexi focuses on beauty, the character setting is "a virtual beauty master who can catch demons", and the video content will have a complete suspense story line: Liu Yexi paints eye makeup for the boy, and the boy can see the hundred ghosts at night.
In the more than 2-minute video, the creative team integrates multiple elements such as ancient style, beauty, spirituality, technology, cyberpunk, etc., which not only explains the character settings, but also shows a new and mysterious world view for everyone, attracting the audience to become interested in the character step by step.
PART 4, more stars use "virtual twins" to expand diversified business value
Not only are virtual characters original, but celebrities are also trying to create "virtual doppelgangers". On the one hand, to adapt to the aesthetics and needs of the younger generation, on the other hand, to break through their original personality and strive for more business opportunities with a more diversified image.
As early as 2019, Tencent produced a serial comedy comic "Lengba ACTION" based on Di Li Reba's avatar "Di Li LengBa", which received 590 million topic views on Weibo and nearly 20 million discussions.
In the same year, Ouyang Nana formed her own virtual band "NAND" to realize the linkage between celebrities and personal virtual IP. Huang Zitao's avatar "Taosman" is not only enthusiastic about social welfare, but also becomes an astronaut in space. These expanded scenes give artists new personalities that not only attract new fans, but also bring more commercial collaborations.
Vaslin announced that Zhao Lusi's "trumpet" Zhao Xiaosi had become the virtual spokesperson for the product, and juhuasuan announced the two-dimensional image of the preferred official Liu Tao with a feminine style.
In 2020, Tmall launched the personal avatar "Qian meow" of the spokesperson Yi Qianxi, and opened a virtual space on the App side. Here, netizens can help him, take group photos, interactive chat, so that the image of the four-character brother's two-dimensional attribute is more in-depth, and the platform has also harvested a large wave of traffic, a win-win situation.
PART 5, virtual people are more and more as "service tool people"
In addition to the personified virtual people applied to the entertainment and fashion industries, the tool-based virtual people with practical value will bring about changes in the traditional field.
With the explosion of related industries in the universe this year, virtual people have gradually moved from the entertainment industry to the daily service industry, and there is a great trend of competing with workers to grab jobs.
For example, the virtual customer service and tour guides launched by virtual anchors/hosts, banks and scenic spots launched by major media are typical service-oriented virtual people.
With the blessing of artificial intelligence technology, virtual people can even provide emotional companionship at work, such as virtual people equipped with multimodal artificial intelligence, which can not only provide information for people, but also provide care, companionship, competent health, financial consultants, psychological counseling, fitness coaches and many other jobs. For example, foreign countries have taken the lead in using accompanying virtual people in medical scenarios, and Vanke's virtual employee "Cui Xiaopan" and Huawei's virtual employee "Yunsheng" will also handle more complex tasks such as finance, management, and market analysis.
PART 6, virtual pet value to be developed
Remember the electronic pets we had when we were kids?
In recent years, with the development of AI technology and the meta-universe industry, the form of electronic virtual pets is also evolving, and the virtual pet cultivation game has entered a new dimension of the meta-universe, which will also bring users a new experience.
Take the recent hottest NFT electronic pet CryptoKitty as an example, these digital cats combined with cryptocurrencies have 48 genes at birth, both dominant genes and hidden genes, so the visual expression is varied and each cat is unique, and because of the algorithm secrecy, so the player can not predict in advance what characteristics the newborn cat will have, a total of up to 4 billion kinds of gene combinations, so that players have the pleasure of smoking blind boxes.
Ridgeline Labs' VR pet simulator "RoVR" focuses on allowing users to get a real pet keeping experience. In the game, players can feed, throw sticks, play, walk the dog, bathe, change clothes, and take them out to play at any time. These electronic pets will even develop unique habits according to the owner's usage habits.
Although pets are virtual, the companionship and satisfaction they bring are real, which can alleviate the mental pressure of modern people and give people warmth, so in the future, virtual pets will be an important role in the metaverse.
PART 7, "strong interactivity" has become a new trend of cooperation between brands and virtual characters
The cooperation between brands and virtual people, from the promotion of social media to the creation of their own virtual spokespersons, is not a new thing, and the strong interactivity of the metacosm has become a new trend in brand marketing.
The first of these is the luxury industry, the earliest balenciaga 2020 in the form of VR to release the early collection of summer 2021 in a small range. Customers who receive the equipment put on their helmets and can see the clothes of the new quarter. With the release of the Fall 2021 series, players need to unlock exhibits in the form of a playthrough game, and can be matched at will.
Gucci and Roblox go a step further: real-time interactive elements are incorporated on the basis of purely simulated reality. They collaborated on the development of the experiential game Gucci Garden Archetype, a real-time location in Gucci Garden in Florence, Italy, which is an experiential shopping mall integrating exhibitions, catering, retail and more. The game is interspersed with Gucci's products based on real scenes, so as to push players to explore and shop within the scene as much as possible.
Nike founded NIKELAND on Roblox. Players can try on many of the brand's classic products in the game's digital showroom and receive rewards. In addition, the game can even be personally involved: as long as the player opens the relevant sensing device on the mobile phone, he can complete the interaction through movement by moving the body and the mobile phone, and this new human-computer interaction experience makes consumers remember deeply.
PART 8, virtual technology will enter the 3.0 era
Although at this stage, metaverse and virtual-related technologies are no longer an unattainable threshold, they are still an important influencing factor in the presentation of effects.
In 2022, metaversics and virtual character modeling will develop in a more efficient direction, one is to present more attractive visual effects, and the other is to upgrade artificial intelligence, so that virtual characters with different styles and uses can be mass-produced.
Another development direction of virtual technology is offline VR and live experience, Zuckerberg's Oculus quest Pro and Sony's PS VR 2 have made technological breakthroughs, such as "eye tracking", PS VR 2's "dynamic fixation point rendering", Project Cambria's "full body motion capture", etc.
These technologies will not only be applied to entertainment, but also most likely applied to smart furniture, electric vehicles, sports and medical health fields, allowing people to get convenience from the touchable metaverse.
Part 9, the meta-universe MCN will create its own virtual character matrix
Image source: Burning Wheat Technology official website
Like the Internet celebrity industry, in addition to cultivating its own KOLs according to market demand, Meta-Universe MCN will also strive to cultivate its own red matrix to minimize risks and maximize benefits.
Launched the head virtual KOL Liu Yexi's incubation agency "Chuang Yi", plans to continue to launch more than a dozen virtual characters after the maturity and stability of Liu Yexi's account, they have different character settings, involving various fields, from the perspective of content to create a meta-cosmology.
The "Second World Culture", which provided virtual person marketing services for brands such as I Do Jewelry, iQiyi and Huaxizi, completed two rounds of financing of more than 10 million US dollars in three consecutive months last year. According to the founder of the second generation, this round of financing will be used to continuously improve the team, create more new virtual person IP, and comprehensively upgrade the company's existing virtual person product matrix, and then plan to launch an AI human interview program with "human observer" MERROR.
In the future, Burning Wheat Technology, which launched AYAYI, is also expected to create a virtual human matrix based on music, ancient style, e-sports and others.
PART 10, regulations to be promulgated
Although the fire of the meta-universe is very prosperous, but due to the lack of necessary legal mechanisms, the commercial development in the market is relatively disorderly, there are certain legal risks, so the domestic intensive introduction of a series of laws and regulations on data security and governance, such as the "Data Security Law", "Personal Information Protection Law", "Internet Information Service Algorithm Recommendation Management Regulations", in the next stage there will be a series of supporting rules will be landed, artificial intelligence governance system will also be gradually improved, For example, it will enact legislation to regulate the ownership and circulation of the rights of the proposed property, protect the NFT property rights, standardize the subject qualifications of the meta-universe operation platform, and formulate legal norms and specific operational guidelines for the protection of personal information.
With the development of legislative norms, the industry will also drive out good money and drive out bad money, so as to develop in a healthier state in the long run.
epilogue
The metaverse is a new form of human society, which will surely enter our lives in different forms in the future, where there are opportunities and risks, but people will not stop looking for the future.
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