twitch-vtubers

Twitch Vtubers – Information and Top Vtubers on Twitch

What is a Vtuber?

Vtuber is short for Virtual YouTubers who connect with audiences using digital avatars rather than real individuals. Twitch vtubers are gaining more popularity, with the top twitch vtubers mentioned later in this article. These 2D or 3D avatars resemble wide-eyed anime characters with striking hair colours while their voices are supplied by their creator. Both vtubers and human youtubers create material that is similar, such as playing games, participating in viral trends, conducting interviews, or making story time videos. Vtubers aren’t limited to youtube, and have quickly found a standing and strong audience on the twitch platform.

How did it all begin?

Ami Yamato, a Japanese YouTuber residing in London, first released videos showcasing a three-dimensional avatar with Japanese characteristics in 2011. However, the word “vtuber” was established in 2016 after digital celebrity, Kizuna Ai amassed millions of  YouTube subscribers. The notion of virtual youtubers was already established in Japan, but during the pandemic as the number of people consuming digital content soared, the trend grew increasingly popular all over the world, and more vtubers began filming and streaming in English.

How are vtubers different from human youtubers and livestreamers?

Anonymity

Vtubers allow people to express themselves without having to reveal their identity and are still able to gain a mass following. Using motion trackers, the creators can record their movements, which are then translated onto an animated figure and finally projected on a background using a live stream. 

Specific Demographics

Vtubers are not everyone’s cup of tea. This is mainly because some people find it childish and prefer connecting with real people. They mostly appeal to anime enthusiasts who like the avatars’ brilliant colours and expressive features. 

Preparation

The process of making a video differs for YouTubers and vtubers. A youtuber merely needs a microphone, good lighting, and a streaming app, whereas a vtuber needs digital tools to bring their avatar to life.  

Vtuber Appearance

Vtubers are vividly animated characters, typically with visual similarities between them. Here are a few Vtuber Avatars:

Vtuber Avatars

Why do most vtubers stream on Twitch?

The majority of vloggers prefer to live stream on Twitch, the biggest live-streaming website in the world, which attracts over 15 million monthly viewers in addition to its over 3 million monthly users!

Let’s examine what makes Twitch the top platform for virtual YouTubers.

Community-  In a sense, Twitch functions as a giant social media network where users may click on a channel and communicate with hundreds of others who share their interests. Furthermore, because the feed is live, you can watch the digital avatar’s reactions as they happen.

Extensions- Twitch provides a range of tools known as extensions that may be added for a variety of reasons, including mini-games, real-time gear information, and leaderboards.

Algorithm– In contrast to YouTube, where channels are ranked based on the number of shares and likes, Twitch’s algorithm is primarily concerned with viewership, thus the more people who watch a live stream, the higher it will appear in the search results. This makes it easier for new content creators to build a following.  

Monetization- Twitch provides a number of opportunities for users to monetize their channels and make some quick money through donations and ultimately an affiliate programme.

Bots- By replying to discussions, running polls, or accepting song requests, helpful bots help make the streaming experience for the audience enjoyable and engaging.

Top Vtubers on Twitch

With most popular vtubers on twitch like Ironmouse, Zentreya, Silvervale, Projekt Melody, CodeMiko, and Pokimane to mention a few, Twitch has grown significantly, and it seems like the vtuber mania is here to stay.

What is the future of virtual Youtubers?

Digital personas blur the line between reality and fiction, and with digital avatars amassing several followers, we are entering a new era of synthetic media. Here are a few ways vtubers are making an impact- 

Universalize Content

By using technologies to dub the avatars in regional languages, we are stepping into a future where virtual avatars will use technologies to make content production more inclusive. With technologies like AI dubbing instead of hiring people to redub the content, the avatars can be programmed to speak in a variety of languages, which reduces financial expenditures and also saves time.

Marketing Campaigns

Vtube creators are also used in marketing campaigns. The animated characters can promote fashion lines, music shows and even promote tourism. For instance, the municipal government of Japan created Hiyori Ibara, an avatar to promote tourism. vtubers may help companies in connecting with a younger audience. In fact, vtuber technology enhances the entertainment factor of any kind of content. 

So, how do I become a Vtuber?

Get the right technology

A good quality webcam, microphone and computer are essential to record and edit your videos. Start with what you have an you can then invest on better technology later. 

Design your avatar

There are various software tools available to help you build your digital avatar; take your time and try them all before deciding on one. Wakaru, Luppet,VRChat, and PrprLive are just a few examples. Using free applications is a terrific way to get started, however these models will be fairly basic; you may later opt to pay a premium for enhanced features.As a newbie, it is best to do your homework and watch tutorials on how to use motion capture to bring your avatar to life. High quality motion capture translates into more views and eventually more subscribers.

Alternatively, you could hire an artist to build an avatar for you based on your concept.In this case, you will not have to worry about all of the design specifics, but you will be paying for the artist’s time and technology.

Set up your channel

Make effective use of platforms such as Tiktok, Twitch, and Instagram. If you wish to grow as a vtuber, make YouTube your primary site, and distribute video snippets and links to your videos on other platforms.

Record your video

When recording your video, make sure there is no background noise and that your facial cam software is working properly; if the programme detects an empty frame, it may freeze your avatar until you return. Shooting test videos in various scenarios will give you a sense of how your avatar will act and will allow you to eliminate any faults or potential difficulties. Once you check all of these boxes you are good to go!

In this digital world, people are interested in an alternate reality with infinite possibilities and vtubers are just the beginning. 

Written by Anna Divya Benjamin

pattern of peepo from PeepoParadise

Who Is Peepo?

Peepo, sometimes known as Pepo, is like a lot of Internet memes: not a lot of people know the name, but everyone recognizes it if they see it. Peepo was created inadvertently out of poorly-drawn versions of Pepe the Frog, a comic character from 2005 (and subsequently a popular meme in its own right). As more and more people attempted to recreate Pepe, the character became increasingly mangled, and Peepo was born. Nobody knows exactly when and where Peepo first appeared as its own entity, but sightings go back to at least 2017, but they could have come about earlier than that.

Here’s where it gets a little confusing: the image of Peepo is actually that of an earlier meme, Apu Apustaja, or Help Helper, that became popular (and was supposedly created) on the Finnish imageboard Ylilauta. This is simply the nature of Internet memes. They appear, they’re copied left and right, and variations – both subtle and major – propagate across the Internet. It makes their exact history hard to pin down, but that’s part of their appeal.

There are an estimated 2,800 different variations of Peepo on FrankerFaceZ, the popular Twitch enhancement suite. The different versions are used for different purposes, and among the earliest and most popular of them are pepoWant, peepoCheer, and widepeepoHappy. That last variation, widepeepoHappy, is used in over 32,000 sets of emotes. It also ranks number 30 out of the 100 FrankerFaceZ emotes used on Twitch. It’s seen over 16.1 million uses.

Once Peepo became popular with some of Twitch’s bigger streamers, the rest was history. They began using the character in emotes, which prompted their viewers to use the same emotes, and it spread like wildfire. In 2019, streamer Pokimane named a Minecraft chicken after Peepo, which immediately set her chat ablaze with users spamming the emote. The clip has since been viewed over 1.8 million times and shared 18,000 times. 

Also in 2019, streamer Peter Park also received an onslaught of Peepo emotes, which led to him Tweeting “Peepo back at it again” along with the video of his stream. That same month, a Reddit user took the Hypers Peepo meme and created a collection of World of Warcraft-inspired takes on the character. The images are modeled after different Warcraft classes and were posted to the World of Warcraft subreddit.

Peepo’s not going anywhere. The name even has an Urban Dictionary entry that reads:

“The green frog meme, it’s peepo, not Pepe.”

Eventually, the lovable, if not entirely beautiful, cartoon frog became something of a de-facto mascot in the eyes of many Twitch users. The character also stands as a great example of unprompted Internet collaboration that results in a beloved icon with no clear chain of ownership. Peepo is a direct child of the Internet and brings with it all the weirdness that entails. The character has also quickly secured his place in Internet history, becoming an instantly recognizable symbol to millions of people around the globe.

Written by Anna Divya Benjamin

Peepogiggle Enamel Pin

Pepe the Frog: The Meme That Lead to Peepo

If you regularly use Twitch, Discord, or really any popular chat platform, message board, or social networking site, chances are good that you’ve laid eyes on the magnificent Peepo. Sometimes known as Pepo, the melancholy frog character is actually a rather poorly drawn rendition of Pepe the Frog, a character dating back to 2005.

Pepe the Frog, for those who don’t know, has an absolutely wild history as a meme.

Pepe was created in 2005 by artist Matt Furie as part of a zine, Playtime, that he created in Microsoft Paint. This was followed by a comic called Boy’s Club, in which Pepe was one of four slacker roommates that inexplicably possessed an animal head. A 2008 comic in which Pepe remarks “feels good man” seems to have led to the character’s first popular stint as a meme, largely thanks to being posted on the Something Awful forums.

Naturally, this was shortly followed by a “feels bad man” variation in which Pepe looks distraught as opposed to relaxed. A few years later, in 2011, Furie spoke about Pepe and his origins in an interview with meme encyclopedia Known Your Meme. Then, in 2014, the character’s popularity as a meme exploded, and that year gave rise to Tumblr, Instagram, and Facebook accounts all dedicated to the meme, as well as a subreddit.

As if that weren’t enough, that same year popstar Katy Perry used a picture of a distraught, crying Pepe in a tweet about jet lag, which received over ten thousand retweets. A month later, Nicki Minaj used the character in an Instagram post, which received hundreds of thousands of likes.

Things got out of hand in late 2015.

Donald Trump, then a candidate for President of the United States, tweeted an illustration of himself as Pepe, standing behind a podium that held the official Presidential seal. This tweet saw thousands of likes and retweets, (yet received less attention than Katy Perry’s jet lag tweet from a year prior). A few months later, in January 2016, the Russian Embassy in the UK used a picture of a smug Pepe in a tweet about an upcoming meeting between President-elect Trump and British Prime Minister Theresa May.

These tweets are what seemingly led to Pepe eventually being adopted as an unofficial icon of the United States alt-right movement and being branded a “racist meme” and “white supremacist symbol” by several news outlets. In a 2017 street interview, white supremacist Richard B. Spencer was interviewed wearing a Pepe the Frog pin on his jacket. He attempted to explain the meaning of the pin but was abruptly punched in the face on camera.

Pepe creator Furie expressed his unhappiness with the movement’s usage of the character and, in response, officially killed the character off. He was also successful in several copyright battles, getting Pepe imagery removed from various websites and receiving thousands in a copyright infringement case against Alex Jones and Infowars.

Despite a solid year of pretty heated controversy, fast food chain Wendy’s got in on the action in 2017 with a tweet of Pepe as the Wendy’s mascot. Unsurprisingly, they received heavy criticism over the tweet.

Fortunately, Pepe has been largely quiet in the last few years, possibly due to the spin-off meme Peepo rising in popularity. A 2020 documentary entitled Feels Good Man chronicles the corruption of Pepe the Frog and creator Matt Furie’s attempts to save the character and reclaim him as a force for good in the world.

Written by Anna Divya Benjamin