What Makes a VTuber Design Memorable?

Six months of research finally ready to share!

[Chapters]
0:00 Matsuri
0:14 Introduction
1:28 Distinguished Silhouette
3:18 Top Half Concentration
5:23 Color Palette
7:05 Clarity
8:52 Unique Visual Identity
11:04 Conclusion
11:50 Screenshot Time!

[YamAlbat]

Want to learn more? Here's some videos I reccomend on Character design:

[Spyduck]

This has been very educational. Coming from the Hololive sphere, now we can understand as a concept why our Irys suffers from the clarity aspect. Her artstyle is incredibly difficult to replicate for simple fanart, and she is often unanimously drawn in a more anime but still recognizable style, thanks to her checking off the other 4 boxes besides Clarity.

[THF]

The struggle between having a noisy cluttered model and balancing out clarity I think is the hardest thing for first impressions. You see that a lot when people want to nitpick things especially with corporate vtubers

[yourwalkingredflag]

I remember someone said, how to know good character design is by showing your character to a kid and ask them to draw your character in kid style. If they manage to capture the vibes then it's memorable enough.

[MuddiedProphet]

I love how you called these theories instead of stating them as facts for what makes Vtuber Designs memorable; it shows that you are open to critique and ideas on this. Your list was comprised of all strong and good points. That having been said, if I could choose to call one of them as absolute fact, it'd be the distinguished silhouette segment (which was likewise poked fun of by the anime adaptation of Gintama and also got the point across to great effect). Obviously, everything matters on this list and Unique Visual Identity is arguably as, and perhaps even more, important. But, if you can tell just by the shape and outline of something what it is, then the artist has 100% succeeded (and in this case the Vtuber) because they've got something unique and instantly recognizable. I just think that's really amazing, being able to tell what something is without having any of the details filled in.

It's also a really interesting and good point of how the top half of models get the most screen time and recognition. In fact, now that I think of it, there are quite a few streamers I've spent hours watching where I haven't seen anything on their models from the waist down.

Not having a clashing color palette is important too because if you have something tacky looking then most people won't want to stay and give you a chance, plus having a combination that really pops can help distinguish you from a crowd.

In closing, yeah, great points were made all around and this video was excellent food for thought on what to do and what not to do when designing a Vtuber model (or really any sort of character design in any medium). I can't even imagine how hard it was to narrow it down between 5 categories and how time consuming the research for this was (I mean, ok, 6 months, but how many tons of hours across those months). Fantastic job! I can't wait for more videos!

[milmil]

Excellent video. Not just for vtubing, but for character design in general, this is one of the best character design videos I've seen. Awesome job and a million+ thanks for sharing.

[GiganticTOFU]

I am a pro character concept artist.
To break down a good character design is mostly, a well incorporated theme with creative way of intergrading ideas, followed by good flows of energy and shape design.
They also mainly put their focual points on chest up due to the nature of how Vtuber model are used. That is usually why they have some sort of multicolored hair (easy way to create visual interest), accessories on top of the head or around the neck.
The rest is up to the drawing skill of the artist. Good artist can make something bland looks good by designing interesting shadow shapes, or folds.

When you combine all these together, you get a good character.

To elaborate what I mean by theme and creative way of intergrading ideas, I will give an example.
Let's say you found a cool looking pineapple, and you want your model to be an alchemist. And so you want to create an alchemist inspired by pineapple. The creative way to do it would be study every single part of an pineapple, and applying onto different part of the character. We can take the outer shell pattern of the pineapple and apply it on the alchemist coat. The spiky top of the pineapple is also very iconic. Easy way would be to use the shape as hair, making the said character have spiky wild hair. Or It can be a top hat that has triangle spike pattern that looks like the pineapple top. Then you can make an alchemy emblem based on pineapple, maybe take the spikey skin part and turn the design more punk looking. Many many possibilities.

Character design is often underestimated, and many people confuses good artwork with good design.
I am glad you are taking the time to study character design, and spread what you learnt to people. Keep up the good work.

[okasch.]

One thing I notice with some vtubers is overall EXPRESSIVENESS. Hololive usually takes a comparatively minimalist approach to mouth shapes, expression toggles etc. But see Nana Asteria, shylily, buffpup, or ironmouse’s newest model. The mouth and eyes and the ways they deform to convey a LOT of character I think go a long way to giving those designs their appeal

[TripsStarlake]

This video made me realize now that although I made a Twitch chat redeem to regularly show off my full model from chat requesting it, the realization that people would never know I was wearing extremely long boots unconsciously clicked for me. Now its a fun thing for my chat regulars to get me to do to show off to the new viewers, but it also made me start thinking of how to better create a "Trips 2.0".

Great video with great tips!

[Scudboy]

Great vid. The only thing I'd add to it is the importance of "theme" - it can be both visually interesting and tie into character lore and other design elements (merch, mascots, props etc...) and really round out a character. To use one of your own examples- Gawr Gura's shark/atlantis theme is prevalent throughout her many outfits and models. The shark mouth, the trident. the tail, even the water and great white themed colors all contribute to her theme and directly tie into her character lore. This extends to Bloop and her Shrimps.The same goes for all the HoloEN talents- they all have a theme that ties them all together both visually and into their lore and "brand" for that character. Not to go meta on this, but you have to think of the vtuber model as just part of a package that includes elements that all tie into that vtubers theme as a product- what makes them unique, what do they offer that no one else does, what con viewers expect from watching this vtuber- all of that can be displayed visually inside of their theme. Gura's gremlin nature come thru just looking at her facial features and emotes, same goes for Ame or even Ironmouse or Nyanners from VShojo. If you plan on being a success, planning out a theme and character lore that is displayed visually in the character design is pretty much essential. It can also help inspire ideas for companions/mascots, props, settings/backgrounds etc....

[LARAUJO_]

1:06 I don't think Lorelei was the best choice for an example of "bad design" per say because she looks really cool, though she does demonstrate points 1 and 2 well
9:42 I've never noticed Sana's tattoo (also it's hidden on her kimono outfit). I'd say the limiter and hair beads are more striking and memorable parts of her design

[kaguyahouraisan]

The real challenge (that seems to rack my mind before I even draw anything) is making a model that fits your voice

[maromaraido]

Magni has such a good character design and concept... I saw his character reference sheet from his mama and the THOUGHTS they put into his design makes me go insane! People say his design is bad but i really think they just meant he's not visually up to the modern style lol.

I want to point out the way he has SUCH a distinguishable shape, a color palette that stands out, and a face that's you just CANNOT mistaken for any other vtubers are so!!! GOOD!! Everything about him screams unique and MAGNI and the way magni himself can use his designs to make his own distinguishable unique mascot that you can immediately point to him is also a bonus! I just love everything about him it's great :)

[audreyboogy]

After a second watch through, I think this video is an amazing resource for anyone looking to create v-tuber designs themselves. The art theories you go in depth on could be applied to many other types of art and character design, but applying the theories to V-tubing and giving examples of designs you think excel in a certain aspect was super helpful. I also appreciate how brave it is to use your own old model to point out some thing you have learned and improved on in your new model. Overall a very interesting and informative video!

[void-creature]

0:25 “to consume a Vtuber”
YES I TOO GORGE MYSELF ON THEIR VIRTUAL *FLESH*

[KomboEzaliTe]

When you first showed the Lorelei design the thing that got my attention were the vines coming out of the slightly oversized boots full of dirt.
My initial reaction was "dryad who decided to go mobile".

[maruareys]

Something i have noticed is to AWAYS have a accessory in the head

[guilguis]

Very informative video. It sums up character design concepts very neatly and the point about top-half concentration is a perfect adaptation to vtubing. One great source of study for memorable character designs is fighting games. Fighting game characters have to wear their themes on their sleeve and show both personality and gameplay at a glance. They have to be unique to stand out among very busy character select screens. They also need to have good silhouettes for the moves to be recognizable during fast paced battles. I'd very much recommend looking at well known fighting game characters to study how they apply each of the concepts you listed.

[theotherjared]

The best character designs can be instantly recognized by silhouette alone. They are unique and distinct, but not too busy and have one or two major quirks that define them.

[jun_eau.rileyy]

It bothers me so much that this tutorial was so educational and helpful, but when I look at the subscriber count, it's completely underrated! These type of content are the things that aren't well known but are supposed to be well known 😭