Digital animation is nothing new — from Mickey Mouse to Spongebob and beyond. Neither is livestreaming, with hundreds of thousands of people using platforms like Twitch to share content.
What’s new?
The combination of both — known as VTubing — which became popular around 2014. A VTuber, short for “virtual YouTuber,” is a streamer who uses a 3D animated avatar instead of showing their face on camera.
CodeMiko, a San Diego native, is one of them. She started in 2022 after being laid off during the pandemic, and decided to use her animation background to create content on Twitch.
“You know, all the cute animated characters — that's kind of the art style that really appeals to me,” CodeMiko said. “So I was like, you know, it would be really cool if you could do this live, and that's how I decided on VTubing.”
To make the animation follow her movements, she uses a motion-capture suit, or mocap. A mocap suit records high-resolution movement into a computer system. It typically has sensors placed at key points on the body to track motion in real time. She said getting into VTubing would have been much harder without her animation experience.
CodeMiko demonstrates how her motion-capture suit brings her animated avatar to life:
“There's a lot of money that you have to put down in order to become a VTuber unless you know how to do art and everything yourself,” CodeMiko said. “So there's kind of a learning curve, and the baseline of entry is kind of high.”
Not including the cost of a computer, monitors — a mocap suit alone can cost more than $1,000.
Today, CodeMiko has more than 900,000 followers, many of them based in Europe and the United States. She said San Diego's laid-back vibe makes streaming easier for her.
“Content creation in itself is just a very high-stress, competitive environment,” she said. “And I think being in San Diego and being able to kind of go out and see the beach, see sunshine, have nice weather and take a walk when you're stressed out — it just really helps.”
She said she most enjoys connecting with her community and talking about new technology and innovations in virtual production within the VTubing world.
Unlike most VTubers, CodeMiko doesn’t stay anonymous behind her avatar. But she said she understands why other creators choose to, especially for safety.
During one of her early broadcasts, her full name was accidentally leaked, which made her identity public.
“I think that one of the biggest things about content creation is whether you're small or big, you could have, you know, dangerous people come after you,” she said. “So when you lose anonymity, it sucks.”
Even so, she said meeting fans face to face feels rewarding, especially when they tell her they've been inspired to pursue animation because of her work.
With the amount of work that goes into creating animations, streaming, interacting with viewers and dealing with online hate, the process can be exhausting. But CodeMiko said attending events like TwitchCon helps her remember why she does it.
“I would say events like this affect me positively because you get to see the fellow viewers and other streamers,” she said. “On the internet everything's so negative, but in person everyone's just chill and happy, and you're like, this is what Twitch is actually about.”
