Chapter 35: Can YouTubers play the piano too?

“…Youngjun Manager-nim, is your head okay?”

Spring, who had logged into the VR Chat studio map where Seasons often gathers, carefully examined Youngjun’s avatar standing across from her.

“No… to be honest, it’s not okay at all.”

Youngjun’s avatar clutched its head and complained of pain.

Youngjun was still suffering from a hangover.

If he could, he wanted to make himself a bowl of spicy hangover ramen and lie back down in bed.

But overcoming that impulse, he stood before Spring in VR Chat with superhuman mental strength.

This is the sense of responsibility as Cosmo Live’s general manager.

No, it’s an intense fanboy spirit for his affiliated VTubers.

…Of course, his body didn’t feel the same way as his mind.

Youngjun massaged his temples with one hand and said in a calm voice, “I’m really sorry. I drank a little too much at the company dinner yesterday…”

Spring nodded lightly.

“It’s famous that other people force you to drink whenever you go to a company dinner, Manager-nim. But didn’t you usually control yourself to some extent?”

Spring snapped, saying that she didn’t know why it felt like the smell of alcohol was vibrating even though this was a virtual space.

The last words were sharp, but it was clear that she was still worried about Youngjun.

Youngjun closed his eyes as if he was sincerely sorry and let out a sigh mixed with alcohol.

“As Spring-nim said, I would have taken a few glasses and excused myself, but… Jina-nim was also at the party yesterday.”

In addition, Daon also crashed in earlier than expected.

Usually, she would broadcast until late and barely show up when the company dinner was over and heading to the second round.

But yesterday, a strange wind blew and she showed up early and properly scolded Youngjun.

“J, Jina Mama came?”

Spring let out an a- sigh with a disappointed expression.

She was quite disappointed that she missed the opportunity to see Mama’s real form.

Youngjun cleared his throat lightly and changed the subject.

“Anyway, what’s going on with Spring-nim so early in the morning? Did something urgent happen?”

“Yes, actually, the mini-concert plan was just completed. I came to get it reviewed. I sent the file to your email in advance.”

Youngjun’s avatar immediately opened its eyes and straightened its back.

It felt like his hangover was gone. There’s no better hangover cure than new content.

“You started writing it after seeing Winter-nim’s debut concert, right?”

“To be exact, it’s from the day Winter-unnie declared that she would have a concert on her debut day. I started writing it little by little from then on.”

“Even so… you made the plan quite quickly.”

Youngjun muttered in a surprised voice as he downloaded the file through email.

“After seeing Winter-unnie’s stage, I felt more motivated. And… to take Jina Mama, don’t I have to hurry more than Summer-unnie or Fall-unnie?”

It’s a national rule that a VTuber who moves early catches a talented Mama.

The youngest sister learned something very good from her older sister.

Youngjun showed a puzzled look for a moment, then thought ‘that’s Spring-like’ and quietly smiled.

“But you didn’t have to rush. Spring-nim would have been first anyway. Summer-nim has never even written a plan in the first place, and Fall-nim is… well, in an idea-saturated state as usual.”

So Spring would have been the only one who could properly organize something and bring it, Youngjun added.

Spring pondered for a while, then nodded slightly, saying, “I guess so.”

“Hearing that, I feel like I was too hasty. Ah, if I had known this would happen, I would have gone to the company dinner yesterday too~”

While Spring was grumbling, Youngjun carefully examined the plan file prepared by Spring.

“With this, I think we can definitely show people Spring-nim’s charm. However… the biggest problem will be implementing the stage as planned.”

This is not a problem for Youngjun to judge.

It’s a problem for Jina, who will decorate this stage, to judge.

“If Jina Mama says no, I can just remove the ‘piano’. But I think Mama will definitely make what I want, right?”

Youngjun nodded in agreement.

“Well, that person will somehow make it. Because she has no limits to her abilities.”

A clear tone mixed with the melody of an electric piano filled the VR Chat studio map.

Spring’s avatar, with green hair and cherry blossom hairpins, bowed slightly in shame after singing the last verse of the song.

As the clear afterglow faded, Jina’s avatar, who was standing at a distance from Spring, clapped slowly.

“H, how was it? My song.”

Spring asked, fidgeting with her hands as if she was embarrassed.

Her mouth was tightly closed, but inside, she was frantically tearing at her hair and screaming.

Did I press the wrong keys more than dozens of times? The pitch was too shaky too!

Haaa- Spring you idiot! What should I do if I show such a sloppy stage in front of Mama and no one else?!

But what flowed from Jina’s mouth was not a fierce criticism, but a warm praise like Spring.

“It’s really good? You play the piano well, and your voice is lyrical. I enjoyed it so much.”

“T, thank you…”

Spring felt even more embarrassed by Jina’s languid voice and shook her head.

“Actually, it’s been a while since I’ve let anyone listen to me like this… I made too many mistakes…”

“I didn’t notice any mistakes? Anyway… are you planning to prepare something like this, singing while playing the piano?”

Jina asked, glancing at the digital piano model placed in a corner of the VR space.

It’s called a piano, but that’s just a 3D polygon mass in the shape of a piano.

Because it’s an avatar.

Because it’s a virtual space.

The only disappointing thing about this stage was that I couldn’t see Spring playing the piano in person.

Spring nodded slightly at Jina’s words.

“Han Ari-nim did that… ahem! She did content where she put a glass of water on top of her avatar, right? That, the interaction between the avatar and the 3D object, seemed like a pretty novel idea.”

Suddenly, the corner of Jina’s mouth twitched up.

“Han Ari-nim… where did she put the drink cup?”

“D, ddd, do I have to say that part specifically? D, doesn’t Jina Mama know better than me?!”

Spring scratched her cheek, avoiding her gaze for no reason.

Then Jina playfully asked back in a mischievous voice.

She said that she doesn’t know well. She said she doesn’t remember well because she drank too much recently.

“Ah- really! Chest, cheeeest!!”

“Spring-nim, is it okay for a broadcaster to say such vulgar words so loudly? You’re a little perverted.”

“Kyaaaaak!! Jina Mama is like Summer-unnie!!”

Spring blushed and shouted, then turned her head away as if she was embarrassed.

“Haha, sorry. Anyway, you saw that and came up with the idea of ​​the avatar and piano interacting.”

“…Yes. There are many broadcasts where people play instruments, but there are no broadcasts where VTubers play instruments. Even if there are, they just pretend to be doing something like I did just now.”

Spring snorted and said in a slightly sulky voice.

“That’s definitely an interesting idea. And since it’s a static stage, it’ll be quite easy to implement…”

Jina replied casually, then trailed off.

“Wait… thinking about it again, this won’t be easy…”

“…Will it be very difficult?”

Spring asked with a worried look.

Jina was silent for a moment, then began a technical explanation close to a monologue.

First of all, the problem is naturally modeling the avatar’s fingers.

This is even more so because Jina’s working method is to use AI to create a large framework for 3D models.

Even the 2D human pictures generated by AI right now had flaws in their hands or feet.

There are 4 fingers, or they are bent in an unnatural direction.

Naturally, 3D has similar problems. To solve this problem, Jina even trained only the hand model separately.

Even so, she has not completely solved the quality problem, so she is solving a significant portion of it with manual labor.

Moreover, what Spring wants is not just a hand, but a hand that is natural enough to play the piano.

Finger rigging is quite a difficult task. You have to carefully implant joints in each knuckle of the finger.

Hands are hands, but modeling a piano is no easy task either.

When you press a key with your finger, the key goes down and the corresponding sound must flow out accordingly.

Create a piano with 88 keys?

Then you have to define a bounding box for each of the 88 keys and design the collision detection one by one.

Up to this point, it’s a problem that can be solved by putting in time and simple repetitive labor.

The biggest problem is that the avatar is playing the piano model itself.

Paying attention to the physics engine is basic.

In addition, the animation of the keys being pressed, the finger angles, and the sound output must all be synchronized at the same timing.

“…Do you understand what the situation is roughly?”

Jina, who had explained up to this point, looked at Spring and asked for confirmation.

“Uh… um… ahh…”

Of course, I didn’t understand anything.

Clearly, what’s튀어나오는 from Jina’s mouth is Korean, but I don’t know why it sounds like a different language.

Still, I understood one thing.

“This… it was more complicated than I thought.”

There was a reason why there was no broadcast where VTubers properly play instruments.

I was ashamed of myself for writing a plan that didn’t make sense because I didn’t know anything and was excited.

“After all… is it impossible?”

“Um… no. Let’s try it once.”

Jina smiled slightly and stretched.

“I thought about it for a while, and it doesn’t seem like I can’t do it at all.”

It looks fun, Jina let out a smirk.

“It’s going to take a lot of work. But it’s an opportunity to see a good stage. This much effort is nothing.”

So Spring lowered her head at Jina’s words that she should let her hear better songs and performances during the concert.

“I, I’m really going to prepare hard. And… I’m sorry for being spoiled.”

“Why be sorry? A VTuber can be spoiled to Mama.”

Spring’s head went down even further.

Winter said that she cried while talking to Jina after the concert.

…I think I know that reason a little bit.

Of course, now is not the time to be crying.

Whether you shed tears or smile brightly, it’s not too late to do it after successfully finishing the concert.