Chapter 52: This is a failure

Jina opened the modeling tool and arranged the templates for each body part in order.

A round, large head based on a 2.5-headed figure.

Two eyes that properly captured the sensibilities of Japanese animation.

Arms and legs that were short and stubby, but properly captured the details of the fingers and toes.

A body with decent curves that could put up a good fight (?) with Spring’s avatar, even though it had been simplified.

When she connected everything, the shell wasn’t bad.

“The problem is planting the skeleton here…”

Rigging.

Planting the skeleton for natural animation in the 3D character was the core of this task.

It was impossible to simply shrink the skeleton used in the realistic avatar.

As the body proportions had changed, the length of the bones defined between the joints had to be manually changed, and the weighting values ​​had to be set anew.

Jina loaded the model and planted the skeleton in the order of head-neck-chest-pelvis-arms and legs.

Then, she began fine-tuning from the end of the body to the center.

“First, reduce the skeleton in the neck… and narrow the rotation range…”

Because if you put the physics engine in wrong, your head will fall back.

More than that, it won’t even be able to stand properly in the first place.

“Arms and legs… to prevent them from penetrating the head or body…”

She limited the range of refraction to prevent clipping.

Still, it’s simpler than adjusting the arm and leg bones of a realistic avatar. This is thanks to the simple shape.

“The problem is… still the body.”

The key was how to hold the skeleton between the chest and pelvis.

Again, the curve is the problem.

She wanted to save the mystery of the female body even a little, so she saved the lines, but there was no room to put the skeleton.

Now that she looked at it, the vertical length was shorter than she thought.

Even if she gave a slight curve, the chest would protrude forward, or the back would fold in half like a flip.

If she somehow managed the chest and back, now her waist was bent like a bow.

…Oh, this is a bit hot?

“I’m jealous, I’m jealous.”

Jina clicked her tongue once and zoomed in on the screen, tinkering with the bones here and there.

After a long, long grind, she somehow attached the head, body, arms, and legs together.

It was the moment when the SD style template model, ‘SoDa’ was born.

Looking at the exterior alone, it passes the test.

The roundness was very cute, and a satisfied smile spread across Jina’s lips.

Then suddenly, she was overcome with a strange sense of unease.

“…But if this starts moving, isn’t it going to be a disaster?”

And ominous premonitions are always right.

Sure enough, as soon as she applied the test animation, problems erupted.

First, the basic walking motion.

The head is swaying and the waist is stiff, fixed in a straight line.

Since the center of gravity is not properly aligned, the pelvis is swaying like a balloon doll.

The toes do not stick properly to the ground and are floating in the air.

She also shook her hand lightly.

…The excessively short arms were flailing around like a person drowning, which was very bizarre.

It’s even more spectacular when you apply the running motion.

The joint located at the knee loses its place the moment the foot leaves the ground, and the two legs are twisted into an X shape.

“Wow… I really messed up.”

As a matter of urgency, she manually modified the skeleton and collision area values.

The larger the head, the greater the sway, so she set a stricter limit on the rotation angle of the joint.

She also restricted the angles of the pelvis and knees to prevent them from bending in strange directions.

…Then it became a tin can robot.

“Can’t I use the motion capture data from the realistic avatar after all…”

Of course, she didn’t do the stupid thing of using the data as is.

She applied an AI-based correction algorithm, converted it into data optimized for SD style, and retrained it.

Even so, the result is like this.

“As expected… the biggest problem is that there isn’t enough data for SD-style characters.”

Setting aside the fact that the number of polygons is small and the proportions are unique.

There isn’t much data on SD-style characters moving naturally in the first place.

This is why AI can’t figure out how to extract the animation curve according to the motion.

“At this rate, it’ll only be at the level of a figurine bouncing around…”

Jina shook her head from side to side.

It’s very far from the ‘SD-style character that moves like a real person’ that Soyul wanted.

“Ha… how do I fix this?”

Should I lengthen the legs a little?

Then I have to lengthen the arm length too.

Then I can’t become a long-armed monkey, so I have to stretch the body.

In that case, the cuteness unique to SD style will disappear and… it will become a realistic avatar with only a cute face?

In the end, Jina, who couldn’t do anything, looked at the monitor with a difficult mind.

She realized once again that this is an area that is difficult to solve with AI.

She also realized that this is a task that no one has tried yet.

After that, she spent several days and nights repeatedly revising the work, but the problem was not easily solved.

Walking, running, jumping.

She wondered if it was this difficult to implement these simple movements.

It’s a constant loop.

If she increases the quality, the head shakes or the arms and legs pierce the body.

If she simplifies it, the arms and legs become stiff and clumsy.

“I’m going to get possessed by a demon at this rate…”

Jina stared blankly at the work file labeled ‘SoDa v1.0′, and eventually gave up.

“This is… a failure.”

Jina leaned back in her chair and let out a deep sigh.

With the current method, there is no answer.

Let’s cool our heads and start over with a completely new approach.

Showing this result as it is.

She felt sorry for Soyul and ashamed of herself.

Jina closed the work file and rebooted the computer.

Then, she was about to shift-delete the Soda model stuck in the middle of the desktop… when suddenly.

“Still, this, the modeling itself… wasn’t it drawn quite cute?”

If she just put it up as a flat plate and only changed the facial expressions, it would be subtly useful.

“…Okay. I’ll donate my talent this time too.”

Jina uploaded the Soda model to the 3D asset site as a free download.

She felt sorry to only upload one template model, so she bundled compatible hair assets and clothing assets and uploaded them together.

This is obviously paid. She couldn’t release this for free, she was feeling possessive of the time she spent digging around.

“Well, it won’t even make the cost of a cup of coffee.”

Even at this time, Jina didn’t know.

That this model is not just a cup of coffee.

It was a fact that an eight-ton coffee truck would blow Jina away.

Inside a small one-room.

Under the flickering LED lights, a woman in scruffy training clothes leaned weakly on a chair.

She don’t want you to misunderstand, but she’s not unemployed or a room security guard.

Even so, she’s a streamer.

The number of live viewers, which was marked as ‘2’ until just now, has just become ‘0’.

She didn’t even give a closing comment.

A monologue that had nowhere to go lingered in the air.

“…Haa. I’m done for today.”

She let out a deep sigh and pressed the end broadcast button.

Wee-ing- The sound of the spinning computer fan sounds unusually loud today.

“Should I just quit…”

She was tired and empty.

It’s been several months since she started broadcasting, but there’s no sign of her viewers increasing.

She tried putting up provocative titles and held events by spending her part-time job money, but it was of no use.

“What the hell is the problem…?”

The main screen of the broadcasting platform, Pasta.

Looking at the thumbnails of channels with thousands and tens of of thousands of viewers makes her so envious.

The most envious is Han Ari.

A monster rookie who attracted thousands of viewers with just one high-quality virtual avatar without belonging to any MCN.

“I wish someone would make me such a high-quality avatar too?”

Of course, she had also considered becoming a VTuber.

Recently, she has been putting in effort to gather information.

She was rummaging through 3D asset sites and entering freelance sites to inquire about the price of avatars in order to find out the unit price.

All the plausible ones cost more than millions of won.

Even that didn’t even come close to ‘Han Ari level’.

The lower the price range, the more miserable it was.

She couldn’t use avatars that were properly caught in the uncanny valley, which even deep-sea exploration teams would chase away.

“Still… just in case.”

With the hope that she might get lucky if she keeps searching and searching, she rummaged through the 3D asset site again today.

After repeatedly pressing the refresh button for a long time.

“Huh? This is…”

A 3D avatar in an SD style that she had never seen before caught her attention.

“Model… ‘SoDa’?”

The cute avatar with a round and cute appearance caught her attention.

What’s more, it’s free.

Of course, the bundle of hair models and clothing models compatible with the avatar were being sold for a fee, but the basic model was so well drawn that she didn’t think she needed to buy it.

“What the heck is this?!”

Her blurry eyes sparkled.

She was concerned that the number of downloads was in single digits, but considering that the upload time was just now, it wasn’t that strange.

“I don’t know what it is, but first… download.”

After going through the process of receiving the file and converting it to VRM compatible format, she touched the settings while referring to various materials.

After roughly finishing the setup, she pressed the keyboard to test the avatar’s movements.

Looking at the avatar bouncing on the screen, she tilted her head.

“…Why the hell is this free?”

Feeling guilty, she spent her small savings and bought the asset bundle sold for a fee.

She felt that using this for free was a crime.