At this year's Crunchyroll Expo, the Vtuber agency hololive was in full swing, with meet and greets, panels, and theater exhibits. During a panel, vtubers Gawr Gura and Amelia Watson, spoke in-depth on what it's like being a vtuber in the spotlight.
All questions asked can be found on Twitter under #AmeSameSupport and the answers during the panel were reworked into this article by the author.
Gura and Amelia go in-depth on the most difficult part of being a content creator and how it's important to balance out your schedule.
Gura: This could be about multiple types of content creators, not just vtubers or any type of streamer that falls under the title of content creator.
The most difficult part I think would be having your brain be on all the time. But that could be anything, couldn’t it? Streaming consumes all of your brain. Coming up with future ideas for games you want to play. Stuff that you have to keep thinking about deadlines for. That just sounds like a regular job though.
Ame: I guess I would put that into balancing stuff because especially as a streamer if you're not streaming, it feels like people are gonna forget about you or something. So you’re always trying to think of like the next thing. What can I do? What can I do for the audience and how can I balance that for the audience? We all love the internet but you don’t want to be obsessed with it all the time. Balancing things out is really important.
Gura: I think that’s actually a good thing about hololive is that you will always be around. So I think that’s one of the things that’s lucky about being in hololive is that people won’t forget about you. There’s always stuff going around in hololive so it's never a dull moment. I guess we're really lucky to not have to worry about that necessarily
Ame: Hololive is so nice because it feels like we're part of a big team together. I feel like when someone else wins in hololive En at the very least, I feel like I also win. It’s really nice being with everybody in hololive.
Gura: Dealing with so many people's opinions every day can be hard. People are human beings and they are not used to getting the opinions of so many people and the attention of so many people all at once. Dealing with that can sometimes be rather difficult. You might have to take a moment and recenter yourself in order to keep chugging alone.
Ame: We have been doing this for two years now, so I think we're a little more used to it and better at handling it. But definitely at the start dealing with a lot of people's expectations was rather difficult.
I said to myself were hololive En and we gotta keep the boat going, LETS's GO!
It’s a lot to try to keep up the hype but we try our best. I think we do a pretty good job.
Gura: I think we did pretty well too especially considering we didn’t know what was going to happen with EN. The general consensus of the fans was mixed. I think we were all very well aware of that. To have all the crazy support right off the bat was great. It really makes you speechless. It’s all thanks to you guys.
Gura and Ame explain what it's like coming up with new ideas for streams when they are having creative draughts.
Gura: You watch other streamers!
Ame: Hahaha!
Gura: It’s true! It doesn’t matter and It doesn’t even have to be vtubers. That’s the magic of the internet. There are so many creative people that are constantly pushing stuff out. Even mainstream media. There’s so much you can learn and that’s just how I think over the years I created things with that mindset. You find an idea and put your own spin on it or improve a specific part that you think was lacking or vice versa. I like watching other streamers and getting ideas that way and for games as well.
Ame: I would say when coming up with new ideas, I just sleep a lot and hopefully something pops into my brain.
Gura: Ya that's how it works too. No limits in the brain.
I think you have a good point about watching other streamers and kind of taking something and putting your own twist on it. Nothing these days is really that original anymore but everybody is unique, so when you put your own thing on it, it’s yours.
Gura: I mean what's wrong with enjoying something twice?
It takes inspiration because when you do big projects like this, you work with a lot of other creative people, artists that make assets, logos, or background music. Literally, anything you can think of 3D modelers, etc. The potential to work with creative people like that inspires me to take on new projects like that. I like asking these people what do you think, and what are your ideas.
Put your brains together?
You can make a big sand castle of an idea and it turns into a project. I really like working with creative people like artists and music makers and stuff like that.
Ame: There are especially a lot that is in the hololive community. There are a lot of creative people in the community that are really passionate about what they do and they have really good ideas.
I did the art for Baelz's PC case collab! Thank you for the opportunity!! ♥?#illustrayBAE pic.twitter.com/Pzpxc7KllX
— ? ? ? ? ? Rosuuri (@rosuuri) July 1, 2022
Gura and Ame explain how the technology of tubing has some limits, and only a set number of facial expressions and poses, and how they best deal with the limitations.
Gura: Your voice!
Ame: I think if we talk about the audition process a little bit. Your voice is also really important.
Take me for example. I was not very good at speaking to people at all. I couldn’t really talk to friends or order something over the phone or anything like that. After streaming and just talking to myself and practicing like that, it became a lot easier for me to voice my thoughts, so your voice plays a major part. Your microphone quality, your diction. It's a good way to express yourself and your voice.
Gura: Especially when that's your only way to get your emotions across. I used to be really nervous to speak in lots of different voices. I got over that really quick. Being in hololive and streaming as a vtuber has helped me get over my anxiety of talking to people in general for sure. Nothing will ever help my phone anxiety though. Well probably talking on the phone more will help, but I don’t like it.
Vtubing is essentially puppeteering and your voice is very important when it comes to that. Playing with your voice, pitch, tone, and diction as you said is really important and you will get better at it. You have a streamer voice and then you have an off-streamer voice, but I think that's more just your natural voice.
Ame: I think with a computer, in general, there's so much you can do. We're so lucky to be in this time where we can use these crazy computers right at our fingertips because there are so many possibilities
Gura: Some 0’s and 1’s and now we have digital anime girls. That are real!
Gura and Ame go into the challenges and obstacles vtubers face behind the scenes that most people are not aware of.
Ame: A lot of the time it can be a little difficult. Everybody has days where you're not feeling too great. It’s kind of hard to put a smile on your face for whatever reason. A lot of the time we have to put that behind us. We have to shut that behind a door. We do that for a lot of reasons because we want to be happy for you guys and try our best for you. That can definitely be a difficult aspect of it.
Gura: I think that's a pretty good point. That could be not only for vtubers though. If you work at a retail or office job.
Ame: You could be a server at a restaurant and say hey, yes what can I get you and in your brain you’re like DIE DIE DIE but not really, hehe.
Gura: Working retail and after someone chews you out and you have to say why yes have a lovely day.
Ame: So it can be a little mentally draining.
Gura and Ame discuss something you do to help with the stress that comes from streaming.
Gura: Eat cookies!
Ame: That’s a good one.
Gura: Chocolate!
Ame: Chocolate or Chocolate chips?
Gura: Chocolate Chunk! Triple Chocolate Chunk!
Ame: I just sleep or take a nap. Sometimes during the stream, if something goes wrong it can be really stressful because chat is going by really fast and I know they are going to ask where are you and what's going on. Everyone will say what's happening come back! I guess just making fun of the situation. That helps.
Gura: Did you know that my hair used to be all blue? But the stress turned me into a silver blue fox at the young age of 9000.
When things are happening live it's very very nerve-racking because not only is chat watching but if something goes wrong, management is also watching very intently. So many things go through your head and it can get pretty stressful. I like going outside after something stressful happens.
Gura mentions it's important to be mindful of your voice and not to push yourself.
Gura: Sing a lot and be very mindful of your voice. I pushed myself too far once and could not speak for a while. If you push your voice you will damage it. Anybody that uses their voice should be careful. Teachers, call centers, sportscasters.
Gura and Ame go into detail on how to adopt a streaming mindset and what it entails and what their most important quality assurance metric or aspect is when deciding to schedule streams or preparing for one.
Gura: I think making sure a game if you're doing a creative stream that’s coming from your brain, for the most part, a game that you have control over. Making sure a game meshes with your personality and your level of onstream comprehension ability is very important.
For example, I played a game about a little fish that rolls around in a bowl and that was perfect for my level of onstream comprehension. However, a game that has a lot of numbers and a lot of dialogue would not necessarily be a good match for me. This is something you have to learn. You may not know what games do or don’t work for you on stream necessarily.
Ame: As a streamer, it can be difficult to pick out a game because sometimes it feels like you have to pick a game that people will click to watch, and sometimes it's kind of hard especially as a streamer starting out to know what types of games those are. A lot of times they end up being League of legends or Apex Legends.
I am so happy I get the opportunity to play a bunch of different games and there are people in the crowd who do still watch me. You guys will still turn up no matter what. For me personally, I just pick a game that I think will be fun for me and somewhat for the viewers because even if they are not enjoying it so much and I am really having fun I’ll still play it anyways. When it comes to collaborations, I guess it comes down to doing something that's fun with each other.
Gura: Having fun. If you're having fun then anyone who tunes into your stream is going to have fun too. But if you are not having a fun time make sure you are.
Gura and Ame discuss the process of having a 3D studio for the first time and what their learning experiences were.
Ame: When setting up the 3D studio that I have, I had Ina, Gura, and Kiara help me. Gura’s so short she helped me put electrical tape everywhere in places I couldn’t reach. We needed to cover up some shiny areas and then I had Ina's help, she's a little bit taller so she could help me mount the cameras that are needed for 3D tracking.
Gura: There’s a bunch of cables you have to pug in and there's a whole different kind of calibration. We're so used to hitting a button and having something immediately work. 3D motion capture is a whole different ball game. It’s so fascinating with all the separate tools you have to use and you have to calibrate the entire room and then the actor has to do the celebration. Addointally you have to learn how to T-pose. There is a right and a wrong way to T-pose. It’s very specific.
Ame: If you have ever done VR, a setup for a 3D studio is like that but 20 times more complicated. There are so many wires. It’s a lot.
Gura: Lots of funny colors too which is pretty cool. I believe it's called wanding. Have you ever wanded before?
Ame: It’s been really interesting learning the ins and outs of more complicated 3D stuff because it will be really fascinating when we go to japan to see how different everything works. I think overall it’s been a very valuable learning experience.
Even before being a vtuber, I was very fascinated. There are so many technical aspects to it. It could be 2D or 3D or some mix in between. There are so many 3D programs such as augmented reality that will be more possible these days.
Gura: Haptic Feedback of course.
Ame: One Idea I had for our Crunchyroll Expo panel specifically, was to give the audience blue and red 3D glasses. I thought it would be cool if we could hand out Ame and Gura-themed 3D glasses and do a stream in 3D. Unfortunately, I couldn’t figure out how to get the anaglyph to work on OBS.
Gura: Since hololive, I have been interested in 3D modeling my own characters and stuff like that. Japanese vtuber Kizuna Ai blew my mind. Watching early hololive stuff really made me want to learn how to do this. Real 3D is incredibly expensive and it can take an incredible load of brain power if you do it by yourself. To be able to indulge in a hobby of mine which I did not think was possible is very exciting. Real 3D is so fascinating.
Ame: I once had a job that paid me about $800 and after that, I spent it on a VR headset and that was it. I am glad it's cheaper these days.
Gura and Ame go into some essential tips and tricks for a beginner when using microphones for streaming and or recording your voice.
Gura: Do you guys know the hand trick? If you put your thumb and your pinkie out that’s how far you should be away from your microphone at all times to avoid plosives and peeking. Good microphone etiquette is important for every streamer to make sure your voice sounds pleasant.
Ame: I would say if you're starting out and you’re recording or streaming, It’s so annoying to get used to your own voice. One of the things you definitely have to do is record yourself and listen back and see what problems there are and see if you want to sound a certain way. Listen to yourself and trust your inner feedback. It makes me cringe when I listen to myself but you have to get over it.
The first microphone I started out with was Audio Technica At 2020. I don’t think they make it anymore but I love Audio Technica microphones.
Gura: I had a Blue Yeti. Microphones can affect your voice.
Ame: Microphones depending on what frequencies they pick up can definitely change the way your voice sounds. There are definitely microphones that are better for some people with deeper voices and so on.
A big thanks to Amelia Watson and Gawr Gura for attending Crunchyroll Expo to chat with the fans!
You can find out more about hololive on their official page: https://en.hololive.tv/
Check out their official Twitter page here: https://twitter.com/hololive_en
Gawr Gura official youtube page: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCoSrY_IQQVpmIRZ9Xf-y93g
Amelia Watson's official youtube page: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCyl1z3jo3XHR1riLFKG5UAg