From 100 yuan to 1 million, what is virtual person?| Virtual Human Column

In foreign countries, "South Korea's first Internet celebrity" Rozy has created a revenue of 1.5 billion won (about 8 million yuan) for production company Sidus Studio X in the past year. The market has become the first listed company in the VTuber (virtual anchor) industry.

In China, since Liu Yexi became popular last year, from investment institutions, brand companies to content companies, technology companies, have greatly interested in virtual human beings. Open source Securities mentioned in the relevant report that in the second half of 2021, nearly 20 virtual human -related enterprises completed financing.

From the perspective of commercial value, the virtual "money scene" is quite good.

But what exactly is virtual person? What is the status quo of the industry? Is this business worth doing? Because it is still in the early industry, there is no consensus in the industry.

Recently, the Editorial Department of the New List has successively dialogues, and has tried to answer these questions with 3 series of articles.

This article is the first article of the virtual human series of articles.

(PS. The definition and description of this series of virtual human beings comes from the dialogue and public information of the front -line practitioners. If there are any objections, please discuss.)

Drawing: Hechuan

Recently, the fast -moving virtual account "Hu Lili" has increased by 1.2 million in 40 days, becoming another dark horse account in the virtual human industry. It is worth noting that Hu Lili and we are familiar with Liu Yexi, Higa, and Vox and A-Soul seem to be different.

The left is Hu Lili and the right is Higa. Picture source: Douyin

If Liu Yexi looks like a star, the Hu Lili is more like a show anchor. If Higa is a corporate employee of Banzheng, Hu Li Li is a lively two -dimensional cute girl.

In fact, people in the middle, super realistic, Yuan universe, two -dimensional, digital people ... Under the bombardment of a series of complex concepts, it seems difficult to give an accurate virtual person definition.

Understand the 4 ways of virtual human beings

What is virtual person?

To answer this question, we might as well make some classification instructions on the virtual person on the market from different perspectives.

1. Non -real -time virtual human vs real -time virtual human

According to virtual human interaction, virtual human beings can be divided into non -real -time virtual and real -time virtual human.

From the perspective of Fan Shiyu, the founder of Xu Anyi operation company, the virtual persons such as Sun Wukong and Spider -Man can be regarded as virtual people in a broad sense. This type of virtual person is mainly interacting with users through text, pictures, videos and other content forms, because there is no way to interact with users in real time, and more in a fixed worldview, so it is a non -real -time virtual person.

The image of Sun Wukong in the 99th edition of CCTV Journey to the West. Picture source: Weibo

Real -time virtual human beings refer to real -time interaction with the user by driving methods such as AI, people such as AI, and people. Because real -time dialogue and even emotional interaction with users, life is an important characteristic of real -time virtual human.

Recently, the virtual anchor with a relatively high popularity of Douyin, left for Xu Anyi, and right. Picture source: Douyin

Li Tian, ​​a partner of LA.WK Li Weicha, believes that the knowledge map, voice package, and AI brain brought by technological progress allow virtual human humanization to interact more. Important signs.

At present, in the understanding of the public, virtual people are more real -time virtual. From this perspective, although Liu Yexi and Ayayi, although they are claimed to be virtual, have no real -time interaction such as live broadcasts, so they have no difference between the perception of users and 3D Guoman characters such as Xiao Yan and Han Li.

The left is the virtual person Liu Yexi, and the right is Xiao Yan, the character of 3D Guoman "Breaking the Sky". Picture source: Douyin

Of course, as long as the virtual human -human technology is used to move them, both Sun Wukong and Liu Yexi can become a virtual person that can dialogue and emotional in the public's cognition.

How to make virtual human beings? There are currently two main ways in the industry: the person in the middle, the AI ​​driver.

A-SOUL is a typical man-driven virtual person, including the movements, sounds, talents, and even souls of virtual idols such as Jiale. Give.

A-Soul, a virtual idol girl group launched by Lehua. Picture source: Weibo

A actor can wear a dinosaur set to play the bully dragon in the children's drama, or you can wear a virtual human -to -human set to play idols in the live broadcast room, so the person -driven virtual person is also known as the "leather case".

Luo Tianyi and Hua Zhibing are typical AI -driven virtual human. As a virtual singer, Luo Tianyi's song performance does not need a real person, but the production company first samples the live singer/voice actor, establishes sound libraries, and then rely on human voice synthesis technology and applications to tune the sound, and finally complete the completion of the completion of the sound. creation. As a virtual student of Tsinghua University, Hua Zhibing can complete the tasks of poetry, painting, programming and other tasks based on artificial intelligence technologies such as "Wu Dao 2.0" model.

Hua Zhibing's paintings. Picture source: network

Simply put, virtual human beings are a virtual image that is constantly approaching real people.

2. Virtual Human VS Digital Man

According to "true and false", virtual human beings can be divided into "virtual human" and "digital people".

Xiong Ge, Dean of the Research Institute of Xigu Live E -commerce Group, believes that the rigorous statement of virtual human beings should be "virtual digital people". (For the convenience of writing, the "virtual person" is still used below)

The so -called "virtual human" refers to the virtual image that does not exist in the real world, including Liu Yexi and Li Weikeng, and there is no real prototype before birth. The so -called "digital person" refers to the digital avatars generated by people who rely on in the real world, such as Gong Jun, Yi Xi Qianxi and other stars have their own digital avatars.

Xiongge introduced that there are two main technical routes "digital people": optical scanning, CG scanning.

Optical scanning uses the camera to shoot real people, or use photos to generate a real number of real people. The disadvantage of optical scanning is that the fineness is poor, and the advantages are short cycles and low cost. According to the claims of many people in the industry, the cost of scanning digital people is less than 50,000 yuan, and the production time can be controlled within one day.

The optical scanning digital people Yuan Mavericks of the male song. Picture source: video number

CG modeling is to use CG modeling technology to make real number avatars. The advantage of CG modeling digital people is that they are more refined, the disadvantages are long cycles and high costs. According to the claims of many people in the industry, the production cycle of CG modeling digital people usually takes 1-2 months, and the market quotation is about one million yuan.

Gong Jun's digital man. Picture source: Baidu Encyclopedia

Because the technical level and product requirements are different, the current market pricing of digital people is not uniform.

For example, Liu Wei, CEO of Chuangxi Technology, revealed that at present Baidu can make a optical scanned digital person in 15 minutes, and Liu Wei, Face AI CEO, said that his company can control the production cost of CG modeling digital people at 50 to 50 Within 10,000 yuan. The Youlon Times stated that it can be created within five minutes as soon as possible, and the cost is only 100 yuan.

Simply put, virtual person is a virtual identity. This identity can be given by the real person or created out of thin air.

3. Service -type virtual human vs performers virtual human

Divided by application scenarios, virtual human beings can be divided into service -oriented virtual and acting virtual human.

Service -type virtual human beings also emphasize virtual human tool attributes, and positioning is more like an upgraded version of smart customer service. Service -type virtual human -human -driven is mostly driven by AI. It is characterized by low intelligence requirements and mostly used for specific scenarios. Vanke's virtual employee Cui Xiaowan is a typical representative.

Cui Xiao Pan. Picture source: network

Performing virtual human beings emphasize the emotional attributes of virtual human beings. Interactiveness with users is the foundation of this type of virtual person. Therefore, the acting virtual human beings are driven by people.

At present, the virtual human human beings are mainly subdivided in three directions:

Xu Anyi and Kumquett 2049 are more positioned like show anchors, and earn money for live rewards.

Liu Yexi and AYAYI, positioning is more like star Internet celebrities, earning traffic endorsement fees.

Troubled in love, A-Soul, positioning is more like an idol artist, and earns the money of fans of rice circles.

On May 6, the virtual anchor VOX, a subsidiary of Rainbow, opened the live show on station B, with a revenue of 1.11 million yuan. Picture source: Meng Niang Encyclopedia

It is worth noting that because the live broadcast has dual attributes of e -commerce and content, virtual cargo anchors also have dual attributes of services and performing arts. Under normal circumstances, most of the virtual cargo live broadcasts of traditional e -commerce platforms such as Taobao and JD.com are mostly driven by AI, which can be defined as service -oriented virtual persons; virtual cargo anchors on content e -commerce platforms such as Douyin and Kuaishou emphasize and emphasize and emphasize and more emphasize and emphasize. The real -time interaction of users has certain content creativity, which can be considered as virtual human -oriented.

As for the star digital people, the digital person "Gong Jun" of the Baidu AI Explorer is a derivative of the star endorsement and a service -oriented virtual person.

At the New Year's Eve concert of Jiangsu Satellite TV in 2022, Zhou Shen and "Teresa Teng" performed together. Picture source: network

Animation director Chen Lingyu revealed that his company occasionally undertakes the needs of star digital people in the party. This type of business needs to customize a star of a star according to the needs of the party, and then the people of the middle are manipulating the star digital person to complete a certain performance by using the mobile arrest equipment.

"Normal the production cycle of a star digital person takes one month to one and a half months. If the requirements are not high, or there are ready-made templates, time can save 15-20 days, and the market quotation is 10,000 to 20,000 yuan per minute."

Chen Lingyu believes that different from Liu Yexi and other virtual people who need to operate IP for a long time. Due to copyright issues such as copyright, such star -digital people will rarely be reused. It is essentially providing a three -dimensional image for the party for performance.

Simply put, virtual human beings are a content form for specific scenarios and complete specific purposes.

4. Two -dimensional virtual human vs high -fidelity virtual human vs ultra -realistic virtual human

According to the production method, cycle, and cost, virtual human beings from low to high can be divided into two -dimensional virtual human, high -fidelity virtual human, and super realistic virtual human.

Two-dimensional virtual human, represented by A-SOUL and trip love.

This type of virtual person is mostly 2D characters, because the requirements of the character movements and expressions are relatively high, and the biggest feature of the two -dimensional virtual person is that the technical threshold is low and the production cost is not high. Xiongge said that if you are a person who knows, with the help of free open source software, a person can independently produce two -dimensional virtual humans at home and complete live broadcast operations.

VTuber's four kings, from left to right, are computer girl Xiaobai, Hui Yeyue, trip love, future Mingming, Nekomasu (Uncle Fox Niang). The source "BB Ji"

The industry usually divides the two -dimensional virtual person into the company's business potential and personal potential.

For individuals, it is usually only necessary to prepare hardware devices such as stand -up painting, computer camera, and software equipment such as Live2D. Take the Live2D model as an example. View Taobao found that the price of the simplified version is as low as 50 yuan, and the price of the high version is between 10 and 20,000 yuan. Free face -to -face software interface. Picture source: network

For enterprises, because of the higher requirements, high -end motion capture equipment is required, and the production costs are also increased accordingly. According to media reports, the Perception Neuron inertial motion solution of Nuo Yiteng's domestic company Nuo Yiteng was used, with a price of more than 40,000 yuan.

Chen Lingyu estimates that the two-dimensional virtual human like A-Soul, with an average production cost of single players at about 100,000 yuan. It should be noted that 100,000 yuan only includes the production cost of the two -dimensional virtual person, and does not include investment in operations, content, and people.

High -fideline is true virtual, represented by kumquat 2049 and Fang Xiaodi.

This type of virtual human beside the two -dimensional virtual person and hyper realistic virtual person, because it is a 3D character, has put forward higher technical requirements from the establishment of the character modeling and the emoji library to the facial binding, but still in terms of fineness, it is still fine. There is a certain gap with super realistic virtual human human beings.

The left is kumquat 2049, and the right is a square pot. Picture source: Douyin

Duo Dou Le founded Liu Master Liu revealed that Fang Xiaowuo lasted for 3 months from scratch, and the early investment cost was one million, mainly including production, technology, and operation. Kumquat 2049 creation team said that the development of kumquat 2049 took 3-6 months, and the cost was also at a million level.

Chen Lingyu estimates that the cost of model modeling is between 70,000 to 100,000 yuan, and the cost of motion-catching equipment ranges from tens of thousands to millions of yuan. About yuan.

Super realistic virtual human, represented by Liu Yexi and Li Wei.

This type of virtual human beings is the top matching of the virtual human industry. The characters are exquisite and smooth, and they are close to real people. Of course, ultra -realistic virtual human beings are also the most expensive, with high technical requirements, long production cycle, and large investment costs.

Chuangyi Video CEO Liang Zikang once revealed to the media: "In 2018 and 2019, the price of our video every second is more expensive than 1 gram of gold. When Liu Yexi burst into fire last year, Liang Zikang told the new list editorial department that the number of teams was about 150, of which more than half of them were later technical personnel, and most of them came from film and television companies.

Liu Wei said that 100%of its company technology comes from Baidu. At present, a super-realistic virtual production cycle is 4-6 months, and the cost is also at a million level. "Our ultra -realistic virtual person and Liu Yexi are a level, and some details will even be exceeded," Liu Wei said.

The ultra -realistic virtual person of the craftsmanship technology. Picture source: respondent

It is worth noting that the virtual human market is still in the early stages and lacks a transparent market environment. In addition, the technical routes, supply chain, cost calculation method, and virtual humanity of various companies are different. big.

"On the one hand, the technology of virtual human beings is progressing rapidly. It may be the same set of solutions. Last year was a price, and this year was a price. On the other hand, it was essentially doing the virtual person. There will be many versions of iteration in the middle. This cost is difficult to calculate. If it is only copied as a template, the cost may be thousands of dollars. "Fan Shiyu explained.

He believes that the two-dimensional virtual person with a market price of 500,000 yuan, a high-fidelity virtual human person within 1.5 million yuan, and ultra-realistic virtual person within 200-3 million yuan can be regarded as a reasonable quotation.

Simply put, virtual human beings have a variety of content forms, and each implementation method and production difficulty are huge.

There are many similar divisions, such as Guosheng Securities divided virtual human human beings into service virtual human (PGC+function), virtual idols (PGC+IP value), digital embodiment (UGC+function), creation, creation There are four types of carriers (UGC+IP value).

In fact, just like the unified consensus of the iPhone's killer product, the concept of smartphones is complicated and messy. The question of "what virtual person is" is currently not forming a wide consensus among practitioners and users.

Three bottom logic of virtual human explosion

Before the appearance of virtual person's iPhone, it seems difficult for us to define the next accurate definition, but if we return to the past of the virtual human -virtual person, we can find some perspectives to look at virtual people.

1. The beautiful imagination of the future: The Yuan Universe is the next generation of the Internet

Compared with the Baidu search index of "virtual person" and "Yuan universe" in the past two years, it is found that the trend of the two is basically the same.

Picture source: Baidu Index

Liu Yexi's explosion is an iconic time node. According to observations, the start time of many virtual human companies is quite consistent with Liu Yexi's fire time, all at the end of 2021.

Fan Shiyu firmly believes that "the Yuan universe is the next generation of the Internet, and this process is irreversible." Virtual human beings are one of the infrastructure that is currently easier to land in the Yuan universe.

Out of its optimistic about the future of the Yuan universe, layout in advance, and accumulating virtual assets is the idea of ​​many practitioners. (Regarding whether the Yuan universe is the future, the editorial department of the new list will discuss with you in subsequent reports.)

"Since the Yuan universe is the future, it is necessary to end first, so that no matter how changes in the future, we can react as soon as possible." Fan Shiyu explained. "Number Player" stills. Picture source: Douban

Ten days before Liu Yexi burst into fire, on October 20, 2021, the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television released the "Fourteenth Five -Year Plan" Science and Technology Development Plan for Radio, Television, and Internet Audiovisual ", and proposed" Exploring short video anchors, digital Internet celebrities, live broadcast bands, live broadcast bands The application of virtual images such as goods in the interactive link of the show ", for the first time, it clearly encourages and supports the development of virtual human beings.

Bidding cases plus related policies, pointing out the enthusiasm of domestic practitioners for virtual human beings.

2. Real needs for reality pain points: anchor phobia, traffic hunger and thirst

Of course, only the future has no reality, and the virtual person is not long -term. At present, virtual people mainly meet the two types of demand in the market:

E -commerce companies are short of traffic and anchors.

Traditional e -commerce companies want to transform live broadcasts. Live e -commerce companies complain that the anchors are expensive and unstable. This is the main pain point in the industry.

Liu Wei believes that virtual cargo anchors are not only cheaper than real anchors. They are not afraid of turning over the car. They can also achieve 24 hours of live broadcast. "Face AI anchor can work uninterrupted at 24h, the cost is extremely low, and only dozens of yuan a day."

Han Shu's virtual cargo anchor. Picture source: Taobao

Liu Wei said that users are currently more curious about virtual human beings, and virtual cargo anchors have a certain drainage effect. "In addition, the live broadcast scene needs to be transformed frequently. If the virtual cargo anchor is used, it can greatly save this cost."

Virtual person is considered to be one of the alternatives of live anchors.

Brand companies lack traffic and stories.

In recent years, frequent domestic stars have not only caused great losses to the brand, but also broke the sense of security of the brand. In the context of the disappearance of traffic dividends, many brands want to find new traffic entrances.

Many people in the industry believe that virtual humans are not only cheaper and safer than celebrities, but also help brands to precipitate private domain brand assets. In addition, virtual human naturally attracts generations, which is the user group that many brands want to contact most.

Angie Angie Angie and a watch brand joint advertisement

Pang Bo, director of the marketing of snow claw technology, believes that IP personality is a future trend. Brands need a new way to talk to users. Virtual human beings are a good content carrier. More importantly, the labels such as virtual human self -compete, technology, trend, pioneer, etc. can help enhance the brand image.

The business needs of brand merchants have allowed virtual human beings to take a fast lane.

Of course, the above two points are only B -end demands of brand merchants and capital markets. To truly fire virtual human beings, they also need extensive C -terminal demand. This is the reason why virtual human beings exist.

3. The eternal pursuit of creation: the desire to become a creator

From the perspective of Fan Shiyu, since ancient times, human beings have always hoped to create a "life" that can convey emotions and interact with the real world, which is the desire to hide human heart to become the creator.

From murals to movies, from virtual person to the Yuan universe, it is just a tool for humans to realize the desire of the creation. This is also the inherent driving force for virtual human development.

The numeric person of Huang Renxun, CEO, CEO of Fake Rebellion

As a by -product of human beings, it is good for sculptures and virtual human beings. It is a converted content form. What is unchanged is the emotional link with users. This is also the core reason for users to consume. Just like a user is willing to reward Xu An, the surface is because of his fun character and nice voice, and inside still because of his likes for Xu Anyi. This is essentially an emotional consumption.

To put it simply, because virtual humans are a "creation" that is more convenient to interact with the outside world and more expression, users want to use virtual human beings to create richer and interesting content creation, and merchants hope that virtual people can create greater creation commercial value.

Conclusion

Back to the initial question, what is virtual person?

According to the current perspective, virtual human beings are a better content form of user experience. In essence, it is not different from painting and movies. However, because of the potential to create better content and get more traffic, it has won the market.

According to the future perspective, virtual human beings are one of the most likely to land in the universe. Although it is temporarily trapped in the Web2.0 world, many people believe that virtual human expectations are amazing and worthy of horse race.

Picture source: Ai Media Consultation

In my opinion, no matter what kind of perspective, the virtual person has not yet formed, but it is a veritable newborn. Because of this, the virtual human industry will tell the story more than the product, and the user will also have a sense of flowers in the fog when watching the virtual human beings.

Of course, this may not be a bad thing. Many practitioners believe that the virtual human industry is not only in a period of rapid development, but also the acceptance of technology, products, and marketing is gradually becoming better. There are many non -standard difficulties. It will be easily killed by the giant with funds.

So, how do startups ride the wind and waves in the virtual human blue ocean? How to set up a virtual person? How to determine the virtual human market positioning? How to go smoothly?

In the next article, we continue to discuss.

Author | Yun Feiyang

Edit | Zhang Jie

School pair | curls

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