philip lelyveld The world of entertainment technology

Decoding China’s virtual human industry – an interview with Nicky Yu from RM GROUP, creator of China’s first Meta human AYAYI

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In general, there are two types of virtual human beings in China: IP (Intellectual Property) oriented, like AYAYI, and function-oriented, such as digital banking customer service staff members or virtual beings who can perform other tasks on a human’s behalf.

While under the IP-oriented umbrella, there are anime-based characters like Luo Tianyi and hyper-realistic Meta humans, like AYAYI. Both rely on regular content production and continuous interaction with users to enhance the value of the IPs they represent and further achieves monetisation through “2B” or “2C” (or brand/consumer-facing business collaborations). But the commercial model of IP-oriented virtual beings is rather unstable. Just like not every movie can be a hit at the box office, so the former could be more difficult in this sense. ...

The exact making process can vary from one to the other. Because we are the first ones to develop a Meta human being, our approach at the time was similar to the production of a movie. We started with a script outlining the character’s persona and created a sketch based on those pre-set personalities and then modelled it.

Once we were satisfied with the modelling, we launched a market survey, collecting feedback from the general public to see if they think the appearance matches the persona we created. After that, we further polished and enriched the design of the character, which is more of a routine. ...

What do you think is the key that allows virtual beings to build a relationship with audiences emotionally?

Just like through a movie, the public may fall in love with a character but there needs to be some medium, through which it allows audience interaction, helping them to understand the personality of the virtual character and to feel as though it is ‘a person’. ...

MPDAO is like an online community for anyone interested in these new technologies and to meet like-minded friends. There are also periodical online classes for members to share information and discuss opinions. ...

See the full story here: https://daoinsights.com/exclusives/decoding-chinas-virtual-human-industry-an-interview-with-nicky-yu-from-rm-group-creator-of-chinas-first-meta-human-ayayi/