Mira & Yuki

 Our Own Experience

A few months ago, our team Cyberfox Agency made a decision to develop our own mascot. The main idea was the following: this character wouldn’t be “just another 3D character” – it would represent the business virtually on numerous social networking sites.

To make it come to life, we recruited our top creative talent. After many rounds of brainstorming and revision, we’re ready to share a brief sample of this process with you!

Even though she’s pretty young, our mascot Mira is quickly becoming popular. She has gathered more than 500k users for her Snapchat lens in her 16 years. Additionally, she has already been noticed on VR Chat (VRM Model).

Solution for AVS Consulting

The name of the company’s future 3D mascot is Yuki. What was our solution for AVS Consulting?

VRM Model

Starting with a blank model, Cyberfox’s team gradually made the shape more complex by adding more loops. At the same time, we went into sculpting mode and fine-tuned the shape there as well.

When we were satisfied with the shape, we painted it to represent the picture as a whole, coming closer to the finished look. 

Next, our crew aligned the polygonal mesh and made final edits to the shape of the model.

In this model, we didn’t use the classic method of baking with highpoly, as this isn’t required for AR\VR models like Mira and Yuki.

Then, the process of weighting the model and rigging was completed successfully. We worked on animating the model, as well A Few Words About Our Company…

Cyberfox is a company that focuses on digital technology. We offer a wide range of services, such as graphic design, online marketing, and building and maintaining websites. Our team is dedicated to helping businesses succeed in today’s dynamic digital environment.

The Main Request

Our client, as well as our closest partner, AVS Consulting, asked us about creating their own 3D company mascot that would help their business improve all key processes and become its virtual ambassador on multiple social media platforms. Since we have wide experience in this area, all hands immediately agreed.

Before moving to the solution, let’s have a look at how Cyberfox developed its own mascot: Mira.

About her facial expressions.

Here, we actually had to learn how to create shape keys and facial expressions, so that the models were compatible with ARKit and could be used in VRChat.

Finally, the shader setup was completed. After that, rendering was done, and the process ended with optimizing the file size of the VRM model. That’s it!

As a result, we developed a brand-new, high-quality, and attractive mascot: Yuki. Below are some of his remarkable features we’d like to mention here:

• a well-considered character concept that has undergone numerous revisions,
• completely hand-painted textures on a fully rigged 3D model,
• low-poly – 33k triangles,
• a 50+ shape key VRM avatar that’s ready for the metaverse and can detect even the smallest facial expressions,
• hair, a tail, and attire physics remake.

Snapchat Lenses

For Snapchat lenses, we had to learn the entire manufacturing process to make exactly the lenses we wanted. Here’s what the process looked like.

First of all, we had to separate the head model in Blender and repurpose it for Lens Studio, as well as use some templates from Lens Studio like the facial expression template. Our team added a “rubber” mask to avoid the webcam showing something that would affect the model. After that, we added some expansions from another template for chain motion to bring the hair and ears physics to life and applied a mask to the body so that the hair wouldn’t shine through.

Methodology & Transparency

When painting the VRM model, we used the usual Hand-Paint. However, our company decided to add the feature of the style, which was set by us initially: rough semi-transparent smears, preferably square in shape. They needed to be laid on the border of the light and shade and had to maintain a feeling of “lightness” as if they had been laid pretty quickly.

Result

Cyberfox successfully created a unique 3D mascot for AVS Consulting, and the customer was satisfied. Yuki is still gaining popularity in the digital world with each passing day, providing recognition for the company and improving all the significant business processes as well. Also, it continues to represent AVS Consulting virtually on several social networks, drawing the attention of users and being the symbol of high-quality services and proven business processes.

If you’re looking for someone to develop a 3D mascot or a virtual avatar, we’ve got some great news for you: we’re always open to new projects and are ready to help you with yours anytime. Just contact us through the contacts listed on our website – we’ll be glad to become partners with you!