260 lines
12 KiB
Markdown
260 lines
12 KiB
Markdown
---
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title: Converting a VRChat Avatar to VRM Format for VTubing
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date: 2022-01-02
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series: vtuber
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tags:
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- vrchat
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- vrm
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- tutorial
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---
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So you want to be a VTuber, but you already have a custom avatar that you really
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like in VRChat. Surely there's a way to make it work, right? This tutorial is
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going to cover the problem, how I do it and everything I learned along the way.
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To say that VR is in its infancy is an understatement. This early on in the
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game, there are many different ecosystems and each of them really came up with
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their own avatar format out of necessity. As such, there's a lot of vastly
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different and incompatible ecosystems for this kind of avatar data. However, a
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common avatar data interchange format is starting to crop up organically:
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[VRM](https://vrm.dev). This format mostly came from the efforts of Japanese
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VTubers, and as such most 3d VTubing software supports it.
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However, you still have your avatar stuck in VRChat format, thus this
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article exists.
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[Please note that this REQUIRES you to have access to your avatar data in the
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Unity editor. Please support VRChat creators, making this kind of content is
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hard and expensive.](conversation://Mara/hacker)
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So at a high level, here are the steps for doing this:
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* Add the VRM plugins to your VRChat avatar project
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* Export a basic unfinished VRM
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* Make a new Unity project with the VRM plugins
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* Import the unfinished VRM into it
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* Fix the shaders
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* Fix the blendshapes
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* Test in VSeeFace
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## First Export
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First, you need to get your avatar into a "dirty" VRM file. This is going to
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become the basis of your VTuber model. In order to do this, you need to import
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the VRM plugins for Unity into your VRChat avatar project.
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There are two ways to do this, one of them is to import the Unity packages
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directly and the other is to customize your Unity package manifest to include
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the VRM plugins. I'm going to cover both of these below:
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<div id="installvrm"></div>
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With either of these methods, you will need the VRM plugins [from
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GitHub](https://github.com/vrm-c/UniVRM).
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### UnityPackage Install Method
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The simplest way to get the VRM plugins installed is to use the UnityPackage
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files that the VRM plugin team releases. Download the UniVRM and VRM packages
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from the latest release:
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And then import them into Unity by going to the "Assets" menu, clicking on the
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"Import Package" menu and then click on "Custom Package" and select each of the
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UnityPackage files you downloaded.
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### `manifest.json` Install Method
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On the release page for UniVRM, there's a JSON fragment labeled `manifest.json`.
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This corresponds to a file in your Unity project where you can tell Unity to
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automatically download and manage packages and updates to them from GitHub and
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other sources.
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In your Unity project folder, open the "Packages" folder and open
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`manifest.json` in your favorite text editor (such as emacs). There will be a
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JSON object that looks like this:
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```json
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{
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"dependencies": {
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"com.bar.foo": "1.0.0"
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}
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}
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```
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This will be full of other things by default, but you can mostly ignore it
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because those are things Unity puts in there by itself. Go to the end of the
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object and add a comma to the end of the last value in `dependencies`. Then
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paste in the VRM `manifest.json` fragment in the release page. You should end up
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with something like this:
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```json
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{
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"dependencies": {
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"com.bar.foo": "1.0.0",
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"com.vrmc.vrmshaders": "https://github.com/vrm-c/UniVRM.git?path=/Assets/VRMShaders#v0.92.0",
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"com.vrmc.gltf": "https://github.com/vrm-c/UniVRM.git?path=/Assets/UniGLTF#v0.92.0",
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"com.vrmc.univrm": "https://github.com/vrm-c/UniVRM.git?path=/Assets/VRM#v0.92.0",
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"com.vrmc.vrm": "https://github.com/vrm-c/UniVRM.git?path=/Assets/VRM10#v0.92.0"
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}
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}
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```
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The exact release of the VRM plugin based on when you read this article, but
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overall it should look something like that.
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### Make the first VRM
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When you install the Unity VRM plugins, you should have a new "VRM0" menu in
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your Unity menu bar. Click on it and select "Export UniVRM-0.80.0".
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A new window will open titled "VRM Exporter".
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Change the language to "En" (English) so that you can read the error and warning
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messages. Then fill out the title, version and author information and export
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your avatar to a VRM file on your desktop folder.
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[Strictly speaking, you don't NEED to use your desktop, however that's where I
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put intermediate files for things like this.](conversation://Mara/hacker)
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## Actually Making Your VRM Shine
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Strictly speaking, I don't know if you _need_ to do this, but I've found that
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things are the most reliable when you make a separate Unity project for
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manipulating your VRM avatar. Open the Unity Hub and create a separate project,
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then re-import the [VRM plugin](#installvrm).
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Once you have that ready, import your raw VRM into your new Unity project by
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clicking on the "VRM0" menu and selecting "Import from VRM 0.x". Select your raw
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VRM from before and then save it as a prefab in your folder. Unity will lock up
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for a moment while everything gets crunched and you will have a shiny new prefab
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in your project.
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Drag that prefab into the scene and then click on it to open its inspector.
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Reset its position to 0,0,0 so that it's in the center of the world.
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### Shaders
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Now you will need to go in and fix all the shaders for your avatar. They should
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either be the MToon shader or the UniUnlit shader. MToon should be your default
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choice as it gives you the anime cartoony feeling that you see in a lot of
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Japanese VTubers on YouTube. This is going to require some trial and error in
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that annoying "draw the rest of the owl" kind of way.
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### Blendshapes
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Now you will have a basic avatar, but if you import it into things like VSeeFace
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you will notice that the avatar doesn't move its mouth when you speak things.
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This is because you need to fix the avatar's blendshapes. Blendshapes are the
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cues that the VRM format uses to know how to manipulate your avatar model's
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bones in order to make it _look_ like the avatar is speaking.
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Unfortunately, the avatar format is limited to having blendshapes for vowel
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sounds only. In practice, this is not a huge deal (keep in mind this format was
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originally designed for the Japanese market) but it can mean that you need to
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enunciate your vowels a bit more to be sure the software picks up what you are
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saying and adjusts your avatar lips appropriately. There are ways to get better
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tracking, such as using an iPhone's FaceID sensor for
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[Perfect Sync](https://malaybaku.github.io/VMagicMirror/en/tips/perfect_sync),
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but for now vowels only will be good enough.
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When you import a VRM, it creates a blendshapes folder in your project folder.
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Open that folder and you will see a bunch of files that are named after the
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different VRM animations that you can customize. The big ones are the speech
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parts `A`, `I`, `U`, `E` and `O`. These will form the basis of your VTuber vibe.
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Start with `A`. This correlates to the
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[IPA](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Phonetic_Alphabet) vowel /a/,
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which is made by having a fairly open mouth and with your tongue resting on the
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bottom of your mouth. Open the `A` blendshape and expand the "Body" dropdown.
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The slider `vrc.v_aa` correlates to this sound, so set it to 100.
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The rest of the vowels should be customized in the same way, here is a small
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table of what they are called in the blendshapes folder, the IPA for them and
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the slider that I use:
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| Name | IPA | Slider |
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| :---- | :--- | :------ |
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| A | [`/a/`](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_central_unrounded_vowel) | `vrc.v_aa` |
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| E | [`/e/`](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mid_front_unrounded_vowel) | `vrc.v_e` |
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| I | [`/i/`](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Close_front_unrounded_vowel) | `vrc.v_ih` |
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| O | [`/o/`](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mid_back_rounded_vowel) | `vrc.v_oh` |
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| U | [`/u/`](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Close_back_unrounded_vowel) | `vrc.v_ou` |
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These should get you an _approximation_ of the vowel sounds, which should be
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good enough for VTubing starting out.
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Another good thing to care about here is blinking. Having your avatar stare
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endlessly into the eyes of your audience is a great way to make people very
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uncomfortable and click away. This is not a good way to grow a fanbase around
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your content.
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There are three blendshapes for blinking. One for both eyes blinking, one for
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the left eye blinking and one for the right eye blinking. Customize these the
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same way you customized the other blendshapes, but look for things that make
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your avatar's eyes move. Some models may not support having only one eye
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blinking. If this is the case, just make all the blendshapes have both eyes
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blink.
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You can also customize the moods for expressions like being angry, but I'm going
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to skip this for now. Play around with it and you should be able to get
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something that looks decent.
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## Testing
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Now we should have a semi-decent VRM file. Export it by going to the "VRM0" menu
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and choosing "Export to VRM 0.x" like you did the last time. Save that to your
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desktop as a VRM file.
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Open your favorite VTubing software such as
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[VSeeFace](https://www.vseeface.icu/) and import your avatar. Then look into
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your webcam and say a sentence like this: "Alice shut the door with earnest".
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Watch the avatar's lips move as you say it. There will be a very slight delay as
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you say things, but overall it should roughly match up.
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If you don't like how things turned out, go in and mess with the sliders. This
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will take a lot of experimentation to make things look nice. This is normal.
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Once you get it to a state where you are happy, save your VRM to several places
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to make sure it's properly backed up. I'd suggest using DropBox, Google Drive,
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iCloud Drive or anything else, as long as you have at least three copies. You
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can recreate your avatar from the Unity project should you need to (or worst
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case go back through this tutorial from scratch), but I'd suggest avoiding
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having to do that by having proper backups. Consult the [3-2-1
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rule](https://www.backblaze.com/blog/the-3-2-1-backup-strategy/) for ideas on
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how/where to back things up.
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Most importantly, have fun in your new life as a VTuber! It's an exciting new
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frontier out there.
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---
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Special thanks to LithiumFox and lesliepone for reviewing this article for
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content before publishing.
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Want to watch these posts get written live? Check me out on
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[twitch.tv](https://twitch.tv/princessxen)! The VOD for this post will be live
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on Twitch for the next two weeks [here](https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1250763144)
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and on YouTube permanently [here](https://youtu.be/ZTnFjBsm5Rs) (if you are
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reading this the day of this post, the YouTube link will not be live).
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