VRoid Studio is an application for making (mostly anime-style) virtual avatars. Avatars are saved as .vmd files that can be used with programs such as VRChat, Unity3D, Blender, MikuMikuDance, and various VMD and VTuber software.
You create an avatar using the built-in body and clothing models, all of which have parametric options and can be retextured by importing texture files and by drawing on the model or texture view in-app. Each model contains a stack of textures that are overlaid to create a composed texture for the model. For example, an underwear texture may be overlaid over a tattoo texture, which is then overlaid over a base skin texture.
Avatars may be shared, downloaded, and used with VMD apps on the VRoid Hub site.
It is also possible to have an avatar commissioned by an artist.
You can do post-processing on the model in Blender (or Unity if your usage is for VR Chat). I.e. jigglebone/boob physics, or model accessories.
*Note: ¥100 is slightly less than $1 ($0.95 at the time of writing).
https://booth.pm/en is an online marketplace featuring many pre-made textures for VRoid Studio. Most items are free or within ¥100-300, with some items and item packs at ¥500-1000¥. High quality item packs with commercial licenses may cost up to 6000¥, however many cheap and free items also allow commercial use.
Get some free items and learn how VRoid Studio works before spending cash, as you will have to make decisions about which clothing models you will use and subsequently which textures will be compatible.
While the actual site has an English translation, most items on Booth are in Japanese. Here are some tools to help you make the most of the site:
Booth is an all-encompassing craft marketplace similar to Etsy. To filter the Search Bar for only VRoid-compatible items, preface your searches with vroid. E.g. vroid dress, vroid 靴下. Just entering vroid will show all VRoid items on Booth.
For more comprehensive searching, I recommend searching using Japanese terms. Google Translate can help with this (e.g. "socks" -> "靴下"). Jisho.com is an easy-to-use dictionary that can also help with this task. Re-using terms from items you have found can also help you find similar items.
It is also a good idea to click on creators' profiles to see other items that they have made - either the same item in different colors or different items of a similar theme can be found.
I recommend using the full-page translation built into the Chromium and Google Chrome browsers.
If you are trying to read Japanese and want a quick dictionary that lets you hover over individual words to see the translation, I recommend Rikaichamp for Firefox and Rikaikun for Chromium and Chrome.
Most items' descriptions contain text about how the item can be used used, such as:
- Can the item be used in in a commercial capacity?
- Can the item be redistributed?
In most cases, items for sale are not allowed to be redistributed. This means that neither the avatar using that item nor its derivatives (i.e. VRCat avatar) can be shared and must be private.
Many zip archives originating from Japan have their insides encoded with shift-jis instead of the utf8, which international copies of OSes can read. This is a non-issue if you cannot read Japanese, since alphanumeric characters are not corrupted; only Japanese characters are.
If you would like to fix it, however:
In short:
LANG=ja_JP # Tells 7zip to extract archive with shift-jis encoding.
7z x "<item>.zip" # Extract archive while preserving encoding.
convmv --notest -f shift-jis -t utf8 -r <extracted item directory>/* # Convert contents' encoding from shift-jis to utf8.
- Download the sjisunzip command-line utility. Place this either in your PATH or in the folder you will store item zips in.
- Open
cmdor PowerShell, typecd <folder path for zipped items>, and hit Enter. - Type
sjisunzip "<zip name (copy-paste this)>", hit Enter, and let the program unzip and convert the archive contents. The converted contents should appear in the same folder.
Payment for items can be done via PayPal. However, NSFW/18+ items must be purchased through RakutenPay and there is an hour delay when purchasing. The process for using RakutenPay is simple and only requires creating an account and entering an international credit card. The website is partly in Japanese; however it is a standard payment authorization site and should be easy to guess what everything is. After creating an account and authorizing, payments can be made on the Booth site. Your first NSFW transaction may be declined, but approving the transaction with your credit card provider should let subsequent transactions through. Re-buy the original item once approved.
Bare international credit cards do not work on the Booth site directly. This is a common issue with Japanese websites (and ATMs, it is annoying at best).
- Latex Catsuit, Gloves, & Stockings
- Basic White Innerwear (also available in other colors)
- C-string Bikini
- Eyepatch
- Techwear Boots
- Cyborg Body
- Sportwear
- Punk-y Outfit
- Business Suit