How To Make a 2D VTuber Model | Art - Rigging - Tracking [All In One Guide]

Essential Software and Costs for a VTuber Pipeline Model, rig, track, and record using four tools: a PSD-capable art app, Live2D Cubism for rigging, VTube Studio for face tracking, and OBS for recording/streaming. Live2D Cubism is paid (about 14,000 yen/year or 2,000 yen/month) but offers a 42‑day trial that’s often enough to finish a model. VTube Studio is free on Steam, with a small fee to remove webcam watermark and an iPhone Pro upgrade to avoid frequent disconnects; iPhone tracking is more accurate than a webcam. OBS is free and records models from VTube Studio with transparent backgrounds, letting you test everything with trials before committing.

Plan Canvas Size and Build Clean, Layered Artwork Pick a canvas size suited to how large the avatar appears on screen, from small upper-body stream avatars to detailed full-body models (the test file uses a small width, while a streaming full body example spans roughly thousands of pixels vertically). Sketch symmetrically to simplify rigging, then separate every movable part into named layers, labeling left/right consistently (e.g., L_ and R_). Keep face and lip line art on their own layers; add upper/lower eyelid skins, mouth skins to conceal the interior, pupils/eye shines, front/back hair, clothing, neck, and shadows. Use clipping masks and multiply blending for shadows, optionally paint a hidden face-line mask to erase the face outline at certain angles, then save as a PSD.

Import the PSD into Live2D and Set Up Parts Open Live2D Cubism in the Modeling workspace and import the PSD; the display resolution prompt doesn’t change the model itself. In the Parts window, restore clipping by assigning each shadow to the proper Clipping ID (e.g., face or neck), and use the Inspector to rename and manage settings. If the artwork changes, drag the updated PSD in to replace matching names and add new parts, or recover deleted parts via the Project window’s Create Art Mesh. Save the project so you can resume editing later.

Generate Meshes and Pack Textures Without Distortion Add meshes to every part, preferring the Automatic Mesh Generator (heavy deformation for features like face, eyes, hair, lips; standard for less active parts). For perfectly synchronized motion, copy the exact mesh from face skin to face line art (and similarly for separated neck skin/line) using manual mesh edit copy/paste. Build a square Texture Atlas, placing parts without scaling or overlap and adding pages if needed. Press T to compare quality; any blurriness or warping signals overlapping or rescaled textures.

Stack Deformers to Control Complex Motion Use Warp Deformers to bend parts and nest them hierarchically, naming and adjusting divisions for precise control. Add Rotation Deformers for pivots, either centered automatically or placed manually with the creation tool. Select parts quickly with arrow, lasso, or brush, and shape linear details using Deform Path Edit on lips, lashes, and brows. The Deformer window acts like a folder tree, showing parent-child relationships that drive layered motion.

Rig Head Rotation and Perspective with Angle Parameters Map Angle Z first by adding a chin-to-head rotation deformer and setting three keyforms (left, center, right). Link Angle X and Y to handle left/right and up/down head turns; create a head deformer, key the extremes, then synthesize corners and refine features like the nose with their own deformers. Use a reversed, opacity-controlled face-line mask clipped to the face to hide outlines at certain views. In the Physics Settings preview, drag the cursor to verify the model tracks the intended angles.

Build Eyes, Gaze, and Brows Efficiently For IL Open, set keyforms at 0 (closed), 1 (open), and optionally 1.3 (wide); shape the eyelash with Deform Path Edit and drive upper/lower eyelid skins so they cover the eyeball across states. Use IL Smile to fade blush opacity from 0 to 100, and link Eyeball X and Y to steer pupils through corners. Rig brows with Brow Y (up/down) and Brow Form (sad/normal/happy), omitting Brow X/Angle that typical tracking doesn’t use. Duplicate the finished left eye to the right by reflecting horizontally, reassign parameters from L to R, invert Eyeball X so both eyes look the same way, and batch-rename L_ to R_ to keep folders and parents consistent.

Shape Mouth Poses and Core Body Motion Combine Mouth Form and Mouth Open: set the center to closed, up to open, left to sad, and right to happy, sculpting lip lines and mouth skins with Deform Path Edit for clean concealment. For Body X/Y, create a top-level body deformer, link X and Y, set keyforms for small shifts, and synthesize corners; skip Body tilt if lower body is absent. Add automatic breathing by keying a subtle upward motion on a dedicated parameter. Create on/off toggles by adding a new parameter and keying the affected parts’ opacity from 0 to 100.

Add Physics for Hair and Accessories, Then Export Give hair and dangling parts custom sway parameters (front/side/back), mirror motions for efficiency, then wire them in Physics Settings by adding inputs (head or body) and outputs bound to those parameters. Tune pendulum values to taste, stack extra deformers and pendulums for longer strands, and create new parameters for items like jacket strings driven by body input. When movement feels natural, export for runtime as an OC3 package with physics enabled, saving the textures and data into a model folder. This folder will contain the Texture Atlas and all files needed by the tracker.

Track in VTube Studio, Stream with OBS, and Animate Import the model into VTube Studio, run auto-setup, and connect either a webcam (remove watermark with a small fee) or an iPhone via Wi‑Fi or cable to calibrate accurate face tracking; update the model icon by placing an image in the same folder and selecting it in settings. Build expressions by creating them in the Expression Editor, binding custom parameters, and assigning hotkeys or on-screen buttons. Enable transparent capture via the Background color picker so only the model appears in OBS. In OBS, add a Game Capture targeting VTube Studio, enable transparency, hide the cursor, optionally add a display source, reorder layers, crop with a filter, and test-record; find or change the recording path in Output settings. For animated content, use Cubism’s Animation workspace to key parameters on a timeline and export to video, or export a motion file to VTube Studio and trigger it with a hotkey.