- Welcome to Streaming!
- Some Do’s You SHOULD Know
- Do Not/What Not to Do
- Let’s Talk Debuts
- Social Medias, Streamer Tools & Other Necessities; Your essentials for Debuting
- Speaking of Live2D
- Finally, You got Games on Your Phone?
Before we get into it, I sincerely apologise for being gone for so long, essentially my PC died due to multiple occuring power outages frying it, so I had to wait until I got a new one. I also kind of lost all motivation for doing anything since this was the second time a power outage fried my PC. But I’m back now and we are not going to address my depression levels. I appreciate everyone being patient with me. There is a backlog of content I wish to produce and that I will get to. Anyway, let’s get into this new topic!
Also, Happy Pride Wrath & Pride Disability Month! Pay a Queer Disabled Creator today! Get angry at your Government for failing you. Defy ableist terms and language. Remember that things like ADHD & Autism are disabilities. Treat people with kindness. We need it in this world right now.
Welcome to Streaming!
I am going to explain to you, the general etiquette and some things you need to know for streaming as a Vtuber. Don’t worry it’s not a lot. Mostly.
I am not going to shove Idol culture down your throat either. We don’t do that here. You don’t have to be business professional or follow corpo rules to grow. Though some professionalism is advised. Just a smidge. This blog will more be about the do’s and don’ts of streaming as a Tuber.
Some Do’s You SHOULD Know
- DO be polite, kind, and honest. People who are these things tend to go farther than people who openly aren’t.
- Do set CLEAR & CONCISE Boundaries. This is important not only for yourself, but also for streams, viewers and friends. Boundaries help you the streamer not get parasocial friends and viewers who think you’re their waifu/husbando/nonbinary spouse, but also, you’re less likely to attract the creeps and weirdos that crawl through this space. But you also need to stand firm and maintain them. Please, PLEASE maintain boundaries. It’ll help you not hate the space in the long run. You can have best friends, friends and acquitances. Not everyone will mesh with you nor will you click with everyone.
- Do communicate with your community. Clear, constant and concise communication with your community, whether it be on Twitter, Discord, Bluesky or whatever combination of socials you use helps your fans stick around and trust you more. At least in my opinion.
- Do Make friends. Genuine friends will always be a blessing in this space. You get people who cheer and root for you, as well as friendship. They get support, and someone who also equally cheers and support them. As well as lasting friendship.
- Do have fun with it. Be a goofy goober. Be a silly guy. Be anything but boring.
- Do what you want to do. There’s more Avenues of being a Virtual Creator than Streaming. Be a Vwriter, like I. Be a Vstreamer. Be a Vtiktoker. Make Youtube Videos about drinks, vtubing content, games, plants, animals, pokemon, whatever. CREATE. You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.
Do Not/What Not to Do
- DO NOT Self Promo in other people’s chats/messages etc. It’s one of the biggest no no’s of streaming. Do not go into streams casually saying any version of “i’m gonna go live/go stream”, even if you know the streamer and/or are their friend. It’s bad form. Major Faux Pas. Immediate side eye. You’ll also usually see it as a rule in twitch chats and discord, unless there is a self promotion channel in the discord.
- Do not Use people as stepping stones. For the love of God. Several large creators have been outed for using people as stepping stones. Be genuine. Be kind. Skeletons don’t stay buried for long in this medium. People will talk and avoid you. And speaking of talking;
- Do NOT shit talk people. They will also, again, talk and avoid you. And once again, several large creators have been outed for this. If you don’t like someone, don’t pretend to be their friend. Either stay away, or if you have a problem with them, and unless it’s a crime or they have severely harmed you, try to talk it out like adults. Majority of this space is filled with 20 something year olds to people in their 50’s. Let’s try to act our age. Though point two and point three kind of go hand in hand.
- Be Conscious of who you surround yourself with. Have you ever heard the phrase “Show me your friends and I’ll tell you who you are?”? Yeah, that also applies to Vtubing. You hang around the wrong crowd, whether it’s manipulative people, drama mongerers or straight up Nazis, it shows what and WHO you tolerate in your space. It shows whether your space is one that is inclusive or not.
Let’s Talk Debuts
You CAN have a debut. You Should have a debut. It’s up to you if you want to. Most, if not all Vtubers do it to garner eyes and support before they start streaming. It’s a good thing, however, it is NOT NECESSARY. You CAN just start streaming if you want to. But, if you are going to do a proper debut, make sure you do your research, gather your essentials, which will be explained below, and get your socials ready.
Social Medias, Streamer Tools & Other Necessities; Your essentials for Debuting
- Get your socials ready – Twitter, Discord, Twitch primarily if you’re streaming, Tiktok etc. Put your links everywhere.
- Grab your Streaming software – whether it’s OBS, Streamlabs, Prism Live, etc. Most Streamers use OBS because of it’s versatility, user friendliness, library of plugins that are streamer friendly, as well as it being easier on PCs than say Streamlabs.
- REFERENCE SHEET – A reference sheet is anpther essential part of debuting. It’s like jingling keys. A Reference sheet, or a Ref Sheet for short, is an in depth look at your Model/OC from head to toe, typically featuring your colours (skin tone, hair colour, eye colour, clothing/marking/tattoo colours etc), any tattoos, and your model/oc’s full design from the front, back and sides. A lot of Tubers like to tease their model or ref sheet. For example, they’ll lock it behind a certain number of likes and retweets, each goal revealing a piece of the model until the entire model is revealed. Also, if you have the money to do so, I would recommend you get a lot of art pieces of your model to pair with the reveal of your ref sheet. VGen is a great place to start if you need commissions for your model, whether it’s your ref sheet, live 2D etc.
- Discord Server – You can have this already prepped and loaded or you can unveil it as a goal of your debut. for e.g. if you get to a certain number of followers on bsky, twitch etc, you can unveil this.
- Links – Make sure you have all of your links tidily and in one spot. Some Tubers use carrd, a website where you can “build” your own custom page that is unique to you. You can upload backgrounds, arrange links etc. Another website you can use is Linktree. It’s easy and you don’t have to build anything, only customise how the theme looks and place your links. Both websites offer extra stuff for monthly payments so if you want the extra stuff, you can do that.
- Promote that sh!t – You can make some promo videos for twitter, bluesky, tiktok and youtube about your debuts! Throw it all over the internet actually. Get eyes on your gorgeous model and stream!
- Emails – When (believe in yourself) you get popular and grow into a bigger Vtuber from a smol baby vtuber, Sponsors and collaborators are gonna wanna reach out to you! Make sure you have a professional email, separate from your personal one, that they can reach out to, for example in your twitch bio!
- Secure your Accounts – People are losing accounts to scams left and right on Twitter and other places. Do not click random links. No you didn’t “accidentally” get reported by mistake to Twitter/Steam/Discord. No that Steam/Discord personnel does not need access to your account through you giving them your password. No you do not need to “check out this game” your friend sent on discord. No the artist cold DMing you about commissions is not a real person. KEEP YOUR ACCOUNT SAFE! And get two factor authentication on all of them! You can do that through phone 2FA or an app like Authy or google authenticator.
- A Good PC – Unfortunately, due to how a LOT of games are optimised (if you’re going that route), there is an ever increasing need to have a good PC. Or at least one that can handle your streaming Software (for reference, OBS does NOT work well with Intel Graphics Cards), as well as whatever software you’re using for your Model, whether it’s L2D, Png or 3D AND the game you’re playing. I’d recommend at LEAST 16gbs of RAM and at least a Graphics card in the 3000 (eg 3060) range. Though I DO understand that some PCs and PC parts, ESPECIALLY Graphics Cards can be expensive.
Speaking of Live2D
Do you want a LIVE2D, or start with a pngtuber and then go 2D then 3D? If you have the money for it, commissioning an L2D model, as it’s normally called, starts with commissioning an Artist to create your Model/OC and make it riggable, by “cutting” it, a process that separates the layers into a lot of parts in order for a rigger to animate it. Speaking of Rigging, if you’re lucky, you can find an artist who does both your art and your rigging. But that will in fact be expensive as FOOK. However, if you want to go the Pngtuber route, that is valid as well.
There are several applications you can use for pngtubing, L2D and 3D.
For Pngtubing, there’s;
- Vaedotube – a lightweight application where you can use your pngs to express yourself. It’s available on itch.io and is pay what you want. If you are able to, please tip the creator for their work. They also have a website you can visit!
- PNGtuber+ by KaiaKairos – It’s a bit more complex than Vaedotube but it’s also a bit more fluid. It’s also pay what you want, and can be found on itch.io as well. So again, please tip the creator!
- PNGtuber Remix by TheMime – Again a bit more complex than Vaedotube. and pay what you want. Also found on itch.io so again, please support!
Live 2Ds are usually the regular type of vtuber you see on Twitch/Youtube, etc, aside from pngtubers. They require an Artist drawing and “cutting” them in specific ways for a “Rigger” to then animate the model. And when it’s delivered to you, typically in PSD form, you use Vtube Studio, the premiere app for using a L2D model. You can aslo check around on either Booth or Kofi too for premade or free models. Though if you do go that route, please ensure you credit the artist UNLESS they say it’s okay if you use it without credit. You should still credit them regardless it’s just good streamer etiquette. There’s also a few other apps/websites you can use like mixitup, to enhance your streams. So please take advantage of these assets!
There’s also 3D models! However, please note these can be a bit more expensive than L2Ds or png models! The pros to this though is that they offer much more versatility like full body tracking, etc, if you wish to go that route. You can also make your own model in VROID Studio. VROID studio offers a set of premade assets for you to be able to make a 3D model. You can also find custom assets on Booth too as well as most likely on Kofi. Again, please credit if you use/pay for the custom assets, even if they say it’s okay to not credit. CREDIT YOUR ARTISTS! You can also have it commissioned if you don’t know how to make a 3D model or you just don’t want to. Rigging and Model Making is hard work. Go thank you model mama/papa/nonbinary parent right now actually. Do it. You can also use software like VSeeFace for 3D model tracking and puppeteering. VNyan is another capable software for tracking and puppeteering, completely free to you and available on itch.io and made by Suvidriel! So please, again, tip the creators if you are so able to.
Finally, You got Games on Your Phone?
When you do eventually debut, what do you want to do when you stream? Do you want to do variety stuff? A different game every time you stream? Or do you want to go into a dedicated niche? Both has its pros and cons. Variety gives you more, well, variety. However, popular games are not your best friends as everyone and their mother’s dogs, will be playing said popular games. Not great analytics wise. Being a Streamer/Vtuber dedicated to a single game, say, as a fortnite streamer, also has it’s pros and cons. Pros are, you will have people who also like that game dedicated to watching you play that game, cause it’s cool and neat and they like watching you playing said game. Con; your views might suffer if you decide to ever switch to anything else. I would recommend you weigh the pros and cons and ask your Vtuber friends for opinions on the best route for you. However, please remember that in the end, it’s YOUR route to take. You choose what content you want to make, whether it’s gaming, art, music etc.
And above all else, make sure you enjoy what you do, whatever it is! If you don’t enjoy it, it will bleed into your content. Make sure you WANT to do this. That YOU want to stream and have fun and entertain the masses. That YOU want to get up in the morning and hold that special event for your community. You can do it. You got this!
If you like this article, make sure you check out our other ones! A mega article on May and June is coming out too. So be on the lookout! Happy Reading and Thank you for joining us! Make sure to hit the subscribe button so you never miss a blogpost and get them straight in your email! We’re also on BSKY and have a Discord Server focused on BIPOC Vtubers! So please make sure to join us! We also have a Twitch where we just did our first ever Episode! The video will be up on Youtube! Make sure to subscribe so you don’t miss out. See you in the next one!
-Anya
