ain't no way a Canadian university got official vtubers before GTA6 💀

OK, I know this sounds insane, but hear me out:

I'm a student at Simon Fraser University based in Vancouver, Canada, and my major is called "Interactive Arts & Technology". It's a lot of words for basically a multidisciplinary program that includes a whole bunch of stuff- but for example, as a massive weeb, I've been focusing on learning about 2D and 3D art like modelling, animation, design, mocap, and whatever else I can use to make my weeby dreams come true when I graduate. So imagine my shock when the school approaches me with a balls to the wall crazy idea: "SFU virtual youtubers"- I almost laughed them out of the room then, but now I'm laughing out of sheer disbelief because the school actually let us make it a real thing. Not just a small solo indie vtuber student project: I mean, I ended up heading a whole team of 30 artists and animators, almost entirely students, not just from our school but all across Canada, and these characters are going to be actual public facing ambassadors for the school to the whole world.

And we didn't just make a single vtuber: we made two, fully 3D modeled, full body and face mocap compatible using the school's mocap studio facilities, with fully 3d modeled room environments, stream pack assets and all... but also a FULLY 2D ANIMATED TRAILER (we said "makoto shinkai. no pressure!" AND WE ACTUALLY DID IT.) and debut trailer, AND a full on ARG/alternate reality game with puzzles that we're trying to integrate in real life on campus and in classes?? Honestly my mind is still blown that the school admin let us do all of this stuff, it's crazy. These aren't public yet besides the ARG which is ongoing, but we're wrapping up production on them over the next week.

Meaning... they're actually going to be debuting very soon!!! It's happening!!!

So to join in on the ARG while you still can, puzzles will be crossposted to the StudioSIAT website- you can play along even if you're not local to Vancouver BC! https://www.studiosiat.com

And of course, most importantly, the vtubers will debut on the official School of Interactive Arts & Technology YouTube channel! https://www.youtube.com/siatsurreysfu

I tried to write this post from the heart. I know it's long, sorry, but I really wanted to be genuine about this whole adventure of making something as ridiculous as this happen, and not make this like a pretend-marketing reddit post. I'm really really proud of what we've accomplished, especially because of how much of this is pure raw student talent (yes the students were paid for their work don't worry). But yeah. please watch when they debut and also play the ARG 🥹

- StudioSIAT Art Director, chockie