VTubing & Avatar Tools

VTube Studio, VRoid Studio, VSeeFace, Live2D / VRM avatars, mocap pipelines for streamers and presenters.

The "be a cartoon on stream" stack. For OBS itself see Live Streaming Software. For overlays / alerts that pair with avatars see Overlays & Alerts. For 3D modeling tooling beyond avatar creation see 3D & WebGL. For VFX / compositing see VFX & Compositing. For virtual cameras to deliver the avatar feed see Virtual Cameras.

2D avatars (Live2D)

★ VTube Studio — closed source, free + paid Steam DLC; the default 2D Live2D VTubing app on Win/Mac/iOS/Android. Webcam tracking, iPhone TrueDepth tracking, hand tracking, Twitch chat hotkeys. The market leader by a wide margin in 2026.
PrprLive — free closed Win/Mac; cheaper VTube Studio alternative; smaller community.
FaceRig — discontinued 2022; replaced by Animaze.
Animaze (by Holotech) — closed source freemium; the FaceRig successor; mixes 2D and 3D.
Live2D Cubism (rigging) — paid free tier; the standard rig editor used by VTuber riggers (paid commission market is huge).
Inochi2D — BSD OSS; an open-source Live2D-like rigging system; growing fast in 2026 as the FOSS path. Cross-platform.

★ VRoid Studio — closed source, free; Pixiv's anime-style 3D avatar creator → exports .vrm. Pair with VSeeFace or Warudo. Default 3D avatar creation in 2026.
★ VSeeFace — closed source, free; the popular VRM player for streamers; webcam + iPhone tracking; OSC / VMC protocol; rock-solid free pick.
★ Warudo — closed source, free + paid pro; modern VRM streaming app with stages, props, scripting, mocap. Many top VTubers have moved to it.
VMagicMirror — free closed; VRM avatar that types on a virtual keyboard while you actually type on yours; wholesome desk-cam pick.
3tene — closed source freemium; cross-platform VRM player.
Wakaru — free closed; lightweight VRM player.
VRChat — free closed; not a streaming app per se, but many streamers livestream from inside VRChat.
Resonite — free closed; social VR with strong avatar tooling.

★ iFacialMocap (paid) and ★ Meowface (free Android counterpart) — phone-based ARKit blendshape capture → VTube Studio / VSeeFace / Warudo over Wi-Fi. Massive quality jump over webcam tracking.
Live Link Face (Epic, free) — iPhone ARKit → Unreal; pairs with MetaHumans.
Animaze for iPhone — bundled.

Mocap (full body) for VTubing — webcam-based with Mediapipe, Move.ai, Plask Motion (paid free trial); hardware suits (Rokoko Smartsuit ~$2500 paid; HaritoraX ~$300; Mocopi ~$350).
HaritoraX Wireless — paid; 6-point cheap full-body for VTubing, drives Warudo / VSeeFace.
Sony Mocopi — paid; 6-point IMU; budget body tracking.
Vive Trackers + SteamVR — paid; the OG full-body trick.
Rokoko Smartsuit Studio — free software, paid suit; pro-grade.
Movella Xsens — paid pro-grade.

Leap Motion / Ultraleap — paid hardware; the dedicated hand-tracker many VTubers use.
Mediapipe Hands (Google) — Apache OSS; software-only via webcam; less accurate.
VTube Studio hand tracking — built-in for Live2D rigs in 2026 update.

VRoid Hub — free; share / browse VRM avatars.
Booth.pm — paid; the marketplace for avatars, clothing, accessories.
Skeb — paid commission marketplace; commission a Live2D rig from an artist (typical $300–$3000).
Fiverr / VGen — paid commission alternatives.
Ready Player Me — paid free tier; cartoon-style avatar generator with web SDK.

Unity + UniVRM — free; load .vrm in Unity; build your own VTuber app. The base of Warudo and VSeeFace.
Unreal MetaHumans — free Epic; photoreal 3D humans; some streamers use these.
Blender + VRM Add-on — free OSS; rig + edit VRM avatars.

VMC Protocol (Virtual Motion Capture) — open OSC-based; how trackers / iPhone / mocap suits feed VTube apps.
OSC — Open Sound Control; the underlying message bus.
VRM 1.0 (Khronos VRM-extensions) — the avatar format; widely supported in 2026.