veadotube vs XR Animator

veadotube is a collection of tools for making live avatars accessible to people interested in virtual puppetry, including VTubing. The full app combines avatar creation and use, with an avatar editor, scene editor, state machines, and a node system. The free mini app creates a speaking avatar from two character images and switches between them in response to microphone input. Mini also supports extra images for automatic blinking, animated GIF, PNG, and WebP files, and effects that move or darken the avatar. Multiple states can have their own images, effects, and shortcuts, controlled by keyboard, mouse, or gamepad. The full app imports avatars created for veadotube mini, HÖNK, and PNGTuber Plus, and accepts input from devices including cameras, MIDI controllers, and WebSocket messages. The apps can be captured in OBS for streaming, recording, or virtual webcam use. They run on Windows, Linux, and macOS. veadotube mini is free; early access membership is $8 a month.

XR Animator is a free tool for driving MMD or VRM 3D avatars from pose input. It uses MediaPipe and TensorFlow.js to detect poses from webcam video, and supports face, full-body, and combined face, body, and hand tracking. Full-body tracking can use a webcam or an image or video file. Face tracking supports 52 ARKit-compatible blendshapes. Users can record motion capture, export VMD, BVH, and glTF motion, and load VMD, FBX, and BVH motion files; FBX or BVH motion can also be exported to VMD. The scene can include 2D images or video, 3D panoramas, and .x or .glb objects. The web app works in major desktop and smartphone browsers, while Electron apps are available for Windows, Linux, and macOS. Android Chrome supports augmented reality. VMC protocol support and a frameless transparent background for capture apps are limited to Electron mode. The project notes that smartphones with limited processing power may be better suited to face tracking alone.