• International Journal of Internet, Broadcasting and Communication
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.85-97
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• 2024

In recent years, the Guochao style of virtual idols has proliferated, and the virtual idol market in China has witnessed gradual growth. As Guochao combines traditional Chinese culture with modern aesthetics, it shapes a distinctive visual identity for Chinese virtual idols. We address the current research gap by exploring the characteristics of Guochao style in virtual idol design through literature analysis, semiotics, and comparative studies. We examine how Guochao virtual idols represent the convergence of Chinese culture and modern technology, reflecting cultural characteristics of the era. Through our analysis of virtual idol design, we identify key design features of Guochao virtual idols, bridging a theoretical void in this area. We propose recommendations to foster a more dynamic and culturally enriched virtual idol industry in China. Our research provides new insights into integrating Guochao elements into virtual idol design as an approach to differentiate amid competition while promoting traditional Chinese culture through digital media. We demonstrate how this design approach enhances the uniqueness and cultural value of Chinese virtual idols, contributing to the field's theoretical foundation and practical applications.

• Journal of Fashion Business
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.110-125
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• 2023

Virtual idol groups are a product of changes in cultural content and development of digital technology. The purpose of this study is to derive the characteristics of technical expression and fashion of virtual idol groups of Korean entertainment companies, and the significance of this study is to provide basic data for creating a new content business model for virtual idol groups. The research method of this study consisted of literature research and case analysis. Korean virtual idol groups 'K/DA', 'Aespa', and 'Eternity', which show the evolved business model of the entertainment industry through rapid advances in digital technology, were selected as the subject of case analysis for this study, and newspaper articles were searched by keywords and analyzed. As a result of the study, the technical expressions shown in Korean virtual idol groups were 'implementation of realistic content through interaction technology', 'delicate motion expression through motion capture technology', and 'convergence of information between the real world and virtual world through AR technology', 'provision of experience similar to reality by VR technology' and 'formation of cultural contents by Deep Real technology' were deriven. In addition, the characteristics of the Korean virtual guide idol group's fashion are 'marketing strategy through collaboration with fashion items', 'giving recognition as a digital fashion icon of real existence', 'creating a sensuous image as a fashion brand ambassador' and 'fashion style expression of the Z generation's sensibility'.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.20 no.5
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• pp.69-78
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• 2020

K/DA is a K-pop virtual idol based on the game character. This study analyzed the creation process, characteristics and existential meaning of virtual idols from the perspective of Pataphysics. K/DA is a character with both characteristics of game character and K-pop girl group. Also, virtual character and real idol share the body through motion capture and augmented reality(AR). As a result, K/DA crosses virtual and reality, and at the same time becomes a pataphysical subject that does not belong to either virtual or reality. K/DA is suggested a third zone where digital subjects will be located in the future.

• International Journal of Advanced Culture Technology
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• v.10 no.4
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• pp.28-38
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• 2022

Virtual idols have aroused wide attention as a novel product of the idol industry in the digital era over the past few years. The population of China determines that virtual idols have a huge fan market. As a digital cultural product closely connected with fans, virtual idols are im-portant to gain insights into the correlation between fan satisfaction and virtual idol functions. In accordance with the KANO demand model, this study first classifies and explains the specific functions of virtual idols into four quadrants, including attractive, must-be, 1D (One-Dimensional), and indifferent. Subsequently, the satisfaction of fans of virtual idols with specific functions in each quadrant are analyzed using a questionnaire. This study suggests that virtual idols have one at-tractive quality, three 1D quality, two must-be quality, and five indifferent quality functional elements. This study qualitatively analyzes the functional elements of virtual idols through fan satisfaction based on the KANO model, which provides valuable help for future research in the field of virtual idols and producers in this field.

• Industry Promotion Research
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• v.9 no.3
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• pp.139-146
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• 2024

This study analyzed the popularity factors of the virtual idol 'PLAVE' to provide insights for future virtual idol production and content management in the domestic entertainment industry. Three hypotheses were established and tested through an online survey conducted from May 7 to May 20, 2024, with 73 participants. After excluding insincere responses, 67 responses were regression-analyzed. All three hypotheses, regarding character realism, 2D webtoon design, and real-time communication, were validated with P-values below 0.05. These findings offer strategic insights for the domestic entertainment industry and suggest a new paradigm for the virtual idol sector.

• International Journal of Internet, Broadcasting and Communication
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.64-79
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• 2022

The concept of Virtual Character has been developed for a long time with people's demand for cultural and entertainment products such as games, animations, and movies. In recent years, with the rapid development of concepts and industries such as social media, self-media, web3.0, artificial intelligence, virtual reality, and Metaverse, Virtual Character has also expanded new derivative concepts such as Virtual Idol, Virtual YouTuber, and Virtual Digital Human. With the development of technology, people's life is gradually moving towards digitalization and virtualization. At the same time, under the global environment of the new crown epidemic, human social activities are rapidly developing in the direction of network society and online society. From the perspective of digital media content, this paper studies the production technology of Virtual Character related products in the Chinese market, and analyzes the future development direction and possibility of the Virtual Character industry in combination with new media development directions and technical production methods. Consider and provide reference for the development of combined applications of digital media content industry, Virtual Character and Metaverse industry.

• Archives of design research
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.87-94
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• 2001

3D character animation grow rapidly with the development of computer graphic technology and software. Nowadays 3D character animation holds a important position in the various industry fields including movie, advertisement, animation, and game. With the rapid growth of computer graphic, real time animation of complex characters as well as high quality rendering, which was impossible before, are now prevailing. What is remarkable in this growth is the appearance of virtual idol. The virtual idol plays a leading role in 3D character animation and has a synergy effect in the field of fancy and theme park industry. The aim of this inquiry is to examine the status of computer graphic skill and media related to the 3D character animation to search out the problems in the fields and to propose the solution of the problems

• Fashion & Textile Research Journal
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.1-14
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• 2022

K-pop stars are an important influence in the era of digital culture based on emotions. The purpose of this study is to visually express the identity and worldview of their music in the virtual and real world, and to promote Korea's current and past culture. The study also intends to appeal to the emotions of the global fans by designing original textile in their music video 'IDOL' on Tiny TAN - a symbol of world pop star BTS. For design development, traditional Korean images shown in the 'IDOL' video were collected, patterns for each member were selected, and a motif was designed on Adobe Illustrator. We selected the dragon as the motif for V, cloud for Suga, chrysanthemums for Jin, mask for Jung Kook, hanok pavilion for RM, fan for Jimin, and Sam Taegeuk for J-Hope. The selected motifs were designed as per the four textile design arrangement methods: square pattern, 1/2 half drop pattern, turn-around pattern, and panel pattern. The design was presented by mapping Kwaeja to Tiny TAN character. The developed textile design can be used not only for character costumes in virtual space, but also for various products such as clothes, accessories, bedding, cosmetics, stationery, and food. By using it to produce goods inspired by K-pop stars, it can be used as basic data for the development of high value-added competitive products in the global market and create synergy effects of K-Design, which would lead a new trend in the design world.

• Journal of the Korea Computer Graphics Society
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• v.30 no.3
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• pp.23-41
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• 2024

Recently, various virtual avatar music content that showcases singing and dancing have been produced, and as virtual artists gain popularity, offline virtual avatar concerts have also emerged. However, there are few examples of virtual avatar band content where avatars play instruments. In addition, offline virtual avatar concerts using large screens at the front are limited in their ability to utilize the fantastical effects and high degree of freedom unique to virtual reality. In this paper, inspired by these limitations of virtual avatar music content, we introduce the production case of virtual avatar band content and immersive interactive concert of virtual band idol Verse'day. Firstly, we present a case study on creating band performance animations and music videos using motion capture systems and real-time engines. Then, we introduce a production case of an immersive interactive concert using projection mapping technology and a light stick that allows real-time interaction in an offline concert. Finally, based on these production cases, we discussed the future research directions of developing virtual avatar music content creation. We expect that our production cases will inspire the creation of diverse virtual avatar music content and the development of immersive interactive offline virtual avatar concerts in the future.

• Journal of Information Technology Services
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.103-118
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• 2024

Due to the advancement of virtual reality technology, virtual idols are widely used in industrial and cultural content industries. However, it is difficult to utilize virtual idols' social perceptions because they are not properly understood. Therefore, this paper collected and analyzed YouTube comments to identify differences about social perception through comparative analysis between virtual idols and general idols. The dataset was constructed by crawling comments from music videos with more than 10 million views of virtual idols and more than 10,000 comments. Keyword frequency and TF-IDF values were derived from the collected dataset, and the connection centrality CONCOR cluster was analyzed with a semantic network using the UCINET program. As a result of the analysis, it was found that virtual idols frequently used keywords such as "person," "quality," "character," "reality," "animation," while reactions and perceptions were derived from general idols. Based on the results of this analysis, it was found that while general idols are mainly evaluated with their appearance and cultural factors, social perceptions of virtual idols' values are mixed with evaluations of cultural factors such as "song," "voice," and "choreography," focusing on technical factors such as "people," "quality," "character," and "animation." However, keywords such as "song," "voice," "choreography," and "music" are included in the top 30 like regular idols and appear in the same cluster, suggesting that virtual idols are gradually shifting away from minority tastes to mainstream culture. This study aims to provide academic and practical implications for the future expansion of the industry and cultural content industry of virtual idols by grasping the social perception of virtual idols.