Became the Mother of Virtual YouTubers - Chapter 6

When you study 3D characters, you often hear people say:

“Don’t just look at the computer in your room, go out and look at people.” Observing the human body is essential for researchers in the field of computer graphics.

Surprisingly, the source of this statement is Jinha’s advisor.

He half agrees, but also half disagrees.

Give me time to go out before telling me to look at people. There’s no one inside but zombies, so what am I supposed to refer to?

So, when Jinha was in the lab, he watched anime more actively.

It’s not a hobby. It’s research for reference material. It’s a research activity under the guidance of his advisor.

However, the gap between 2D and 3D, a gap of one dimension, was not easily bridged.

Especially, the female body was tricky.

Implementing elegant curves or the volume of specific body parts by looking only at 2D reference materials was extremely difficult. But fortunately, he got his hands on a definite reference.

“Is it right to say that this is a good thing…?”

Jinha felt an intense reality check and clutched his head.

In fact, ever since his gender changed, he had been forcibly ignoring the changes in his body. It’s been quite a while, but he still hasn’t gotten used to it. It’s confusing and embarrassing.

Even when showering, he still can’t look at his own body properly.

Under the pretext of urgently needing to make a living, he focused solely on work to avoid other thoughts.

But now it was time to face reality.

“Since it’s come to this, let’s make the most of it.”

Having made up his mind, Jinha immediately set up a tripod in the middle of the room. He mounted his smartphone on it and launched the camera app.

“For lighting, I guess a single lamp will do?”

What a clumsy studio, he thought, and let out a chuckle.

Half embarrassed, half nervous, he stood in front of the mirror. Then, he lifted his track jacket from the bottom.

The curve below his rib cage was clearly revealed. Jinha swallowed hard and took off the rest of his clothes one by one.

The curve of his shoulders, the waistline, and the lower body that continued from the hips.

Areas he couldn’t even imagine when he was a man caught his attention.

“I don’t know if I should say this myself, but… this is actually pretty good.”

Although slightly embarrassed, Jinha examined his body from an expert’s perspective.

After all, the fact that it was his own body made Jinha immerse himself in ‘research’.

He turned around, turned to the side. He took videos at different angles and bent his waist.

“Damn, I never thought I’d be doing squats in this state.”

Most of the photos were full-body shots.

He captured the movement of the neck and shoulder joints with the camera, and also examined the wrist angle and the contours of the leg muscles.

When he slightly moved the smartphone’s light, the shadow of the arm muscles was well captured, and the curve of the thigh was smoothly revealed.

He didn’t forget to take a close-up of the pelvis, capturing the bulging curve.

After the shoot, he sat in front of the monitor and reviewed the photos and videos one by one.

It was different when he zoomed in on the images.

The fine skin below the belly button.

The folded lines on the waist.

The subtle asymmetry between the two wrists and forearms.

And so on, and so forth.

Looking at it this way, there was nothing to throw away. Considering it was taken in a very poor self-made studio, everything was usable as learning material.

After checking the materials, he opened the body analysis program and entered the data.

He captured the basic shape from head to toe.

After extracting the skeleton and measuring the volume.

He analyzed the muscle flow to capture the details.

Later, he would have to think about the physical interaction between the two models when the avatar was dressed, but that was a problem to think about later. For now, he needed to accurately implement the structure of the body itself.

“…Ah, I wasn’t wearing clothes either.”

Jinha belatedly picked up his clothes and put them on. If his train of thought hadn’t drifted to the problem of dressing the avatar, he would have continued to be naked.

“Phew.”

When the phrase ‘Analysis in progress…’ appeared on the monitor, Jinha leaned back in his chair and let out a long sigh.

Once he got to this point, he considered the first hurdle overcome.

From now on, it was a battle of waiting, grinding, and AI gacha.

As soon as the relief washed over him, a chilling thought suddenly occurred to him.

“…What if these photos get leaked?”

The level of exposure varied from part to part, but it had already far exceeded the usual level of embarrassment.

At first, he was a little restrained, but once he started to get into it, he took all kinds of daring photos.

“I’m crazy, I’m crazy.”

But he couldn’t not do the modeling. He thoroughly checked the firewall settings.

He put a separate encryption on the storage medium, and didn’t forget to add the standard naming, ‘woodpecker’, to the secret folder.

“If I die, I have one more thing to burn with my body.”

Korean, Japanese, Western cuckoo 3-piece set. Plus the woodpecker.

Jinha’s karma has increased by one.

After a long struggle, a certain shape was formed.

After roughly sketching the skeleton, muscle layers, and subcutaneous fat through AI, and adding detailed touches on top, a relatively high-quality template avatar appeared.

Before obtaining this result, numerous failed gacha results tormented Jinha.

Some models had their limbs twisted bizarrely.

Some models had their faces crushed as if they had been hit by a meteorite.

And some models looked fine on the outside, but the skeletal rigging was not done properly, so all the joints in the body were strangely stretched.

“It’s a relief that the gacha was successful quickly.”

When he looked out the window, it was already dark outside. It was already well past midnight. The fact that the date had changed brought on the fatigue of taking pictures and running data all day.

“If I refine it a little more, it’ll look pretty good?”

Of course, this model can’t be used as is. Post-processing work such as adjusting shader options and applying hair cards was required.

Still, Jinha felt a strange sense of accomplishment at the faster-than-expected progress.

“Now I’m even using myself as a research subject.”

Jinha looked at the monitor screen with a languid expression.

The newly created female model strangely resembled Jinha.

Instead of dark circles, the deeply sunken eye sockets gave off a strangely decadent atmosphere.

It was natural, if anything. The model was Jinha himself, after all.

For a brief moment, a situation where someone was broadcasting with this model flashed through his mind.

“…Wow, it’s terrifying just to imagine.”

If someone requests avatar work, he should make sure to modify this model really, really thoroughly before handing it over, Jinha thought, and turned off the computer.

“Ah, I need to save the model first.”

After a brief thought, Jinha entered the file name.

‘JINA_prototype.fbx’

Template avatar, Jina.

It was the birth of a model that would become the standard for high-quality avatars in the near future.

“Jinha oppa…”

Hyoin murmured as she looked down at the box in the corner of the lab.

Inside were various USBs and cables, thinly coated research papers, and old writing instruments.

All of them were said to be items Jinha left behind when he left the lab.

Originally, it was the belongings(?) that Byeongjae, who was closest to Jinha, should have dealt with.

But for some reason, Byeongjae showed unnecessary kindness to Hyoin.

-Hyoin-ah, can you take this to Jinha hyung’s house?

-What? M-me?

-Why, do you not want to? Should I just go?

-Well, it doesn’t matter, but… why?

At that, Byeongjae said with a meaningful smile.

-I talked to him on the phone last time, and he seemed to be having a hard time. I think it would cheer him up if you went.

-Wouldn’t Jinha oppa be closer to Byeongjae oppa than me?

-Well, that’s true, but… are you sure you want me to go?

..Huh?

-Jinha hyung doesn’t have a girlfriend, and he’s rotting away alone in a tiny room…

-Wh-what does that have to do with me?!

-He must be very lonely and alone~

-So why are you telling me this…

-It would be nice if you could get closer to him personally. Wouldn’t it?

-…!

-Ugh, do I really have to spell it out for you?

Hyoin mumbled.

Her face was flushed, but she had no intention of denying her feelings.

In fact, while working with Jinha in the lab, she had a subtle crush on him.

He wasn’t a caring and kind senior. Rather, he often ignored Hyoin with an expression that showed he was bothered by everything.

But even though he seemed indifferent on the outside, he secretly took good care of her. When she was choosing a research topic and conducting experiments, he paid more attention to her than anyone else. It was all thanks to Jinha that Hyoin was able to quickly adapt to the lab and become a key member.

Even though she didn’t show it on the outside, she respected Jinha and had a fondness for him.

-Hey, you think grad school is a joke? You think a degree is a toy? Yeah, if you leave like this without any manners. Do you think you’ll get a job easily?

And then Jinha suddenly dropped out.

She felt a subtle emptiness at the fact that she couldn’t see Jinha in the lab anymore.

She was curious about what happened, but everyone shook their heads, saying they didn’t know the exact situation.

Even Byeongjae just shrugged, which said it all.

There were only speculations that he didn’t like the lab.

Everyone said it was no big deal, but Hyoin couldn’t stop worrying.

Byeongjae’s words, ‘Now is your chance,’ kept ringing in her head.

Around sunset, Hyoin walked down an unfamiliar alley with the address of Jinha’s studio apartment that Byeongjae had given her.

An old studio apartment complex with dimly flickering streetlights.

Hyoin climbed the stairs of a building and stopped in front of the room at the end of the third floor.

“I came to the right place… right?”

The room number on the door matched the number Hyoin had received.

Hyoin felt her heart pounding and took a deep breath before knocking.

‘I wonder if Jinha oppa is doing well?’

After hesitating, Hyoin knocked on the door and playfully shouted.

“Delivery!”

It was awkward to just say ‘It’s me!’, so she said that to surprise him.

But after a while.

“Yes~ Just leave it in front of the door.”

“???”

The answer from inside the door was.

“????????”

Unexpectedly, it was a woman’s voice.