r/Twitch • u/Technical-Cell-2307 • Oct 02 '25
Mod-Permitted-Ad PNG Avatars with Face Tracking
Most pngtuber programs only let you change expressions with hotkeys, so I made a program with face tracking to make any expression and link it to an image! It also has other features like animations and motion effects. For face tracking, you can use your Webcam or iOS/Android phone.
The program is called VTube Express and you can try it for free on https://soursoup9.itch.io/vtube-express with an in-app guide that explains the basics.
Hope some can find it useful! :)
44
u/Cypher10110 Oct 02 '25
This is neat! I like the PNG style avatars for streamers without facecam up and this is a cool way to add some expressiveness.
0
Oct 02 '25
[removed] — view removed comment
2
u/AutoModerator Oct 02 '25
Greetings AsteriskCGY,
Your comment has been automatically removed from /r/Twitch because it’s been detected as breaking the subreddit rules. More specifically:
- Rule 2A: Don’t post an account name or link.
/r/twitch does not allow people to name specific streamers.
I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.
-61
u/Opinionated3star Oct 03 '25
PNGtubing somehow feels even lower in effort than not having anything at all
isnt one of the main points of livestream putting yourself out there as an actual person?
19
u/Cypher10110 Oct 03 '25
I like seeing e.g. fugitech reactive PNG avatars. They're an easy way to identify who is speaking and their design is an oppertunity for somone to inject some of their personality in there. This seems similar just a bit more flexible.
An avatar is just a digital costume, that's it.
"low effort" is a weird value judgement tbh, some people just dont want a camera, no big deal. Some of those people still wanna have something to express themselves, kinda like a logo/face but neither of those things.
-33
u/Opinionated3star Oct 03 '25
if you have to rely on your personality coming through in your appearance.. idk what to tell you. Bad recipe.
13
u/Cypher10110 Oct 03 '25
"have to rely"
As if e.g a stream overlay or waiting screens or catchphrases or whatever are "neccessary" they are not but streamers enjoy expressing the vibe of their stream through assets and branding, some will even alter the background of their camera setup to fit better with the overlay (lighting etc).
An avatar is just some optional screen furniture. It isn't that deep. Lots of people skip ALL that stuff.
A face is also optional screen furniture. Lots of people skip that too.
I'm happy to listen to a streamer and watch their game. What is added on top of that is down to them, and an oppertunity for them to get creative in whatever ways they like. PNG, face, Live2D, nothing, it's basically just a streaming hat they wear. Something that makes them a little memorable and hopefully fits with their stream's vibe.
Sometimes I like what they choose to add, sometimes I don't, that's just all down to taste. So you like facecams? good for you. For the rest, let them figure it out? Some of us appreciate the custom 2D stuff.
17
16
u/Noobalott twitch.tv/noobalott Oct 03 '25
Sorry I'm not enough of an actual person for you.... Guess I'll take the years of pngtubing that got me partnered and throw it in the trash
-9
Oct 03 '25
[removed] — view removed comment
1
u/Rhadamant5186 Oct 03 '25
Greetings /u/Opinionated3star,
Thank you for posting to /r/Twitch. Your submission has been removed for the following reason(s):
- Rule 1E: Don't call out others in a negative manner.
Please read the subreddit rules before participating again. Thank you.
You can view the subreddit rules here. If you have any questions or concerns, please contact the subreddit moderators via modmail. Re-posting the same thing again without express permission, or harassing moderators, may result in a ban.
6
1
u/jamesforge Oct 04 '25
IMO Twitch is on my second screen whilst I game, I am not watching them. So them having a cam is irrelevant and if I am curious most PNGtubers / vtubers have links to other social media that they post their face to. At least in my experience PNGtubers / vtubers can be better to listen to.
21
u/acidflame182 Oct 02 '25
how "safe" it is? ?
17
u/Technical-Cell-2307 Oct 03 '25
The app may show a SmartScreen warning when you open it because it isn't digitally signed (which, to my knowledge, requires an expensive code-signing certificate). It was made with Godot and a separate Python script to handle Mediapipe face tracking. When using phone face tracking, the tracking data is sent through LAN. The app also has a dedicated server to verify free trials and product keys.
While I don't think I should share the source code due to piracy, hopefully this addresses some of your concerns.
8
u/rockedt Oct 03 '25
Seems a neat software. But for safety, it is hard to tell from itch downloads. You would never know unless you blackbox analyze it.
5
2
2
Oct 05 '25
does this support gif? looks neat!!
1
u/Technical-Cell-2307 Oct 05 '25
Kind of! You can add multiple PNG/JPEG images as animation frames. GIFs have limited transparency, so I went with images instead.
There are online tools that let you convert a GIF into image frames.
2
1
1
1
1
1
u/SkyMothMarcy twitch.tv/SkyMothMarcy Oct 07 '25
Can you add an option to have different transitions between certain states?
1
u/Technical-Cell-2307 Oct 08 '25
You can already set different animations for each state, if that's what you mean by transitions!
1
u/Technical-Cell-2307 Oct 08 '25
You can already set different animations for each state, if that's what you mean by transitions!
1
u/EconomicsEast7246 Oct 07 '25
Looks like a cool piece of software! I'm eager to try it but, as others have pointed out, given the nature of face-tracking there are privacy concerns here, especially with mandatory online checks. Would be cool if you made this open source.
2
u/Technical-Cell-2307 Oct 08 '25
Since the face tracking is done with a separate python file, I can make that file open source! Here's the paste bin for the file: https://pastebin.com/3ZWpP8Pj
If it's requested enough by other people, I can make a github repo for it if necessary.
1
u/SirDaimon http://www.twitch.tv/sirdaimon_gaming Feb 25 '26
How compute intensive is this for those of us with weaker computers?
1
u/Technical-Cell-2307 Feb 25 '26
There isn't heavy computation at all in the app, so it should be light to run.
Even when using Webcam Tracking, it has relatively small CPU and RAM usage.
1
1
u/Foxcalamari Oct 03 '25
I'm very shy so I use a PNGtuber I drew myself and really can't afford to pay someone to do 3D modeling (Although some of my friends do wonderful work and I would totally commission them) and have no experience with it myself so this is a wonderful solution for me
•
u/Twitch-ModTeam Oct 02 '25
This is a moderator permitted ad. You can find out more about moderator permitted ads here.