To the best of our knowledge, Animaze (and Facerig before it) is among the very few fully-featured avatar apps and tool suites out there powered by an indie engine. We were thrilled to launch Animaze on iOS in Autumn 2019 and PC in Autumn 2020. Inspired by VR chat’s free base with optional subscription, we focused on a metaverse-centric, avatars-as-a-service paradigm, but built on an independent engine. To help overcome these challenges, in 2018, we secured capital from external like-minded investors and started building the new Animaze engine and technology from the ground up. As larger companies began to enter the market, we saw innovation blossom but also censorship and control creep in. The world of avatars and VTubing has changed significantly since our 2014 Early Access launch. The external team that developed FaceRig’s render and animation engine disbanded, making any further development on FaceRig a lot more challenging. We realized the future of FaceRig and its continual improvement just was not sustainable. We’ve loved seeing all the artwork and characters you’ve brought to life with FaceRig!Īs much as we loved (and still love) FaceRig, we were facing a tough situation three years after launch, in 2017. A year later, we pioneered VTubing as we know it today by partnering with Live2D. Facerig was born in 2014 as one of the very first software suites that enabled anyone with a webcam to digitally embody awesome avatars.
