Karakuri-maru — Chibi Clockwork Robot Avatar | PC + Quest

Karakuri-maru — Chibi Clockwork Robot Avatar | VRChat (PC + Quest, 20 Expressions)

AI-Generated base (Created with Hi3D). The base 3D shape was generated by AI; bones, expressions, PhysBones, hands and the Unity setup were added on top. See "How this was made" below.

A chibi clockwork robot avatar for VRChat in ivory and brass, with a kasa (a Japanese conical hat) topped by a propeller, glowing lens eyes and gears behind a window in the chest.

About 1.20 m tall (to the tip of the propeller). PC and Quest versions included.

Features

- 20 expressions (8 hand gestures and a 3-page menu). Shutters close over the lens eyes, and glowing hearts, sparkles, swirls or an X (Malfunction) appear in them

- The propeller on the kasa spins from the menu (saved)

- PhysBones: ear ornament balls, kusazuri (the armor plates at the sides of the waist, with thigh colliders), waist cords

- Mechanical doll hands with finger bones (the fingers follow VRChat's 7 hand gestures)

- Performance rank: PC Good / Quest Medium

- Japanese-menu and English-menu prefabs

- The menu is installed with Modular Avatar. Expressions, blinking, lip sync, view position and PhysBones are already set up: place it and upload

What's included

- Karakuri-maru_v1.0.unitypackage (4 prefabs: PC / Quest x Japanese / English menu; FBX, textures, materials, expression animations, menu)

- Manual and Terms of Use (English and Japanese)

Performance rank (VRChat SDK 3.10.5)

- Overall: PC Good / Quest Medium

- Triangles: PC 69,930 (Good) / Quest 14,956 (Medium)

- Skinned meshes: PC 1 (Excellent) / Quest 1 (Excellent)

- Material slots: PC 5 (Good) / Quest 2 (Medium)

- Bones: PC 64 (Excellent) / Quest 64 (Excellent)

- Texture memory: PC 28.50 MB (Excellent) / Quest 10.67 MB (Good)

- PhysBones (components / transforms): PC 4 / 14 (Excellent / Excellent) / Quest 2 / 10 (Good / Good)

- PhysBone colliders (count / collision checks): PC 2 / 8 (Excellent / Excellent) / Quest 2 / 8 (Good / Good)

- It is built close to the rank limits, so adding accessories may lower the rank

Requirements (tested versions)

- Unity 2022.3.22f1 (an avatar project made with VRChat Creator Companion)

- VRChat SDK - Avatars 3.10.5

- lilToon 2.3.4 (PC version)

- Modular Avatar 1.18.7 (required; it installs the menu)

How to use (see the included manual for details)

1. Add lilToon and Modular Avatar to the project with VRChat Creator Companion

2. Import Karakuri-maru_v1.0.unitypackage

3. Put Assets/KarakuriAvatar/a009/Prefabs/Karakuri-maru_PC_EN.prefab (Quest: Karakuri-maru_Quest_EN.prefab) in the scene

4. Upload from "Builder" in the VRChat SDK (switch to Android first for Quest)

Menu

- Expressions (20, on 3 pages): Normal, Smile, Happy, Wink (right / left eye), Surprised, Shy, Angry, Sad, Cry, Sparkle, Heart eyes, Dizzy, Malfunction, Half-lidded, Sleepy, Troubled, Smug, Thinking, Eyes closed

- Spin propeller: one turn in 0.75 s; press again to stop

Hand gestures (right hand first)

- No gesture: Normal

- Fist: Angry

- Open: Surprised

- Point: Half-lidded

- Victory: Happy

- Rock'n Roll: Heart eyes

- Hand Gun: Smug

- Thumbs up: Sparkle

Please note

- Lip sync stops during the 15 expressions that cover the mouth with a drawn mouth (Smile, Shy, Angry and others). The mouth moves when you talk in 5 expressions (Normal, Surprised, Half-lidded, Sleepy, Eyes closed)

- Automatic blinking (the shutters close) works only in the 6 expressions that keep the normal eyes. The eyes are drawn, so there is no eye look

- The PC mouth-cover edge has been softened, but a faint edge may remain at oblique angles. Quest does not use the PC transparency treatment, so its mouth-cover edge can remain visible

- When sitting, the kusazuri plates at the sides of the waist stretch a little

- In the Fist gesture the thumb does not fold over the fingers (VRChat's standard hand pose)

- The Quest version uses a light material: the finger joints are a little angular and the ear ornaments and gear depth are simplified

- Outfits from other creators are not compatible (the body shape is original)

- Quest hardware and iOS have not been tested

Terms of use (summary)

- You may: upload it to VRChat and similar services as your own avatar (PC and Quest; please upload it as Private), edit it, use it in streams, videos and photos (including monetization), and make and sell outfits or edit parts for it that do not contain any of the avatar's data.

- You may not: redistribute or share the data (including edited data), publish it as a public avatar, use it for sexual or violent content, or use it to train AI.

- This character is a chibi clockwork doll that can look like a child. Whether edited or not, public or private, it may never be used in a sexual context.

- Full text: Terms_of_Use_Karakuri-maru.txt in the download (the Japanese original takes precedence).

Also on BOOTH

This avatar is also sold on BOOTH, the Japanese marketplace.

How this was made (AI-Generated base, AI-Assisted setup)

The base 3D shape of this avatar (the shape and colors of the body, face, kasa and so on) was generated with Hi3D, an AI that makes 3D models from images (Created with Hi3D). The source picture was also made by the shop owner with an AI image generator.

On top of it we added the bones (including fingers), 20 expressions, PhysBones, mechanical doll hands, the spinning propeller, the Quest version and the Unity setup. These were made with Blender, Unity and Python scripts written by AI, and the manual and listing texts were also written by AI. The shop owner (a person) chose the design and reviewed how it looks.

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Mechanical detail update

Selected mechanical parts have been rebuilt with regular geometry. Karakuri-maru also has rebuilt chest gears and open-ring ear ornaments. Texture details across the body have also been refined using the original design references. Geometry rebuilding focuses on selected mechanical parts; some uneven surfaces and close-up softness from the generated base remain. Quest uses simplified geometry and shading, with reduced bevels, small fasteners and metal reflections. Listing images and videos show this updated model.