VTuber Mitama Sakumaru is working on “reality manifestation” tools for VTubers–like an iPhone program that avatar-ifies their hands in real time

As popular as VTubers have gotten and as dominant as they are in categories like gaming and Just Chatting, some areas of streaming have remained mostly relegated to the fleshies.

Think things like Pokémon box breaks, product showcases (as part of sponcon deals), or even game controller streams focused on a creator’s hands, to show the complicated set of motions they make to accomplish feats of in-game dominance.

While VTuber rigging and motion-capture programs are very sophisticated these days and can capture body movements and facial expressions, hands remain difficult–so much so that some VTubers just broadcast their real hands for streams or videos.

But for the vast majority of VTubers who prefer to maintain their privacy by keeping a firm line between their IRL self and their model, what’s there to do?

Japanese VTuber Mitama Sakumaru has a potential solution. They’ve created a smartphone program that masks a creator’s real hands with animated hands that look like they could belong to a VTuber model.

And these are not Meta hands; they’re fully articulated and pretty dexertous, able to follow Sakumaru’s fingers exactly as the creator sifts through a pile of Pokémon cards in this example video:

Dexerto translated Sakamaru’s X post, and it reads, “Look! I tried making a thing where you can film handheld videos while staying in your VTuber body using an iPhone.”

Sakamaru said this tool (which they warn is not beginner-friendly, but can work for both VOD and livestream content) is part of their work on “reality manifestation stuff”–which we’re guessing means more tools for VTubers to offer their viewers IRL content while maintaining their animated appearances and settings.

If the tool rolls out to all VTubers, it could allow for the scenarios we mentioned above, as well as even more types of content. Live biking cams showing the creator’s hands on their handlebars, art streams of a VTuber drawing or painting or sculpting, DIY streams with woodworking or house repair…These would all be possible with just a smartphone, instead of requiring VTubers to lug around a larger camera and/or motion-capture setup.

And, sorry to inevitably dip away from creative and into the money side of things, but it would also open up more branded content possibilities for VTubers, as they could physically engage with products onscreen.

Unfortunately, the tool’s full rollout could be a ways off. Sakamaru is developing this program solo, as a hobby, and said it’s already become expensive to produce, per Dexerto. They’re currently looking into the potential for a company to buy it, further develop it, and release it wide.