Converting Live2D Avatars from Facerig to Animaze

Animaze makes it easy to turn almost any Live2D model into a fully-functioning avatar in a few simple steps. If you have a Live2D model that you would like to use as an Animaze avatar, this guide will tell you how to do it. This guide is appropriate for all Live2D models, including models that you may have used as avatars in FaceRig!

Remember, Live2D is included in all versions of Animaze by default - there is no need for a DLC to use Live2D characters. Download Animaze for free here!

NOTE (29.092021):

We have updated this documentation to reflect new improvements made to Animaze that make importing Live2D models much simpler. The old instructions that used to live on this page have been redacted, as they are no longer accurate.

Live2D Model Requirements & File Structure:

To work with Animaze, your Live2D model must be exported with the Live2D Cubism Editor version 3.0 or higher. Cubism 3.0 was released in Spring 2017, so if your model was created after, it is very likely to meet this requirement.

Motion Parameter List

Animaze fully supports the FaceRig motion parameter naming convention, so you can use both capitalized camel case (new Live2D naming convetion - e.g. ParamAngleX) or upper-snake case (legacy live2D naming convention - e.g. PARAM_ANGLE_X).

Animaze supports two distinct Animation Standards for Live2D avatars:

the Default one which is the most widespread and works with virtually all vtubing platforms.
the Extended Parameter Set which aims to improve on the expressivity of Live2D avatars and map key tracking inputs that otherwise would be used only for 3D avatars. A sample avatar (.avatar file, Live2D runtimes, and Live2D sources) using the extended parameters can be found here .

Default Live2D Animation Standard Parameters (last revised 20 Sep 2021)

Live2D Parameter	Description	Default Value	Comment
Head Movement
ParamAngleX	head yaw movement	at 50% of the input interval
ParamAngleY	head pitch movement	at 50% of the input interval
ParamAngleZ	head roll movement	at 50% of the input interval
Body Movement
ParamBodyAngleX	body yaw movement	at 50% of the input interval	not tracked by face trackers. Reserved for future use.
ParamBodyAngleY	body pitch movement	at 50% of the input interval	triggered by user's face leaning forward/backward
ParamBodyAngleZ	body roll movement	at 50% of the input interval	triggered by user's face moving on horizontal axis in camera feed
ParamBodyUpDown	body up/down movement	at 50% of the input interval	(non-standard-parameter)* triggered by user's face moving on vertical axis in camera feed
ParamBreath	breathing movement	at 50% of the input interval
Eyes Movement
ParamEyeLOpen	blink and eye wide open movement.	at 75% of the input interval	Default value is eye opened (75% of the interval), when blink occurs, value goes to 0% of the interval, when eye wide open occurs the value goes to 100% of the interval
ParamEyeROpen	blink and eye wide open movement.	at 75% of the input interval	Default value is eye opened (75% of the interval), when blink occurs, value goes to 0% of the interval, when eye wide open occurs the value goes to 100% of the interval
ParamEyeBallX	eye horizontal movement	at 50% of the input interval
ParamEyeBallY	eye vertical movement	at 50% of the input interval
ParamEyeLSmile	activated when smiling	at 0% of the input interval
ParamEyeRSmile	activated when smiling	at 0% of the input interval
ParamEyeBallForm	bends eyes contour to complement frown and smile expressions. Start of the interval is for frowning, while the end of the interval is for smiling.	at 50% of the input interval
Eyebrows Movement
ParamBrowLY	eyebrow down to up movement	at 50% of the input interval
ParamBrowLForm	eyebrow tilting movement, frowny/angry at the start of the interval, happy/surprised at the end of the interval	at 50% of the input interval
ParamBrowLAngle	eyebrow changing shape movement, frowny/angry at the start of the interval, happy/surprised at the end of the interval	at 50% of the input interval
ParamBrowRY	eyebrow down to up movement	at 50% of the input interval
ParamBrowRForm	eyebrow tilting movement, frowny/angry at the start of the interval, happy/surprised at the end of the interval	at 50% of the input interval
ParamBrowRAngle	eyebrow changing shape movement, frowny/angry at the start of the interval, happy/surprised at the end of the interval	at 50% of the input interval
Mouth Movement
ParamMouthOpenY	mouth open movement, closed at start of interval, open at end of interval	at 0% of the input interval
ParamMouthForm	mouth frown/smile animation. frown at start of interval, smile at end of interval	at 50% of the input interval
ParamMouthSize	used for puckered lips from the center of the interval to start (normal to small size). upper half of the interval is not used in this Animation Standard	at 50% of the input interval	(non-standard-parameter)*

*non-standard-parameters are totally optional. The Animaze Retargeting system automatically replaces them with other retargeting methods (e.g. puckered lips without the ParamMouthSize is implemented with the use of ParamMouthY and ParamMouthForm).

Default Viseme Mapping (last revised 20 Sep 2021)

Visemes retargeting uses the Live2D model’s standard parameters for mouth open and form. A complete mapping of Viseme to Live2D parameter is depicted below.

Viseme	Live2D Parameter	Value
AA	ParamMouthOpenY	1
AA	ParamMouthForm	1
AH	ParamMouthOpenY	1
AH	ParamMouthForm	0.6
AO	ParamMouthOpenY	1
AO	ParamMouthForm	0
AW	ParamMouthOpenY	1
AW	ParamMouthForm	-0.5
OY	ParamMouthOpenY	1
OY	ParamMouthForm	-1
EH	ParamMouthOpenY	0.65
EH	ParamMouthForm	0
IH	ParamMouthOpenY	0.65
IH	ParamMouthForm	-0.6
EY	ParamMouthOpenY	0.65
EY	ParamMouthForm	-0.3
Y	ParamMouthOpenY	0.65
Y	ParamMouthForm	-1
R	ParamMouthOpenY	0.5
R	ParamMouthForm	0.3
L	ParamMouthOpenY	0.5
L	ParamMouthForm	0.3
W	ParamMouthOpenY	0.7
W	ParamMouthForm	-0.85
M	ParamMouthOpenY	0
M	ParamMouthForm	-0.4
N	ParamMouthOpenY	0
N	ParamMouthForm	-0.4
CH	ParamMouthOpenY	0.3
CH	ParamMouthForm	-0.4
FV	ParamMouthOpenY	0.15
FV	ParamMouthForm	-0.4

Extended Parameter Set (last revised 20 Sep 2021)

Live2D Parameter	Description	Default Value	Comments
Head Movement
ParamAngleX	head yaw movement	at 50% of the input interval
ParamAngleY	head pitch movement	at 50% of the input interval
ParamAngleZ	head roll movement	at 50% of the input interval
Body Movement
ParamBodyAngleX	body yaw movement	at 50% of the input interval	not tracked by face trackers. Reserved for future use.
ParamBodyAngleY	body pitch movement	at 50% of the input interval	triggered by user's face leaning forward/backward
ParamBodyAngleZ	body roll movement	at 50% of the input interval	triggered by user's face moving on horizontal axis in camera feed
ParamBodyUpDown	body up/down movement	at 50% of the input interval	triggered by user's face moving on vertical axis in camera feed
ParamBreath	breathing movement	at 50% of the input interval
Eyes Movement
ParamEyeLOpen	blink and eye wide open movement.	at 75% of the input interval	Default value is eye opened (75% of the interval), when blink occurs, value goes to 0% of the interval, when eye wide open occurs the value goes to 100% of the interval
ParamEyeROpen	blink and eye wide open movement.	at 75% of the input interval	Default value is eye opened (75% of the interval), when blink occurs, value goes to 0% of the interval, when eye wide open occurs the value goes to 100% of the interval
ParamEyeBallX	eye horizontal movement	at 50% of the input interval
ParamEyeBallY	eye vertical movement	at 50% of the input interval
ParamEyeLSmile	activated when smiling	at 0% of the input interval
ParamEyeRSmile	activated when smiling	at 0% of the input interval
ParamEyeBallForm	bends eyes contour to complement frown and smile expressions. Start of the interval is for frowning, while the end of the interval is for smiling.	at 50% of the input interval
ParamEyeForm	same as ParamEyeBallForm	at 50% of the input interval
Eyebrows Movement
ParamBrowLY	eyebrow down to up movement	at 50% of the input interval
ParamBrowLForm	eyebrow tilting movement, frowny/angry at the start of the interval, happy/surprised at the end of the interval	at 50% of the input interval
ParamBrowLAngle	eyebrow changing shape movement, frowny/angry at the start of the interval, happy/surprised at the end of the interval	at 50% of the input interval
ParamBrowRY	eyebrow down to up movement	at 50% of the input interval
ParamBrowRForm	eyebrow tilting movement, frowny/angry at the start of the interval, happy/surprised at the end of the interval	at 50% of the input interval
ParamBrowRAngle	eyebrow changing shape movement, frowny/angry at the start of the interval, happy/surprised at the end of the interval	at 50% of the input interval
Mouth Movement
ParamMouthOpenY	mouth open movement, closed at start of interval, open at end of interval	at 0% of the input interval
ParamMouthForm	mouth frown/smile animation. frown at start of interval, smile at end of interval	at 50% of the input interval
ParamMouthSize	used for puckered lips from the center of the interval to start (normal to small size). used by wide smiles and frown from the center of the interval to the end (normal to large size)	at 50% of the input interval
ParamMouthX	mouth movement on the horizontal axis.	at 50% of the input interval	triggered by asymmetric smiles and jaw tracking.
ParamLipUnder	lower lip movement on vertical axis	at 50% of the input interval	triggered by pressed lips and unveil teeth tracked inputs
ParamLipUpper	upper lip movement on vertical axis	at 50% of the input interval	triggered by pressed lips and unveil teeth tracked inputs
ParamPuffCheeks	puffed cheeks	at 0% of the input interval	puffed cheeks input is tracked only by ARKit. On Windows Animaze also features puffed cheeks as a special pose automatically added by the system.
ParamTongue	moves tongue inside the mouth	at 0% of the input interval	parameter is not used by the tongue out movement that is detected by the face tracker, rather it is used for a more expressive viseme mapping
ParamTooth	clenches and opens teeth	at 0% of the input interval

Extended Parameter Set Viseme Mapping (last revised 20 Sep 2021)

Visemes retargeting uses the Live2D model’s standard parameters for mouth open and form. A complete mapping of Viseme to Live2D parameter is depicted below.

Viseme	Live2D Parameter	Value
AA/AO	ParamMouthOpenY	1
AH/AW	ParamMouthOpenY	0.7
AH/AW	ParamMouthSize	0.75
OY	ParamMouthOpenY	0.3
OY	ParamMouthSize	0.35
EH	ParamMouthOpenY	0.3
	ParamMouthSize	0.75
	ParamTooth	0.8
	ParamLipUnder	0.6
IH	ParamMouthOpenY	0.4
IH	ParamMouthSize	0.9
EY	ParamMouthOpenY	0.3
	ParamMouthSize	0.9
	ParamTooth	1
Y	ParamMouthOpenY	0.22
R	ParamMouthOpenY	0.3
	ParamMouthSize	0.35
	ParamLipUnder	0.6
L	ParamMouthOpenY	1
L	ParamTongue	1
W	ParamMouthOpenY	0.1
W	ParamMouthSize	0
M	ParamLipUnder	1
M	ParamLipUpper	1
N	ParamMouthOpenY	0.1
N	ParamTooth	1
CH	ParamMouthOpenY	0.2
CH	ParamTooth	1
FV	ParamTooth	1
FV	ParamLipUnder	0.2

Parameter Ranges

The Animaze Retargeting System normalizes all values (interval 0 to 1) before applying the Live2D parameters so that the parameter ranges can be of any values (e.g. ParamMouthOpenY can be defined from -10 to 10 with default value 0, so when Animaze sets 0.75 - which is a half smile -, it will apply the value 5 to the ParamMouthOpenY parameter).

Having said that, we do suggest following ranges for the Live2D Parameters:

Item	Minimum values	Default values	Maximum values
ParamEyeLOpen ParamEyeROpen	0	0.75	1
ParamEyeBallX ParamEyeBallY	-1	0	1
ParamBrowLY	-1	0	1
ParamBrowLX	-1	0	1
ParamBrowLAngle ParamBrowRAngle	0	0.5	1
()ParamBrowLForm ()ParamBrowRForm	0.2	0.5	0.8
ParamMouthForm	-1	0.5	1
ParamMouthOpenY	0	0	1
ParamMouthSize	-1	0	1

(*)The values for ParamBrowLForm & ParamBrowRForm in the table make the eyebrows deform as intended with the current tracking system.

Additionally, you can check the standard cubism parameter list here and here.

To import your Live2D model into Animaze, you need your model’s Live2D Runtime files. They should be organized in the standard folder hierarchy

Additionally, your model3.json file and .moc3 file must use the same filename (e.g. ‘myavatar.moc3 and ‘myavatar.model3.json’). If they have different filenames, Animaze may fail to import all of your model’s files.

Step 1: Import Your Model in the Animaze App

The simplest way to import any Live2D model (including one you used with FaceRig) into Animaze is through Animaze’s built in Live2D Import feature.

Simply open Animaze, click on the Avatar Gallery in the side menu bar, and click on the ”+” icon under My Avatars shelf. When the file browser opens, navigate to your Live2D model’s folder, select your avatar’s ‘model3.json’ file and click ‘open’ to begin the import process.

When the file browser opens, navigate to your Live2D model’s folder, select your avatar’s ‘model3.json’ file and click ‘open’

Your avatar will appear in Animaze!

Step 2: Test Your Avatar

Now that you’ve imported your avatar, you are free to use it in Animaze as you see fit! In most cases, Animaze will automatically import your model’s motion parameters, special actions, and special poses.

Make sure to test your avatar and ensure it is working as expected. If it does, you are all set, and don’t need to take anymore action.

Congratulations on importing your Live2D Model to Animaze!

If You Need to Fix Your Avatar...

If your avatar isn’t behaving as expected, you’ll need to import the avatar into the Animaze Editor and try a few simple fixes. In the Animaze Editor, you can fix two common issues with Live2D avatars: blurry/low-res avatars, and certain face/body parts not responding to tracking input.

[Link to Debugging Your Live2D Avatar]