The Splice 🧬 Virtual Influencers Are Taking Jobs
Plus Ziva Dynamic's CEO James Jones on the Unity Acquisition and why Miqeula's creator believes in the future of DAO's.
Good afternoon!
Welcome back to The Splice 🧬 by VirtualHumans.org: a weekly newsletter curating the latest news, developments, and insights in the virtual influencer space.
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🧬 Core Strands from This Week
Yes, Virtual Influencers Are Taking Jobs
🔎 The Synopsis: Virtual influencers are no longer just modeling for campaigns. Virtual humans are becoming employees, interns, and students for a wide range of brands and industries.
🧬 The Splice: In 2019, Kenna (pictured above) became Essence Cosmetic’s first virtual intern. Creating a virtual intern allowed the brand to connect to their audience in a fresh and innovative way by telling the story of a young intern that resonated with their Gen Z followers.
James Jacobs, Co-Founder of Ziva Dynamics Speaks on the Unity Acquisition and 3D Character Creation
🔎 The Synopsis: We sat down with James Jacobs, the founder of Ziva Dynamics, to discuss to future of their powerful 3D character creation program. “Becoming part of Unity means that Ziva’s technology will be able to do more and be more. Ziva and Unity are both committed to empowering digital artists,” James tells us.
🧬 The Splice: When Epic Games released MetaHuman Creator, a new generation of 3D artists were able to make Hollywood-level content more accessible than ever (such as the popular virtual YouTuber Blu from Xanadu.) With Ziva Dynamics’ integration into the Unity family, a new swath of creators will gain access to hyperrealistic humanoid creation and the virtual human industry will grow even further.
🔭 What We’re Looking at This Week
Trevor McFedries Tells Jordan Wolfson About a New Kind of Internet
🔑 Key Quote: “Imagine Spider-Man living panel-by-panel in a comic book, in a world where, instead of a team of ten people deciding what happens in his life, anyone holding governance tokens can vote to decide, for example, whether Spider-Man fights the Green Goblin… That’s the core concept that we’re innovating on. It’s the same with Lil’ Miquela. Her fans will be able to decide whether she goes to Paris Fashion Week or Tokyo Fashion Week. They’ll have their say along with the creative team. “ — Trevor McFedries, co-founder of Brud and creator of Miquela Sousa
🧬 The Splice: What Trevor McFedries refers to above is a DAO or Decentralized Autonomous Organization. We first reported on Brud’s commitment to transition Miquela’s community into a decentralized model in September 2021. In October 2021, Brud’s team was acquired by Dapper Labs to expand their DAO offerings. While Miquela’s community hasn’t officially become a DAO (yet), her fans do currently have the power to vote on everything from her outfits to social plans and even what she posts online.
Best,
VirtualHumans.org
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Insights by Makena Rasmussen, Christopher Travers, and Astrid Hiort.