VTuber Branding: How to Maintain Character Consistency

One of the challenges of being a VTuber is maintaining character all throughout your interactions with the community. Just like with acting, the illusion must not be broken; your character’s thoughts, words, and actions must all be aligned with their personality and how the community recognizes them. One slip-up could break the illusion and reduce engagement with your fanbase. Here are some tips you can follow so that you can maintain consistency with your character.

1. Have a Firm Foundation

Structures crumble without solid foundations. In the same way, if you are not anchored well to your character’s backstory, you’ll get lost along the way and lose consistency. Having a clear understanding of your character’s story elements will help you navigate different scenarios and interactions, ensuring that the character’s responses and actions remain coherent and consistent. For example, if your character is a serious and brooding figure, avoid comedic responses.

One way to help you out with this is to always ask, “what would my character do/say/think?”, with their backstory and personality in mind. Internalize first before doing anything so that you can confidently portray them during different interactions.

2. Consider Having a Visual Character Guide

Similar to a Dungeons and Dragons character sheet, you can have a profile sheet of your character handy at all times. List down their personality traits, values, mannerisms, catchphrases, and anything else that is important for you to remember. Take time to study the sheet and master the ins and outs of your character to further strengthen your knowledge of their backstory. Are they calculating, or more spontaneous? Do they have a strong sense of value or do they just care about doing what they want?

You can also create decision trees based on this sheet so that you would be guided on how to respond as your character in certain situations. Simulate some common scenarios that your character may encounter in the future, then try to trace how they would react.

3. Listen To Your Audience

Your virtual character’s portrayal can evolve over time based on audience engagement and feedback. Content creators should remain open to input from their audience while filtering suggestions through the lens of the character’s established traits. Being vigilant on the community’s feedback will help you develop your character in the future, since they will eventually grow to love and care about the character as well. They may have suggestions to further aid the illusion in the future.

For non-actors, staying in character can be tough, but using these tips, you will eventually develop a greater sense and understanding of your character’s actions and thoughts. Keep at it; it’ll be worth it in the future.