Chinanews Finance, January 22 (Reporter Song Yusheng) If you often swipe short videos on your mobile phone in 2021, you must know a virtual person named Liu Yexi.

In some reports, Liu Yexi was called last year's "phenomenal" virtual person.

  How was "she" created?

Why is it getting attention?

Xie Duosheng, the founder of Chuangyi Technology, the team behind it, recently accepted an interview with a reporter from Zhongxin Finance and Economics.

Screenshot of Liu Yexi's short video

"New Heights" for Short Videos

  On October 31, 2021, an account named "Liu Yexi" released its first work on the short video platform.

  In this short video of 2 minutes and 8 seconds, the virtual person named "Liu Yexi" dressed in ancient costumes and dressed in front of the mirror, while the passers-by behind her were obviously passers-by in the "three dimensions".

The story unfolded in such a sci-fi scene, which also attracted great attention.

  Some netizens left a message in the comment area saying that this has become a "new height" for short videos.

The interaction volume of this work has also risen rapidly, and even until this year, some netizens still posted new comments in the message area.

At present, this video has received 3.6 million likes on the Douyin platform alone.

Screenshots of netizens' comments

  Although Liu Yexi's account has been updated slowly and only 5 short video works have been released so far, netizens' attention has not diminished.

Each subsequent work has hundreds of thousands or millions of interactions.

  "We expected it to be popular, but we didn't expect it to reach the phenomenal level in the end." In Xie Duosheng's view, Liu Yexi's popularity was somewhat "unexpected and reasonable."

Screenshot of Liu Yexi's short video

"New Technology" for Virtual Humans

  "We didn't have this format on the market at the time, and we took a long time to polish the content itself."

  Xie Duosheng told reporters that the team started planning the Liu Yexi project in early 2021, and after about 8 months, the virtual person Liu Yexi was officially released.

  Before Liu Yexi appeared, the virtual human beings visible to the public were generally virtual human images formed by CG animation or artificial intelligence.

  Xie Duosheng did not elaborate on which new technologies were used to create Liu Yexi.

However, according to him, Liu Yexi did not copy the aforementioned various existing virtual human technologies, but reconstructed a new process whose technology was "between them".

  "In the process of shaping Liu Yexi, we first had to refactor the process, and then break through some technical difficulties in the process," he said.

  As for Liu Yexi's facial image, Xie Duosheng admitted that the team only set the label of national style and not too aggressive in the design process. In terms of demeanor and expression, it refers to Li Ruotong's aloofness. Feel.

Screenshot of Liu Yexi's short video

A "new future" in the content space?

  Xie Duosheng told reporters that after Liu Yexi, the cycle for the team to create virtual humans has been shortened to 3-4 months.

  The reporter noticed that the team had previously stated that it would create a series of virtual people.

Xie Duosheng also said that Liu Yexi is only a role in the metaverse matrix IP envisaged by the team, and other virtual human IPs will be released one after another.

He envisioned, "within three years to become the Marvel of the Metaverse."

  Although these virtual people only appear on everyone's mobile phone screen in the form of short video and short play, Xie Duosheng revealed that it may be extended to movies and other forms in the future.

  In his eyes, the virtual world is similar to literary and artistic works, and is a supplement to the real world.

He prefers to look at the virtual world they are building from a neutral perspective.

  He said, "Our content itself explores where the spiritual meaning of virtual world and connection is, that is, whether human beings really need virtual world. And what is the future of virtual world? I personally think that as a supplement to the real world, it will improve Some efficiencies in the real world, and even break free from some physical constraints in the real world. But will it have some negative things? It depends on how the virtual world will develop in the future.” (End)