**Locus X, developer of ‘Rosie’, “I will become SM/JYP in the field of virtual humans”**
*Baek Seung-yeop, CEO of Locus X, lectures at Conjinwon’s ‘Content Insight’*
“The next task in the virtual human industry is ‘beyond human’.
Baek Seung-yeop, CEO of Locus X (formerly Sidus Studio X), which is developing and operating ‘Only’, which is considered to be Korea’s representative virtual human, presented the subject of ‘Technology: Realization of the Worldview’ at the lecture ‘Content Insight’ hosted by the Korea Creative Content Agency. said.
â??Onlyâ?? is a virtual human who started activities as an Instagram influencer in August 2020. In July of the following year, she rose to stardom by appearing in Shinhan Life’s video advertisement ‘Adding Surprise to Life’, and is now a power influencer with over 148,000 followers.
â??It took six months to build Rosieâ??s worldview and plan as an influencer,â? said Baek Seung-yeop, CEO of Locus X. .
The part that paid special attention to realizing Daman was added, “I had a hard time adding ‘a little discomfort’ so as not to look like a real human being.” It is interpreted as a strategy to reversely use the ‘unpleasant valley’, a phenomenon in which we feel displeased with objects that vaguely resemble real humans.
As an influencer, his first goal was to have 10,000 subscribers. CEO Baek said, “I achieved this dream after 4 months of debut and only then did Rosie reveal that she was a virtual human.” said.
After becoming an influencer with 10,000 subscribers, she only ventured into the fashion model field. In the UK, she showed collaboration pictorials with the virtual human supermodel ‘Shudu’, which was introduced in 2017 in the UK, as well as the real human influencer, Korean-American fashion model ‘Irene Kim’.
CEO Baek said, â??Rosie, who began to attract attention in the fashion industry in early 2021, became known to the public after Shinhan Lifeâ??s advertisement in July of that year. It’s called ‘,” he said.
Rosie also released two original sound sources this year, including ‘Who Am I’ and ‘TO THE SEA’. CEO Baek explained, “Rosie is currently being produced in the form of four models in charge of motion and wearing faces. .
Locus X is a subsidiary of Locus, a video and animation production company, which was acquired by Naver in December of last year and is collaborating in the field of virtual human business. In addition to this, CEO Baek presented the 3D engine ‘
Virtual humans are attracting attention as they can play the role of a ‘game changer’ in the market by advancing into various fields such as influencers and entertainment. CEO Baek Seung-yeop pointed out, “I think it should be viewed as a ‘replacer’ rather than a ‘changer’ in that it replaces what humans do.”
He continued, “In order for a virtual human to become a true ‘game changer’, it must go beyond ‘human like’ and pioneer its own path. ‘Contents’, and furthermore, to build a community and ecosystem where virtual humans can live together.”
Virtual humans are regarded as representative ‘metaverse contents’ due to the nature of their creation using VR/AR (virtual augmented reality) technology. CEO Baek compared the metaverse to a broadcasting station. He said, “It is the talents who create the content that breathe life into the broadcasting station,” he said.
In the entertainment field, domestic virtual humans are not achieving tangible results, such as entering the charts of music charts. CEO Baek said, “Looking at the entertainment market as a whole, Locus X is only a very small company compared to SM Entertainment, JYP Entertainment, and Hive.”
He continued, “I think that there will come an era where real entertainment and virtual entertainment are separated from each other in the future,” he said.
https://news.g-enews.com/article/ICT/2022/10/202210271525325185c5fa75ef86_1