TikTok has launched avatars for creators to use in clips. Building off of Apple’s Memoji, these cartoonish, 3D animated avatars replace your face on the screen and capture your emotions in an animated face.
It’s becoming increasingly popular to use an avatar to get a point across, especially if that point is controversial, to avoid the backlash of an opinion that can be as simple as not liking the Star Wars franchise.
Or they can just be used to add some fun to your clips, like setting one in the corner and having it express emotion for what is happening in the video, like laughter or pain at someone falling.
What is TikTok saying about it?
As TikTok itself explains: “Choose from an array of hairstyles, accessories, piercings, and makeup, to create a TikTok Avatar that reflects your personal look and style. After your Avatar is ready, you can start recording videos. As you gesture and move, your Avatar will mimic your motion.”
What does it mean for affiliates?
We’re reaching for Apple’s Memoji as a comparison because that is what is most commonly seen, but avatars are far-reaching. For the purposes of influencers, avatars are a part of the virtual influencer movement going on at the moment. They can come in lots of variants, from V-Tubers that offer a cartoonish façade that captures their emotions while they stream to Instagram influencers that are entirely CGI-created. The Metaverse is expected to be another ground for virtual influencers to appear, but it seems as though TikTok is interested in getting in there first.
