[INTERVIEW] VIVE STUDIOS expands world of VR, metaverse and virtual humans

Kim Se-gyu, right, CEO of VIVE STUDIOS, poses with virtual human JZ at his company's headquarters in Gangnam District, Seoul. Courtesy of VIVE STUDIOS

Content producer seeks to become software developer

By Dong Sun-hwa

News that Suga of K-pop behemoth BTS would be absent from the 2020 Mnet Asian Music Awards ― currently known as the MAMA Awards ― due to a shoulder injury disheartened numerous fans back then. Surprisingly, however, they could still see all seven members perform their song, "Life Goes On," on stage on the day of the event, thanks to VIVE STUDIOS, which brought in Suga as a realistic hologram.

The fans later realized that VIVE STUDIOS was the content production company behind MBC's virtual reality (VR) documentary, "Meeting You" (2020), which featured a reunion between a mother and a virtual recreation of her deceased daughter who died at the age of seven. The tearjerker became the talk of the town immediately after it was aired, although it raised ethical concerns for being emotionally manipulative. As of Monday, the documentary has exceeded 33 million views on YouTube.

For VIVE STUDIOS CEO Kim Se-gyu, working on this project was not a piece of cake.

"We knew that recreating a deceased child would be a very sensitive issue and we were not even given a sufficient budget ― only about one-tenth of what we usually need ― to work on this documentary," Kim told The Korea Times during a recent interview at the company's headquarters in Gangnam District, southern Seoul.

"Knowing that we could not make full use of our technology with such a limited amount of money, most of our company officials told me not to take part in this challenging project. But I was confident that it could become a game changer if we could touch people's hearts by sending a message of comfort through our storytelling skills. Our approach turned out to be a success and the documentary became a small gift for those who lost their children," the CEO added.

Scenes from the MBC documentary, "Meeting You," which features a reunion between a mother and a virtual recreation of her deceased daughter / Courtesy of MBC

His business insight makes him look like a born businessman, but in fact, he was a musician in the beginning.

Born into a humble family, he had to make ends meet since he was a teenager. Then, by accident, he saw the boy band Seo Taiji and Boys ― which was also known as "culture president" for taking the Korean music scene by storm with its experimental music that included rock sounds ― performing on TV.

"I thought I could become as wealthy as Seo Taiji if I became a musician," Kim said.

Boy group Seo Taiji and Boys / Korea Times file

So he became a guitarist at 16 and formed his own band, C-KIDS, a few years later. His band basked in immense popularity, releasing an official album and even appearing on a music show. Kim did earn a lot of money for a while, but soon, he was embroiled in a contract dispute and was forced to put his musical career on hold. So he had no choice but to start his obligatory military service.

When the 25-year-old was discharged from his duty, he literally had nothing to do to make a living. It looked like there was no breakthrough in his life at all, until he came across a computer program called "3DS Max" by accident. Luckily, the program led him to the world of the 3D modeling, prompting him to set up VIVE STUDIOS ― which was formerly known as 3D CORE ― in 2003.

"VIVE STUDIOS enjoyed smooth sailing in the beginning for showcasing quality VR productions like the sci-fi film, 'VOLT: CHAIN CITY' (2008)," he recalled. "But we soon faced some financial struggles after failing to make profits with our VR theme park business. Then, the success of 'Meeting You' revived the ailing company, leading us to branch out into different fields."

Today, VIVE STUDIOS is enjoying its second heyday due to AI-based VR and metaverse creations. It recently breathed life to a male virtual human named "JZ," which debuted at the Melon Music Awards, Nov. 26.

"JZ is not just a virtual influencer who appears in commercials," Kim stressed. "He has his own fictional universe, and is expected to build solid fandoms across the globe. JZ is unlike any other virtual human in the sense that it was created through our face-swapping AI, which can process a large amount of data within a short period of time using only one image. We spent about one year to create JZ by combining art and technology, aiming to make him a visually attractive and highly functional entity."

Virtual human JZ / Courtesy of VIVE STUDIOS

He added, "I believe virtual humans, who are not constrained by time and space, and have a good command of different foreign languages, can enrich fan experience. The virtual human market is likely to mark a new turning point."

According to market research company Emergen Research, the size of the global digital human avatar market already surpassed 13 trillion won ($10 billion) in 2020, and is projected to reach 695 trillion won in 2030.

Unlike its rivals, VIVE STUDIOS does not only focus on making content, but also on developing software that offers solutions for anyone to create their own content and make use of its cutting-edge AI technology.

"Next year, we will showcase 'VIVE STUDIOS Immersive Technology' (VIT), which will help people produce their own virtual and metaverse content in a virtual studio using our key technology," Kim explained. "We are also likely to hold a VR concert featuring the late singers like Shin Hae-chul and Leslie Cheung and prepare a new album for JZ."