VTubers Are Sleeping on This Incredible Program (Which Even Has a Retro Gaming Feature)

Every VTuber has a trump card in their toolkit to increase immersion in their recordings, streams, and ASMR content. I’ve seen a couple of VTubers experiment with reverb and Doppler effects on their audio, for example, or add high-quality animations and stream overlays to keep viewers interested. But there’s one post-processing tool that’s just as powerful as it is cheap, and it’s designed with anime content in mind. Yet every other content creator completely sleeps on it, even though it’s perfect for Twitch streams and YouTube videos.

Well, dear reader, I’ve had enough! After a literal full year of using it, I’m introducing my fellow VTubers to Shoost.

Become an anime with Shoost

MuRo, a former VR and video game director, launched Shoost in February 2022. The app offers a wide assortment of post-processing effects for images and real-time video. The standard toolkit is here. You know, color correction, vignettes, blur effects, and sharpening. But over the years, MuRo has really turned Shoost into a full-blown post-processing powerhouse for VTubers. You can add real-time rim lighting and drop shadows to your model through Shoost. You can apply color grading, glow effects, and an iris blur. And then there are all the special effects. Do you want smoke on your screen? What about dust effects? A camera flash that goes off? Or a series of film, television, and VHS presets to make your VTuber look like she’s from a 1990s anime? All this and more features in Shoost, along with various sliders to control how post-processing functions.

There’s even a “video game” effect to make your VTuber look like they’re in an ’80s or ’90s video game, whether simulating low polygonal rendering or outputting a monochrome, Game Boy-like screen. I don’t use this effect much myself, as my VTubing work has more of an anime vibe than a “retro gaming” feel. But it’s there, and it’s perfect for streamers leaning into a retro gaming aesthetic for their VTuber. Check it out below.

Send a couple dollars over to an incredible creator

Shoost is built to both receive and output Spout capture, which means you can send your VTuber from your VTubing platform of choice, add them to Shoost, apply any post-processing effects you’d prefer, and then send your Shoost output to OBS. It’s really nifty. When applied right, it adds a very polished look to any stream. Of course, you can also use Shoost to record video essays or create still images, like YouTube thumbnails. Case in point, I actually prefer Shoost for advertising my ASMR content. I can either create stills via Shoost to throw onto my Discord, or record my VTuber in a looped animation, adding that extra “oomph” that can convert a five-second glance to a full listen.

Accessing Shoost really isn’t that expensive. Just snag the Silver membership option on MuRo’s Patreon to download it. Of course, I highly recommend sending more than a few bucks over to this program creator. What MuRo is working on is incredible and deserves all the support. So go on, VTubers, and send word of Shoost!