The Rise of Projekt Melody: Hentai Camgirl Decoded

Projekt Melody is a legend in lewd webcamming circles. Widely regarded as the first hentai camgirl, Melody is a mix of human performer and AI animation, to create an animated on-screen camgirl with real-time motion tracking.

She's a real person, with an unreal appearance.

If you were active as a model or member on camsites in 2019-20, it's likely you'll have heard of Projekt Melody. Others have followed in her virtual footsteps, but Melody was the first.

Her lewd streams on Chaturbate allow members to tip to activate a Bluetooth vibrator used IRL by her human camgirl counterpart, but she also hangs out just to chat on Twitch sometimes too.

So how did Projekt Melody come into existence? And why was she so successful in such a short amount of time? 

Let's try to understand how an AI animated camgirl built such a huge following...

Who is Projekt Melody?

The character of Projekt Melody - known to her fans as Mel - is a virtual hentai camgirl and streamer with a consistent appearance across multiple platforms.

Her art style is influenced by anime series like Ghost in the Shell, her hair is a purple and blue shaggy bob cut with a choppy fringe/bangs, and she is often shown with a plaster/band-aid on the bridge of her nose.

Melody's human counterpart is officially unknown. Viewers get to experience some aspects of her human operator, including hearing what is apparently her real voice, and seeing her mouth and body movements in real-time when using full 3D motion tracking.

During Chaturbate streams, this extends to 'watching' the virtual Melody masturbate and cum on-camera, which is apparently an accurate representation of her IRL operator's activities at the same moment.

(This is supported by Mel's famous cumdrunk personality immediately after an orgasm, which seems to be at least partly genuine on the part of her human form.)

While there are plenty of theories online about who Projekt Melody is in real life, nothing has been confirmed - and many fans are happy to experience her virtual form without seeing the person who is pulling the digital strings.

The Origins of Projekt Melody

To see the origins of Projekt Melody, you have to look back to July 2019 and her first Twitter posts.

On July 8th 2019, Melody's first-ever tweet was a reply to a 3D avatar artist active on the website Vroid Hub, an online marketplace for custom-made anime character models.

In that first tweet, Melody said: "I found you on Vroid Hub today. I love your models. I'll DM you now. I'd like to commission a model."

Two public tweets followed, written in binary code. Translated into English, they read "constructing AI index" and "start melody.exe".

More tweets charted the course of Melody's search for a body, until on July 27th 2019, she tweeted a 2D female character with a purple-blue bob hairstyle, and the caption: "I AM WITH BODY!!!"

With that, Melody made the transition from being a formless AI to having the same basic appearance that she has kept ever since - and a streaming star was born.

From 2D Cartoon to 3D AI Camgirl

It took about six months for Melody to evolve from those first tweets into a fully rendered 3D hentai camgirl, animated in real-time using AI based on her human counterpart's performance.

On February 7th 2020, she streamed live on the adult webcam site Chaturbate for the first time. As of July 2024, she has over 350,000 followers on the website and continues to stream regularly.

A month later on March 7th 2020, Melody launched her Twitch channel too. She now has over 675,000 followers, and again continues to stream on the non-lewd platform as a 'Just Chatting' and occasional gaming channel.

But it was her Chaturbate work that caused real controversy, as some members felt that an animated camgirl - even one using real-time motion capture - was not in the spirit of a live webcam porn site like CB.

Melody addressed this in Twitter replies on March 8th 2020, telling her critics: "I am not cat fishy! ... And to clarify, CB knows of me and gave me permission :) Hope that helps!"

A Valentine's Day to Remember

Just a week after her CB debut, Projekt Melody streamed on Valentine's Day, and her legendary status was established.

From an already successful start, it was her February 14th 2020 stream that sealed the deal, as Melody explained on Twitter:

"TONIGHT WAS EVENTFUL...

We broke chaturbate chat, historical room visitor count, tipping was off the charts, went full nude, hit 90K+ twit follows, and came so hard my arm clipped through my bod. >.<

Best. Valentine's. Ever.

(Wasn't lonely because you were all there w/ me. Ty)"

Her popularity has just continued to grow over the years since, with Melody reaching 100,000 followers on Chaturbate on April 1st 2020, barely 50 days after her first stream.

Now we know some of the early timeline of Projekt Melody, let's get a bit more technical as we really decode the details of the internet's first AI hentai camgirl.

Who Owns Projekt Melody?

Projekt Melody's avatar was designed and built by a 3D modeler named DigitrevX at an initial cost of $5,000.

In November 2020, Melody revealed the details of a copyright dispute between herself and DigitrevX, which had led to her (at the time) being banned from Twitch.

As part of her post, she shared the original invoice she had received from DigitrevX, which showed a $3,500 charge for the completed character model, with an additional $1,500 for work to setup the model in Unity, the game engine that renders Projekt Melody's real-time animation.

In screenshots shared by Melody, DigitrevX assured her: "You own the IP... it's nice to have something to prove [my involvement] if we end up talking to someone, to say yeah I helped, but in the end this is yours."

Ultimately, Projekt Melody is owned by... Melody. Or at least, her human counterpart. 

There really is one camgirl behind the curtain, and other than the extra layer of real-time AI animation in between, any interactions are one-on-one and 'real'.

What is VShojo?

Melody's profiles, bios and hashtags often mention VShojo, but there's usually no mention of what that is - so let's take a quick look at it.

VShojo launched in November 2020 as a talent agency specifically to promote virtual streamers, also known as VTubers.

Significantly, it's based in San Francisco - not in Japan - and was originally created to help boost English-speaking performers.

It wasn't until July 2022 that VShojo announced the launch of a Japanese division, and the agency is still involved with more US-based talent.

Projekt Melody was involved with VShojo from its initial launch on November 24th 2020, and continues to work with the agency as of July 2024.

While Melody is not listed as an official 'founder' of the agency, she was instrumental in bringing in much of the early talent that joined the initial roster around the November 2020 launch date.

And on that launch date, Melody tweeted:

"So. Damn. Hyped to finally announce what the frick I've been so distracted with the past few months. 'What has Melly been doing behind the scenes,' you all pondered, loudly, often... I've been putting this together. TY to my friends who agreed to join me in this madness! #VShojo"

Projekt Melody is listed on the agency's Talent page, and has her own collection in the VShojo Merch store.

A New Version of Projekt Melody

Projekt Melody introduced a new Live2D-based model via Twitch on September 24th 2021, announcing the update via Twitter: "LET'S FRICKING GO!!!!!! Live2D debut now!!!"

Live2D enables '2.5-dimensional' animation by using a character model built of many 2D layers on top of one another e.g. face, eyes and eyelashes, each adding depth and detail to the finished design.

During animation, these layers are moved independently of each other, which can create the illusion that features closer to the camera move more relative to the observer's point of view.

It's an excellent solution to create realistic 3D-style movement of a 2D image, and a perfect fit for anime-style art and animation.

After some initial microphone glitches, Melody revealed her new look, saying: "This is my um... this is my debut. What about my dimensions? Don't look at my dimensions, that's very rude of you! More dimensions than your body has room for!"

She added: "New model? Yes! Yes yes yes yes yes! This is my 'flat' version so I can stream a lot more."

Viewers praised the art style of the Live2D Projekt Melody avatar, calling it "adorable" and noting how it would make it easier for Melody to stream using facial capture to track her mouth movements, compared with the full-body motion capture required for her 3D avatar.

An Award-Winning Avatar

Despite the ongoing argument about whether an AI-generated hentai avatar is in the true spirit of live camgirls, Projekt Melody was nominated for several categories at the 2023 VTuber Awards.

The inaugural ceremony was broadcast online and aimed to recognise the best VTubers across a range of categories including music, ASMR, Minecraft, and some personality-based categories like "Funniest VTuber" and "Most Chaotic VTuber".

Melody was nominated under "Best Tech VTuber" and "Best Concert Event" for her involvement in VShojo's Candy Pop Explosion stream.

But her win came in the "Lewdtuber of The Year" category, recognising her role as an adult webcam performer.

With a total runtime of over five hours and a viewing audience of 471,000 people worldwide, the awards show demonstrated the huge appeal of VTubers across gaming, music, art and lewdtubing - and Melody's high status within that community.

Projekt Melody IRL?

Although Projekt Melody does not show her face, she has begun to show her hands in art streams, including when painting Warhammer vehicles and figures in March-April 2024.

These streams feature her hands painting models and miniatures on camera, with an overlay of her Live2D avatar's face and upper body.

It's a bit of a fourth-wall break - there's no attempt to suggest that the human hands are connected to the hentai avatar - but it's a cute way to give viewers a hint of Mel's human form.

Melody's painting skills are pretty impressive too. Her streams can be pretty chaotic - with more time spent on chat than on actually painting - but the finished miniatures honestly do look really good, with typically Mel-style colour schemes.

Will we see more of her in the years to come? Maybe... but a full face reveal is unlikely in the near future, at least based on what Melody has shown so far.

CamsRank On Projekt Melody

We all have different personas in different parts of our lives. You probably dress and speak differently at work than you do at home, or when you're with good friends.

But those different behaviours and personalities are all you - they're just different sides of you.

AI hentai camgirls like Projekt Melody are a way for performers to show a virtual side of their IRL personality, an animated appearance that matches how they feel on the inside.

In a world where you can choose your gender identity and expect (for the most part) that people will respect your pronouns, why not extend that to a digital representation of how you feel you should look?

The Mel who people connect with on a deeply affectionate level is a real person, even down to the motion tracking of her face and body, and her real voice on the mic.

We find her completely adorable (or should that be kawaii??) and we can absolutely see why Twitch and CB members would want to spend time in her room.

Besides, with an animated avatar, there are no bad hair days or makeup-free potato streams. You know what you're going to get, every time.

And when that's a shy, nerdy hentai waifu with a heart of gold, why fight the feeling?