Windup Bird - Clockwork Pet on Your Shoulder, Moves When You Wind It | VRChat

A mechanical bird made of brass and tin. Its claws grip the perch on a small base, and it sits on your shoulder.

Press "Wind Up" in the menu and the butterfly-shaped key on its back winds 4 turns, and the bird comes to life. For about 60 seconds it tilts its head, flaps its wings, shakes its head, puffs out its chest and looks around. As the spring unwinds, the key turns back and the motion gets slower and smaller, until it settles back into its pose and stops.

Behind the glass window in its chest, 3 meshing gears turn in alternate directions: fast right after winding, slower as it unwinds. Even when it is not wound, they tick one tooth per second, like a clock.

Features

• Moves when wound, stops when it runs down: "Wind Up" turns the key 4 times, then for about 60 seconds it tilts its head, flaps its wings (5 flight feathers fan out), shakes its head and puffs out its chest, getting slower and smaller as it unwinds until it stops
• Wind it again in the middle and it carries on with fresh energy, without any jump in the key or the motion (it pauses for the 1.5 seconds of winding, like a real spring)
• Gears in the chest window: 3 gears with 15, 12 and 10 teeth turn at speeds matching their tooth ratio, so the teeth always mesh. A ruby jewel at the center and perlage on the back plate
• Idle motion: it tilts its head every 6 to 9 seconds, ruffles its wings every 4 seconds, and breathes slowly. The key on its back also turns slowly
• Turns toward you when you talk: when you speak, it turns its head from your shoulder toward your face (on your head or hand it looks up). No sync is used for the voice
• Sleeps when you are AFK: it lowers its head over 2 seconds, tilts it and falls asleep
• Nods to music: in AudioLink worlds it nods with the bass
• Perch spot in the menu: right shoulder / left shoulder / head / left hand (on the back of the hand, like a falconer)
• 4 wing colors: blue enamel / red enamel / polished silver / copper patina. 8 combinations with the 2 body colors
• Craft details: individual feather plates (tapered, asymmetric, with a shaft groove, barbs engraved at 30 degrees and raised metal rims), translucent enamel over guilloche on the back, base metal showing through chipped edges, scale-pattern engraving on the chest, belly and neck, tin seams with flanges and folded U-shaped tabs, rivets, a knurled collar and key, glass-dome eyes (amber irises with radial lines, engraved brows), 8 toes with claws gripping the perch, and a beaded base with a stamped mark
• 2 colors, both included: brass with blue enamel (walnut perch) / silver with red enamel (ebony perch)
• Load: 8,903 triangles, 1 mesh, 2 material slots, 0 PhysBones, 0 particles (what it adds to your avatar, counted in Unity). All motion is done by shaders (no bones and no animated Transforms)
• Custom shaders included (no lilToon needed). All designs are original
• Modular Avatar ready: put it under your avatar and move the anchor onto your shoulder

How it works

• Pressing "Wind Up" sets the winding level to 1, and a smoothly following value (about 1.5 seconds) turns the key 4 times. The level then drops to 0 over 60 seconds, and the key turns back 4 times.
• The routine (one cycle every 12 seconds: head tilt, 3 flaps, head shake, chest out and look around) gets slower and smaller with the winding level, and ends "slow and small" back in its pose.
• The motion phase adds up "speed x time", so the angles never jump when you wind it again in the middle.
• The 3 gears turn in alternate directions at the tooth ratio (15 : 12 : 10). One routine cycle is exactly 4, 5 and 6 turns, so the teeth stay in mesh at every cycle boundary.
• All motion is done by vertex shaders, with no bones, PhysBones or particles (1 mesh, 2 material slots).

What to know before buying

• It does not follow you, fly, or react when petted (petting reactions are planned for a future free update). It is a clockwork bird that perches in one spot and moves there.
• There are no chirping or winding sounds yet (planned for a future update after testing).
• The default perch positions are for an avatar about 1.5 m tall. Move the anchors to fit your avatar (the manual explains how).
• For chibi avatars, a Scale of about 0.7 on the bird (WindupBird_*_Model) makes it the right size for the shoulder.

Bonus

• For one minute at the top of every hour, the chest gears spin 4 times faster and the key on the back turns half a turn (it follows the time in VRChat).

Menu (English menu prefab)

• Windup Bird > Show: bird on/off
• Windup Bird > Wind Up: press to wind the key; it moves for about 60 seconds and stops (press again to wind it up again)
• Windup Bird > Perch: Right Shoulder / Left Shoulder / Head / Left Hand (Right Shoulder at first)
• Windup Bird > Wing Color: Blue Enamel / Red Enamel / Silver / Copper Patina (the silver body starts with Red Enamel)

What's included

• Prefabs x 2 colors (brass, silver)
• FBX, textures (color swatches and detail images), 2 custom shaders (body, glass), animations
• English-menu prefabs (_EN) next to the Japanese-menu prefabs. Use one or the other on an avatar, not both.
• Instruction manual and Terms of Use in English and Japanese

Specs

• Added to your avatar (counted in Unity): 8,903 triangles, 1 mesh, 2 material slots (body, glass), 0 PhysBones
• Synced parameters: 19 bits (Show, Wind Up, Perch, Wing Color, AFK)
• All counts follow VRChat's rules (hidden parts are counted too) and show how much one prefab adds to your avatar.
• The VRChat performance rank depends on the total with your avatar, so this item alone does not decide it.
• No PhysBones, particles, AudioSources or Contacts
• Size: about 12 cm from beak to tail, about 10 cm from the bottom of the base to the tip of the crest (about the size of a sparrow on a regular avatar's shoulder)
• No extra skinned mesh

Requirements

• Unity 2022.3.22f1 (an avatar project made with VRChat Creator Companion)
• VRChat SDK (Avatars) 3.10 or later
• Modular Avatar 1.18 or later
• lilToon is not needed (custom shaders included)

Please note

• PC only. Not supported on Quest / Android.
• The Wind Up motion plays on each viewer's device, so it may be a few seconds out of step for some viewers.
• Turning toward you follows the wearer's own voice (VRChat's Voice value), not other people's voices or world music (the AudioLink nod reacts to music).
• Sleeping while AFK starts when VRChat decides you are AFK (we have not confirmed when the desktop version sets AFK).
• In the Unity editor it is shown standing still (it moves in VRChat and in Play mode).
• If a viewer's Safety settings hide shaders, the bird does not move and is shown with a standard look (the glass is hidden).
• It does not copy the shape of any real brand or existing work (all shapes, patterns and marks are original).
• The menu controls (Show, Wind Up, Perch, Wing Color) and the idle motion, turning to you when you talk and sleeping while AFK: they move only inside VRChat (including Build & Test) or with Gesture Manager. If they look still in the Unity Editor, nothing is broken.

Terms of use

• You may upload it to VRChat and similar services on your own avatars, edit it, and use it in streams, videos and photos (commercial or not).
• You may not redistribute, resell or share the data (edited or not), or use it to train AI.
• Full text: TermsOfUse_EN.txt in the download (Japanese original: TermsOfUse_JA.txt).

How this was made (AI-Assisted)

The 3D shapes, materials, shaders and texts of this item were made with scripts written with AI assistance. A person checked how it looks and moves in Unity before release.