Polywink never gives you a VRM. And it's priced for studios.
Polywink automates blendshape generation for studios, and does it well. But it never emits a VRM, and it's priced and paced for film and games — not for a VTuber finishing one avatar tonight.
Polywink fully automates ARKit blendshape generation with a roughly 24-hour turnaround, but it outputs FBX/Maya/Unity/Unreal assets — never a VRM — and it's quoted for studios. Riggle is the VTuber-shaped alternative with a deliberately narrower scope: it does not generate the 52 ARKit shapes. It builds the VRM 1.0 expression set — aa/ih/ee/oh/ou visemes, blink plus independent blinkLeft and blinkRight, happy, angry, surprised and eye-bone lookAt — out of about twenty seconds of you marking the face, and returns a validated .vrm plus a video preview in roughly a minute, for about a dollar a model. Studio piping faces into Unreal? Polywink. VTuber who needs an avatar that talks in VSeeFace or Warudo today? Riggle.
Polywink: studio-grade, but not VRM
Polywink (Blendshapes on Demand / Animation on Demand) is a genuinely automatic service — send a neutral face, get back the ARKit shapes, typically within 24 hours, with no work on your side. It's aimed at film, games and enterprise, and it's good at that.
For VTubing it has two mismatches. First, format: it delivers FBX, Maya, Unity or Unreal assets, never a VRM, so you're back to rebuilding the VRM yourself. Second, pricing and pace: a studio quote and a day's turnaround don't fit someone finishing a single $30 avatar this evening.
Riggle: VRM-native, about a minute, a dollar a model
Riggle is a different bargain, not a cheaper Polywink:
- VRM in, VRM out. Upload a rigged .glb or an existing .vrm; get back a VRM 1.0 with the expressions already named and wired, not an engine asset you have to convert.
- Minutes, not a day. Upload, mark and download in the same browser session, with a video of every expression playing back before you commit.
- Twenty seconds of you. Polywink asks for nothing from you; Riggle asks for a traced lip outline and two eye clicks, because that's what makes an automatic mouth rig work on an arbitrary mesh instead of smearing the whole lower face.
- VTuber pricing. Free tier of 10 tokens a month (one full model), Pro Monthly at $9.99 for 100 tokens (10 downloads), Pro Yearly at $99, or a one-time 100-token pack at $14.99 valid for a year. Marking, previewing and re-running are always free — tokens are spent on downloads.
The honest limit: no 52 ARKit shapes. Riggle produces the VRM expression set that VRM apps drive for speech, blinking and reactions. If you specifically need perfect sync, Polywink or FACEIT will get you the shapes and you'll do the VRM assembly.
Side by side
| Polywink | Riggle | |
|---|---|---|
| Generates the 52 ARKit shapes | Yes | No — VRM expression set |
| Outputs a VRM | No — FBX/Maya/Unity/UE | Yes — VRM 1.0 |
| Turnaround | ~24h | About a minute |
| Your effort per model | None | ~20 seconds of marking |
| Preview before you pay | No | Video of every expression |
| Audience & price | Studio quote | Free tier · $9.99/mo for 10 downloads |
Which should you use?
If you're a studio piping faces into Unity or Unreal, need the full ARKit set and want enterprise turnaround and support, Polywink is built for exactly that. If you're a VTuber or base seller who needs a VRM that lip-syncs and blinks in VSeeFace, Warudo or VMagicMirror — fast, self-serve, and previewed before you pay — Riggle hands you the file you'll actually stream with. The two aren't substitutes so much as answers to different questions.
A VRM you can actually stream with
Mark your model's lips and eyes in about twenty seconds and get a validated VRM 1.0 with visemes, blinks and emotions in about a minute — no engine conversion, first model free.
Get early access
GLB or VRM in · VRM 1.0 out · first model free · we'll email you when your invite is ready, plus the occasional product update.
FAQ
Does Polywink output VRM files?
No. Polywink delivers FBX/Maya/Unity/Unreal formats, so you still convert and rebuild the VRM yourself. Riggle outputs a VRM 1.0 directly.
Is Riggle faster than Polywink?
Yes — about twenty seconds of marking and roughly a minute of processing, versus Polywink's roughly 24-hour turnaround. The trade is scope: Polywink generates all 52 ARKit shapes, Riggle generates the VRM expression set.
Is Riggle cheaper for a single avatar?
For one avatar, yes. The free tier covers one full model a month; after that Pro Monthly is $9.99 for 10 downloads, or a one-time 100-token pack is $14.99 and valid for a year. Polywink is quoted for production pipelines, not one-off avatars.