-Hi.
This is a French-Canadian virtual pop star.
-Well my name is Maya Kodes.
And I'm the first in the world to ever do this.
Maya isn't the first virtual pop star but so far she's the only one who can
move, sing, and talk to people in real time.
The animation is a little rough but Maya could be a model for the future of live music.
-I feel exceptional. Look at me.
This is Elise Boileau.
She's Maya's body.
This person is Maya's face and voice.
They asked us not to show her face because it breaks the illusion.
Maya appears on stage while these two perform backstage out of view.
They are being recorded using motion capture software.
Their movements are rendered instantly and projected as Maya in 3-D on the screen.
-The dance, the songs, the effects.
Everything is always to make Maya someone.
But at the very start it was just Yves St-Gelais and the movie Toy Story.
My name is Woody and this is Andy's room
My eyeballs could have been sucked from their sockets.
From that point on Yves worked in animation.
His biggest hit is a political satire called ICI Laflaque.
You kinda have to be from Quebec to get it.
Yves and his team used motion capture technology to speed up the animation process so the show can respond really quickly to current events.
-The show is written, animated, and edited in 5 days
In 2015 he started Neweb Labs to take this technology a step further
and make animation that could interact with people in real time.
-Maya Kode is the prototype.
Their goal is to create an artificial performer that could have real meaningful connections with her fans.
Something like this already exists.
In Japan, of course.
This is Miku Hatsune. She's a pre-recorded hologram.
She's opened for Lady Gaga. She sells out stadiums in Tokyo and her fans say things like this about her
-She gave a lot of people that didn't have a voice a voice.
Unlike Miku, Maya performs live.
Sometimes this can be awkward.
But Yves says it's the thing that makes her special.
At its best. The technology creates an opportunity for a new kind of experience
a deeper real time relationship between an animated character and a human audience.
But Maya also embodies some of the worries we have about new technology
that it might just incorporate the stereotypes of those who make it.
Ask the women involved about Maya's body and well...
-She was super funny at the beginning. Sorry.
-She was too sexy for me. And sometimes I was like, oh, I don't feel right.
Maya's features have been toned down. This is version 3.0.
But she's still not challenging our ideas of what a pop star should look and sound like.
Yves says Maya as a starting point.
There will be updates and other characters too.
It's the first attempt at a new live performance
One that could be experienced in different parts of the world at the same time.