AVANNA

AVANNA is an English VOCALOID developed and distributed by Zero-G Limited, released in December 2012 for the VOCALOID3 engine. Her voice is provided by an Irish female singer, Rachel Dey.

Concept
AVANNA was designed to be a soft voice with a "Celtic twist" to it. AVANNA is 18 years old, female, and her artist has stated that AVANNA herself is of Irish descent. According to the artist, in AVANNA's early concept design, her height was 5'6" and her weight was 156 lbs. The artist had stated that in her final design, her weight is around 110 lbs. Again, it should be noted that these are just the personal preferences of the artist and not official canon.

Etymology
While it is unknown why Zero-G chose the name "Avanna"; according to the name's origins, it is a combination of the old English word "Ava," meaning "breath of life," and the Latin name "Anna," meaning "gracious." This results in the implied meaning of her name being "gracious breath of life."

Appearance
Zero-G requested that AVANNA should have a fantasy-based look to her. According to EmpathP, AVANNA's artist, the model for AVANNA's body figure was her own sister, who was particularly curvy.

AVANNA was originally designed to be an elf, but this concept was scrapped when she had to be re-designed upon YAMAHA's request. However, a faded version of this design can still be seen on the final boxart. EmpathP has stated that fans can draw AVANNA with elf ears if they wish to do so, and upon request, has also uploaded her own version with elf ears.

During the process of AVANNA's design, even though alternate colors were considered, Zero-G specifically asked for her to have black hair. According to EmpathP, the reason why the AVANNA's hair was lengthened was because she was requested to make her look more feminine.

AVANNA’s outfit was inspired by Roman-Britannia, specifically, the Celts who received Roman influence during the first century of Britannia’s occupation by the Roman Empire. The little flower shapes worked into AVANNA’s outfit are clovers, hinting at her Irish heritage. The rings around AVANNA's waist float/spin with the power of her voice, but will stay motionless when she is not singing. The gems on her skirt and the rings were inspired by blue topaz gemstones.

Marketing
For AVANNA, Zero-G seemed to adopt a similar technique to the one used for OLIVER's promotion. Upon AVANNA's official unveiling, EmpathP was able to talk directly to English-speaking VOCALOID fans and answer questions about her involvement with AVANNA. Most of the focus was on the Avanna topic at VOCALOID Otaku forums, and also the topic about her official artwork. This led to bonus promotional art material, EmpathP's "developer's diary" and design notes being handed out quite freely.

Trivia

 * One of the theories put forward by the artist, EmpathP, was that the reason why YAMAHA rejected the non-anime like style of artwork they initially put forward, was due to the reaction towards Bruno and Clara's original designs.

Notable for...

 * First and only English female VOCALOID3
 * First and only Zero-G VOCALOID3
 * First VOCALOID to have her illustration to be done by a VOCALOID Producer.