This was interesting to attend as someone who still feels like they have a tougher time finding a fit among the avatar maker crowd than with, say, world creating or raves. Appreciating the different purposes and the openness of many creators in articulating by what means they achieved the things they presented was very encouraging!
Everyone seemed so hardcore savvy about the craft, so I just tried to stay out of the way and learn. 👀 Recreators, custom base/texture artists, character designs for specific worlds like Irrbloss, optimizers,
–tech demos from water physics and a working bingo machine/card to letting other players operate elements of their avatar (weapons, projectiles, arms, their body as a stringed balloon). An ethereally halved head whose sides could be pushed around, a planetarium, pins for pride you could get free and upload for your avatar's accessories:
It amused me that intros had a slight "I don't remember if I've shown this before"/"I made this back last year" motif, making me think either the event is very new, or, occurs so infrequently it builds up a lot.
One creator who presented communicating STS, another with a keyboard, and two near me in the audience were signing VR-ASL! Thought that was really cool seeing all that in an creator event like this.
I liked this line enough to write down: "my avatars aren't that technical, but they are cute." I get the impression these creator spaces can at times feel daunted by the techies, so I found it a good deal reassuring that everyone tries to equally showcase aesthetic craft in addition to complexity.
Also more nervous here for me because this is all live-performed! In a world showcase everyone experiences it asynchronously from the creator. It's not all eyes (even if welcoming directly watching both your work AND you at the same time.
Ultimately, with this last point about performance and that preface feeling insecurity re: avatar making is to me… If I can take a moment to break the facade and admit I’m editing these notes a month after writing them. 😅 In that time I’ve had another encounter worth mentioning, but it’s the closest I’ve gotten towards an “ooh, maybe I could do that” vibe. It was with a Discord server acquaintance who invited me to see their approach to avatars as “making a game inside of a game.” Admittedly, it’s foolish that I’m going to try to put what I saw in words! Wish I simply knew how to take a video of that entire day. But if you can bear with me as I’m still thinking out loud:
Start by imagining a recreated moveset from a fighting game character’s abilities, specials, props.
Now, add in the understanding that these avatars tend to be shown to an audience (as in the roundup!)
Give yourself the additional constraint that each avatar you make should go all-in on an idea or system that makes it entirely distinct from the avatars that you’ve assembled up to that point.
Consequently, what I witnessed was a frankly magical, “only in VRChat” moment whose progression from unassuming to transforming everything you know about what you’re experiencing I’m still clearly unable to get out of my head to this day, weeks later! I’m genuinely not sure how you pull this off with another social VR game without the flexible freedom, tech, and expectations that VRChat’s grown. 🤯
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