Tutorial: Make Hi-Res/Low-Poly VR Chat Avatars with MasterpieceVR

Hey ya'll.

I wanted to share with you my VR workflow for creating some of my recent VR Chat Avatars which are low-poly but still incredibly detailed. Let me re-iterate, this is a Virtual Reality workflow which I found suites my particular style of art. I've been sculpting and painting since birth so if you'd prefer I just make a model for you...then that's a different conversation altogether (hit me up). But if you're like me and you have a VR rig, MasterpieceVR and love to paint and sculpt then listen closely (video coming down the line). There's many ways to get to Rome but this is the way I did it.

Software needed:
MasterpieceVR ($30)
MeshLab (Free)
Tiltbrush with Poly Account ($30)
3D Coat (Free Trial...Windows 3D paint might work too...don't know)
Unity 5.6.3 with VR Chat SDK (Free)
Internet Access

STEP 1: The first thing I did was sculpt the avatar and left the eyes out so I could add them in Tiltbrush. I painted my model but you don't have to since you'll be doing that in 3D coat. 

STEP 2: Export your humanoid. I did it as an OBJ but as of writing this, I see that MasterpieceVR has a new export option which wasn't available. 

STEP 3. Import your mesh into MeshLab and go to Filters/Remeshing, Simplification and Reconstruction/Simplification - Quadratic Edge Collapse Decimation. A pop up will appear asking you what your target number of faces are. VR Chat restricts you to under 20k so I did mine at 15k and it was just fine. I didn't push it to 20k because I'm going to add some brush strokes in Tiltbrush and want to leave some wiggle room.

A pop up will appear. Set target number of faces to under 20,000 for VR Chat.

STEP 4: Upload the model into Poly and then open Tiltbrush. 

STEP 5: Load your model into the default scene. You'll notice on the floor that there is a square with 2 lines marking the dead center of the environment. Turn on Mirror Mode and line it up directly over this point. Now bring your T-pose model so he is centered with his feet on the floor. The mirror mode helps because it adds a y-axis which helps you with your placement.

Tilt brush has a number of great brushes but many of them add a ridiculous amount of polys. Seriously, the toon brush can add thousands really fast. I suggest using 'WIRE' or 'FIRE' as fire is really just a .png and wire is low poly.  EXPORT from the Labs (see video) and then bring that .FBX file into 3D Coat (or similar painting program).

I love 3D Coat because I don't have to do anything special to prep the .FBX I outputted from Tiltbrush and it has a Photoshop style interface which is intuitive. I used the 'PER PIXEL PAINTING' option when painting this and you should too.
 

For the rest of the tutorial please refer to this video, cheers:)

Getting the model painted and into UNITY

More in depth video of using the SDK in UNITY.

Artist Spotlight: Ian Crighton

"ZOMBIE"

The first time I saw a video of Tiltbrush, I knew that I could finally push my craft forward and online, I've been blown away by what other artists are doing with these new tools. One of the most active artists engaging in the online community today is Ian Crighton, a freelance illustrator based in Scotland who is weaving his creative flow and presence across the metaverse. Ian's ability to quickly visualize concepts in 3D space is inspiring and I felt that he deserves to be the focus of the first Artist Spotlight.

Spacewalk by Ian.Crighton on Sketchfab

Here's a little bit about Ian:

"I live in and work in Scotland just outside of the city of Glasgow. I am an avid fan of all things Cyberpunk and SCI-FI, Which is reflected in my musical and art tastes. I absolutely love creating pieces of art that are both dark and dystopian, leaning mostly to the macabre.

I worked in traditional pen and ink mainly before VR , Which I still use to draw up concepts before applying to design. I am hoping to explore the idea of shared VR creative experiences within the meta verse."

CONTACT IAN VIA: 
info@icrighton.co.uk
OFFICIAL WEBSITE
SKETCHFAB PORTFOLIO
INSTAGRAM

How I made a low-poly Avatar for VR Chat

I recently discovered the awesomeness of VR Chat, a hub for VR users and non-VR users to come together. In these digital worlds, users occupy the space in avatars and the appeal is the randomness of each experience.

My first time in, I picked from a varied and fun selection of stock avatars that blink and move their mouths but as I saw the varied and incredibly diverse population of VR Chat, I decided that I just can't do it stock:)

So my first thought was to use something I made in MasterpieceVR but the way the files save requires a few more steps to retain color info, etc and while it's definitely on my agenda, I thought I'd take a stab at making my an avatar in Google Blocks. And to my surprise there was a recent update that allows for much more precision.

Now if you go to the 'labs' at the bottom of your panel palate, you can switch on new features. There are four dots that represent the center divide for the block you're creating in so setting up a few poles for reference is easy.

I made a dope avatar that was too big for the SDK so be warned, VR Chat has a 20k poly limit, preferably 10k.  Don't spend hours on anything too elaborate. In fact, keep in mind the design process and see if you can extend a shape out as opposed to adding one. It's fun (for me at least) to work within a limit and I'm happy with the result. He comes in at about 7800 polygons and is a feather weight file wise. 

If you'd like to try him out you can download him here and use this video to learn how to upload using the VR CHAT SDK.

 

Story Telling in Extended Reality

It's January 31st in 2018 and I am just feeling settled after a busy 3 months of traveling and making art. This is my first published blog entry on my brand new site. I'm using Squarespace and mostly uploading images taken within VR and it's an incredibly easy process. Shoots, with 3 clicks I can record my experience and share it on YouTube. I'm feeling powerful and blessed. I know well enough that everything can change at any given moment, so I am thankful that TODAY, that my family is healthy and happy. I recognize that this is temporary and I deeply respect the gravity of that. Yet there was a time when I didn't, it was my late teenage years and I really didn't care about caring. I don't think for one second that I'm alone in this and in my case, a number of hard learned lessons brought back to life my 'inner child', minus largely the naivety.

In my podcasts I often talk about education and VR and thought about some radically fantastical time down the line where immersive VR experiences on an online playlist will out perform our traditional education system. After having spent the last week immersed in XR (extended realities) dialogue and experiences while in New York (I was there showcasing 'Big City Nights'), I've come to believe that immersive story telling may be a powerful alley on our journey towards that goal.

My brother in law has these amazing Russian fairy tales like Hansel and Greta, illustrated beautifully and inclusive of the darker details so often watered down in the current culture.  Today while walking home from school with my 4 year old son, he describes to me a scene from his day...he describes it very well and asks, "Did you see me do that?" to which I reply, "I did in my mind, just now as you described it." So it occurs to me that children, or at least my son and myself are very aware of our mind's eye which is why we both love stories.

So what if we create the 'fairy tales' of XR, where we can sharpen intrinsic intuition and teach a moral through immersive story telling? What if we could share our hard earned lessons in a way that is memorable with others?

The question then becomes, how do we get stories from those who are not content creators?  Can we have a platform to submit oral or written accounts of our tales and have an AI start creating a scene based on visual data from these accounts?

What are your thoughts on the potential of XR as an aid in character development?