What Makes You Support a Creator?
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A few things that make me want to support another creator: reasonable prices, charity events/models (like ur models/assets proceeds going to a good cause), models can have same assets but maybe different mats or more textures, ( the big ones) if they care about optimization, if they care about the questies , having quest models ready on release, care about when clothing clips and toggles break, and last to NOT hunt those who have been either gifted or got assets on this site or other sites (you should ofc if they say its Thiers or sell your stuff but not if and they are just chilling, why...just why?)
i feel like a lot more creativity and repetitive behaviors of all the same assets could also be solved if you not only make the model purchasable, but most of the assets on it as well if you make a bunch of assets for a model sell them separate so there's no illegal kit bash and people can be creative and maybe you'll get a pretty penny for it too! creativity is what makes this community thrive and if your making assets why not be that change. new eden, illume, god fall, little saku, etc if they sold some assets they had only on certain models id buy in a heartbeat!
ty for reading my silly opinion. hope whoever sees this is having a good day/night!
@The-Fish-Lady I see. yea I agree with selling made assets separately. There's honestly no reason to try and gatekeep assets you made then get upset if someone uses those assets on their own avatar if they bought your avatar. The only thing I could understand is not selling one or two assets (assuming the creator created everything or almost everything themselves) separately due to wanting to have those one or two assets be specific to that avatar for its identity
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if you share then take some tips for the ones looking for your work if they see something needed
@SIRE I appreciate all your advice and i'll try my best to set boundaries, ask questions, create with my heart, and even share the things I learn with others if someone else who's tryna learn is struggling with something I can help with
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TLDR, the bar is VERY LOW for avatar creators. and even trying to make avatars is genuinely inspirational (in an art sense- avatar making requires tens of skills to study!). of course, from the drama that you've seen, you realise that being a public figure has risks. but i agree that you will be okay; and you will thrive in the community that you make. criticism is only another learning tool- and it will be very useful for your avatars to learn conflict management in this art space. i think that you will have a lot of fun making avatars, and everyone here is basically a potential friend because they're all so nice. i dont expect anyone to have a problem with you, and i recommend focusing on what you enjoy instead of the dramas. being yourself is the best thing that you can be..!
the only 'eternal sin' for avatar creators is 'lying' about what their avatar looks like; by using blender renders, or worlds with extensive effects (realtime lighting, colour correction, AO) for their showcase photos. the first look of an avatar is a genuinely huge part of what people think- even for when they use them. considering the everpresent industry-standard belief that avatars are expensive (regardless of price IMO) means that toggle videos, and CLEAN little-edited pictures (similar to the "no-makeup" makeup look) are essential to avoiding chargebacks. heavy photo or world editing may result in a misrepresentation of what your work looks like to use in vrc.
cluttered images will give an indication of low quality, regardless of personal style, even maximalist.but in general, even vrchat creators who steal, pirate, refuse refunds, and insult others get by fine and make tens of sales.
obviously, the ideal type of avatar to make is one that you would enjoy, and wear. i encourage you copy (im serious) the avatar creators that you already enjoy. think, "how can i make this better?" "how can i like this even more?" for many people, this is optimised and quest compatible avis (like our friends said above)every art principle in other disciplines can be applied to these avatars. avatars that I am drawn to specifically have set colour schemes, and a 'theme' that is recognised in an instant. it has to be unique, but not too unique because everyone should be able to wear it. it has to be 'full' of clothing and accessories, but not too full or it will feel cluttered. this is the very similar conflict to fur suit character design.
i am drawn to assets (this is kinda specific..) that have the AO map overlayed with their colour texture. this means that the base colour texture alone has a 'depth effect", which makes models look shadow'd even in worlds that dont have AO or realtime lighting. asset creators need to bake this into the texture manually, but i dont have a keen eye yet for being able to tell when creators do this. - mainly because the pictures that show what an asset looks like are renders, so they always have AO (shadows) on them already- regardless of if its on the base colour alone. this is important because when playing in-game, many worlds dont automatically have AO, meaning that only the base colour, normal map(texture), metal mask, are used. NOT the shadow map (the AO map) this results in a flat look without AO in the world. professional vrc worlds do this too, where lighting effects and shadows are 'baked' into the actual textures. hahah! my explanation of what this is, is so bad. ill include a pic
always edit your hair assets. mixing multiple hair assets together is something that is common for top avatar creators. this is because hair assets are often only single layered, and do not frame the face well enough on their own. editting this mainly can make hair feel fuller, and thicker than a single hair asset alone. ex. taking the bangs off of one asset, taking the sidebangs off another, taking a different back hair, and taking a different hair piece to lay on the shoulder. layering creates VISUAL INTEREST
but it doesn't matter what your textures look like, or your assets, or even your style if your MATERIALS look bad. this is why many avatars look 'off' IMO, because their assets have no cohesion in how their materials are set up. if your models are the cake, then your materials are your icing, sprinkles, and candles. this is where i recommend copying the most, because this is where the polish happens for an avi. strip away this polish for avis, and i guarantee these avatars that get hundreds of sells, would only get a few. it is the magic spice that brings an avatar to life.
my main comparators are sushi_qm (my favourite avatar creator), ourse (stole designs), kaiylast (totally innocent) and love (actual username, takes a long time to find). these creators are ''''in the same category'"''''to say it lightly. So, and because i like this style, i think about what makes them different? what makes them similar? something about an avatar can ALWAYS be improved to fit your personal style- so comparison is therefore a great tool in this space.
in normal lighting, real life clothes will indirectly reflect their colour onto our skin, and vice versa. this provides inherent colour grading to our overall outfits and provides cohesion that our 'human' eyes are used to. colour cohesion is why 'staining' a painting with a singular colour is recommended, and elevates the work. ourse' materials do not have an overlaying colour, and is literally the only thing holding her back. its why her newest avatar (blame)- which manually has a skin colour that reflects the outfit (colour theory), looks way better than her other avatars IMO. like. way better. YES this upsets me. NO, not even commissioners do this. its material magic and planning
...i think that this is why most avatars are essentially monochromatic. (black, white. or black+white+1 colour) its VERY EASY to make an avatar look clashing and too colourful, if you arent careful with your colour theories..
there are multiple ways to do this with poiyomi. the main thing is to tweak every material to have a consistent shading/colour grading with a specific colour. sushi does this by having all of her materials on each avi have a 'global theme'.
on patches, its a light pink. on blu, its a pale cyan. although sushi's avi 'kiss' doesn't have this.- so it's really subjective whether to do this.. however note that kiss is less popular than both blu and patches (used to-be proof by gumroad sales, but her gumroad dont exist anymore. you can go by vrm/ripper stats, or even discord emoji interaction stats to compare market interest). this is despite the fact that kiss is also her newest avatar, which i find especially interesting.-when in blender, change your focal length to 60-70. this makes assets in blender more accurately look like how they look in unity and vrchat. -
LEARN PHYSBONES MANAGEMENT. an avatar's hair should never clip into their head. a drawstring shouldnt be immobile. a skirt should not clip into the thighs. quality of life improvements are the difference between 'cute but buggy' and 'a masterpiece'.
also, the market IS very saturated with egirl/eboy, and i also hate it like the person above^. but you are free to do this style, still if youd like. obviously.
these things are what i enjoy about avatars. i like critique, and improvement. i like high polish, and finish. the creator's art quality is what matters to me, alone.
thank you for reading! ive actually never made avatars before. so good luck with my unsolicited advice!!
pictures included: ao example, colour grading example (of sushi's upcoming avi,.. actually the way i did it doesnt represent poiyomi shader colour grading but this is what i mean when i say color grading cohesiveness. the colours are more similar to eachother),
@kitties9999 firstly, thank you for your kind words in the beginning, your tips, and advice 🥰
I like the same style of avatars you like the most as well. I have 2 avatars by Kaiylast and I have Dia by Love. I know there's a lot to learn (and I read your comment like 3 times to fully understand it lol) but honestly it excites me more because of that fact. Also, by what you've said it seems I can apply some knowledge I have from my dabbling in digital illustration. The whole thing about making materials polished and cohesive on an avatar reminds me of how one would add a certain gradient or hue in a blend layer to tie a digital illustration together. That's probably a simplified version of what you said but that's what it made me think of XD<3
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TLDR, the bar is VERY LOW for avatar creators. and even trying to make avatars is genuinely inspirational (in an art sense- avatar making requires tens of skills to study!). of course, from the drama that you've seen, you realise that being a public figure has risks. but i agree that you will be okay; and you will thrive in the community that you make. criticism is only another learning tool- and it will be very useful for your avatars to learn conflict management in this art space. i think that you will have a lot of fun making avatars, and everyone here is basically a potential friend because they're all so nice. i dont expect anyone to have a problem with you, and i recommend focusing on what you enjoy instead of the dramas. being yourself is the best thing that you can be..!
the only 'eternal sin' for avatar creators is 'lying' about what their avatar looks like; by using blender renders, or worlds with extensive effects (realtime lighting, colour correction, AO) for their showcase photos. the first look of an avatar is a genuinely huge part of what people think- even for when they use them. considering the everpresent industry-standard belief that avatars are expensive (regardless of price IMO) means that toggle videos, and CLEAN little-edited pictures (similar to the "no-makeup" makeup look) are essential to avoiding chargebacks. heavy photo or world editing may result in a misrepresentation of what your work looks like to use in vrc.
cluttered images will give an indication of low quality, regardless of personal style, even maximalist.but in general, even vrchat creators who steal, pirate, refuse refunds, and insult others get by fine and make tens of sales.
obviously, the ideal type of avatar to make is one that you would enjoy, and wear. i encourage you copy (im serious) the avatar creators that you already enjoy. think, "how can i make this better?" "how can i like this even more?" for many people, this is optimised and quest compatible avis (like our friends said above)every art principle in other disciplines can be applied to these avatars. avatars that I am drawn to specifically have set colour schemes, and a 'theme' that is recognised in an instant. it has to be unique, but not too unique because everyone should be able to wear it. it has to be 'full' of clothing and accessories, but not too full or it will feel cluttered. this is the very similar conflict to fur suit character design.
i am drawn to assets (this is kinda specific..) that have the AO map overlayed with their colour texture. this means that the base colour texture alone has a 'depth effect", which makes models look shadow'd even in worlds that dont have AO or realtime lighting. asset creators need to bake this into the texture manually, but i dont have a keen eye yet for being able to tell when creators do this. - mainly because the pictures that show what an asset looks like are renders, so they always have AO (shadows) on them already- regardless of if its on the base colour alone. this is important because when playing in-game, many worlds dont automatically have AO, meaning that only the base colour, normal map(texture), metal mask, are used. NOT the shadow map (the AO map) this results in a flat look without AO in the world. professional vrc worlds do this too, where lighting effects and shadows are 'baked' into the actual textures. hahah! my explanation of what this is, is so bad. ill include a pic
always edit your hair assets. mixing multiple hair assets together is something that is common for top avatar creators. this is because hair assets are often only single layered, and do not frame the face well enough on their own. editting this mainly can make hair feel fuller, and thicker than a single hair asset alone. ex. taking the bangs off of one asset, taking the sidebangs off another, taking a different back hair, and taking a different hair piece to lay on the shoulder. layering creates VISUAL INTEREST
but it doesn't matter what your textures look like, or your assets, or even your style if your MATERIALS look bad. this is why many avatars look 'off' IMO, because their assets have no cohesion in how their materials are set up. if your models are the cake, then your materials are your icing, sprinkles, and candles. this is where i recommend copying the most, because this is where the polish happens for an avi. strip away this polish for avis, and i guarantee these avatars that get hundreds of sells, would only get a few. it is the magic spice that brings an avatar to life.
my main comparators are sushi_qm (my favourite avatar creator), ourse (stole designs), kaiylast (totally innocent) and love (actual username, takes a long time to find). these creators are ''''in the same category'"''''to say it lightly. So, and because i like this style, i think about what makes them different? what makes them similar? something about an avatar can ALWAYS be improved to fit your personal style- so comparison is therefore a great tool in this space.
in normal lighting, real life clothes will indirectly reflect their colour onto our skin, and vice versa. this provides inherent colour grading to our overall outfits and provides cohesion that our 'human' eyes are used to. colour cohesion is why 'staining' a painting with a singular colour is recommended, and elevates the work. ourse' materials do not have an overlaying colour, and is literally the only thing holding her back. its why her newest avatar (blame)- which manually has a skin colour that reflects the outfit (colour theory), looks way better than her other avatars IMO. like. way better. YES this upsets me. NO, not even commissioners do this. its material magic and planning
...i think that this is why most avatars are essentially monochromatic. (black, white. or black+white+1 colour) its VERY EASY to make an avatar look clashing and too colourful, if you arent careful with your colour theories..
there are multiple ways to do this with poiyomi. the main thing is to tweak every material to have a consistent shading/colour grading with a specific colour. sushi does this by having all of her materials on each avi have a 'global theme'.
on patches, its a light pink. on blu, its a pale cyan. although sushi's avi 'kiss' doesn't have this.- so it's really subjective whether to do this.. however note that kiss is less popular than both blu and patches (used to-be proof by gumroad sales, but her gumroad dont exist anymore. you can go by vrm/ripper stats, or even discord emoji interaction stats to compare market interest). this is despite the fact that kiss is also her newest avatar, which i find especially interesting.-when in blender, change your focal length to 60-70. this makes assets in blender more accurately look like how they look in unity and vrchat. -
LEARN PHYSBONES MANAGEMENT. an avatar's hair should never clip into their head. a drawstring shouldnt be immobile. a skirt should not clip into the thighs. quality of life improvements are the difference between 'cute but buggy' and 'a masterpiece'.
also, the market IS very saturated with egirl/eboy, and i also hate it like the person above^. but you are free to do this style, still if youd like. obviously.
these things are what i enjoy about avatars. i like critique, and improvement. i like high polish, and finish. the creator's art quality is what matters to me, alone.
thank you for reading! ive actually never made avatars before. so good luck with my unsolicited advice!!
pictures included: ao example, colour grading example (of sushi's upcoming avi,.. actually the way i did it doesnt represent poiyomi shader colour grading but this is what i mean when i say color grading cohesiveness. the colours are more similar to eachother),
@kitties9999 Is this avi out?
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This post is deleted!
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Things I like from creators:
-clear instructions: i don't want to go to their discord server to ask for help. Some avatars are setup for another system to be added, like a cool sword system, or a dash system, and sometimes the instructions sound more simple than they are. Clear and specific instructions can help avoid a lot of unnecessary wasted time, and helps the creators discord from getting a bunch of support needs. To top it off, some creators are rude and not helpful about those support needs, which leads to my next point.
-quality support: sometimes it can be frustrating to support people with issues, but almost every creator links their discord server on their store page. Understand that offering support will help make you money as much as selling avatars. This builds trust and good faith amongst the people that like your product enough to spend money on it, and that leads to free advertising. If you treat support needs like a burden and get rude to those people, it burns trust and good will. If you don't want to offer support, then specify that and make the avatars basic enough that buyers can get support elsewhere.
-quality quest versions: if you charge a premium price for a product, and it's not a premium product, that's a recipe for disappointment. I really don't like when an avatar is like an empty shell of what it can be. It seems like some creators just run the PC version through VRCQuestTools, call it a "quest version", and leave it at that. I know that quest can't do a lot of things that pc can do, but a lot of quest avis leave a lot to be desired. I've literally surprised an avatar creator by putting RGB animations on their avatar and then showing it to them, they didn't believe it was a quest version. And with the new toon standard quest shader, there's now even more room for improvement on quest avatars.
-open source and public avatars/assets (for original works): the details are in the licensing and terms of use. Making sharable products shows that you are actually contributing to communities rather than just being purely transactional. This is totally optional, but remember that VRChat is made better each time that people contribute sharable works. On the flipside, if your licensing or terms says something like "I reserve the right to change the licensing and terms", that's really arbitrary and unclear, it shows bad faith, spoils trust, and basically warns buyers that the creator has "reserved a right" to do something potentially shady.
-
TLDR, the bar is VERY LOW for avatar creators. and even trying to make avatars is genuinely inspirational (in an art sense- avatar making requires tens of skills to study!). of course, from the drama that you've seen, you realise that being a public figure has risks. but i agree that you will be okay; and you will thrive in the community that you make. criticism is only another learning tool- and it will be very useful for your avatars to learn conflict management in this art space. i think that you will have a lot of fun making avatars, and everyone here is basically a potential friend because they're all so nice. i dont expect anyone to have a problem with you, and i recommend focusing on what you enjoy instead of the dramas. being yourself is the best thing that you can be..!
the only 'eternal sin' for avatar creators is 'lying' about what their avatar looks like; by using blender renders, or worlds with extensive effects (realtime lighting, colour correction, AO) for their showcase photos. the first look of an avatar is a genuinely huge part of what people think- even for when they use them. considering the everpresent industry-standard belief that avatars are expensive (regardless of price IMO) means that toggle videos, and CLEAN little-edited pictures (similar to the "no-makeup" makeup look) are essential to avoiding chargebacks. heavy photo or world editing may result in a misrepresentation of what your work looks like to use in vrc.
cluttered images will give an indication of low quality, regardless of personal style, even maximalist.but in general, even vrchat creators who steal, pirate, refuse refunds, and insult others get by fine and make tens of sales.
obviously, the ideal type of avatar to make is one that you would enjoy, and wear. i encourage you copy (im serious) the avatar creators that you already enjoy. think, "how can i make this better?" "how can i like this even more?" for many people, this is optimised and quest compatible avis (like our friends said above)every art principle in other disciplines can be applied to these avatars. avatars that I am drawn to specifically have set colour schemes, and a 'theme' that is recognised in an instant. it has to be unique, but not too unique because everyone should be able to wear it. it has to be 'full' of clothing and accessories, but not too full or it will feel cluttered. this is the very similar conflict to fur suit character design.
i am drawn to assets (this is kinda specific..) that have the AO map overlayed with their colour texture. this means that the base colour texture alone has a 'depth effect", which makes models look shadow'd even in worlds that dont have AO or realtime lighting. asset creators need to bake this into the texture manually, but i dont have a keen eye yet for being able to tell when creators do this. - mainly because the pictures that show what an asset looks like are renders, so they always have AO (shadows) on them already- regardless of if its on the base colour alone. this is important because when playing in-game, many worlds dont automatically have AO, meaning that only the base colour, normal map(texture), metal mask, are used. NOT the shadow map (the AO map) this results in a flat look without AO in the world. professional vrc worlds do this too, where lighting effects and shadows are 'baked' into the actual textures. hahah! my explanation of what this is, is so bad. ill include a pic
always edit your hair assets. mixing multiple hair assets together is something that is common for top avatar creators. this is because hair assets are often only single layered, and do not frame the face well enough on their own. editting this mainly can make hair feel fuller, and thicker than a single hair asset alone. ex. taking the bangs off of one asset, taking the sidebangs off another, taking a different back hair, and taking a different hair piece to lay on the shoulder. layering creates VISUAL INTEREST
but it doesn't matter what your textures look like, or your assets, or even your style if your MATERIALS look bad. this is why many avatars look 'off' IMO, because their assets have no cohesion in how their materials are set up. if your models are the cake, then your materials are your icing, sprinkles, and candles. this is where i recommend copying the most, because this is where the polish happens for an avi. strip away this polish for avis, and i guarantee these avatars that get hundreds of sells, would only get a few. it is the magic spice that brings an avatar to life.
my main comparators are sushi_qm (my favourite avatar creator), ourse (stole designs), kaiylast (totally innocent) and love (actual username, takes a long time to find). these creators are ''''in the same category'"''''to say it lightly. So, and because i like this style, i think about what makes them different? what makes them similar? something about an avatar can ALWAYS be improved to fit your personal style- so comparison is therefore a great tool in this space.
in normal lighting, real life clothes will indirectly reflect their colour onto our skin, and vice versa. this provides inherent colour grading to our overall outfits and provides cohesion that our 'human' eyes are used to. colour cohesion is why 'staining' a painting with a singular colour is recommended, and elevates the work. ourse' materials do not have an overlaying colour, and is literally the only thing holding her back. its why her newest avatar (blame)- which manually has a skin colour that reflects the outfit (colour theory), looks way better than her other avatars IMO. like. way better. YES this upsets me. NO, not even commissioners do this. its material magic and planning
...i think that this is why most avatars are essentially monochromatic. (black, white. or black+white+1 colour) its VERY EASY to make an avatar look clashing and too colourful, if you arent careful with your colour theories..
there are multiple ways to do this with poiyomi. the main thing is to tweak every material to have a consistent shading/colour grading with a specific colour. sushi does this by having all of her materials on each avi have a 'global theme'.
on patches, its a light pink. on blu, its a pale cyan. although sushi's avi 'kiss' doesn't have this.- so it's really subjective whether to do this.. however note that kiss is less popular than both blu and patches (used to-be proof by gumroad sales, but her gumroad dont exist anymore. you can go by vrm/ripper stats, or even discord emoji interaction stats to compare market interest). this is despite the fact that kiss is also her newest avatar, which i find especially interesting.-when in blender, change your focal length to 60-70. this makes assets in blender more accurately look like how they look in unity and vrchat. -
LEARN PHYSBONES MANAGEMENT. an avatar's hair should never clip into their head. a drawstring shouldnt be immobile. a skirt should not clip into the thighs. quality of life improvements are the difference between 'cute but buggy' and 'a masterpiece'.
also, the market IS very saturated with egirl/eboy, and i also hate it like the person above^. but you are free to do this style, still if youd like. obviously.
these things are what i enjoy about avatars. i like critique, and improvement. i like high polish, and finish. the creator's art quality is what matters to me, alone.
thank you for reading! ive actually never made avatars before. so good luck with my unsolicited advice!!
pictures included: ao example, colour grading example (of sushi's upcoming avi,.. actually the way i did it doesnt represent poiyomi shader colour grading but this is what i mean when i say color grading cohesiveness. the colours are more similar to eachother),
@kitties9999 (This is such a random reply ) But what did you use to do the rainbow effect on your assets used on that avatar? Also I really did think your comment was useful as to someone who is newer to making avatars
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@kitties9999 (This is such a random reply ) But what did you use to do the rainbow effect on your assets used on that avatar? Also I really did think your comment was useful as to someone who is newer to making avatars
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