Booth vs western avatars

[prismarine]

Hello! I am new to vrchat avatar creation and have some questions.

1. For those of you who have been creating avatars for a while, do you prefer western avatars or booth avatars, and what is the reasoning behind your choice?

2. Which type of avatar is better suited for customization in terms of being compatible with programs such modular avatar or VRC Fury?

3. Which type of avatar has a wider market for assets?

4. Can someone please explain the craze behind creating assets for certain popular booth avatars such as Miltina? Why is she so popular? Why do all the other popular booth avatars I see basically look just like her? Are they made by the same person? How do these avatars have such a chokehold on the booth market and why are most assets created solely for them?

5. Related to #5: If I did choose to customize a booth model, does anyone have a good recommendation for a booth model that does not look like a 5 year old child in the face but also has large enough popularity that people actually create assets for it?

6. Lastly, who are your favorite asset/avatar creators and why?

Thank you!!

[BenDoverDom]

Hello Prismarine and welcome to the community:

These are very big questions with no clear-cut answers because it is all very personal to each individual, as a mostly male model enjoyer and avatar enthusiast, these are my very personal thoughts to your questions:
(MY OPINIONS ONLY! Not trying to offend anyone...)

1. In terms of avatar creation, I do have a preference towards the Western avatars for their aesthetics and the reasoning behind my choice is Fashon and style being heavily influenced in Knock offs of big brands like Balenciaga, Chrome Hearts, and many other assets that look straight out of their respective brands fashion magazines, also adding to the visual style of them is the use of the Poiyomi shader primordially on western avatars that give a more polished realistic look.

2. Beginner friendly avatars customization in terms of being able to easily add hairs and clothes to a premade base will definitely go to Booth avatars. Booth assets are already pre rigged and weight painted according to the base they are made for, as for western avatars, more often than not, each creators takes their time resculpting or re-rigging the base moder used. In a way each, western avatar is uniquely shaped that no western asset will be a clean drag and drop perfect fit unless explicitly created by the same person for a specific custom base model.

3)Booth assets and avatars are compatible with both VrcFury and Modular avatar for easier customization or kit-bashing and there is a wider selection of assets for the major named avatar bases far more so than for western bases.

4)many questions in one... omg
a.The craze for Milltina is IN MY OPINION is just the normal fad that happens to certain models where many creators begin making a huge selection of assets for a single base as it gains popularity, the more popular a base, and the longer that popularity lasts, the more assets will be created for them, it happened for Shinra, later for Manuka and it will happen again for the next model after Milltina too.
b. She is popular mostly for NSFW reasons.
c. Other models are not made to look like her, she was made to fit with many other models. This might have been done to cater the use of previously made assets that belong to other bases and models to also fit her with little to no hassle towards the customization.
d. Many model creators make a big selection of assets for the models they make, but not all assets are made from the same person. There are also Asset creators that dedicate to creating for a whole many different avatar bases.
e. The chokehold on Booth is mainly driven to the Asian Marketing process rather than the free-spirited western style of creating and marketing their own avatars.

5. I would suggest (MY OPINION) choosing a popular base (like Manuka) that has many premade assets to your liking and just head-swapping the child head for a more mature style (like Amelia head by Sivka). I have seen this done in many booth avatars not sold in booth itself but rather sold by independent creators and kit-bashers over other platforms such as discord.

6)As a Western Male avatar enjoyer, the big names I can drop are:
AKIRA
PALACE
ASHIE
PRETTYBOY
KILGORE
DADDY OKAMI

Hope the answers are satisfactory and that my opinions are not taken as a final definitive option.
Exploration, Trial and Error are part of the process.

[prismarine]

Thank you so much for your well thought out reply! It really means a lot to me. When I originally made this post I had reached a point where I was feeling very overwhelmed by the sheer amount of varying information out there concerning avatar creation in general. You have clarified a lot! Also, I had no idea you could take a booth body base and switch the head for a western one. It makes sense that you could, but it never occurred to me lol
I think that might be an option I use going forward in order to more easily create clothing toggles.
Again, thank you!