Ready Player Me vs VRoid Studio: A Step-by-Step Avatar Creation Tutorial

In our last blog post, we covered different places you can grab pre-made avatars for VR Chat, LIV, and other social VR or content creation platforms. But what if you want to design your own custom avatar from scratch? Creating your own VR-ready avatar is easier than you think with the right tools. In this beginner-friendly guide, we’ll be breaking down step-by-step how to make avatars using two free avatar creators we mentioned before – Ready Player Me and VRoid Studio.

Whether you want an avatar that looks just like you or want to roleplay as your dream character, we’ve got you covered on how to bring your creations to life. With just a selfie or your imagination, you’ll be able to express your individuality through a VR avatar you made yourself!

Create an Avatar with Ready Player Me

Ready Player Me is a web-based avatar creator that lets you make a 3D avatar from a single photo. Here's how to use it:

1. Go to readyplayer.me and create a player account.

 2. Select your body type when prompted.

3. Take a photo of yourself using your webcam or upload a photo. Make sure the photo is high quality with good lighting and no hair covering your face. Or, if you want to create an avatar from scratch that does not look like you, select 'Continue without a photo'.

4. Customize your avatar's appearance like skin tone, facial features, hair, and clothing. Ready Player Me will auto-generate an avatar from your photo, but you can tweak it to your liking.

5. When you're happy with your design, click "Enter Hub" on the top right.


6. In the Hub, find your avatar under "My Avatars" and rename, customize further, or download the avatar file.

7. Connect your Ready Player Me avatar to compatible apps like VRChat, Spatial, and much much more.

Make a Custom Avatar with VRoid Studio

For full control over avatar design, use the free 3D modeling software VRoid Studio. Follow these steps:

1. Download VRoid Studio for free from Steam.

2. Create a new model or you can edit an example model if you don’t want to start completely from scratch.

3. When prompted, select a male or female base model to start with and then the editor will open.

4. Think of VRoid Studio like a powerful character creator in a video game. On the top bar you will see different categories, face, hairstyle, body, outfit, accessories, and look. When you click on one category you will see subcategories on the left. In this example because we clicked on ‘Outfit’ we see whole sets, tops, bottoms, dresses, neck accessories etc.



Under the face and hairstyle categories there are even more options besides the subcategories. For example, under hairstyle>hairstyle sets once we pick a style we like we can adjust the color on the right.



Or, under face>eye sets you can adjust everything from the eye size, to its expressions and positions, including the eyelids.



5. To zoom in to your avatar simply use your scroll wheel to move in and out. To rotate the avatar, hold down right click and drag to the desired position. If you want to move the avatar vertically, simply hold down the middle mouse button and drag. 

6. When finished, click "Export" and choose "Export as VRM" file type.



7. You can choose to reduce polygons in either parts of the body or materials if the app you want to use your avatar with sets any limits, otherwise, click ‘export’.

8.You can decide between VRM 0.0 or VRM 1.0 formats. VRM 1.0 is better but if you cannot upload your avatar to your particular app, try again with 0.0. Finally name your avatar, add your creator name and any other information/details you’d like before clicking ‘export’ again.



9. Select where on your computer that you’d like to save your avatar to, and you’re all set! You now have a .VRM file that you can use in places like LIV, VseeFace, Virtual Motion Capture and more.

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Creating your own customized avatar for VR applications is both fun and rewarding. With the user-friendly tools provided by Ready Player Me and VRoid Studio, anyone can design their ideal virtual identity. Ready Player Me makes generating an avatar from a selfie fast and easy. VRoid Studio offers more complex customization for crafting unique 3D anime-style characters.

Now that you know the basics of using these tools, feel free to experiment and find an avatar design that resonates with you. Bring your new creation to life by importing it into your favorite VR hangouts. Your personally designed avatar will help you connect with others in virtual spaces in an authentic way. Don’t be afraid to change up your look over time as well. The possibilities are endless when you become the designer of your own virtual representation.