Hi everyone!
I'm very passionate about 3D spaces, but I realized a lot of the things I enjoy are very technical and niche.
So I'm making a blog to talk about them! I love to share virtual worlds with anyone willing to visit them, so I decided to make a travel blog about all the places I've been!
Today's topic is METAFES (also referred to as Metafest)!
But Muro, what is METAFES?
To put it simply, METAFES is a virtual event where creators can advertise and sell 3D works.
METAFES specifically is an event in the virtual reality platform VRChat, created in collaboration with the company POLYGON TAILOR. There are also other, larger events that are similar, such as Virtual Market (shorthanded as Vket). I personally had never been to METAFES, so I decided to check it out!
It's a significantly smaller scale event than Vket, which is far more extensive and well-known, and it does show a bit. The event grounds (the 'world', in VRChat lingo) was a lot smaller and didn't have flashy effects, but it was full of the cute mascots pictured! These little guys usher you around the event space, tactically placed in front of halls and walkways to draw your attention. The world itself is a circular, open-air building with a stage and a garden at the center, and the halls are lined with products you can easily click in game to access the seller's product page.
Speaking of products, let's check them out!
(I am not sponsored by Virtual Market, VRChat, Polygon Tailor, or any company or seller. All opinions and statements are my own.)
First, we'll check out the 'AVATAR' section. Avatars are the backbone of the virtual market, and almost everything we'll be looking at today is avatar-based. Clothing for avatars, props for avatars, you name it. Customization and self-expression are the bread and butter of the VRChat community, and artists (both 2D and 3D) and programmers are highly valued.
And as you can see, there are good amount of different avatars, and this is just scratching the surface. My own avatar is also custom-made from parts bought from artists. Both 'the different avatars for sale and how they're commonly used' and 'kit-bashing a custom avatar' are topics I'd like to make separate posts on, so I won't get into either here.
You might also notice the lettering in the branding, and this is another interesting thing!
There's a lot of overlap between the English and Japanese community when it comes to 3D models. There is some cultural clash in the social sphere, but on the commercial side a lot of Japanese 3D products include English translations and vice versa. When I was a kid, I was already Google Translating my way through JP-dominant websites for models.
Here's an example of one of the avatars being sold! (I believe I accidentally covered the QR code with my face, sorry!) Because of this overlap, many avatars you'll see are in a cute anime style. This isn't the be-all end-all of avatar design, but it's the best-selling. For people who can use 3D modelling tools, the only limit is creativity. I've seen dragons, spiders, 'ports' of favorite video game characters (a port is to take a file, in this case a character model, from something and move it into another program), 3D-scanned people... the sky is the limit!
But because customization is king, there's also many avatars used as 'bases' for custom works, so a lot of artists will create custom outfits for different pre-existing avatars to sell. I'll be the first to admit that I've adored fashion and dress-up games since I was little, so this section is a dream for me and a nightmare for my wallet. There are lots of gorgeous, intricately detailed outfits, and many are made to fit multiple bases to increase the amount of customers they can draw in.
That's all from me this time! Thank you for reading, and let me know if there's any topics you want me to write about or any worlds I should visit in the comments!
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