Creating Your Own Avatar Using ReadyPlayer.me

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Introduction

You can create a 3D avatar to represent yourself in virtual 3D worlds, such as the following game:

In this article, you will learn how to create such an avatar, using a free tool called Ready Player Me. Ideally, you need to have at least one avatar that looks like you. So long as your friends can tell it is you, then it is good enough.

 

Open the Avatar Creator website:

• If you have access to an email (your own or your guardian’s), please follow these steps to log in:

  1. Visit ReadyPlayer.me
  2. Click “Sign in” on the top right
  3. Input your email in the text box, then click “Send activation code”
  4. Go find the new email titled “Sign in to Ready Player Me”, and copy (Ctrl + C) the activation code.
  5. Go back to the ReadyPlayer.me window, and paste (Ctrl + V) the code into the text box, and click “Sign in”.
  6. Click the cyan button “Create New Avatar”, then select “Full-body” type.

 

• If you do not have any email you can use for receiving the activation code, you can try to open the following link to get started: https://creaticode.readyplayer.me/

 
The key difference between these 2 methods is that if you log in, then you can open and edit your avatar model later. But if you did not log in, then you will have to restart again if you want to make a different avatar.

 

Build an Initial Avatar

Now you are ready to build an initial avatar in 2 steps:

• First, select a body type that is Masculine (for boys) or Feminine (for girls)
• Second, provide a baseline image of yourself in one of the following ways:
  • Click take a photo button, which will open the camera on your computer to take a picture of your face. Note that if your camera is already being used by another app like Zoom, you have to close the camera in that app first.
  • You can also select “pick a file”, which allows you to pick a photo image from your computer’s storage. This can be handy if you do not have a camera on your computer, or you do not feel like taking a picture.
  • Lastly, if you do not want the avatar to look like you, you can also select Continue without a photo. Then you will be given a list of pre-built avatars to choose from.

 

Customizing Your Avatar

There are many ways to customize your avatar. As an example, we will try to modify one of the pre-built avatars:

• First, you can adjust the skin color of the avatar. To see it clearly, you can zoom in the face.

• Next, you can adjust the avatar’s face shape, mostly in the jaw and cheek area. You can also adjust the eyes, nose and lips, but they are less important.

• You can also pick a different cloth. Note that the style is more important than the colors or patterns, since you can change them later in your program.

• Next, you can adjust the avatar’s hair style and color. This is also an important style, since it will change how the avatar looks dramatically. Note that you should remember which hair style is chosen by the system before you change it, since you may not find a better option.

• Lastly, there are some other options you can try for fun.

 

Exporting Your Avatar as a GLB File

To use your avatar in the CreatiCode platform, you need to export it from the Ready Player Me platform as a GLB file. Just like a JPG file can store a 2D image, a GLB file can store a 3D model.

• If you have logged in with an email, then you should click the 'Enter Hub" button on the right top, then click “My Avatars” menu on the bottom left. You will find all your avatars in this page. You can click on the 3 dots on any avatar, then select “Download avatar glb”. You might want to rename your glb file to your name so you can easily find it later.

• If you did not log in, then you should a button on the top right that says “Next”, which will pop up a dialog box that contains the URL of the glb file. You can copy this URL and paste it in a new browser tab, so that it is downloaded to your computer. You might want to rename the file to your name so you can easily find it later.

 

Uploading Your GLB Avatar File

To upload your GLB file to the CreatiCode platform, go to the “My Stuff” page, and click “My Avatars”, then click “Upload a 3D Avatar”. Click the box that says “Click to upload”, find the GLB file you want to use as your avatar, then click “Upload Avatar” at the bottom when the avatar file has been uploaded to the server. It is usually faster to use the Google Chrome browser for this step.

 

Changing Your Avatar

If you need to change your avatar, you can delete the existing avatar, then upload a new avatar.

 

Learn More:

Loading an Avatar Into a Scene