How to create a VRChat avatar

Introduction

So you want to create your first VRChat avatar. You want an avatar that is you or maybe you want to create an avatar that other people can clone and share. This tutorial is for you.

Difficulty

This tutorial assumes that you know to install and use software that you download from websites. It does not assume you know how 3D models work (but it is nice to have).

How this tutorial is structured

We will pick an avatar from this website, download it, customize the texture, import it into Unity and upload it to VRChat. More advanced topics (Quest compatibility, custom animations, etc.) will come later.

Glossary

3D model

An object that is displayed on your computer made of thousands of triangles called "polygons".

Textures

2D images that when applied to a 3D model will change the appearance of them. Textures are commonly sub-divided into at least:

• albedo maps: the texture without any shadows or highlights
• normal maps: a way to "fake" lighting in a video game (generally a purple colored 2D image)

Unity

Unity is a popular game engine that VRChat is written with. You will use Unity to upload your avatar from your PC and to customize it with your textures and custom animations.

Substance Painter

A popular texturing software similar to Photoshop but for 3D modelling. You will use it to change the appearance of your avatar.

Blender

A popular 3D modelling tool. You will not be using it in this tutorial (covered in the "Advanced" section).

Bone

The 3D models that avatars use have a "skeleton" (or "armature") with "bones" that tell Unity how to move the polygons when the player's arm and legs move.

Rigging

The act of adding bones to a 3D model.