Go on, admit it, we have all tried out socializing in an avatar-based digital world… No? Well? get with the program! It can be hilarious. For most people, their first experience was in Second Life but the options have grown and there are now a plethora of these virtual worlds out there offering online chat, banter and even companionship and dating. There is something hugely addictive about these digital playgrounds and I know I have enjoyed chatting up complete strangers, laughing together at our over the top digital outfits or absurd animal avatars and chuckling when snubbed (usually in broken English) by outrageously rude users. One such platform that is seeing rapid user adoption is IMVU where high-quality 3D graphics and super creative options make it stand out from the crowd.

Available for iOS, Android and desktop users and boasting over 50 million registered users and 10 million unique visitors a month IMVU is clearly one to watch. The platform is booming and celebrated it’s fifteen birthday in 2019. Take a look at the video below to see how the avatars and platform have evolved.

Available for iOS, Android and desktop users and boasting over 50 million registered users and 10 million unique visitors a month IMVU is clearly one to watch
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Users all get a personal homepage that is customizable with color themes, rearrangeable info panels, a personal blog where you can upload images and music and tell the world about yourself
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New users can sign up easily, create their avatar and jump into the action meeting and chatting with people in virtual rooms. Users all get a personal homepage that is customizable with color themes, rearrangeable info panels, a personal blog where you can upload images and music and tell the world about yourself. IMVU also offers animated stickers to let you express your moods and the search function makes it easy to look for new people to meet. Rather than speaking into a microphone to chat and hearing other user’s real voices reply, like you can in Second Life, IMVU features 3D Avatar Chat where typing makes chat bubbles appear over your avatar’s head. This is much more practical for users commuting on the train or quietly chatting while at work, naughty, naughty. These chat bubbles automatically resize based on how much you type. You can click on a balloon to copy the text, and then paste to add text to a bubble. You can even paste in clickable URLs. Also, by clicking on a bubble, you can drag it down to reveal your chat history. This is a familiar and practical interface for all smartphone users.

IMVU features 3D Avatar Chat where typing makes chat bubbles appear over your avatar's head
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More advanced and fun interactions are possible using Avatar Actions. You can easily express yourself with hundreds of Avatar Actions by clicking on your avatar to open the Actions Menu and select the animation you want to use or simply typing in the name of the action to trigger the animation. So typing LOL, wave, and even breakdance will make your avatar act it out! You can also shake hands, hug, hello, serenade, and even body slam your 3D avatars. Just click on the other person’s avatar and choose from the hundreds of fun animations.

Typing LOL, wave, and even breakdance will make your avatar act it out! You can also shake hands, hug, hello, serenade, and even body slam your 3D avatars
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For those looking to avoid the in-game adverts and for more than the basic functions and benefits within IMVU you can sign up for the VIP Club It’s actually pretty good value and looks to be very easy and rewarding. If this sounds like a good idea be sure to refer to the article How to Sign Up for VIP Club Membership for detailed instructions.

VIP Club Benefits:

Exclusive Status:

– No third-party ads
– A free special VIP badge
– Remove “Guest_” tag in front of your name for as long as you are a VIP
– A Free Name Change token after the first consecutive 3 months of membership
– VIP only avatar 3D actions
– Block unwanted avatar actions

Credits, Discounts and More:

– Free 5,000 credits a month
– 5% savings off everything in the IMVU virtual goods catalog
– 10% off badges

Special Privileges:

– Prioritized Customer Support
– Create up to 10 public rooms
– Create up to 10 groups
– Set your own custom room as default for Dress Up and Shopping
– Whisper privately in your chats

More than 43 million products are currently available, designed by more than 50,000 active Creators who upload over 5,000 new products to the IMVU shop every day
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Like many virtual world platforms, the more advanced user functions run on virtual currency. Credits are the currency in IMVU and what you use to buy items for your Avatar in the Catalog. You can buy Credits directly from the Catalog and you can also earn credits in a variety of ways including by becoming a VIP member. As you use IMVU, you will discover lots of ways to earn credits. You can also get credits when your friends sign up for IMVU and when they buy credits for themselves. With an exchange rate of $1 to 1000 Credits, IMVU’s virtual economy represents an inexpensive alternative to traditional shopping. All told more than 43 million products are currently available, designed by more than 50,000 active Creators who upload over 5,000 new products to the IMVU shop every day, from fresh takes on jeans and high-end wedding gowns to unicorns, lips that glitter, and eyes that shoot flames.

If you are serious about building yourself a personal space and new group of friends in IMVU then a VIP pass is a great idea as VIPs can create their own rooms and groups giving you more control over your social circle as well as getting free credits and discounts in the Catalogue to help you build your avatar into something that represents the real you!

Learn more about the VIP Club here and be sure to check out the IMVU News and Blog to see what the company and it’s users are doing to grow and develop the virtual world you are investing in.

If you are serious about building yourself a personal space and new group of friends in IMVU then a VIP pass is a great idea as you can create your own rooms and groups giving you more control over your social circle
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The platform supports a fascinating and diverse range of communities so you are sure to find yourself a group of likeminded new friends from among the 50 million-plus registered users
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The platform supports a fascinating and diverse range of communities so you are sure to find yourself a group of likeminded new friends from among the 50 million-plus registered users from around the world.

The post Get Past the Velvet Rope with VIP on IMVU appeared first on Tech Trends.

Tech Trends catches up with the creative minds making the immersive storytelling experiences of the future.

Since Technicolor opened the Technicolor Experience Centre (TEC) in Culver City, California a year ago, their subsidiary companies – including The Mill, MPC, and Mr. X – have worked on dozens of high profile Virtual and Augmented Reality projects that VR fans around the world will be familiar with, such as  Nike’s Turkey 360 (The Mill), 20th Century Fox’s The Martian(MPC), Warner Bros.’ Suicide Squad (MPC), MGM-Paramount’s Ben-Hur (Mr. X) and the fantastic Alien: Covenant In Utero, try it out below in 360. The creators enlisted the award-winning artists and creative technologists at Technicolor’s VFX studio MPC and the TEC, which provided the motion capture for the project. Collaborating with Twentieth Century Fox, FoxNext VR Studio, RSA VR, and Mach1 plus technology partners AMD RADEON and DELL, the team created what may be a first: a frightening immersive journey designed to scare viewers into their seats before the movie even opened!

It's been over a year now since Technicolor opened its Experience Centre for immersive technologies in LA
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“The Technicolor Experience Center creates a vibrant ecosystem that enables our teams, partners and customers to advance the state-of-the-art in this new form of storytelling,” Tim Sarnoff, Technicolor Deputy CEO and President of Production Services told us.

TEC‘s ambitions are much bigger than promotional work for brands or the film industry, however. The center was tasked with developing high-concept content, platforms and technology for immersive media such as Virtual and Augmented Reality. To meet those goals, Technicolor’s Research and Innovation labs are developing a range of technologies, including formats and tools that are being applied to enhance the creation and distribution of immersive content which are set to drive the future direction of the industry.

The Technicolor Experience Center aims to advance the state-of-the-art in this new medium
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We particularly enjoyed the creepy IT experience on Littlstar
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Tech Trends spoke to Tony Mugavero, the CEO of the TEC’s official distribution partner Littlstar to find out a bit more about their partnership with Technicolor and the challenges of distributing VR to a broader audience. You can check out Littlstar’s apps which are available for a variety of VR platforms such as Playstation VR, Google Daydream, Oculus Rift, HTC Vive, and the Gear VR offering content across across Music, Film, Sports, News, Gaming and more. We particularly enjoyed the IT: Float VR experience, “We all float down here Georgie,” is all I’m going to say….  I started by asking Tony about the much anticipated mass consumer adoption of VR, and the role mobile has to play in that equation.

We absolutely are on the brink of mass adoption in VR and AR. In order to push that further, the new computing paradigms need to work across all industries and not just entertainment. When people are using these technologies at home and work, and for entertainment as well as productivity, the shift will be complete. The transition is happening now, and the change is rapid (and exciting!).

Mass adoption is happening now, and the change is rapid
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People have enjoyed content on Littlstar tens of millions of times. We have close to 1000 hours of content across thousands of titles, and some of our VR users are having sessions up to 45 minutes long. Our numbers are growing, and we’re seeing hardware sales grow as well as the introduction of big AR investment by Apple, Google, and Microsoft.

Technicolor helps creators monetise their content
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Content is being produced at a much higher rate now as well at the big studios, networks, publisher, and labels, and many of these groups have internal teams with separate P&L’s to run immersive initiatives. There is a ton of development that is happening and under the hood we see no signs of cooling. The opposite, in fact.

Marcie Jastrow, Technicolor’s Senior VP of Immersive Media and Head of the Technicolor Experience Center adds that mobile devices are also going to be hugely important in driving this mass adoption.

“Mobile devices are going to be hugely important because what you create for mobile is not always going to translate on to an Oculus, or on to a Vive,” Jastrow explains. “You need to start like we do today with a master, and that is where the sweet spot for Technicolor will be: helping creators monetise by getting their content out to the masses via every headset, with the best image quality possible.”

I then asked Tony about what they brought to the table in the context of this TEC partnership:

Littlstar sits at the intersection of consumers, creators, and hardware companies. We need to have the highest quality output for everyone involved, and Technicolor couldn’t be a better partner to learn, collaborate, and grow the space with. With our platform, Littlstar sees nearly all aspects of what works and what doesn’t in terms of content. We’re able to cross reference all creators and see how consumers engage with the content as well. We also run up against hardware limitations while pushing the boundaries of distribution. We are able to provide a strong cross section of information, and working with Technicolor on solving these challenges means accelerated adoption and development all around.

We need to have the highest quality output for everyone involved
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So what will we see in the next ten years and what hurdles lie ahead for these new mediums?

VR and AR will co-exist and be used successfully for different reasons. We need continued content development, business use cases, and hardware investment. Devices need to get smaller and more powerful to handle the amount of data and processing required to run immersive initiatives. We need improved network infrastructure to stream 8k or 16k content and better compression for things like volumetric capture. TVs and computer monitors will continue to be replaced, and we’ll see smartphones taking a hit as wearables get better.

VR Devices need to handle larger amounts of data and processing
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Picking up on Tony’s comment that Littlstar is seeing users enjoy VR sessions of around 45 minutes I asked about the possible uptake for longer-format scripted narrative experiences.

Yes, this is already happening. Groups like Felix & Paul just released a 40 minute experience, and we’re regularly seeing content length increase. Dancing with the Stars and Conan O’Brien just released 1 hour long pieces of content.

Technicolor are also aware of the potential for longer format immersive experiences but Jastrow explained some of the challenges involved.

“Depending upon what it is that you are trying to accomplish, the workflows will be completely different. You can think the experience you’ve written on the page is going to translate beautifully into an interactive experience, but when you start working, you might find out that the technology is just not there yet,” she says. “I think the biggest challenge is going to be learning who the new storytellers will be,” she says. “What is often written out for creative is not something that can translate into immersive experiences. If it is a passive, narrative experience where there is no interactivity, content can be created in one way. Where there is interactivity, or where you may be tethered to a headset with controllers and interacting; that needs to be created another way.”

We can put processes in place that will help move immersive experiences
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But Technicolor are committed to continued investment in evolving the processes and developing the workflows needed to advance those possibilities.

“Narrative VR is probably going to play out like post production, but things like images and camera maturity, and techniques like stitching all need to evolve in order for images to be better and workflows to be faster. In the passive, narrative type of VR, we think we can get there pretty quickly by putting processes, standards, workflows and storytelling in place that will help move those immersive experiences along.”

The future looks exciting indeed for storytellers looking to engage their audiences with immersive technologies and the HP Mars Home Planet project is a great example of how Technicolor and partners are innovating and promoting VR content creation, more from Tech Trends on this soon!

HP Inc, NVIDIA, Technicolor, Autodesk, Fusion, Launch Forth, Unreal Engine and VIVE have launched HP Mars Home Planet—a global project using virtual reality to simulate what a human population of one million could look like on Mars. The unique exploration project – uniting engineers, architects, designers, artists, and students from around the globe – is a perfect example of the creative and technological collaborative opportunities presented by immersive media. There are currently 25K people involved in the project’s community. The Technicolor Experience Center is managing the community of collaborators and providing guidance and expertise in the development of the final virtual reality experience.

Technicolor are committed to invest in immersive technologies
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Tech Trends Virtual Reality Consultancy Services offer support for companies looking to get a foothold in the growing Mixed Reality spectrum and enhance their brand strategy with these exciting new technologies. 

Tom Atkinson is a Digital Producer & Photographer at R3Digital and Reviews & Dept. Editor at Tech Trends. Connect on LinkedIn and follow him on Twitter @R3Digital

The post A Technicolor Treat appeared first on Tech Trends.