Even though I've been on this site for awhile now, I wanted to make a post here as a formal introduction and say hi. Here are some random things about me I wanted to share:
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One of my big hobbies normally is 3D printing. I haven't been doing as much with it lately due to life stuff getting in the way, but I plan on getting back into it soon. I've been primarily using an $82 FDM printer I bought on sale on the Walmart website. It prints decent, especially for an $82 printer, but I'm kind of getting tired of tinkering with it and am saving for something nicer. I also sometimes do small electronics projects, often in conjunction with 3D printing. Also related to 3D printing is CAD modeling, which I've done a decent amount.
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I've also been trying to get more into modeling in Blender recently, and using that along with Unity to make stuff for VRChat. VRChat btw does not require VR as they have a desktop app, and there's a lot of neat and interesting stuff there that a lot of people here might be interested in, like movie worlds with an endless amount of free movies and tv shows, a world dedicated to helping people learn American Sign Language, a "Trans Academy" world as a resource for trans people, various furry worlds, meetup groups, and a lot more. I've really only just started with uploading content and recently I've been working on learning Unity/Blender by customizing a pre-made avatar and existing assets (instead of making something from scratch right away):
And here are some ear piercings I recently added:
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I have a very cute dog that I love very much. I think she's a lab/pit mix but I picked her up at a Humane Society where I used to live and I'm honestly not sure.
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As far as leftist politics goes, I'm very interested in "socialism with Chinese characteristics" and actual conspiracies (CIA/deep state type stuff). I also often like reading about organizational theory and economic planning topics.
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I got the chance to visit China recently for something work related and it was an amazing experience. My expectations were a little high and it absolutely blew them away. The biggest surprise for me is just how friendly the people there were. I never believed the (racist) narrative pushed by western media of people in China being cold and unwelcoming, but it was actually one of the friendliest places I'd ever been to. This was also in a city of (I think) 14 million people, just to add that context. Prior to this, I'd taken a free and short intro to Mandarin course on Coursera, but after this I'm probably going to commit long term to learning it long term. I'm just still not 100% sure how I want to do that.
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As far as music, I've been listening to a lot of Japanese rock and have been finding a lot of pretty great stuff. I'm also trying to listen to more Chinese bands, which are a little tougher to find online, but I've found some great stuff through suggestions from folks here.
Anyways, that's about it for me right now. Feel free to ask any questions you might have, and please consider making a post like this yourself!
Also, since this is new, do you all have any feedback on it? Do the rules seem reasonable? Does the kitten theme fit or is it a bit too much?
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I love Winnie
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this is a fun idea, thanks for making the post! More people should do threads about themselves like this (if they feel comfortable)
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What kinds of electronics projects? Analog, digital, microcontrollers, something really fancy?
Mainly just microcontroller stuff, like raspberry pi/arduino though I honestly haven’t done any of that in a little while.
Yeah, same. But now that parts are a little easier to come by, I'm trying to get back into it. My big goal is a semi-split keyboard, but I need to build up confidence with smaller things before I plug anything I've made into a computer.
Thanks! As I mentioned I’m using a premade base avatar (ArkoShark) and the hoodie and shorts were free assets. So far I’ve altered the avatar body to be more androgynous, altered the colors on the hoodie, and then added the ear piercings. I also added some other prefab stuff and set up the clothing as toggles so you can change whenever. Next thing on me list is to change the hair and add toggles for that, which will be a bit more involved but probably not too bad.
Cowboy frog is a good idea. When I’m back home I’ll see what I can do. Thanks for the suggestion!
I apologize but I couldn't find a good image that fits well. Maybe it would be best just to remove the banner? Comms don't necessarily need banners, right? at least until I can find something.
Ok, I found something a little different that's simple and looks good. Does it fit or seem out of place?
Not the OP who posted the cowperson frog. I like frogs and am violently allergic to cats so was excited by the prospect of a frog banner. And responded with frogpog.
OH sorry. I should have been paying attention. I now also feel bad for the lack of frogs. I do think the image could be changed in the future, to a cowboy frog, cowboy owl, or any number of cute animals with cowboy hats. Frog will probably come first though.
howdy pardner 
i'm something of a dabbler in modeling myself, and also in the realm recombining existing assets. it's kinda silly how we can know so much & create usable pretty things but still can't do the blender donut lolDoes the kitten theme fit
cats are near and dear to the vaquero ethos, independent dont-take-no-shit but cute and in hats. real heads know that the cowboy is tender and gentle as a kitten, it's the posers who drive lickin' clean f-150s from their suburban 'ranch' to a city job that give the trade a bad name
Yeah I think recombining assets is absolutely the best way to get started, but I’d love to get good at Blender and start making original stuff. I do have an avatar course thing I got off a humble bundle awhile ago so I’ll probably start with that when I get some more time. If I can rip the videos or somehow find it free somewhere I’d be happy to share it.
Just curious, what kind of resources have you been looking at on avatar stuff? I’ve mostly been watching YouTube videos and this creator in particular seems pretty great: https://youtube.com/@PxINKY
what kind of resources have you been looking at on avatar stuff
ah i'm not on the VR chat, different game & software environment but the general recombining-before-scratch sorta deal still applies. i should be using blender but i'm still on some ancient shit that works for the ancient game
Hello, it's lovely to meet you! I love that this community exists, thanks for putting forth all this effort. ❤️
Howdy from a fellow 3d print and vrchat enthusiast. I have a pic of my vrchat avatar set as my profile here. I main a fairly custom nardoragon. I have like 10 different versions, each with different accessories, props, and clothes(to keep the rating for each as close to good as I can). I got an awtter base a few weeks ago and have been having a lot of fun with it too.
What world is the first pic taken in? It looks familiar hahaha.
What's the most recent thing you designed and printed?
I'm getting tired of tinkering with it and am saving for something nicer
I know the feeling. I used a secondhand anet a8 that I got from offer up for $100 for a few years. That is until I decided to save up and get something much better. I got an anycubic mega x and I really like it.
Love the avatar!
I have like 10 different versions, each with different accessories, props, and clothes(to keep the rating for each as close to good as I can).
I've been running into this issue a little myself, though I've found it really depends on the asset. I initially had a suit that took my avatar from "medium" to "very poor" all on its own, but the current stuff doesn't add much thankfully. I was planning on having multiple hair toggles but I'm a little concerned now that it will sink the performance. I guess I'll just have to try and find out.
I got an awtter base a few weeks ago and have been having a lot of fun with it too.
The awtters are adorable <3 I recently found a panda avatar that I might try playing with at some point, but I still have a lot I want to do with the shark.
What world is the first pic taken in? It looks familiar hahaha.
Thad Magic Mirrors - https://vrchat.com/home/launch?worldId=wrld_f612c90d-1a12-4355-8683-215c3a34c8ed&instanceId=0
The same author also has a couple of really neat recursive worlds like this one and a cool mandelbox world also.
What's the most recent thing you designed and printed?
Nothing too exciting. So, awhile back I bought a Biqu H2 direct drive extruder on sale, but there's no compatible mount for the printer I have. So, I made a mounting plate in CAD and was printing prototypes to get it just right. It's basically done, but I haven't installed it yet due to work/travel and having to move.
I got an anycubic mega x and I really like it.
Not too familiar with this, but looks like a really nice printer. Just curious, what kind of stuff have you been printing on it?
I didn't forget about this, just wanted to take some pics of my avatars first lol
Love the avatar!
Thanks! I'm really happy with how it turned out. Here's another pic of my nardo. Even though its the most basic thing, I'm super proud/happy with the design on the undershirt. I got the design from a soviet space race poster.
The awtters are adorable
They are very adorable. Its crazy how changing an avatar can change how you feel and act. The awt is so happy and fun that I feel compelled to be a goof. Here's a pic of mine that took in that awesome thad mirror world you suggested. Speaking of the thad mirror room, my friend and I ended up hanging out there and watching drawfee this week. Its such a cool room. We usually end up in lsmedia for our weekly hangouts. Here's a couple pics from a few weeks ago where we watched the 1989 Batman movie.
Just curious, what kind of stuff have you been printing on it?
Just this last weekend I designed and printed a set of custom house numbers for my new mailbox. It's my first time printing with asa and I think I should have bumped up the extrusion multiplier a little bit.
That avatar is awesome!
I'm super proud/happy with the design on the undershirt.
I LOVE that shirt. Looks amazing. Was it hard to do? Seeing how good that looks kinda makes me want to try it also.
Also love the Awtter and the collar tag.
Speaking of the thad mirror room, my friend and I ended up hanging out there and watching drawfee this week.
You and your friend look super cute in that photo! Did you find the hidden room in that world by any chance? It's underneath the sphere and you have to swim under to get to it. Also the movie nights look like fun. I've done a few movie nights myself on VRChat, and it's pretty amazing how much content is available and how good the experience is. I sometimes use the Movies & Chill world, but I also have a friend who made a theater (Blue Dragon Theater) in Polyworld, which includes a lot of other neat stuff like an interactive record store. The movie list in the theater is hidden (accessed with a code) and content is not as extensive as the other worlds, but the visual and audio quality of the movies is top notch. If there's a movie missing you can also request whatever you want from his discord. You should check it out if you get the chance.
Just this last weekend I designed and printed a set of custom house numbers for my new mailbox. It's my first time printing with asa and I think I should have bumped up the extrusion multiplier a little bit.
From what I've seen, ASA is tough to print with and it's impressive that you just got it to stick to the bed, honestly. Did you use an enclosure? I haven't printed any ASA on my home printer since I don't have an enclosure or all-metal hot end, but I have heard of people using the 'Draft Shield' slicer feature which is supposed to minimize warping. Not sure how well it actually works, but I'd like to try it some day.
Thanks for the response and pictures, by the way!
The shirt was kinda easy but not easy at the same time. It depends on your familiarity with substance painter, and krita to an extent. I used krita to cut out and scale the image I wanted to use, then I used a pirated copy of substance painter to create the texture. If you've never used substance, I highly recommend it. Once I had the texture, I just had to import it to unity and reupload to vrchat. The first time I had ever done something like that was this shirt. It took me probably 4 hours of bumbling around until I got it to work. The collar tag on the awt was the exact same process, but that one only took 30 mins because I knew exactly what to do.
We didn't find the secret room but now I know what we're doing this week hahahahaha
I didn't use an enclosure for those prints persay. My printer lives in a closet, so drafts aren't a concern. As far as it sticking to the bed, a long long time ago someone recommended that I use a super light but even coat of hairspray on the print bed to help with adhesion. Ever since I started to use that, I've never had a problem with anything adhering to bed. It can be a pain to get things off though.
I think your VRchat avatar should be banned by the government because too pretty lmao
Based Winnie the Pooh appreciatator asw
That's a cute av, I've done some vrchat, but due to various constraints can only mute. Had fun though, particularly with dance classes and ASL classes.
Also, since this is new, do you all have any feedback on it? Do the rules seem reasonable? Does the kitten theme fit or is it a bit too much?
Meowdy
