How to use Ready Player Me 3D avatars to create Virtual Beings

Want to create, deploy, and integrate Virtual Beings with your chatbot or Conversational AI using Ready Player Me 3D avatars from within our hub?

Want to keep on top of all things related to your (or your avatar’s) presence in virtual reality?

Here is how. 

Being a Technology-As-A-Service company, we strive to bring you the best tools in line with the newest trends. This, in turn, helps us to pave new paths into the world of Metaverse and - what is key to us - find new ways to enhance customer experience by adding a human touch to autonomous shopping 24 / 7 / 365.

It is no secret that to do this, introducing new integration to our platform is beneficial to everyone.

Ready… Player… Me… + Virbe 

If there is a technology that makes our Virbes or Virtual Beings more accessible, and more user friendly (and better dressed;) - we want it. That is why we have partnered with Ready Player Me (RPM) - a cross-game Avatar platform for Metaverse. 

It was the most natural next step for the growth of our product and to be honest, it was, and still is, pure fun to use the new integration.

Now, we would like YOU to see for yourself what is possible with our new plug-in allowing you to transform your chatbot / Conversational AI in style (or in whichever style you choose).

It is my big hope that after reading this blog post, you will be intrigued enough to try using RPM for your next Virtual-Being-related project or chatbot upgrade (via our platform!). But first things first. Let me tell you what you will be able to do with our new upgrade.

With Virbe + RPM technology you will be able to:

• embed your 3D avatar in your commercial app as a Virtual Being
• turn your chatbot / Conversational AI into a Virbe who could be your e-commerce concierge
• turn your picture into a 3D avatar (wearing a Newbalance hoodie or a stillsuit from Dune, or… There are plenty more!)
• use it as a “passport” to Metaverse

Let me elaborate on that a bit:

RPM Virtual Beings for Metaverse

With Nike, Disney, and Adidas making considerable investments in Metaverse, it seems that “the verse” is past its teething phase of being just a hyped-out PR buzzword.

At Virbe, we are inclined to believe that the Metaverse might take up a huge part of our future. And part of the reason we do what we do is that we want you to be ready with our Virtual Beings, Digital Doubles, and Meta Humans to function as best versions of yourself for the alternative world. Or at least the versions you might want to have at the ready - when you eventually need to / decide to knock on the Metaverse door. 

Watch our Virbes in VR:

RPM Virtual Beings as sales support in autonomous shopping or virtual hosts

Apart from the Metaverse context, there are many reasons why our RPM Virtual Beings seem to be the missing puzzle in autonomous shopping or in online/offline events at scale. We design our Virbes with the intention that they might fill the human-touch gap in unmanned shopping experience eased via digital touch screens or in e-commerce. With natural voice and conversation capabilities, our Virtual Beings humanise the autonomous customer experience while being available 24 / 7 / 365 at all types of websites, commercial mobile apps, or in a physical location (e.g. kiosks) or at global events like Laval Virtual. With the RPM integration, you will now have a plethora of 3D avatars to choose from, and a new digital wardrobe for each and everyone!

Ready Player: You 

Get started by taking a selfie. But if (for some reason) you cannot be bothered, you may also create your RPM avatar from the customisable elements available on the site. The result will be almost the same, if not the same (or, in the case of my own selfie - even better).

With a little bit of patience, a bit of tweaking, and clicking, you may create your avatar in a matter of minutes. I recommend looking closely at your photo while selecting the right set of “eyes” and “eyebrows” - especially if you choose not to upload your original selfie.

Check out our video for a quick walk-through in the RPM console:

Upgrade your app, humanise your chatbot, build your NPC with Ready Player Me and Virbe Hub

How long does it take to create your RPM avatar?

If you are a perfectionist, you might consider booking a slightly longer slot in your calendar. After all, this avatar is to represent YOU… in Metaverse(!), or on your Social Media? I am guessing you would probably like to look your best while exchanging free verse with Mark Zuckerberg when you happen to get invited to his Meta…;)

Feeling the increasing pressure for my avatar to frequent the Metaverse and the possible risk / chance of her brushing shoulders with other super-cool 3-D avatars in the newly created world, it took me over twohours, half an hour to arrive with the selection of these:

But to be perfectly honest, I did not notice this inevitable passage of time as the urge / will to arrive with the closest digital representation of myself instantly brought me in a state of panic flow.

(I have even created a few 3-D avatars for my son and nephew as a birthday gift - I think that apart from a new PS-5, there is no better present for a teenage boy right now, and the whole gig does not cost you a dime…).

How to turn your RPM avatar into a Virtual Being?

If you worked with our Virbe hub before, then the whole process of turning your RPM 3D avatar into our Virtual Being should be relatively straightforward for you. If not, apart from my walk-through the RPM console, you might find this short instruction prepared by our Chief Design Officer a very useful first step:

First, request your first Virtual Being at Virbe

Make sure you have an existing and running instance of a virtual being at Virbe. If this is your first experience with Virbe tools head out to hub.virbe.ai to register and request a Virtual Being.

Create Ready Player Me Avatar

Go to https://virbe.readyplayer.me/

Follow the instructions and create your Avatar. You can use a photo to generate the avatar or create one from scratch.

After you complete the creation of your RPM Avatar remember to copy and save the link to your model. The link is available at the end of the creation process.

Use the Avatar on Web

1. Go into your virtual being’s dashboard at Virbe.
2. Navigate to the Overview page. In the top right section of Virtual Being’s overview you will see the “Edit Web Appearance” option. Click it.
3. Change the model type from Virbe to RPM
4. Paste the link to your custom Ready Player Me model into the input field below.
5. Hit Save Changes. Now your virtual being will have a custom appearance in all of the web experiences where it’s embedded.

You can also use your custom RPM model in your custom Unity app. To learn more about Unity integration head out to our Documentation. And if you have any questions please head on to our Discord.

And you are ready to go!

You may now use your RPM Virtual Being whenever you need to upgrade your chatbot, want someone to represent you in Metaverse, assist your customers in autonomous shops, or during online/offline global conferences, virtual fashion shows or any event hosted in Metaverse. You may also create an interactive Virtual Being by utilising your existing tools and pipeline, or design with other built-in features of our Virbe platform.

Partner with Virbe

If you would like to discuss ways we could work together or if you wish to find out more about Virtual Beings please contact us at [email protected] and we will schedule a short demo call with you. 

From the author

Thanks for reading until the end. If you're interested in learning more about Virbe, or have any questions or comments to the above, please use  [email protected]  to reach out to me - I'd love to hear from you or join our Discord to be the first to learn about our updates or special offers.