Avatars

Avatars, which are virtual 3D animated figures, can be of a different gender or race, with or without disabilities, human or not human. Animations (i.e. how the avatars moves, shows emotions reflecting the personality of a unique avatar) can be reused between different avatars that share a similar body structure, but when an avatar changes its shape significantly, animations have to be recreated and adapted to the new body, so certain avatars may be more expensive. The EU-funded project Social and Human Centered XR (SUN) shows how you can transfer the movement of a person to an avatar.

The avatars are often pre-designed (rigged) to a certain extent, but the users can customise their appearance, personality, preferences, voices, animations and size. 

Rigging is the process of creating a digital skeleton that allows the character to move and animate realistically. Rigging involves joints, bones and control points within the 3D model, which animators can use to create the animations of walking, running, jumping or performing any other actions. The more dots a 3D model has, the sharper the image with higher resolution is, but you also use more computing power to show it on a screen. Therefore, until computing power in our devices increases, most virtual worlds in portable devices will include cartoonish avatars rather than realistic ones, mainly due to constraints in file size, loading times and number of dots per avatar.

Avatars can have a profound impact on the behaviour of the users embodying them. Although concerns have been raised on the potential improper use of avatars in virtual worlds to scam or influence people and vulnerable groups, they can also be used for many positive experiences. For example, the EU-funded project Virtual Environments for Rehabilitation of Gender Violence Offenders (VRespect.Me) focuses on the rehabilitation of domestic violence aggressors, creating an environment for empathy by helping them recognise ones’ violent behaviour. Another EU-funded project, Moments in Time in Immersive Virtual Environments (MoTIVE), recreates events, such as rock concerts from the 1980s or 1990s, giving people a positive experience, transporting them back in time in a younger body using virtual avatars.