Expression in Decentraland gets an Upgrade: Emotes 2.0 are Live
By Decentraland, , in Announcements
A year ago, Emotes—animations you can trigger for your avatar—entered the creator market, allowing Decentraland creators to make and publish their own unique Emotes in the Marketplace. The huge variety of Emotes that followed had a significant positive impact on Decentraland’s community, paving the way for new activities and new ways to interact in the virtual world, as well as allowing for complete customization of one’s digital persona like never before. With this one change, Emotes grew from 19 free Emotes available to every user, to over 380 (and counting!) community-made Emotes you can browse through in the Marketplace today.
Now, this day is set to become another significant moment in Decentraland Emote history because Emotes are evolving again. As of today, Emotes offer more than movement—expression in Decentraland has been enhanced with the addition of props and sounds! Pull up your Emote wheel now and you’ll find a new confetti Emote, perfect for the occasion of celebrating Emotes’ new capabilities—let that confetti fly! 🎉
Ta-da! (You’ll have to take our word on the sound part seeing as Decentraland Emotes are now too advanced for gifs to fully showcase.)
Now, all Decentraland Emotes are capable of having accompanying sound effects and props. No longer will pole dancing Emotes twirl around invisible poles nor toasting Emotes lift an empty hand! Additionally, sound effects can lend a whole new dimension of complexity to Emotes, giving them a comedic air or setting the vibe with a perfect background track. To update your pre-existing Emotes, just remove them from Marketplace sales, update them according to the new parameters, and resubmit them for curation at no additional cost.
Decentraland’s creators move fast, so it will surely be no time at all before you’ll be able to browse the Marketplace for new and updated Emotes with these extra capabilities. Filter for Emotes with sounds and/or props by selecting the attributes you’re looking for under ‘Emote Features’ on the left of the Marketplace page or look for the Sound and Prop icons on individual Emote cards.
What do Emote creators need to know?
To start making Emotes with props and sounds, you’ll want to make sure to use the Decentraland Template File which has the avatar rig as well as a ground reference marker to keep your work inside the allowed space boundaries. To add a prop to your Emote, you’ll have to make a new rig (armature) for it located at the 0,0 position of the avatar and coordinate two separate animation clips, one for the avatar and one for its prop.
Another change introduced with these features is the addition of a new metadata document that will allow creators to define properties such as play mode, tags, a description, and more directly in a .json file. Emotes should be uploaded as a single, zipped .glb file which should not exceed 3MB. This file should contain all: the avatar rig and prop rig with their animations, sound file, and metadata .json file.
Prop Specifications:
Tris limit per Emote is 3000 tris (including all props).
Props may not have more than 2 materials and 2 textures.
Prop armature must have no more than 62 bones.
An Emote must have separate animations for an avatar and its prop.
Both animations (Avatar and Prop) must have the same keyframe length.
Each animation cannot exceed more than 299 frames or 10 seconds.
Emote space boundaries are the same as with standard Emotes.
Sound Specifications:
Sound files must be either .mp3 or .ogg
Sound file duration should not exceed Emote duration
Any sounds used in an Emote must be your original IP (Intellectual Property) with the right to reproduce, following Decentraland’s Content Policy criteria
See the full details of creating Emotes with props and/or sounds on the dedicated Docs page.
Celebrate Emotes 2.0
Jump into Genesis Plaza October 12th to celebrate the Emote 2.0 release with the community. 🙌 In addition to the new confetti base Emote, there will be 4 additional Emotes with props & sounds on display. Spin the wheel for your chance to win one of these upgraded expressions.
Once you claim your prize, use the #DCLCamera to take a picture with a friend showing off your new Emote, and share it on Twitter with #DCLEmote for a chance to win another special prize 🎁.
See you there!
Are you excited to update your Emotes? Or has the creative potential of Emotes 2.0 even inspired you to create completely new ones? Either way, the community can’t wait to see them. Make sure to share your revamped Emotes with everyone on Twitter with #DCLEmote so no one misses your amazing work! Totally new to making Emotes? Watch a beginners tutorial here.