# My Journey to Git Gud Inspired by [M3: How to git gud](https://github.com/M3-org/git-gud) ![](https://reneil.eth.limo/images/gallery/fulls/04.jpg) I'm writing this document to reflect on my existing git gud journey and to learn more about HackMD as a platform for recording and sharing my experiences, knowledge aswell as future progression in an open and structured way. It's the beginning of my journal. ## 1. Mindset The past few years were quite exhausting but very fruitful at the same time. I've joined the web3 space in late 2017 when I found Decentraland and visited my first Ethereum conference (EthCC in Paris) in February 2018. One year later at ETHDenver 2019 I joined [Patricio](https://twitter.com/worthalter), helped him to build the first version of [POAP](https://twitter.com/poapxyz) (frontend code, design) which we deployed to Ethereum Mainnet. Over the past 5 years it was always about building while connecting with like-minded people in the space. It was about finding the right tribes while positioning the devshop [Qwellcode](https://twitter.com/qwellcode) that I co-founded 10 years ago inside the web3 space with long-term ambitions on our mind. We were among the first NFT builders on Polygon which allowed us to gain an understanding of how-to build accessible multi-chain EVM dapps early on. Our greatest achievement so far is the [MOCA](https://twitter.com/MuseumofCrypto) product ecosystem which I as CTO designed and our devs at Qwellcode have implemented. In parallel I soaked up any Metaverse related stuff that I could find while expanding hands-on research around various technologies with a focus on avatars and identity. I did read Ready Player One back in 2017 months before the movie came out and finally started to read Snowcrash during an Ayurvedic retreat in India earlier this year which was great timing. All of this made me understand the importance of open source software and permissionless systems. I absolutely identify with the values of [M3](https://twitter.com/m3org) and want to provide value to the org. ## 2. Start a Journal This page is the beginning of my journal. I'm going to conserve my experience and knowledge in an accessible way and will also use HackMD to properly document future insights. I appreciate the way in which [Jin](https://hackmd.io/@XR/) has been documenting personal and organizational learnings for years. The concept of digital gardens [which he outlined](https://twitter.com/dankvr/status/1568389058048696320) earlier this year makes a lot of sense to me aswell. ## 3. Make Avatar Stuff ### 3.1 The Birth of Nature In 2020 I bought one of the first Cryptoavatars and summoned the tokenized Identity Nature. The goal was to [explain and visualize](https://twitter.com/naturevrm/status/1338550209559879688) the concept of an interoperable avatar while promoting the VRM standard and at the same time building up different social media channels to share various angles of this experience. Lots of applied research on the bleeding edge of avatars happened. In January 2022 the v2 of Nature [was released](https://twitter.com/naturevrm/status/1482783869111869445) which was a rejuvenating update from the dark, almost dead v1. The concept art was created by [Yamer](https://twitter.com/Yamer) before it was modelled into a VRM avatar by [KamikazE-Chan](https://twitter.com/KamikazE_Chan) who minted it on the Cryptoavatars platform. You can find all sorts of footage that was recorded using full body tracking gear over the past 2 years on the channels. <img style="width:33.33%;display:inline-block" src="https://naturevrm.eth.limo/images/reneil.jpg"> <img style="width:33.33%;display:inline-block" src="https://naturevrm.eth.limo/images/footsteps.jpg"> <img style="width:33.33%;display:inline-block" src="https://naturevrm.eth.limo/images/interop.jpg"> :::info Project Website https://naturevrm.eth.limo Nature on Social Media https://twitter.com/naturevrm https://www.instagram.com/naturevrm https://www.tiktok.com/@naturevrm.eth ::: ### 3.2 Building my own Identity With all the learnings from the Nature project I've started to double down on my own avatar. During the pandemic I tinkered around with VROID to create avatars but didn't find enough time and focus to create a satisfying result that I'd use to build my own digital self upon. I decided to involve other creators into the process. Again I worked with KakikazE-Chan and we minted [my new VRM avatar](https://twitter.com/reneil1337/status/1508407791551189008) in March 2022. Additionally I commissioned Yamer to draw a couple of high quality artworks from screenshots that I staged with the avatar using full body tracking gear. I'm using those artworks for my website and in [various other situations](https://twitter.com/PolygonStudios/status/1552766476360245248). <iframe style="width:100%;display:inline-block;padding:0px" height="420"src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/TvCBh1RpGbc" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe> :::info My Homepage https://reneil.eth.limo Twitter and Youtube https://twitter.com/reneil1337 https://youtube.com/@reneil1337 ::: ### 3.3 Exploring VTubing I've started to explore VRM based stacks for VTubing a while ago but this year was the first time that I published explainers and entertaining content involving these pipelines. After a lot of trial and error I decided to focus on these 3 tools - [VMagicMirror](https://malaybaku.github.io/VMagicMirror/en/) - [WebcamMotionCapture](https://webcammotioncapture.info/) - [VDRAW](https://sites.google.com/view/vdraw/) and can also recommend Kalidoface 3D which has a more basic tracking but works right in your browser aswell as VSeeFace which allows you to aggregate various tracking sources and stream that data into engines like Unreal to create advanced VTubing environments. I didn't explore the latter scenario yet but it is def something I want to better understand in the future. - [Kalidoface 3D](https://github.com/yeemachine/kalidoface-3d) - [VSeeFace](https://www.vseeface.icu/) <iframe style="width:33.33%;display:inline-block;padding:1px" height="169" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/cz7U8dkkk58" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe> <iframe style="width:33.33%;display:inline-block;padding:1px" height="169" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/67XUDdXr0cg" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe> <iframe style="width:33.33%;display:inline-block;padding:1px" height="169" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/iu6t4ABgTy4" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe> My plan for 2023 is to record and publish tutorials that combine videos with text on this HackMD to help others in creating this type of content themselves. I realized that its extremely powerful and that some stacks can be used without investing lots of money into technical equipment. ### 3.4 Exploring Virtual Production I've started to explore virtual production this year. The software [VRM Live Viewer](https://booth.pm/ja/items/1783082) is absolutely amazing. As it allows to compose scenes with your own GLB models and tools provided by the engine. You can then import multiple VRM avatars and select custom bvh animation files for each avatar to create dynamic sceneries that can be recorded via virtual cameras. It's a bit complex at first glance which is why I didn't understand the potential when I first found it at [vrm.dev](https://vrm.dev/en/vrm/vrm_applications.html) back in 2021 but I used it recently to record various shots via OBS directly from the engine that I controlled in real time using an XBOX gamepad. <iframe style="width:33.33%;display:inline-block;padding:1px" height="169" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/dw1IiS33UhA" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe> <iframe style="width:33.33%;display:inline-block;padding:1px" height="169" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/knUBUCdTQF4" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe> <iframe style="width:33.33%;display:inline-block;padding:1px" height="169" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/44-kAEfkz1E" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe> This will probably be one of the first tutorials that I'm going to publish on this HackMD next year as the software is free and people are looking for novel ways to use their VRM avatars. Another thing that I want to do is exploring the [virtual studios](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WaTeheSCbgI) that [Godfrey](https://twitter.com/godfreymeyer) and Jin created in VRChat. ## 4 Creating Worlds I created my first art exhibition in Somnium Space back in 2020 and explored "in-VR building" with NeosVR earlier this year. I jumped into these platforms without exploring particular tutorials about building. The process with NeosVR was quite wild as the entire UX felt incredibly novel. Building worlds using your hands inside VR, from browsing files to scaling and positioning media, was learning-by-doing at its best. Can't wait for these workflows to become more intuitive. <iframe style="width:50%;display:inline-block;padding:1px" height="222" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/47h9aH3wA3U" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe> <iframe style="width:50%;display:inline-block;padding:1px" height="222" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/EEMTWsvZU4k" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe> After tinkering with Unity to import my avatars into Somnium Space and VRChat for a while it was finally time to create my first VRChat world. I followed [this tutorial](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u33XrDmwabs) but I'm not at a point yet where I could teach this kind of tutorial myself. Explore this world on the [VRChat Website](https://vrchat.com/home/world/wrld_8c9c48bd-818c-4d1f-b474-2cae0e47ceee). <iframe style="width:33.33%;display:inline-block;padding:1px" height="169" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/pdWUWuws-ps" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe> <iframe style="width:33.33%;display:inline-block;padding:1px" height="169" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/LlNbJlEkzb8" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe> <iframe style="width:33.33%;display:inline-block;padding:1px" height="169" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/VklRfQPtSQs" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe> Besides that I've helped to create various scenes and worlds for MOCA with my latest contributions on that front being the ROOMs demos in [Webaverse](https://verse.museumofcryptoart.com/) and [Hyperfy](https://hyperfy.io/1) which were launched this year. ## 5 Next Steps One of my goals for 2023 is to channel my existing experience around VRM, VTubing and other interoperability topics into HackMD which should combine screenshots and video clips that I'll record for particular purposes with written context. I'd love to aggregate well documented and organized research into the M3 organization as I highly appreciate their mission and many of the members.