ZEPETO being IMVU-ized (Shrunken Heads) - What's my stand on this phenomenon?

Starting from the last weeks of November 2021, there was a trend that some of the avatars in my favourite app Zepeto were now looked like the style of another avatar game which is IMVU. IMVU is a 3D avatar social app that has a style of very realistic style. This is more realistic than Sims. Some avatars in Zepeto had both their facial and body proportions looked like those that were in IMVU, in which their heads got shrunk. The moment when I got alarmed by this is that some of my very close friends in Zepeto also had their heads shrunken. My head is still on the default proportions and when I photoshoot with them, it renders an unbalanced picture because my head is quite larger than their's, so I try to contact my friends and tell them to explain what's going on. I gave them time to have their heads go back to the normal one, but it turns out that they like it very much, that whether their clothes are different, they still have this shrunken head-on. The first render was on the magic shoes because the magic was on the magic clothing. There is the time that because of this frustration, I decided to make a second character in my account, in fact, I only just "replicated" the avatar of one of my friends that seemed to no longer using Zepeto. But it turns out that she still using her Zepeto with a new avatar.

One time when I planned with my dear friend of mine to have a pictorial with them cosplaying our favourite anime characters, I tell them to change her magic shoes to get right with the default proportions, but she doesn't want to, she say that the proportions that rendered by the magic shoes are quite better than the default ones. That shoe is in fact far reach to my coins in the app, so she gave me money to purchase that shoes. This means, I reluctantly go with her stand-in which I put on that magic shoes to have my head shrunken as well. At my first use of that new proportion, I'm quite not impressed with it. And when we shoot photos, I go deeper to the very first template which has quite large heads so that I can at least take photos with the proportions I got used to before. 

In the first place, I kind of disagree with what she said that these new proportions are quite better, but not wanting to offend her, I reluctantly gave in to her stand. I gave these proportions a chance to try it like trial versions of software. I just reminded of the cartoon style of animated Barbie films, especially, the cartoon Barbie Dreamhouse Adventures. As time goes by, I got used to these new proportions and the proportions of the said cartoon is now my basis for evaluation of the newly created body proportions of Zepeto. As time goes by, I came to the point that I think that she is right. As I go back to the default, it seems that the head is too large. 

Not only that these new proportions are on the magic shoes, but it is also found in socks that make you taller. Those socks were more of a "leg extender" rather than socks. I bought some of them with my zems since they are the creator's item, so they cost zems, I use my savings in my online piggy bank to purchase more zems so that I could purchase those items. There are "socks" that can both shrink your head and make you taller, and there are socks that only makes your legs quite longer. 

There is an issue in Zepeto in which using these varieties of body proportions will cause the pictorials to be far from what we expect. For example, when I take a pic with my friend, there are times that she is quite taller than me even without high heels. Like warning tags in cigar boxes, in the same way, Zepeto also warned us about this. (I forgot what was this kind of marketing strategy by the way.). Then it seems that Zepeto feels okay with these varieties of new proportions, so they make 2 new body proportions in their new update, which still stick to its original style.

A Struggle to have correct body proportions

As time goes by, there are new body proportions that my friend has, I tried to match these new body proportions with whatever items I have but there are times that it did not meet their cartoon style. So, I was struggling very much on meeting her standards, I'm struggling on "mixing items" to meet the correct body proportions, but it fail in which my dear friend is much taller than I do, I purchase more items with my money but it still did not give me the correct body proportions, I went to her OOTD's and purchase some items there, but still, it didn't, so I contacted my friend on what's her secret demanding an immediate answer, it turns out that she has a magic ring that has that body proportions. I first knew that magic ring. So I purchased that item. When she wore another body-modifying item that I don't know about, I immediately ask her, where did she get that item. And yes, it's in great sadness to say that my online piggy bank went broke because of this phenomenon, especially I don't have a job just yet. In my slots, I save each kind of possible combination of body-proportion-modifying items, to make it hassle-free, but I still struggle, because I'm quite struggling with measuring heads on my mind. Because of this phenomenon, I have to bring my measuring calliper compass along with my tablet and measure heads using it.

It came to the point that the heads of my friends are now TOO SMALL for the Zepeto's signature style, but not wanting to offend my friends, I still reluctantly go for it, even though for me, it is too much now, but for the sake of my friends, I still put on those new body proportions. As I compare these new body proportions to the proportions of Barbie Dreamhouse Adventures, the head is now quite too small and it will ruin the original style of Zepeto. And there are times that even though the heads are too small, the legs are quite TOO LONG for some poses.

This is my basis on meeting my standards of the
new body proportions in Zepeto

Because of these new body proportions, there are times that the photos rendered in Zepeto don't meet the expectations of the users, especially doing non-formal poses like sitting down, lying down, doing either couple or friendly moments, etc. Their avatars are floating above the chair, sometimes, when they want a picture of a man carrying a woman, it renders a woman just floating above the arms of the man. Zepeto actually warned about these anomalies, even some users are complaining about this, but they do nothing about this because like those cigar boxes with warning signs, warning the people makes their job completed. I'm trying to reach out to the creators of Zepeto to do something about this but until now, I'm still waiting for their answers. 

The avatar is floating above the chair instead of 
being superimposed on the chair

I came to the point of thinking that when this huge wave of a variety of body proportions of shrunken heads had gone too far, I may leave Zepeto and move and start over again in its outside doppelganger app named Star Idol. Star Idol is a 3D avatar making app made by HK Wecut International Ltd with its signature style as same as Zepeto's original style. The thing is that it will be very painful for me to leave my friends in Zepeto just to start over again in Star Idol, So I'm giving the creators of the app a chance to reconsider their stand about this phenomenon because this may ruin the original style of Zepeto.

The style of Star Idol looks very identical 

to Zepeto's original style

Shrunken heads and extended legs ruin the original style of Zepeto which is meant to be a cute avatar.

In the first place, I already had a bad impression of this phenomenon of shrunken heads, because, as I said before, this may ruin the original style of the classic Zepeto. Originally, Zepeto has a cute style similar to the picture above. Actually, it was Zepeto who first came up with this style. This is the reason why I decided to create my own Zepeto avatar. It's because the style is quite very cute. Last 2019, when I created my own avatar, it turns out to render a cute kid that I really like. And all had the same body proportions when I joined Zepeto and I really like the style. Then in the early months of 2020, I think, they redefined the body-proportions a bit, since the first proportions have a too-large head, so they shrunk the head a bit in which it became the default proportions of Zepeto, then in late 2020, they put a variety of body proportions to fit various ages of the avatar. These body proportions still stick to the original style of Zepeto with head on the right ratios. Until 2021 when some creators decided to bring the aesthetic of another 3D avatar app called IMVU to Zepeto, resulting in the spreading of items that can modify the body proportions quite as closely or similar to IMVU, these items were approved by the creators of Zepeto, but it will affect the game's original style especially when taking photos.

The matured realism style of IMVU and 

the cute style of Zepeto is very different to each other.

This is too small for the style of Zepeto

Do these long legs look normal to Zepeto?

Originally, the cartoon style of Zepeto is to be a cute style that can make your avatar as cute as possible, yet still can match the age of your youth, while the original style of IMVU is meant to be a mature one, so it renders a realistic facial and body proportions, IMVU's purpose is to make someone who can play feel that he/she is a grown-up, so they have these matured realistic cartoon style. When the creators of Zepeto released their media under its name, they have the characters stick to the default body proportions because this is their standard to their media, they do not release media that had characters that have IMVU-ised facial and body proportions, or those who had their heads too small, or legs too long because this is not the standard of the original style of the game. When they made avatars for celebrities like BlackPink, they had their body proportions stick to the original ones. This is to show what did the creators used to animate their music video. Up until now, the creators of Zepeto are still continuing to consent to this wave of IMVU-isation of the body proportions of Zepeto avatars.

The freedom of creativity granted by the developers is being taken advantage of. Some just for the sake of humour.

The creators of Zepeto is given the freedom for us to create various items for our avatars. However, when it came to the point that the style of an outside app is being brought to Zepeto, for me, it's now too much of taking advantage of this freedom.  

This is a 3D Avatar making app, not an Arts-Production app. It deals with TECHNICALITY rather than creativity.

Many will defend this trend by showing some of their artworks in which they use the faces from the Zepeto app and blend them with bodies with various proportions, some are which are close to the proportions of IMVU or a real human. I have nothing against those kinds of visual arts. Even I became fond of these artworks, I agree and support the artistic freedom within these artworks, since these were made by visual artists like me. However, my concern is not on these artworks. But rather to the TECHNICALITY of the 3D Avatar making app. I have to share first what I recently knew about animation.

I see the reason why in my country the Philippines, in the system of the Senior High School, the Animation course was not in the Arts and Design track, but rather in the Technical-Vocational track, in Information-Communications Technology strand. It's because the production of Animation is more on TECHNICALITY rather than creativity. The creativity or the art of an animation feature is in the pre-production phase, in which you can unleash the artist within you in creating a story, conceptualising a scene, making character designs, storyboards, layout and anything needed for the production phase of the animation production. The production and the post-production phase of the animation are more of a TECHNICALITY in which you have to draw the frame of the character exactly like the original style of the character, with no room for your own cartoon style, making inbetweens, rigging the character, editing a video, sound mixing, and programming the software to make visual effects. Unlike in Arts and Design track, you can be creative in your artwork, so, you are the boss of your artworks, drawings and illustrations. Unlike in animation, your key drawings are the work of art of its director and producer, and you are only interpreting the likes of the creator of the story. In Arts and Design track, you can learn animation as well, but it's more on its pre-production phase and you will learn more about creativity rather than the technicality of your arts productions. 

In fact, I choose the animation course in the ICT strand over Arts and Design Track in those days, even though my heart belongs to Arts and Design track. I chose it because of the confusion in which in the school I was enrolled which is drivable from my house did not specify the strands very well. The only strand that was there in the AnD track was "Education" only and no "Visual Arts", I thought, that strand deals with teaching kids instead of arts. But it turns out that the strand deals with all kinds of arts with an emphasis on fine and theatrical arts. When I went to college, I enrolled in the same school, in which they only have Multimedia Arts. I had no choice but to choose that course and it tackles various kinds of arts like drawing, photography, 2D and 3D animation, sound production, etc. Yes, my heart talent and passion belongs to the fine arts.

This explains why some said that my cartoon style had what they say same-face syndrome where all the girls have the same eye shape, facial structure, etc. I disagree with what they said that they had the same eye shape. The reason is that as an artist with experience with animation, I put the technicality of animation with my artworks, I still have my creativity but I have to keep the technicality of animation in my artworks, especially this is a mix-up of Manga style and Disney style. 

My cartoon style had these body proportions and my artworks
remained true to the standards of these proportions. Going beyond the
maximum proportions may affect the rendering of my cartoon style.

So back to the Zepeto app, with my explanations above, the variety of body proportions in the artworks that use Zepeto faces is an A-OK and everybody even I loved it. But the Zepeto app is a 3D Avatar making app, and it is not an art production app. 

A 3D avatar making app has a user interface wherein you can pic various items for your avatar to wear, with the base body provided. There are times that you can choose from various body proportions for your avatar like the picture above, but you generally can't go beyond those choices. It's because they want the avatar that you are making in their app to meet the standards of the cartoon style of their Avatar maker. Zepeto originally has this principle, so as Star Idol, IMVU and Sims, every avatar-making app has this principle that they must stick to the app's cartoon style. A 3D avatar app is more of a gaming app rather than an arts-production app. Every gaming app also follows this principle of sticking to the original style of the app.

While an art-production app has tools wherein you can go beyond what a 3D avatar app can render. There is a "liquify tool", "select tool", "resize tool" that can modify the body proportions in the picture to what's beyond what's provided. An art-production app is NOT a gaming app. It's for creating various kinds of artwork whether it's organic, geometric or abstract.

A 3D Avatar Maker app is NOT an art-production app

and a gaming app is NOT an art-production app.

You can edit the photo of your 3D avatar beyond what is rendered in an art-production app

but you cannot do it in a 3D avatar making app nor on a gaming app.

The arts-production app gives you absolute freedom of creativity

but the 3D Avatar maker app gives you relative freedom for they have standards for their app.

Remember, you cannot paint a picture in a 3D Avatar making app, nor in the gaming app. You can build a house, design your character in a gaming app but only use those that are provided by the app itself for it deals with the standards of the style of the app. But technically, you cannot make artwork with a gaming app, you need to have an art-production app to create an artwork. 

You technically cannot "crossdress" the style of Zepeto with the style of IMVU and vice-versa with a 3D Avatar Making app.

So in summarising my stand. Zepeto is being IMVU-ised, in which heads are being shrunken and legs got extended through new items. My friends like these trends, but in the first place, I was displeased by them and technically not in favour of this trend, but not wanting to offend my friends, I still go for it. But due to the lots of variations my friend acquired, I'm struggling with matching them, but when heads go too small, enough is enough. Even rendering pictorials are affected by this. But Zepeto just keeps on consenting it. There are times of thinking of leaving Zepeto and moving to its doppelganger app if things go too far. I'm not in favour of this trend because this will ruin the original style of Zepeto. Zepeto's style is a cute one and it's not as realistic as the IMVU. You technically cannot "crossdress" the style of Zepeto with the style of IMVU and vice-versa. You can do that in an art-production app, but you cannot do it in a 3D Avatar App. 3D Avatar Making apps deal with technicality, not creativity because it's a gaming app, not an art production app. So, IMVU-using Zepeto is ruining Zepeto's original cute style. 

I hope the creators of the Zepeto app will read my editorial regarding this trend, and it will help them reconsider their decision on consent to this trend because the convenience of this app's purpose is at the stake with this IMVU-isation of Zepeto. So, please, reconsider your dealing with this trend. Until then Thank you!