In a nutshell
This webpage is simply a presentation for my collection in digital content that I've created for the IMVU community. I go by the username Shinoh at the moment although in the past, N0XS had been the name that I've worked under for the longest time and which was pretty much the reason for all of this. Well, what is exactly "all of this"? The content that you will find here is mostly about 3D items and a bit of graphic art that was created within this virtual community. IMVU is a great platform for people to express themselves and perhaps to learn new things. For me, it was most ideal to challenge my skills in digital content development in different media. Since N0XS got disabled eventually, I no longer had an overview of my development process which is why I created this page.
journey
The Noob
I discovered IMVU back in 2010 from Google Ads. I was curious to what this was all about since I saw it everywhere on the internet. At first, it didn't seem very interesting since it's not a game, but rather a virutal environment where people can dress up their avatar and simply socialise. I've met some people on there but never took it to my personal life. I still considered it an online thing that should stay online. The social aspect of imvu didn't intrigue me very well but something else did: the creators community.Experimenting with N0XS
I read about imvu content creators, people who provide the imvu community with products such as clothing, and other products that you can buy for your avatar to make it look better than the "noob" avatar. Or rather personalise it. I to, wanted to express my style. The main reason I got into creating was because I couldn't find the product (a shoe with the right colour for example) that I wanted. This small frustration lead me to a challenge to make my own things that I would be satisfied with. It was quite hard to create my first product, it looked crappy as fuck since I posses zero knowledge in digital content creating. I was not satisfied with my shitty first creation, it looked unrealistic and cheap. My high standards were a pain in the ass because I watched hours of tutorials to learn how to use Photoshop before finally creating a product I found good enough.I created a small amount of items when suddenly other people started buying them as well. My standars kept going higher as I created more often. I wanted to wrap my products in a neat presentation which includes proper catalog images, description pages and also my own homepage where they could be found too. It was no longer Photoshop that I needed to worry about, webdevelopment became another task as well. As time passes by, I created with more attention to details and more people started buying from me. Sales started to increase steadily, even till the point where I received the "pro" label and reached tier 6. Before I knew it, I was making quite some profit which gave me the opportunity to participate in more activities. That time was pretty much the Golden Age of my imvu experience.
New aspects
When I grew older, my real life required more time. School became very important which was prior to everything. As well as my social life that got busier, imvu shifted to the background. I didn't give it much attention and time anymore. On top of that, my style went in a different direction. I was no longer interested by big logo's of these brands on my clothes. My preference went to a more casual style. I started to create more products that were primarily just meant for my own avatar. Other people buying it was merely a bonus. As I was still somewhat active on IMVU, graphic design and webdesign stole my attention. I was spending more time making amauteuristic graphic art and trying to improve in making html layouts. I only created a couple of items every once in a while when I couldn't find what I wanted. Back to old times. Well, only I'd spend a shit lot of time making the perfect presentation for them. I wanted to share this way of working with other people. And so I started a group.Atelier NX was an idea to connect like-minded people with each other, people that choose quality over quantity, give details attention, and express themselves with their own creativity and style. The intention of this group was to help new (or old) creators to improve and to give them a chance to share it with other people. Unfortunately, Alelier NX didn't live for long as N0XS got banned from imvu LOL.
The vision
Before N0XS got banned, I wanted to stop creating on the one hand since people can cheat their way up. On the other hand creating still remains fun as a hobby. To express one's style and imagination can never be boring. Around this time I was already in college and free-time was rarer than ever. Imvu only received one glance in weeks.The imvu community changed alot over the years. There wasn't as much interaction as before anymore. And thieves became problematic. Quality in products has increased, but authenticity and creativity has completely disappeared. There were now ways for people to steal textures and cheat their way up as a so called creator. The imvu policy has gotten stricter for creators and creating was not as liberating as it used to be. I created my very own product textures but used real life brand names. That got N0XS banned from imvu permanently. It seemed too bad in the beginning because a fucking huge amount of time and energy was put in N0XS. Soon enough I realised I wasn't that bothered by it. It wasn't only me, a whole bunch of other amazing creators got banned for the same reason. Can't really be mad about it, since it's written in their policies to begin with. The time came where they stopped tolerating the use of brands without permission. Yet the theft problem has been left aside, unfortunately.
Introduction of Shinoh
As I thought I had left imvu behind me, every once in a while, I felt like checking things out on there. The problem was I no longer had an accout. In the end I decided to create a new one.This is the start of Shinoh. Now working with a different name, I will probably go a different way but with the same mind as before: just creating stuff for myself. Groups, collaborations, requests, and other big activities that involve other people are not considered anymore. What I want to focus on is to further experiment with different media to create content. Probably a small amount of products will be released every once in a (long) while as my real-life doesn't allow me to have much spare time.