How to succeed as a creater in the Metaverse: Acting

In the Metaverse, creators will dominate in social spaces. Through these immersive virtual spaces, the Metaverse will provide a new niche for creators to share their work such as artists, influencers, character designers, composers, videographers, and many more. Instead of big tech companies calling the shots, creators will be able to leverage their art and sell it as they please. We can already see examples in the gaming industry where Metaverse-like universes exist, changing how content creators work and play. In order to make the Metaverse come to life, performers will have the tough job to make it as close as possible to what real life looks like or even better. A performer could be anyone who creates real-time entertainment in front of audiences such as actors and musicians. Do you think you have what it takes to make the Metaverse more entertaining and interactive? You’ll have to take online experiences to a whole new level of engagement and interaction. As a performer, you will have the ability to elicit different emotions from people and inspire them as well as bring them together to make memories.?

So how do you become an actor in the Metaverse?

Let's see. Do you have a portfolio ready as well as the skills needed to make it in the Metaverse? If you’re an actor, you will have to dive deep into your training. Remember your lessons when they taught you that acting is all about finding your center and situating yourself inside a symbolic or physical dramaturgic context. Coming from a seasoned actor herself, Reese Witherspoon tweeted that “In the (near) future, every person will have a parallel digital identity, Avatars, crypto wallets, digital goods will be the norm. Are you planning for this?” This is why the digital domain is increasingly being asked to create characters or avatars for VR, AR, and XR experiences. In these environments, everyone will be represented digitally with a consistent digital version of themselves. So how do you as an actor showcase yourself in the Metaverse? Through your avatar of course. We are already halfway there with us having different versions of ourselves digitally- a fun one for Instagram, a professional one for LinkedIn and another one for TikTok, and so on. The Metaverse proposes that we will be able to transfer our digital representation aka our avatars from one environment to another without friction. So who you are in real life will not necessarily factor into who you will be in the Metaverse. As a person and an actor, you will have the creative license to don any identity you want. As long as you can pull it off, the sky is the limit!

Acting in Virtual Reality

What happens when an actor puts on a VR headset and is transported to a whole other environment? In the virtual world, an actor’s presence is not limited to the stage. In VR, the stage is imagination itself as within this virtual reality, the creative and scenographic possibilities are potentially unlimited. For example, one can craft magic, become a giant, bend the laws of physics, or even fly. Ultimately, stage presence will be conveyed through one’s own imagination that will materialize in a direct and strong sensorial experience for everyone. As an actor, you can connect to your environment-no different than in real life. An artist who can convey the message with nuance and intellect will be someone who sustains the attention of the audience, moment by moment. I suppose we’ve already seen examples of this happening in concerts by musicians, for example, Ariana Grande soared through the sky with huge angel wings while surrounded by players inside bubbles in her concert. Travis Scott who had a skyscraper-sized version of himself teleporting across a landscape as he performed his song, was widely successful as well. Lastly, Justin Bieber also performed live as his avatar in his own virtual universe.

#1 Rehearse?

When you put on your headset and go into the Metaverse, there are many places you can go virtually to rehearse and the best part? You could be hanging upside down or suspended from the floor while doing it. Once you get the hang of it, you’ll realize how seamlessly you can use this to perform in the Metaverse. After choosing your avatar wisely, you could experiment with something that resembles your physical features so you get to play the parts of yourself you are comfortable with. Some of the fun things you could do with it are to showcase your artistic expression in an entirely novel way like have your avatar become a floating orb of light to denote a certain emotion or become a cube to add special effects. You will have to play a bit with the technology to get it just right and then you could have a bunch of tricks up your sleeve when you perform in front of an audience. Essentially, your acting will be the art you create with your avatar and the many forms it can take. Eventually, you will have a shadow or an impression that you have perfected like an artist depicting a landscape with a signature brush stroke. Take your time developing your talent!?

#2? Know your limitations

Once you have successfully entered your avatar, you have to figure out how your digital body responds to your commands. This is your second skin so you need to feel comfortable in it but don’t forget that you are inside of the Metaverse and therefore, have certain limitations. As an actor, you have to deeply engage with this new place which is an alternate reality where you will explore new opportunities. Don’t expect to have real-life knee jerk reactions even if the technology boasts real-time responses. As much as the technology is refined, it is still not going to be exactly like real life. So try not to get a non-theatre VR experience because you will not be able to emulate the intricacies of the real world. Instead, experiment with the tools and tricks that the Metaverse can provide you with and know that the platform you have is much bigger than anything you could have imagined in reality to be.

#3? Embrace technology

In a Virtual Reality theater, you have the luxury of using technology to your advantage as head-mounted displays are functioning as prosthetic eyes. Your audience will be viewing you from a lens that allows users to become a participant in the stories. As technology evolves, we will see more innovation and creativity at play with the boundaries of the real world melting away. As we merge with the Metaverse, we will be able to create not only new characters for ourselves but entire new worlds and environments. At the intersection of this, we will have parallel narratives occurring simultaneously with the audiences coming and leaving as they wish. People will be able to walk around these theatrical worlds and choose their own experiences with people of their own liking and interact as they go. VR worlds will have multiple locations and aviators and actors will have to do what they do best; Improvise!?

There has been a recent rise in live performances in the Metaverse where theater, performance, and technologies came together to provide an escape from the dull, dreary lives of people. Imagine a world you can go to where you are free to roam, jump from mountains or sit on top of clouds. The options are endless. The big questions are how will digital technology immerse the human-driven theatrical and cinematic experiences that rely on pure aesthetics and sound. I suppose it will be a hybrid of sorts and we only need to go down the rabbit hole to see where it will go. One thing is for sure, today’s world does not rely on the bodies of live performers or age-old spectators so the lines are blurred and actors can increasingly draw on technological devices and digitally mediated networks to throw a killer performance.

Are you a creator interested in the Metaverse? Then you’ll love hearing about OPUS- a one-of-a-kind platform that turns literary text into movies in just a blink of an eye! If acting is your thing, then get those creative juices flowing and step into the Meta-world of new beginnings. Using Opus, you can create movies with characters and settings that only you could dream of. So sharpen those acting skills and give life to your favorite character in a world that’s made up entirely of your imagination.Follow Opus on LinkedIn and Twitter to get more updates on storytelling, tech, and the creator economy. You won’t miss a beat with our content.?