Interview with HoneyWeeWee: Part 2
Part of the "VR is Alive" Spotlight Series
For part 2 of this interview (part one here) we are fortunate to have HoneyWeeWee (he/him) joining us to chat about his creations in social VR!
HoneyWeeWee specializes in creating worlds in VRChat with particle effects that are arranged to music. I,
, am with him in his latest world, Odesza - A Moment Apart, to chat about it and discuss social VR from his perspective.How do you choose the music you want to work with? I know you create with Odesza's music a lot, so I'm curious about the selection for the music and if you're exploring different kinds of music to make worlds to?
There's stuff I like other than Odesza, like Porter Robinson or Madeon or Netsky. I like Odesza because of how all their vocals, ambient vocals, drums, horns, pianos and guitar kind of come together. It's a very subtle thing, but I don't really pay attention to it. Small, subtle adjustments can make a pretty big difference in intensifying the music and having a bit of an emotional effect. I like a lot of generic DJs that don't really do the same thing. It's very different, especially watching them in a live concert.
How do you follow through on ideas that you have for particle worlds before you start building them? Do you have a list you keep with worlds to work on?
I don't really have a list. I just daydream and see if it's even possible to make it in Unity. That's usually what I do. I just play the song and repeat and just imagine and daydream. It took me, I think, a month of daydreaming about this world and then another four months to actually make it. And it sets with the process, with the team, everything, just collaborating. I just try to figure out everything as I daydream and try to imagine it. I feel like it's harder not to daydream before jumping right into it.
Speaking of this world, what else do you want to say to the audience about it in particular?
Well, the main song I actually play is probably my favorite song from Odesza. I think even in video games, this was their main theme for Forza Horizon. I'm just hoping they would release the VIP version, because if they ever release it, I would probably remake this world again for like the third time and make it up to standard for wherever my new standard will be for next year. I'm just hoping that will happen in the future. At the ending, there's different audio, different music. It's basically a therapy audio of reflecting yourself. That's why I have two people who kind of are just looking at each other in this world. Once you see them, they represent your figures.
How should our audience experience your work? Should they visit it together or individually?
Either go alone or go in a small group. I feel like being in a big group might obscure the view of the animation. That would kind of ruin the immersion.
Are there any other worlds you're beginning to think about or have even started on?
This world is the first out of the three that I'm making, because this would be one of the three that will be themed after space. The next one will be a slower one, and the one after that is going to be even faster than this one. I feel like the second one would have more emotion, but slower. The third one will have less emotion, but faster.
Awesome, so this is the first of the series?
Yeah, it'll be still the same space theme, same spaceship being used. Plus I have school, so I have to focus on that before working on the next one.
I'm curious, how did you get to the space theme in this world?
Yeah, it was on a live concert for Odesza, for this music in particular. They based it off of a space theme, which is what this is from, the spaceship. It's the main focus object in this world. They've used it since they were on tour in 2017, I think. The spaceship design is courtesy of Roogan Even.
Speaking of design, can you remind me of who all has contributed and collaborated in building this latest work?
Yeah. I think if I just started, I probably wouldn't ask for help, because I now have experience. But I still don't know what exactly I do in something like Blender or scripting, I usually just ask for help. I think even other big world creators would do the same thing. I think even Vince would ask for help from other 3D modelers or scripters if he needs help. In comparison, other big creators also have to ask other people for help. This is probably impossible to get something perfect doing it alone. It's definitely good to reach out and, yeah, it's good to get protected if you have, especially in building stuff.
With that, I want to give thanks to Karl Kroenen who made the clouds, the terrain, and the fog script. Thanks to Blue Cat for making the music script, which allows late joiners to actually see the animation at the same time as everyone else. Thanks to ReddPanda for the particle cloud texture. I basically just only used the texture. I didn't use any of its prefab. I basically used it and made it to my own. And then, lastly, thanks to Mochie. I used Mochie's Shaders because that was probably the easiest thing I've ever done.
I remember when I just started, when there was like a handful of people, a lot of the world creators kind of just s**t on my world and just talked crap about how bad it is when I just started making particles. One thing I learned is that if you're confident and do this enough, you'll probably get better eventually.
I'm thinking about how people should encounter this world because there's the PC version and then there's the Quest version. Can you describe the differences and do you want to make recommendations for any particular version?
I would say the PC version is almost completely different from the Quest version. The Quest version I couldn't add any more because of how limited I could add. It was only 100 megabytes versus the PC version is about almost 140 megabytes. It wouldn't fit in the Quest version since the limit is 100 megabytes.
How would you be able to make it look if the Quest limit was doubled, for example?
I'd probably make it look very similar, but not exact. If I make it exact—with all these logs around already and the trees around already—it would probably lag Quest users quite a lot. The limitation of Quest hardware kind of makes the PC version more worth the watch on. The Quest version is only there for people who want to invite Quest friends and watch it together.
Is there anything else you'd want to say to, not just people in VR, but people outside of VR who should come in and experience something like this?
I remember when I just started, when there was like a handful of people, a lot of the world creators kind of just s**t on my world and just talked crap about how bad it was when I just started making particles. One thing I learned is that if you're confident and do this enough, you'll probably get better eventually. I probably wouldn't make it without the friends I have because they always pat my shoulder and say, “Good job.” Without that, I probably would never make it here. If no one said anything about how well I did, I probably wouldn't make it towards where I am right now. I would have never improved. I think that's one thing I learned.
And basically where I'm at now, I'm not a bigger person than all the people who actually talk crap about how I made my stuff. I basically grew into a bigger creator than I was like a year ago. A year ago I would struggle to get out of Community Labs. It would take me a month to get out of Community Labs. Now I just get out of Community Labs in like a couple hours and then it just explodes on Twitter/X. So it's quite a growth without me noticing. Someone else had to tell me that. This is something I never pay attention to.
That's awesome, I like that. Especially the journey. I went to your first world and seeing the journey from there to here is just awesome.
Yeah. I think you haven't even seen my first… first hardcore world since you weren't around yet. I'm hoping Unity 2022 comes out soon so I can remake all the old worlds except for Forza 1. That will take me a while. I do want to remake the whole thing. It will be quite a fun experience.
Have any members of the Odesza group seen your work here in VRChat? Would you like them to visit?
Oh yeah, I do want them to see it eventually. I might have a person that might help me out with that. Hopefully they'll start going to VRChat, but I know they're always busy. Now they're going on tour performing once every weekend. One weekend they would perform in the south, southeast, and another weekend they would perform in California. They're on a pretty busy schedule right now.
How would you prefer audiences to stay in touch with you for updates on your latest work and what you have coming up?
They can join my Discord server, which is preferred. I'm also accepting commissions now since last October. Also, they can join the VRChat group, the Odeszians. That is just an unofficial fan-made one. They can either join in one or two, but the Discord server is probably more preferable.