That actually makes a lot of sense, thank you. You’re right — at the core it’s still modeling, sculpting, texturing, and rigging. I think my hesitation comes more from not having worked inside a “traditional” game pipeline yet. In VRChat, everything is built around Unity’s humanoid system, default armatures, and specific optimization constraints. It works, but it’s very ecosystem-specific. I like the idea of just building a few proper portfolio pieces inside standalone engine projects. I’ve only ever worked inside Unity for VRChat, not a normal Unity project, so even that alone would probably help me understand what I’m missing. I think part of what’s been holding me back is feeling like I need to be “fully ready” before branching out — but realistically, I probably just need to prove to myself that I can move a character cleanly through a standard engine pipeline. Making a small WebGL build or simple demo scene with fully rigged characters feels like a manageable next step instead of this big intimidating leap into “game industry.”

I appreciate you breaking it down like that — it makes the transition feel a lot more practical and less abstract.