Since we were recently talking about the harsh economics of shadow meshing in the Second Life economy, here's a look at another SL market with some impressive revenue numbers: Premium mocap animations.
Paragon, a Los Angeles-based mocap studio, has been creating and selling RL mocap dances in Second Life for over five years. (Marketplace page here.) That includes the excellent dorkiness in the video above: Deadpool's dance from the opening of Deadpool & Wolverine, a motion capture of dancer Nick Pauley AKA Dancepool, who actually performed it in place of Ryan Reynolds. (Currently selling for L$300 to L$330, click here to get the Deadpool dance from the Mount Paragon sim.)
Pauley himself is a top dance pro and social media influencer, while the mocap process is time consuming and expensive, so I was curious how the economics here worked. Can an SL merchant really make a profit from real life mocaps that sell for the L$ equivalent of less than $2?
Paragon Owner/Producer Jon Nakagawa gave me a full run-down: