Creating Custom Furry Avatar Model(s)

[userpay]

So rather than trawl through the marketplace or hunt through the in-game stores I was interested in possibly creating my own models. Problem is most of the tutorials I'm finding skew more towards creating either objects like furniture or clothing and whatever I can find for the avatar itself is about the rigging. Are there any tutorials slanted towards the actual creation of the avatar models? I'm open when it comes to program, I have Maya and Blender right now for example.

 

Primarily I want to focus on the face/head, the feet/ankles, tails, and maybe wings. In that order.

[Pussycat Catnap]

At that end of things, you are looking at taking courses in using Blender, Maya, or some other 3D modeling application.

 

[userpay]

Very true, I was just curious as to whether there were any oriented towards SL that wasn't just about clothing or rigging. Perhaps another way of phrasing would be is it better to take a model from SL (like the default one), modify the parts, and import it back in? Create the parts separately then import? Stuff like that. 

[Syo Emerald]

I think its easier to tackle such a project if you know how currently existing furry avatars are build like. Not the actual progress, because the technical aspect does not differ from creating anything else in the programs you got named...just that organic bodyparts may be more difficult to make than a simple chair...

Your first decision would be, if you want a complete mesh avatar or if you want to work like the creator of DSD and only make parts like the head, the legs, ears and paws out of mesh. And I doubt that the normal avatarbody will help you much on creating furry parts which are actually attachments.

[userpay]

Very true... I was debating about that as well. I am somewhat stemmied by the fact that I don't have much money to spare between possibly not using any models I purchase myself and especialy if I get the Avastar mod for Blender as its reputed to help with making SL models.

 

Any other people/groups besides DSD you'd recommend to check out?

[Zero Starchild]

What I did was search marketplace for a furry avatar that looked the closest to what I liked and wanted and then modified it with different hairs, eyes, tails and cloths etc to make it all more unique and individual.