Distortion of Avatar parts

[LoriLexa]

Hi everyone,

I have been noticing this more now. Certain parts of my avatar shape become distorted either when moving or standing still. I see this in the shoulder, wrist and waist areas.So I have a few questions:

Is this a common problem for everyone?

Does this have anything to do with modifying too much?

At first I thought it was because I got this shape a little over 2 years ago and it may be an old shape but I tried a few shape demos at some quality stores and I see the same thing.

Can this be fixed to look better? If yes, then how?

Thank you in advance for your feedback and sorry if this issue has been posted before, I tried to do a search on the forums but could not find a similar post.

 

 

[Marigold Devin]

That does look pretty nasty and painful for your avatar, and yes, I think a lot of that distortion can be put down to over-modification coupled with animations/poses.

I have a posing HUD, and when I adjust the hands/wrist/knees/waist, all can look very twisted compared to how a normal human body looks when put into the same positions. 

I've got into the habit of not looking too closely, and covering up my "bingo wings" with bolero tops!

Other responses and better advice will follow (no doubt information about mesh avatars which I am not at all up-to-date with)

[Venus Petrov]

It is most likely a combination of the pose you are in and the avatar (not your shape, per se, just the imperfections that are inherent in the 'mesh').  I don't think it has anything to do with the age of the shape as the shape I have is one I have tweaked over the years.  So, yes, it happens!

[LoriLexa]

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Marigold Devin wrote:

That does look pretty nasty and painful for your avatar, and yes, I think a lot of that distortion can be put down to over-modification coupled with animations/poses.

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Hi Marigold,

yes it is painful LOL. I just tried a new non-modifiable shape and it does the same thing, so it must be the animations. However, I don't recall it being this bad over a year ago.

[Marigold Devin]

Its possible that your avatar has always had this problem, but it was less noticeable at first. The more we look, the more we see - like if we are looking at our real life face in the mirror, the more we look the more flaws we see.

To soften the appearance of those harsh twisted limbs, have a play with the lighting settings in your viewer.

[Lewis Luminos]

Most of those cases are more to do with the pose than the avatar itself.

Whilst it's not much use in-world, if you are taking snapshots you can use the Liquify tool (in Photoshop/Gimp) or Warp Brush (in Paintshop Pro) to smooth out those flaws.

[LoriLexa]

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Lewis Luminos wrote:

Most of those cases are more to do with the pose than the avatar itself.

Whilst it's not much use in-world, if you are taking snapshots you can use the Liquify tool (in Photoshop/Gimp) or Warp Brush (in Paintshop Pro) to smooth out those flaws.

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Hi Lewis,

It's not about snapshots for me, I'm focusing more on inworld existing, but I did make note of your suggetions incase I did want this issue to be fixed in regards to taking pics of my avatar.  Thank you for your feedback:matte-motes-big-grin:I really appreciate it:matte-motes-big-grin:

[Pussycat Catnap]

Issues like this are helped a LOT by making sure your avatar is full proportionate, and using an AO with motion capture based animations.

There are almost no shapes at all for sale or free that follow basic human proportions in the settings, so you have to do it on your own. I and Penny Patton both have some - but they might not be to your tastes and that's just 2 of us...

Every single shape seller in SL is selling pure junk. And this is what results.

 

Its a little better for AOs but not much. Most of the popular AOs are NOT based on motion capture, but poses made in applications like Daz Studio / Poser... So its pretty common for an AO to move a limb into a position not humanly possible.

Finally - even covering for the above, the SL avatar itself is poorly rigged, and some angles even on correct anatomy will 'tear' the avatar. Its a lot fewer of them, but it does happen.

 

[LoriLexa]

Thanks Pussycat, this was very informative. My AO is MOCAP so my shape is probably to blame.

Is it the shape itself or the measurements that I gave my avatar? I'm sure my avatar is not perfectly porpotioned, and I'm always making adjustments. However, if the shape itself is of bad quality then however I choose to modify it, won't matter.

So I will check out other shapes to see how they work with my AO.

[Pussycat Catnap]

Shape / measurements is basically going to be the same.

You say your AO is MOCAP, you mean motion capture or a brand name there? Some places I have bought AOs from have shifted over time into motion capture. In the past I have had to simply delete one or two animations from an AO and then go grab a better animation for that effect to avoid tearing joints.

Basic proportion means getting things right like the mid-point of your height should be the crotch, and your arms spread across should be as wide as you are tall.

- easy to measure by taking a prim and making it just as tall as you, and then setting its width to the same number. If you then put the middle of that prim onto your crotch, and stand in a T-pose, you want to touch the edges with your soles, bald head, and finger tips.

- But this can introduce a problem if you achieve it by making your body/shoulders too wide or not wide enough...

 

The theory behind good proportion AND motion capture animation is that once you have both you have two things made for each other. Good porportion means your avatar has a humanly possible shape - so an animation made by having a real life human move around is ideal.

Once you have that mix, any remaining flaws (and they are there) are the fault of the badly designed avatar.

Unfortunately the specific image you have posted above is 'right on the edge' of a spot where enough bend of the arms above the head bends to a point humans can do, but the SL avatar flaws cannot...

- That said one of my alts has an AO which has some 5 or 6 stands of a woman with her arms above and behind her head, none of which break... I will TRY to remember to post info on where I got it...

 

[Lewis Luminos]

The only difference between a "good" shape and a "bad" shape is the numbers on the sliders. All shapes are basically the same thing and they're all made in exactly the same way; by moving the sliders.  So the shape you start with makes absolutely no difference whatsoever. You can start with one of the Linden starter shapes and if you're skilled at observation, measurement and aesthetics you can turn the worst shape on the grid into one of the best.

There's really no need to buy a shape at all, if you're going to modify it extensively.

[Pussycat Catnap]

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Lewis Luminos wrote:

The only difference between a "good" shape and a "bad" shape is the numbers on the sliders.

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Yes I think we all understood that point.

3 factors effect being well animated, and one of them we have no ability to fix. Shape dials, the animation, and the SL avatar itself.

All 3 of these are usually highly flawed.

Pretty much every shape sold on the market uses bad silders - proportions off. And that results in poorer animating as elements are stretched improperly when bent.

Primarily the issue is whether or not an animation is motion capture - but also whether or not the form it is bending is a humanly possible form to have.

Motion capture animations have been around for a while now - but only seem to have become dominant in the past few years. A lot of AOs are still made without them. A lot of good AOs are lacking them in some of the animations, the one I use included (it doesn't matter for some animations - the more you move though, the more it becomes visible).

 

We're stuck with that bad avatar, but we're not stuck with fixing as many shape sliders and animations as we can.

 

[LoriLexa]

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Pussycat Catnap wrote:

Shape / measurements is basically going to be the same.

You say your AO is MOCAP, you mean motion capture or a brand name there?

 The theory behind good proportion AND motion capture animation is that once you have both you have two things made for each other. Good porportion means your avatar has a humanly possible shape - so an animation made by having a real life human move around is ideal.

Once you have that mix, any remaining flaws (and they are there) are the fault of the badly designed avatar.

 

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My AO is Motion capture (Not the brand name) my AO is from a creator that is well known for making these types of AOs (I'm not sure if I can mention the specific name of the store in this forum). Maybe it is outdated and  I should get a newer one that may have improvements.

I have also been trying numerous other shapes and the issue is still happening.

 

 

[LoriLexa]

I have been told this before when I first started SL when I went looking for shapes and skins. The person who I spoke to basically said that people who sell shapes, use the same one, modify it all different ways and sell them individually, even though they all start with the same base shape. So, I found a nice cheap shape and modified it to my liking. I have been happy with it for a long while now (except for the twisting limbs).

I have tried others and always went back to my regular one because of all the modifying I did. If a new type of shape, with tremendous improvements is ever introduced/created, I will check it out. As of now it seems to be what you explained in your post.