Avatar Progression

[Tayt3rChip]

Apologies if there is already an avatar thread like this but I would really love to see your avatar progressions. I have seen some people who have managed to keep a consistent  avatar look over a long period of time and others who have changed their avatar  look completely. This sparked my curiosity to see how people's avatars have changed over periods of time. My intention with making my avi wasn't necessarily to make her look like me, and I honestly don't see an end goal where I would consider her to be done. I always find new things to add to her .So far I can see possible changes coming where her body is concerned, and also where I would add  some more skin details. I do share some traits with my avatar but I would say she's more a representation than a carbon copy. Can I see your avatar progressions ? Also did you want your avatar to look like you ? Do you consider your avatar to be finished ? 

Inquiring minds want to know...

Here is my avatar progression ->

  I don't have any close up images of Tayana the first which is a shame but she lasted 3 days before I was able  to upgrade. I also didn't spend a long time playing with the shape because I wanted to upgrade to mesh.The Tay that followed garnered a little more effort  and I honestly thought she was the best looking thing ever - at the time. She was created with the free Genus Strong Face, and I even gave her some beauty marks. 

I was eager to get a lelutka head so decided to experiment with the free Raven head and she looks completely different from the genus strong face.Her cheeks weren't as full as I would have liked and her face felt very angular to me. I was happy with the result as a whole,but it didn't really feel like a suitable representation of me .  I really liked this hairstyle and have worn something  like this in rl.

.

 

Prim was a head I really liked the shape of so I got that  head and played around with the shape until I was happy. Her face is fuller and softer and I actually really preferred this shape over the former. I finally started adding some skin details like freckles and beauty marks and was pretty happy with the face until I came across a different skin. This was Prim before the skin change.

 

This is what my avatar looks like now. I would have liked to have added dimples but I don't think it suited the face. I haven't added any body shots because I didn't really alter the shape much as I changed faces. 

[Alwin Alcott]

1 hour ago, Tayt3rChip said:

Apologies if there is already an avatar thread ....

is you just want to show, there are two threads already .. mostly those are on top of the posts .. new ones with a sortlike content mostly get deleted or merged with one of these by a mod.

 

 

 

 

[Rowan Amore]

There's also this one that also has a Flickr group I believe...

 

[Tayt3rChip]

6 minutes ago, Juan Marques said:

is you just want to show, there are two threads already .. mostly those are on top of the posts .. new ones with a sortlike content mostly get deleted or merged with one of these by a mod.

 

 

 

 

 

2 minutes ago, Rowan Amore said:

There's also this one that also has a Flickr group I believe...

 

The idea was that people would post multiple pictures of the same avatar at different times, as opposed to one sole image of avatar today or one image of your first avatar vs today. I sort of wanted to see a progressive change over time. If the mods find that the thread is too similar to other threads it's ok if they remove it. 

[ValKalAstra]

I mean, worth a try. I'll try to add a bit by telling about the background behind each image and what happened there and why. Sadly I have deleted most of my old screenshots. Mostly because windows crashed whenever I opened that folder. But I have kept some from over the years. In general I can say that there were a lot of fluctuations over time but they kind of got tweaked and by now I basically only change hover height and things like hair but never the body or head.

So without further ado, let's begin with the stuff of nightmares. Welcome my first avatar.

Ouch. Yah. Had a friend help get me into the game and as most new players, I didn't really want to invest all that much money yet. The result was an avatar that was just a Maitreya Body and a system head. It lasted for about 5 days before I could not stand her any longer and put in more money to upgrade to a Genus Head. Over the next months I tweaked the shape a lot and my Flickr is full (well I am a lazy poster, so maybe not) of images with my avatar in various stages of shape tweaking.

Here's a shot I never uploaded.

At the time I was living off freebies (shout out to Fabfree!) and for the longest time, I went through SL without anyone ever telling me that my avatar had bloody T-Rex Arms and an oversized head that looked at times outright grotesque. Youch. As time went on and I got more comfortable roleplaying in Fantasy Sims, I also started running into bugs with the Genus Head more and more. Basically til then I had been using IM and had no troubles but once LocalChat joined it turned into a mess of crashed out face expressions. So the decision was made to transition to a new Lelutka head, ideally one I could get close to what I had before.

A looot of changes were made during that time because the new head gave me a sensation of dysmorphia including this odd sensation of "this looks way too young" (to my eye this is around 16 or so). Also it was about damn time to fix the T-Rex arms and other anatomical catastrophes. This was after one of the more successful body reworks.

Still looked a bit on the young side (to my eye this is around 18-20) but I was more satisfied with the overall bodyshape. Past here changes become more and more subtle. Mostly detail work no one will likely ever notice because it's so small. Here is what would more or less become my final Maitreya Shape:

Updated textures and face structure to be a bit older (to my eye this is around 23). Made the arms longer, reworked overall proportions (using guides inspired by Andrew Loomis). There was more work to be done when I made the switch to Legacy. Converted my Maitreya Shape over. Aged it further to be where i wanted it to be (around 25) and was satisfied. Took two years to do haha. Although these days I keep using Maitreya and Legacy interchangeably with the same base converted shape. Sue me, I am lazy. Et voilá, the current iteration that has not really been changed in several months now (except for hover height, occasional effect makeup, hair and such).

[Rowan Amore]

First Mesh Head...

First Lelutka Head...

Current Lelutka Head...

[Ayashe Ninetails]

Lemme see if I can narrow this down to the evolution of the same species, at the very least, otherwise we'll be here all month. 😄

Okay, so on the human-ish female front (I bounce between heads a lot, but these are all chronological regardless):

My first finished mesh avatar in Catwa Jade in 2020:

 

Catwa Freya in 2020:

 

Back to Catwa Jade in 2020:

 

The human version of my 2020 mermaid, also Catwa Jade:

 

Catwa Freya in...probably 2021: 

 

2021 in Catwa Queen HDPro:

 

Quick detour to Lelutka Lilly in 2022:

 

And current 2023 in Catwa Queen HDPro:

[Tayt3rChip]

30 minutes ago, ValKalAstra said:

I mean, worth a try. I'll try to add a bit by telling about the background behind each image and what happened there and why. Sadly I have deleted most of my old screenshots. Mostly because windows crashed whenever I opened that folder. But I have kept some from over the years. In general I can say that there were a lot of fluctuations over time but they kind of got tweaked and by now I basically only change hover height and things like hair but never the body or head.

So without further ado, let's begin with the stuff of nightmares. Welcome my first avatar.

Ouch. Yah. Had a friend help get me into the game and as most new players, I didn't really want to invest all that much money yet. The result was an avatar that was just a Maitreya Body and a system head. It lasted for about 5 days before I could not stand her any longer and put in more money to upgrade to a Genus Head. Over the next months I tweaked the shape a lot and my Flickr is full (well I am a lazy poster, so maybe not) of images with my avatar in various stages of shape tweaking.

Here's a shot I never uploaded.

At the time I was living off freebies (shout out to Fabfree!) and for the longest time, I went through SL without anyone ever telling me that my avatar had bloody T-Rex Arms and an oversized head that looked at times outright grotesque. Youch. As time went on and I got more comfortable roleplaying in Fantasy Sims, I also started running into bugs with the Genus Head more and more. Basically til then I had been using IM and had no troubles but once LocalChat joined it turned into a mess of crashed out face expressions. So the decision was made to transition to a new Lelutka head, ideally one I could get close to what I had before.

A looot of changes were made during that time because the new head gave me a sensation of dysmorphia including this odd sensation of "this looks way too young" (to my eye this is around 16 or so). Also it was about damn time to fix the T-Rex arms and other anatomical catastrophes. This was after one of the more successful body reworks.

Still looked a bit on the young side (to my eye this is around 18-20) but I was more satisfied with the overall bodyshape. Past here changes become more and more subtle. Mostly detail work no one will likely ever notice because it's so small. Here is what would more or less become my final Maitreya Shape:

Updated textures and face structure to be a bit older (to my eye this is around 23). Made the arms longer, reworked overall proportions (using guides inspired by Andrew Loomis). There was more work to be done when I made the switch to Legacy. Converted my Maitreya Shape over. Aged it further to be where i wanted it to be (around 25) and was satisfied. Took two years to do haha. Although these days I keep using Maitreya and Legacy interchangeably with the same base converted shape. Sue me, I am lazy. Et voilá, the current iteration that has not really been changed in several months now (except for hover height, occasional effect makeup, hair and such).

I really like your first avatar. I don't know what it is  but it just  looks like someone I know from rl. I also like the body shape. I also encountered the age issue when creating my avatar. The first time I created a shape for the prim head it looked no older than 9, so I had to put some more time into it and made some skin changes. I'm happy to hear your body change went swiftly. I'm supposed to go from maitreya to reborn but I feel my inventory needs to be more organised than it currently is before I do that. Lastly I love the last  picture you uploaded. Everything from hair colour to outfit to glasses. You did a great job in those two years. I was briefly on sl 9 years ago have been back for 2 months haha, I deleted my old account when I left. Born again noob haha

[PookieTM]

3 hours ago, Tayt3rChip said:

Apologies if there is already an avatar thread like this but I would really love to see your avatar progressions. I have seen some people who have managed to keep a consistent  avatar look over a long period of time and others who have changed their avatar  look completely. This sparked my curiosity to see how people's avatars have changed over periods of time. My intention with making my avi wasn't necessarily to make her look like me, and I honestly don't see an end goal where I would consider her to be done. I always find new things to add to her .So far I can see possible changes coming where her body is concerned, and also where I would add  some more skin details. I do share some traits with my avatar but I would say she's more a representation than a carbon copy. Can I see your avatar progressions ? Also did you want your avatar to look like you ? Do you consider your avatar to be finished ? 

Inquiring minds want to know...

Here is my avatar progression ->

  I don't have any close up images of Tayana the first which is a shame but she lasted 3 days before I was able  to upgrade. I also didn't spend a long time playing with the shape because I wanted to upgrade to mesh.The Tay that followed garnered a little more effort  and I honestly thought she was the best looking thing ever - at the time. She was created with the free Genus Strong Face, and I even gave her some beauty marks. 

I was eager to get a lelutka head so decided to experiment with the free Raven head and she looks completely different from the genus strong face.Her cheeks weren't as full as I would have liked and her face felt very angular to me. I was happy with the result as a whole,but it didn't really feel like a suitable representation of me .  I really liked this hairstyle and have worn something  like this in rl.

.

 

Prim was a head I really liked the shape of so I got that  head and played around with the shape until I was happy. Her face is fuller and softer and I actually really preferred this shape over the former. I finally started adding some skin details like freckles and beauty marks and was pretty happy with the face until I came across a different skin. This was Prim before the skin change.

 

This is what my avatar looks like now. I would have liked to have added dimples but I don't think it suited the face. I haven't added any body shots because I didn't really alter the shape much as I changed faces. 

Your avatar is very pretty. 

[Tayt3rChip]

1 hour ago, Rowan Amore said:

 

First Lelutka Head...

Current Lelutka Head...

 

This is my absolute favorite. I really like the eyebrows and cheeks. After looking at a lot of people's avatar's I realised I really like full cheeks which is so random. But the eyebrows , cheeks, hair blush and beauty marks are  ** cheffs kiss  Your look is very consistent throughout despite the head changes. 

 

4 minutes ago, PookieTM said:

Your avatar is very pretty. 

Thank you Pookie 

[Ceka Cianci]

If we could put a camera roll in here from like Flickr or something that would be nice.. I just go and look at all the years of evolution in this world and I'm like, Where to start.. hehehe

If anyone knows if we can do that, I'll do that, those would be fun to do.. I always have a hard time choosing which ones to  put in something like this.. I'd rather just splat one clump in one spot.. hehehehe

[Nalates Urriah]

We have another thread like this. I can't find it. And these are fun to do. So another one is not a problem.

I was recently going through my outfits. So these are all pictures taken in the last couple of days. But the outfits range back to 2014. So it is easy for me to go back to an older avatar and look. Some of the older outfits get updated. The early Slink body outfits get updated to the newer Redux version. Not all the OLD classic outfits can be updated. Some where in 2018 I added a mesh head.

I have updated a few outfits and a few I have kept as is, meaning still the classic body. From 2008 to 2014 my avatar did not change much. We didn't have outfits before 2014. So I only have pictures,,,

Below is from 2016 we did a thread like this one. Some dates don't match up. That is because I wasn't sure how to date-label updated outfits. I am still not.

I did try to get a face and body similar to my RL look. I got hair, skin, and height very close. I sort of got the face... if two eyes, mouth, and nose count...

[Angelina String]

LeL Greer in '18 and '19, LeL Lake in '20 and '21, LeL Avalon in '22 and so far in '23. I've tried to stay somewhat recognizable, guess always being a blonde with glasses does most of that job . . .

[Tayt3rChip]

On 2/10/2023 at 8:03 PM, Nalates Urriah said:

We have another thread like this. I can't find it. And these are fun to do. So another one is not a problem.

I was recently going through my outfits. So these are all pictures taken in the last couple of days. But the outfits range back to 2014. So it is easy for me to go back to an older avatar and look. Some of the older outfits get updated. The early Slink body outfits get updated to the newer Redux version. Not all the OLD classic outfits can be updated. Some where in 2018 I added a mesh head.

I have updated a few outfits and a few I have kept as is, meaning still the classic body. From 2008 to 2014 my avatar did not change much. We didn't have outfits before 2014. So I only have pictures,,,

Below is from 2016 we did a thread like this one. Some dates don't match up. That is because I wasn't sure how to date-label updated outfits. I am still not.

I did try to get a face and body similar to my RL look. I got hair, skin, and height very close. I sort of got the face... if two eyes, mouth, and nose count...

It's always really interesting to see that people still keep their avatars and items from years ago. I did have an account  on sl over 9 years  ago for like 1-2 years and I ended up deleting it before my  9 year  hiatus. I do wish I had some of the pictures saved from  back then. I currently have none. 

11 hours ago, Angelina String said:

LeL Greer in '18 and '19, LeL Lake in '20 and '21, LeL Avalon in '22 and so far in '23. I've tried to stay somewhat recognizable, guess always being a blonde with glasses does most of that job . . .

I'm shocked at the fact that  some of these are entirely different heads but still manage to look very similar. I think you're right  in saying that maintaining hair colour and the glasses makes it easier to identify you. You really rocked the short  hair which makes me consider that I haven't explored short hair nearly enough. Out of curiosity , as it pertains to your face shape, do you have a particular  starting point that you check back with to ensure your avatars looks stay consistent ? 

[Marianne Little]

I am thinking that the real progress is that my parts get better, as SL is evolving. I have always been a caucasian woman. Not a teen, not middleaged or old. Eyes green, blue or a mix. Hair is maybe the most variated. Sometimes I have made a look with a different skin, it is mostly like dressing up in a costume.

So I had a system avatar, was happy when we could use more layers, mesh clothes with alpha layers, feet, hands, breasts for a while, Phat Azz for a while, Loud Mouth, then it was over to mesh bodies and clothes rigged for them, then static mesh heads, so Bento and now BoM.

I have not gone from female to cyborg or fox, I am still the same, only upgraded.

I have been playing with alts in other genders and skins, but still boring human. My oldest alt is blond, male caucasian, grey eyes. He stay this way, Slink hands and feet, Adam body, TMP body, Signature body, Jake body, Catwa head, Lelutka head. Still blond, grey eyes and light/tan skin. Other alts have asian or dark skins and their own styles. But they stay in their look.

[Tayt3rChip]

10 minutes ago, Marianne Little said:

I am thinking that the real progress is that my parts get better, as SL is evolving. I have always been a caucasian woman. Not a teen, not middleaged or old. Eyes green, blue or a mix. Hair is maybe the most variated. Sometimes I have made a look with a different skin, it is mostly like dressing up in a costume.

So I had a system avatar, was happy when we could use more layers, mesh clothes with alpha layers, feet, hands, breasts for a while, Phat Azz for a while, Loud Mouth, then it was over to mesh bodies and clothes rigged for them, then static mesh heads, so Bento and now BoM.

I have not gone from female to cyborg or fox, I am still the same, only upgraded.

I have been playing with alts in other genders and skins, but still boring human. My oldest alt is blond, male caucasian, grey eyes. He stay this way, Slink hands and feet, Adam body, TMP body, Signature body, Jake body, Catwa head, Lelutka head. Still blond, grey eyes and light/tan skin. Other alts have asian or dark skins and their own styles. But they stay in their look.

You've nicely summed up what I meant with avatar progression.

[Angelina String]

On 2/12/2023 at 1:31 PM, Tayt3rChip said:

Out of curiosity , as it pertains to your face shape, do you have a particular  starting point that you check back with to ensure your avatars looks stay consistent ? 

I have a certain RL person in mind that I try to represent - not necessarily 100%, but somewhat recognisable.

Edited February 19, 2023 by Angelina String

[Dorientje Woller]

 

How I looked in 2007 the moment I got arrested by the SL Fashion Police

[Danielle Atheria]

Bottom 2006 and 2023 on top

 

Edited February 24, 2023 by Danielle Atheria

[Maitimo]

I'll go backwards, just for the shock factor (lol)

2023:

2019:

2018: 

2008:

[Always Incognito]

I rezzed in 2008 but i cant find any pics from SL that early. The earliest is from Open Sim oddly enough:

1. Avatar Hangout (Open sim december 2008) (looked very similar in SL)
2. Second Life (Chamonix may 2010)
3. Cloud Party 2013
4. Entropia Universe – 2013
5. New World Grid 2009 on 1 of my own 9 regions in may 2009

Iv bee around yes as im curious but i spent most of my time in SL. The earliest avatar i find in SL is a pic of a male avie i made for kicks 2009. A boyfriends mum had a crush on an old moviestar which I sort of was "inspired" by as u can see... Duane Loken 

 

He was hawwt....

The earliest i found it this one from 2011

And she evolved to this one 2013 (no mesh)

Today she looks like this. I know, my avatars are a mess and the "progression" is unclear Still, the subject is interesting and fun. But I also got very sad when i collected these pictures. Lots of both good and bad memories arised....:

Edited February 27, 2023 by Always Incognito

[Eddy Vortex]

What happened between 2012-2017? I took a break and came back in mid-2018 and therefore I have nothing from those years.

 

[Always Incognito]

6 hours ago, Eddy Vortex said:

What happened between 2012-2017? I took a break and came back in mid-2018 and therefore I have nothing from those years.

 

I should have mentioned that i too had a ginormous break 2013-2019/20ish. Just made an alt 2016 and played for a short while that year then off again…

[Maitimo]

I also took a break 2014 to 2017 so I have almost no pics from those years (just a tiny handful so I did log in occasionally) but at that time I was heavily involved in World of Warcraft. Legion killed WOW for me though, and I gave up and returned to SL when I reached that stage.

 

 

[Emily Peridot]

I've experimented a lot over the years. Don't ask what happened in the first 2022 photo, because I don't even know. Some of these (2013-2021) aren't as clear as I'd like because they're the only images I have of those particular avatars, found buried in my snapshots.

Bless bake on mesh. It changed everything for me.

Edited March 14, 2023 by epiclolz