How do you make your avatar unique?

[bateliii]

I feel that even though there are breathtaking mesh heads and skins in all styles, it still doesn't feel easy to create a standout and unique look.

On Flickr you can see a wide variety of different avatars but when looking at their faces, they all have the same base idea of beauty in mind. Foxy eye shape, heart shaped lips, high arch eyebrows and small nose.

The unique ones I have seen usually having interesting facial features, like sharp crooked nose, oblong face, bushy eyebrows and skin add-ons.

I've been trying for a while to create a different face that doesn't include thick lips or an overly doll face, but I don't like the results.

Thin lips always look like pursed lips and different head shape always makes my avatar look older. I want my avatar to look 20/mind 20s.

How do you think people get inspiration when working on their avatar?

And is there any tool that can be used?
For example a face generator that gives random numbers to the face and we will adjust everything to our liking. Just like in Sims 2.

[Ayashe Ninetails]

1 hour ago, bateliii said:

I feel that even though there are breathtaking mesh heads and skins in all styles, it still doesn't feel easy to create a standout and unique look.

On Flickr you can see a wide variety of different avatars but when looking at their faces, they all have the same base idea of beauty in mind. Foxy eye shape, heart shaped lips, high arch eyebrows and small nose.

This can be true as many people tend to use the same brands and even the same popular head models and some of them are quite limited in how flexible they are with sliders. Unique looks ARE very possible, however, with a little creative shopping. For example, I just recently purchased a head with very strong, distinct features (very visible wrinkles and face lines, deep set eyes, sunken cheeks, massive nose) that I intend to use to design an older witch, if I could ever find the motivation to do so (lots of shopping still needed!).

If you're going for a style that matches today's beauty standards, it's easy to fall into the same ole same ole range of looks. I tend to favor an eerie/creepy vibe over all else, so I don't really struggle too much in that department. That frees me up to make good use of interesting skin types and colors, non-human heads, tattoos, materials and effects, scars, unusual eyes, wrinkles, eyebags, nose and/or cheek contours, theatrical makeup and costumes, etc.

 

1 hour ago, bateliii said:

Thin lips always look like pursed lips and different head shape always makes my avatar look older. I want my avatar to look 20/mind 20s.

Try demoing different head brands, for a start, and then play with realistic skin details and makeup like shines, contours, moles, face blushes, freckles, etc. This is, of course, assuming you're looking for human heads - there are plenty of brands that carry them these days, so don't feel you're locked into just one.

 

1 hour ago, bateliii said:

How do you think people get inspiration when working on their avatar?

The majority of my avatars are fantasy and horror-based, and I use games, digital art, and illustrated fantasy art for inspiration. I come up with a type of character I want (wood elf, lich, demon, mermaid, etc.) and browse Google Images or art sites until I find a look I love - then I shop it in-world. I'll typically also hang out at Izzie's and run around to other stores I find on the marketplace to grab demos to see what fun effects I can add to my face and body (everything from aging kits to body scales to hand mods, depending on the avatar I'm working on). Honestly, sometimes inspiration comes to me entirely at random, too. I could be hanging out in Discord and see someone say the word "statue" or something and then I'm like OMG I need a statue avatar - off I go! and I'm already brainstorming. 😂

[Missy Starchild]

I would go for things like freckles, hand tattoos, eyebrow cuts, body and face moles, etc. Maybe add piercings and wristbands. Go for a more natural shape over the hourglasses or the barrel chests

"Unique" to me is breaking the mold of the plain barbie doll that grips a lot of SL avies and going for realism/flaws. Perfection is boring to me.

[Nalates Urriah]

There are looks...

Humans have an idea of what beauty is. Art students study what makes a human form 'beautiful'. Deviation from the basic range of appearance fitting the ideal usually denotes a health issue. Those ranges may move toward an extreme in some cultures where we would consider them 'fat' they would consider us unhealthily skinny.

In SL we can experiment and create fantasy shapes too. SL has a range of tools to help you build an appearance. (Mine are: Face and Body) And there are numerous people who make custom shapes for faces and bodies. Typically all of these help people move toward the appearance most people consider beautiful. A random starting place would probably not help' Designers provide the shape that they think works best with the head they sculpted. Starting from there I consider the best starting place.

Within the range of 'beauty,' there is an infinite variety of appearances. So, you may be reaching for a 'striking' or 'outstanding' look rather than just unique. The green witch is unique.

There is an amazing range of skins in SL. I find it amazing how much look is tied to skin coloring. Without changing my shape settings adding a fantasy skin gives me a very different face.

Recognizing faces in SL is possible. While some people change their appearance often others retain a 'look'. I consider my look unique. I suppose some would class my look in the Barbie category. But I did go for pretty.

[Cinnamon Mistwood]

I am boring and chose my body and head based solely on what was the most popular and supported.

Yup - Maitreya body, LeLutka Avalon head. 

I use layers like wrinkles, veins, freckles, other blemishes, and makeup to look at least slightly unique and I made my own shape.

Skin choice alone can really change the way a head shape looks. 

There are so many mods available that making something different shouldn't be too hard.

[Zalificent Corvinus]

9 hours ago, bateliii said:

I feel that even though there are breathtaking mesh heads and skins in all styles, it still doesn't feel easy to create a standout and unique look.

Play with the shape sliders, a lot, try and try again, you can make a large difference on some heads, or a small difference on others, experiment.

DON'T use the lipstick/eyeshadow/eyebrow/eye options in the head's HUD, as thousands will use the exact same options, don't go for big brands either, check out smaller stores, often more niche market, with FEWER customers, and thus fewer lookalikes for you, NEVER go to that warts/wrinkles/age-lines store EVERYONE on the forum recommends as EVERYONE goes there, welcome to Clone-City.

Accessorise, don't wear the most popular brands of earrings etc., don't go to the 3 most popular hair stores that everyone recommends, don't go to the 3 most popular skin stores everyone always recommends.

Shape, skin, makeup, eyebrows, tattoos, accessories, all make a big difference. I've never been anywhere and seen an avatar that looks exactly like the one I might be wearing at the time.

 

[Ceka Cianci]

There is a lot more to it than just the sliders.. every feature can add to it from the glare in a set of eyes. style and color of the eyebrows, style of nose, a slight movement  in the eye corner eye lids, skin, lipstick..

So many tiny details can make dramatic changes.. Then you get into hair, eye color, size of the pupils..

I'll work on a feature until it feels just right, then wait a day and look at it again, because after looking at  something for so long it can trick you into thinking it's what you want, but wake up the next day and be like, What was I thinking! \o/

imperfections can be tricky to work around, but they add so much to a look..

one thing I try to do also is work on my profiles as well as the front.. It drives me crazy when I have what I want from the front, but the moment I start to move to the side I lose the look.. that can be tricky to get a full figured face..

There is just so much that can change a look with the slightest touch to a feature..

Edited October 31, 2023 by Ceka Cianci

[SpiritSparrow Skydancer]

I always like bigger noses and wider mouth features than the norm, but will always try for almond shaped eyes. Sometimes close set sometimes not. But I get what you are saying about the head shapes..  I agree about the profiles and what Ceka said.  Always remember to save as when you make changes and not save!

[Possum888]

I set my height at 5'8" including heels. I think that makes me pretty unique in SL.

[MrsSeren]

I'm either in Maitreya/Reborn with Avalon, always 5ft 9 regardless of body and always with a tail.  I do have some custom tattoos as well as freckles, but not sure I am considered "unique" however I like how Seren looks!  

[JeromFranzic]

I'm usually hovering at 5ft, 5in. Sometimes shorter. I don't know if I have a unique look, but my #1 is still Maitreya/Irina. 

Most of the time I stick out in a room full of 7+ ft folk... lol or maybe they forget I'm in the room unless I shout. 

[Maitimo]

I'm missing an arm.  Also I made my skin myself; the only accounts who have it are me and my alts.

[UnilWay SpiritWeaver]

Start with a selection of photos of real people. Put them in a side window and then get on a pose stand, zoom into your head, and adjust your shape dials to try to recreate the faces in your photos if only slightly in varied parts.

Just make sure none of those photos are Social Media influencers because those folks are all competing for the same clicks so tend to copy each other's looks a lot.

Many mesh heads brands and skin brands copy each other's looks a LOT too. Or within their own brand copy a basic look with very minor tweaks across their entire line.

For male avatars, I really like the skin brand "Stray Dog" because the skins look so different from each other. It's harder to find that with female skins but it can be done.

One trick - get the "wrong" ethnicity for a head, then mess with shape dials to make it the "right" one. If you're aiming to have your avatar be of ethnic group B, get a head made for ethnic group C, and vice versa. This will force you off type if the head was made well enough.

Another trick is to get stylized heads. It's been a few years since I looked but Catwa was good with some extreme female heads back in the day. Somewhat cartoony or exaggerated. Dialing that down would force me to look unique.

You can also make sure your head and body skins come in MOD-able tattoo layers. Then... tint it just a tiny bit with a very subtle shade of something else. Be extremely mild in this or you get a cartoon look (unless you want that). But a subtle difference in tinting here will help you be unique. I have tried the same trick with no-mod skins by using the tinting options in the head or body, but this doesn't tend to work as well and if I do it I have to make a copy of the head/body only used for that "look" and be sure to keep it through all the right outfit setups.

Also start one skin tone away from whatever you suspect is the most popular choice if you yourself were also interested in that choice.

Edited November 2, 2023 by UnilWay SpiritWeaver

[Persephone Emerald]

It may help to imagine a personality or backstory for your avatar, then create your look around that. 

My favorite alt has a backstory created for a haunted house, in which she went a bit crazy and had to kill a psychopath to escape. I prefer her hair to be a little messy, symbolizing that she's a bit "off". She has pale skin and dark shading around her eyes, because she had an isolated, traumatic history. I give her a less pronounced chin and slightly bigger forehead, to denote more intelligence than an "upstanding" character. She's gotten more attractive over the years though, because I like her as a character and felt a little guilty about the backstory I gave here.

My other female alt has a slender, athletic build because she's based on my wolf-dog. Whereas, my goth girl wears dark colors, my wolf-girl wears mostly white and cream (her fur color), has pale skin and light blond hair. I've adjusted her facial features a few times and used different skins. The top picture is with normal human features and a high definition skin. The lower one is with a more canine lower face shape and a less defined skin. I like her eyes to be amber, like a wolf's eyes.

[Amelia Freund]

The thing I found best in the past is to make shapes inspired by unique looking RL celebrities that I liked.

Sometimes I demo a head and skin combo and I go "Hey this kinda resembles [insert celebrity]!", and so I run with that sometimes.

The downside is you can be too unique to the point where you compromise your shape's versatility, especially when it comes to head skins. I make something out of the ordinary with the head sliders and then I trawl over the grid for hours to find more than one skin to suit it, often failing in my quest. If you're the type of SL'er who wears one skin for years, then it's no issue.

My current look isn't super unique, not run-of-the-mill either, but it's versatile enough to result in satisfactory shopping...sometimes.

 

 

[Shiera Kealoha]

On 10/30/2023 at 5:51 AM, bateliii said:

I feel that even though there are breathtaking mesh heads and skins in all styles, it still doesn't feel easy to create a standout and unique look.

On Flickr you can see a wide variety of different avatars but when looking at their faces, they all have the same base idea of beauty in mind. Foxy eye shape, heart shaped lips, high arch eyebrows and small nose.

The unique ones I have seen usually having interesting facial features, like sharp crooked nose, oblong face, bushy eyebrows and skin add-ons.

I've been trying for a while to create a different face that doesn't include thick lips or an overly doll face, but I don't like the results.

Thin lips always look like pursed lips and different head shape always makes my avatar look older. I want my avatar to look 20/mind 20s.

How do you think people get inspiration when working on their avatar?

And is there any tool that can be used?
For example a face generator that gives random numbers to the face and we will adjust everything to our liking. Just like in Sims 2.

So this is me and a close friend of mine snuggling cuz yes uwu. You can literally do and create whatever you want on here. You just need to have the imagination to do it.

[Conifer Dada]

I made my own skin, which I've kept fairly low contrast, so it looks consistent from all angles. I do still use a system avatar, which is quite unusual these days. I can't say I'm unique though, since I have a twin sister. However she has some tattoos, which I don't have.

[Alwin Alcott]

On 10/30/2023 at 1:51 PM, bateliii said:

How do you make your avatar unique?

shop different, follow smaller or newer brands for skins/hair/AO and make up/adjustment as the herd does. 
Don't shop at the main events, thats what all others already do.

[PheebyKatz]

I know it can seem like a lot at first, but after a while, you may have the more-common problem of how to stop constantly changing so that friends will recognize you from day to day! Once you get used to modding your shape and playing dress-up scientist and avatar engineer, it can become addictive.

Like many here, I went through the entire array of possibilities available at the time, and finally settled on my current look. Now it's almost impossible to change enough to be unrecognizable, unless I put on a different avatar; I'm so darn unique, that I'm always me.

You'll get there, too. One day someone will ask you for a style card, and it'll take you a week to hunt down the sources of all of your awesomeness, and even then they won't be able to really duplicate your style, because it'll be all yours. It's not all looks, either.

Edited November 6, 2023 by PheebyKatz

[Anna Nova]

BoM is your friend.  You can add lots of layers of BoM onto a base skin.  That's how I do it anyway:

p.s. I'm not very good at photography in SL....

[PheebyKatz]

15 hours ago, Anna Nova said:

BoM is your friend.  You can add lots of layers of BoM onto a base skin.

Word.

Bakes on Mesh is the coolest thing to come along since rigged mesh uploads. If you layer everything in the right order, you can do amazing things with it, and it makes stuff like body mods look more realistic, too. I mean, I got freakin six-pack abs~!

[Katherine Heartsong]

5'9" tall barefoot. Redhead. Nearly exact 8:1 artist ratio body shape and proportions. One single custom tattoo I made myself.

[cariboustag]

On 11/2/2023 at 4:28 PM, Persephone Emerald said:

It may help to imagine a personality or backstory for your avatar, then create your look around that.

This is how I make every one of my avatars, funnily enough. I can't do it otherwise. It's the years of designing my own characters in my art I suppose. I've always started with an idea of a person or a central theme to adhere to. None of them have to be super in-depth, but I need at least some sort of vibe, or core idea to this person, or else why am I making them? Anyone can make a cute avatar, sure. But that's not my goal. It makes it almost mandatory you hunt and shape and do weird things if you choose something interesting.

I also loved hearing the backstory, very intriguing! Made me want to share a little of mine for my usual guy I trot around on here, this blonde dork, you know him by now.

Dude's a private investigator in Arkham, Massachusetts, after his years of a middling music career fell through. There's more, but that's pretty much all you need to know. I'm sure you can extrapolate most of the themes and shenanigans of that backstory better than I could tell it

 But! I'm waxing on a bit and not giving actionable advice.

If you really want some easy tips for unique looks; most people have said it. BOM is your savior, just slap a ton of things onto a skin until it's completely new is my modus operandi, and it works pretty well. Tattoos, imperfections, details, just anything you can cram on there, chances are you'd be the first person to combine them all in such a way!

Edited November 7, 2023 by cariboustag

[Danielle Atheria]

I think hair eyes eyebrows head skin shape makeup  even clothing sometimes can make you stand out and look different.

 

Edited November 7, 2023 by Danielle Atheria

[Persephone Emerald]

9 hours ago, cariboustag said:

This is how I make every one of my avatars, funnily enough. I can't do it otherwise. It's the years of designing my own characters in my art I suppose. I've always started with an idea of a person or a central theme to adhere to. None of them have to be super in-depth, but I need at least some sort of vibe, or core idea to this person, or else why am I making them? Anyone can make a cute avatar, sure. But that's not my goal. It makes it almost mandatory you hunt and shape and do weird things if you choose something interesting.

I also loved hearing the backstory, very intriguing! Made me want to share a little of mine for my usual guy I trot around on here, this blonde dork, you know him by now.

Dude's a private investigator in Arkham, Massachusetts, after his years of a middling music career fell through. There's more, but that's pretty much all you need to know. I'm sure you can extrapolate most of the themes and shenanigans of that backstory better than I could tell it

 But! I'm waxing on a bit and not giving actionable advice.

If you really want some easy tips for unique looks; most people have said it. BOM is your savior, just slap a ton of things onto a skin until it's completely new is my modus operandi, and it works pretty well. Tattoos, imperfections, details, just anything you can cram on there, chances are you'd be the first person to combine them all in such a way!

I love that your guy works out of Arkham. His character reminds me of the SL machinima series. I think it was called "The Cracked Mirror", but I can't find it with a Google search.