Real life to Avatar

[Chastity Lavendel]

I could use some help, i want to try to make my avatar as close to looking like the real me as possible. if anyone can help me i will post front and side pictures of my face and anything else that will help. Im also hoping that in the process i can make a friend or 2 because i dont know anyone on second life and i really want to become a part of something. :) thank you

[Chelsea Malibu]

This is not the easiest task for several reasons but you can come close.  We made Jenna Jameson's avatar when she sponsored my sims and it took us weeks however, we learned a lot.  Often we thought we where spot on and she said it didnt look anything like her until one day, we rolled the right combination and it came out as everyone wanted, even her RL hubby who was very critical.

First and foremost is the Hair.  Find hair the most like yours and you will have a good start.  Trying to do this without hair means it will always be a long way off until you finish it with hair so, why not just start there since it's the easy part.

Next is skin.  Go to as many skin shops as you can and find ones that looks like you.  Same color, skin type, the makeup you would most likely wear, etc. Grab all the demo skins you can so you can play with them for the next step.

Then use the demo skins you picked up and create a shape around it the one you feel is closest.  Get as close as you can and if this doesn't work, go try some new skins with the new shape.  Try to get your shape as close as to you as possible but the skin will help you shape it better as it sort of becomes your guide.

Even when you are done, you still may not be as close as you want which is actually OK as you will tweak your avi over time until it looks just like you.

[Claireschen Hesten]

i don't know if it exists in SL anymore and i can't for the life of me remember the name of it but i remember there was a service where you could get your real life face on to your SL av i can clearly remember it being advertised on the old xstreet and i even visited the sim it was on maybe someone else will recall what it was called

[Bree Giffen]

Wasn't it simply Avatar Island? The sim named that? I don't know if it's still on the grid.

[Chastity Lavendel]

ooh thanks ill check it out but if not ill try to make it myself although i will probably fail miserably lol. one person sent me an email saying they will try to help me make a look alike so we shall see. <3

[Ian Undercroft]

I've always thought how interesting and enlightening it would be if for one day all avatars resembled their controllers RL shape.

[Penny Patton]

If you find yourself in the position of needing to make your own shape, this guide might help. I started a thread on it a few posts down from this one.

 

http://pennycow.blogspot.com/2011/08/matter-of-proportion.html

[Lindal Kidd]

The Avatar Island service results in a very creepy look, IMO.  The problem is that both the avatar shape and the skin work together to create the overall look.  Pasting a RL photo onto a skin template only addresses half the problem.

Second Skin Labs, on their website, used to offer an avatar customization service, and possibly still do so.  It cost several hundred dollars US, if I recall...you would send them several photos of yourself, and they would custom design a skin and shape for you based on the photos.  The example shown on their website was very impressive.

Really, the avatar mesh is not detailed enough to reliably duplicate a Real Life person's appearance.  You are much better off making an avatar that looks good, rather than obsessing over making it look real.

[Penny Patton]

---

Lindal Kidd wrote:

Really, the avatar mesh is not detailed enough to reliably duplicate a Real Life person's appearance.  You are much better off making an avatar that looks

good

, rather than obsessing over making it look

real

.

---

 I have to agree with this. Photorealistic skins tend to fall hopelessly into "uncanny valley". You're better off with a somewhat stylized representation of yourself than trying to maker it "photo-real".

[Jo Yardley]

I've been going for a look that is as much as rl me as possible since I joined SL.

I am not there yet because being close to 40 it is hard to find the right skin, it seems 99% of everything in SL is geared towards people who want to look like pretty 20 something models.

I will try and get a skin based on my rl skin made, not photorealistic but close.

And my avatar is realistic height and with fraulein Penny's excellent guide and possible the bodies she is making now, I will improve on that.

I wish the avatar creator in SL would just let you put in lots of measurements so we could be exactly like rl us.

In stead LL has made this a very difficult and long task.



[Dr Starflare]

Check this out:

REAL FACE 3D

http://www.localvirtual.net/creativedesigns/  :matte-motes-sunglasses-3: