Marianne McCann

oh hey, it's me! And a closer-upper one:

Supperfan wrote: I particularly hate those Lost In Space type of kids that have freckles and big glasses and buck teeth and act like they have an IQ of 200 while lisping. Is THAT what you call convincing? Can't say I do, no. :smileyvery-happy:

From many indications, the hope has been that the addition of rigged meshes will allow for new, different avatar meshess. I've not, however, heard anything about a new base avatar. FWIW, it would be nice to see something like that, preferably with some backwards compatibility (to not break existing outfits), or perhaps a small range of "noob avatar meshes" to choose from. Say the classic ruth, an improved male, and improved female, a small size avatar (designed for kids/tinies/fae/whatever) a quadruped base, and maybe even a six limbed base (for dragons).

George Orellana wrote: I am not talking about clothing? I am talking about the shape and the skin. I was pointing out at the fact that the female mesh should be used for male avis younger than 20 and you can definately end up with an avatar that has no boobs at all if done right. Point taken: I misread what you had said. :smileyhappy:

Supperfan wrote: My real life experience suggests that there is no such thing as a "decent looking child" Point taken, Would you prefer "convincing looking?"

Lexxi Gynoid wrote: Neat, didn't know you made films. So far I've liked the "It's Coming!" one. Granted it is the only one I've seen. Thanks! The "It's Coming!" and "Making of an Infohub" are the two I'm proudest of. They never got much recognition in machinima circles, but I had fun with 'em. :-)

George Orellana wrote: You can hide the breasts with a female mesh with no need for special clothing. All it needs is setting the sliders right and a properly made skin that has properly edited the location of where the male nipple appears. That's only half true. For example, the top shown here would not work no matter what ones' sliders are set to, due to the shading and "stretch." one doesn't *have* to buy strictly from kid designers (as I mentioned on the old forums, I wear from both kid and adult designers), but there are issues to watch for with some of the clothing designed for non-kid avvies.

Hey cool! I used a similar proportion guide with my avvie, way back when, from the book "Human Anatomy for the Artist." Many others can be found on the ol' Google image search, too.

For myself. First thing is skins: Aim for no makeup skins. I personally prefer the skins from Kick The Can, because they were modeled specifically for kids, (and therefore have no extra chest shading, etc.) but there are others out there as well. IMO< this and shape are keys to making for a convincing child avatar. Shape: The SL avatar mesh will fight against you, especially for those trying to model boys. Shoulders only go o small, "package" only goes so small. Many boys actually opt for the female shape for this, which also has its issues with chest and butt. Expect to do a lot of fiddling. Likewise, there can be some pretty nasty folds on the shoulders and tummy on either gender, and hands and feet will sometimes be out of proportion. Also, the avatar can only go so small, though some have created so-called "Toddler AOs" to provide a shorter AV in combination with some prim leg bits. I've never used them, though I have seen some decent uses of them. Hair: Truth is pretty popular with kids, though you can usually use any designers hairs, as long as you can modify (shrink) them to fit. Also, try to avoid overly coiffed styles, really long hair, and styles that look particularly adult in nature. Clothing: Unlike when I started in SL, there is a wide range of good SL kid clothing designers, including Larnia Kids, Chelsea's Childrens' Clothes (CCC), Inner Peace, Babydoll's Boutique, Kick The Can, etc. Bonus of getting from the kid designers is not having to fight excessive chest shading. Also can mean more "kid like" looks to the outfits. You can use adult clothing that you mod to shape, but be aware of issues like too low pants and way low necklines, prim skirts designed for wider hips, sculpted collars that are shaped for those with breasts, and the aforementioned chest shading. sales, hunts, and Fifty Linden Friday event are good times for checking out stores that might work for you. Likewise, if there is a "guys and girls" option on a top, I will often buy the guys one to avoid the shading and prim collar issues mentioned above. AOs: I personally have little experience with them, but there are a few kid AOs on the market. One can also construct their own. I've used animations from Oracul, which tend to be pretty random and cute. Jewelry: this is always a toughie. Many are simply to long to be worn well for a kid, and will end up off to one's naval. Resizing can be complex, and may not work due to size of the neck, shaping of the jewelry, etc. Likewise, a lot of the really flashy stuff ends up looking... odd.

I believe you'll find that under My settings: Social Connect.

Note: This is not a thread on whether or not there should be child avatars in Second Life. This issue is addressed within the Terms of Service and the Clarification to policy disallowing ageplay to a reasonable level. That out of the way... For those who have crafted a kid avvie, what tips do you have for customizing the Second Life avatar mesh into a decent looking child?

"just ignore my bad, false alarm, restarted firefox and all was fine... for now"

Following Toxic's lead, here's my few machinima. I need to get out there filming again! http://www.youtube.com/user/mariannemccann

**Only uploaded images may be used in postings**://community.secondlife.com/t5/image/serverpage/image-id/279i251C0CCE40B4E1A8/image-size/original?v=mpbl-1&px=-1" border="0" alt="In-The-Gallery.jpg" title="In-The-Gallery.jpg" align="center" />

So, who here uses Plurk for social media stuff? I'm mmccann there.

Overall, I like it, particularly compared to the last iteration. Some comments. 1. I would have liked to have seen integration between the profile page here and the profile at my.secondlife.com - allowing me to just use that profile image, bio, etc. 2. I wish the profile image was a standard size, or at least 1:1. 3. I wish the sig line was either larger, or it was made somehow clearer to determine formatting. Still, these are all fairly minor criticisms. I would have liked to see a "general" forum continue, but I can certainly understand why there may not be one, given how well it went last time. ;-)

I'm @MariMcCann (and also do @BayCitySL)

Looks like there's a whole, shiny,new forum to criticize it. You're soaking in it. :smileywink:

If anything, I'm impressed in simply seeing you learn how the world works from the basics on up, and -- perhaps -- seeing the world through the eyes of a noob. Thank yu for that. And, if I may, let me offer you a warm welcome on behalf of Livingtree Island, Second Life's many "Inner Kids," and the Bay City mainland community.

I'll have to give it a try, though what I suspect is a memory leak (I've yet to pin down a real "__ causes ___" for it) has caused me to not use 2.3 or 2.4 (2.2 still works fine for me). As that is nearing end of life, I'm more than a bit worried! I assume the profiles will remain viewable inworld, in the UI, just using a web-based system? Either way, they sure look better.

FJ, you are still one of the best communicators at the lab. Thank you for this post. In addition to facebook (ugh), Twitter, and LinkedIn, please consider Plurk and Flickr links. Heck, I'd also love a Snapzilla link, but I'm likely dreaming there! Now, if you don't mind, I'm off to add a group or two...

Welcome on board, Rod, and best of luck!

Add me to the "miss ya" list. Even when we disagreed, I was glad that there was at least someone there.

Yay! Gotta get a few snowballs ready f'r the fight. Shame there's not more locations. Would love to see a snowball fight around Bay City somewhere. ;-)

Likely true - but it's still linked in the above. ;-)