Jump to content

Marianne McCann

Advisor
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Posts

    1,203

  • Joined

  • Last visited

 Content Type 

Posts posted by Marianne McCann

    Child Avatars

    in Your Avatar

    Posted

     

    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. 

     

    Child Avatars

    in Your Avatar

    Posted

    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.

    Second Life Forums Feedback

    in Forums Feedback

    Posted

    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. ;-)

×
×
  • Create New...