The truth about Shapes

I don't deny it but, unless Milla says that she got it wrong, and because she is an RL sculptor who has implied here that she does have an eye for human proportions (I hope I'm not mixing her up with someone else), then I'd have to assume that the build is intentional, which brings us back to what I said earlier - that one person's exaggeration or flaw is another person's intention.

Oh sure buying demos is important ( i never said it wasnt :/ .......learn to read before making ASSuptions)........ Body shapers if they are good shows it. Others are as many have said Coloring book style creations. Most look fake anyways in my view, over paying for shapes is just silly.

I guess you guys haven't seen the latest issue of Playboy with all the Russian models LOL Long and lean exists...it is not an illusion.....I don't know if it's the long shirt that is making this avatar look that way.....but seeing as I made her I can say for a fact that her torso is not overly long....nor are her hips. She does have a boyish lean figure.....but based on my own 5'6" 118lb frame.....that doesn't seem all that odd to me.


This, yet another body type.....

Oh certainly, long and lean exists, no doubt. But so does photoshop & airbrushing (re: Russian gals). Ever notice sometimes how supermodels seem to have ginormous feet sometimes?
This is a great shape, Milla. It's vastly different from the other one. This one has more body thickness, which will give the appearance of shorter torso, and the shorter hips make a huge difference.

LOL Well yeah...we know they get airbrushed....but I'm not talking about pimples and stretch marks here.....I was referring to the basic body structure. Some of these women look like perhaps they were fathered by Grays (aliens lol)

This is the same avatar, different angle.... One thing I notice with photography and animations in SL is a shape changes shape when you start putting it in certain positions. I have never seen a sitting avatar that didn't have legs that were waaaaay too long lol. There are a lot of quirtks and I think when we create a shape we DO take a lot of liberties. But so does mother nature.

I honestly think the ginormous feet are a result of distortion of the photo, from stretching it to fit the page, and then touching it up.

That's entirely possible.....though knowing a bit about some of that process more of the air brushing is smoothing out the lines of the body in general.....taking away a little fold here or a bulge there.

Tall women often have larger feet.....and the skinnier they are, the bigger the foot will look.....now if they are nude and the feet have shoes on.....they will look all the more out of proportion. This has raised my curiosity though and I may have to check my resources (my best friend is a graphic artist and has some accounts with some notable magazines and publications....I get a lot of juicy tid bits from her....including how much acne most basketball players actually have lol)

I've been close to a few super models in my time, and yes they look good in photos and I guess on the catwalk, well I'm 5"6' in RL and next to me they're all big arsed giants.

i was feeling like a change of shape, and also feeling a little lazy a week or two ago, so i ended up just shopping till i found one that i thought I would really like.

Now i remeber what a rip off most shapes are, theres a reason they sell their shapes with cartooned photo shop sales pictures, its because they are real good at dressing up the product.

Skins, yeah, they are worth shopping for, but shapes? Har, mostly a joke.

some places put out demo shapes(where the feet and hands are max size) so you can get a feel for them before you buy (I keep forgetting to do that for mine)

I also like to work with the person if they are not happy, wish all designers felt the same way (sadly not all do)

Interesting....I never did anything to my add pics except crop them. But...then again...the reason I started doing my own is exactly what you stated....so many that I bought in the early days were just not that great. Demos is something I'm definitely going to do when I re-organize my shop though, most people like to try on. I also always work with customers requests if they want any changes or tweeks (even though the shapes are modify)

The other thing that constantly surprises me....after all the chatter in this thread....I really started 'looking' at human shapes....I work with the public...I see 100s of people of all different race.....and the one thing that holds true for the human form is there are no absolutes. I studied arm length, head to shoulder ratio....torso length....leg length. And in several cases as I looked at the person I realized that if they were to have that shape in SL.....they might look odd.....or even disproportionate. What nature does with finesse, is make asymetry work without us even realizing it.
The only place that is truly tricky to master with the SL shapes is the faces. But....I will say.....I have had a few requests in the last few days for help and in a couple instances the shape I was asked to 'fix' was so grossly misproportioned it struck me just how true it IS that though we can all recognize IRL what passes for attractiveness.....it simply does NOT mean we can duplicate it. Nor, do we all consider the same attributes when trying to fine tune our shapes. Now, here's the clincher that validated my opinion..... the things I was asked to do with these shapes were minimal.... the customers were over all, happy with what they'd created, and just wanted certain areas tweeked. The irony being....that there were other areas that were so ... what's the word .... (I hesitate to insult anyone's idea of perfection here because I truly am not one to pass judgement on others and what they perceive to be ideal).... just rather bad. But..again, it was MY perception.....personally I don't like eyes set so far apart they look as if they are going to roll around to the back of the head. Nor do I think males that look like they've been injected with steroids since birth are all that appealing. *shrug* It's so much a matter of personal taste and really there's no point in speculating on who's got the better eye or who does what better...... but if people want it.....at least there are those of us who try to provide options.

ppl can just make shapes with the sliders....WHY do they make them no transfer, or no modify? For example, bought my gf a shape so she didn't look so...well, NOOB, and the blasted shape was blocked off so she couldn't shape her face the way she wanted. How stupid and ANAL can these ppl be?

They do this because it's the only way to prevent easy copying.

But if she's capable of shaping her face, then she ought to be capable of making a shape from scratch.

some people are still learning, I would not go so far as to call them stupid or anal...
no more so than those who make scripts or prim stuff or textures and put perms that some ppl may not like

I made the kids shapes no mod, which I now know is something most ppl will not like, so when I remember to (when in world) I will switch those to mod/copy

try this experiment...

edit your appearance. go through all the sections and hit the 'randomize' buttons.


you'll soon discover that making a NICE looking shape is going to take time and talent. and lots and lots of tweaking. they don't just fall out of the randomizer.

you said it all that i could have said.
....some people are really clueless!!

I could say i'm a house builder and knock up a few floors, walls, doors and windows within an hour or so......but would it be a good product? Would it even be marketable? Its true you can make an bad to average shape within 10 mins....I think 99% of SL could do that! It takes a hell a lot longer if you want to get it right proportionately and looking good. You almost have to work backwards....get a good skin demo and make a shape around it, then after that try different hairstyles and eyes. A good shapes creator constantly tweaks his work until he/her hits the right note. The whole styling process takes a lot longer ...and costs money! (skins,hair,eyes, clothes)

That's kinda what I did for my shape. After I worked out a skin and a few hairs I like for my kid shape, I put on a decently cropped outfit, put on Ruth, and started dragging the sliders around. (^_^)

In the end, I wound up with a shape that looks kinda like my main's older sister (according to other people, not me) that doesn't require any adjustments for hair or shoes and I only have to pick a higher positioned copy of my collar. (^_^)

I do change to a different skin so that breast shaders are included only when I'm tall and... well... actually have them. So basically, most of the time, I can go from big to small and back with the wearing of 2 items and attachment of 1. (^_^)

Now... If I didn't feel so weird in my big shape, maybe I would use it more often. (=_=)y

spot on!

We're just little for real but we eat like peegs! This is the first and only shape I've ever created. I started with the newbie shape and worked it up to this. Reason so, I purchased a skin that I absolutely loved but the shape that was included was just wrrrrong with boobies huge enough to strangle me. (I swear I cropped these pictures...)