Shapes & Avatars

The question about shapes got me thinking- I did ask in Content Creation, but figure this space gets more traffic...

How do they make the non-human avatars? How do you rezz, say a cube - and move your "consciousness" into it - so that it is now _YOU?

Offhand, based on what I've seen, I think they squeeze the shape down and then attach prims all around it. But I wouldn't swear to this.

They don't. They just warp a shape into a tiny, twisted thing, which you wear, and then attach all the other stuff, like wings and legs, etc.

[Edit: Quaintly beat me to it! ]

Now I'm really curious! I think I'll try on some of the shapes alone that have come with some of my odder avatars. Specially the minis! Hehe. I need to know how warped an avatar can really get.

Prolly about as warped as rl can be.

As mentioned, it’s simply worn prim attachments. The trick is to hide the normal avatar inside the prims, which can be done with a combination of several effects: A body shape at minimal size; a "bodycrusher" animation to fold your arms and legs into the body – often while still having them move in ways which let you attach and control prim limbs; and possibly an "invisiprim" texture to mask out any parts still left.
It is also possible to hide the avatar by using an animation which displaces it far underground, but that obviously has some problems when walking around in, say, tall buildings.

Ah, I can help with that.
http://avatartoolbox.googlepages.com/AvatarToolbox.html

You know how you "wear" prim hair? Same thing.

Minis / Tinys:

These are the little bitty avatars, often half a meter or so in height. They require a special animation override that folds, twists and squishes the avatar into what is roughly a 0.5 M sphere. Prim parts are then attached, completely covering this scrunched-up avatar. Sometimes one or more invisiprims are also used, to cover bits of the actual avatar that can't otherwise be concealed.

The down side to Minis and Tinys is that the AO that allows the body to scrunch so small also makes it impossible to use normal animations to sit in chairs, dance, or do other activities. There are complete lines of custom animations and pose balls and even AO's designed just for Tinys, to overcome this limitation.

Furries / Robots / Giant avatars / most non-Human forms:

These are prim parts and shape modifications added onto the avatar. Some are not much more than a prim head mask and tail, and a shape that makes the avatar head smaller. Some involve complex Animation Overriders that allow the creature to move as a 4-legged animal, or to appear to be giant-sized, or to fit in a form that would be impossible for a posed avatar.

The best way to learn how these work is to get some of them, and examine how the parts attach, and what the body looks like when most or all of the parts are detached.

Where can one purchase the body crusher? I looked thru SLExchange - there was a mention of it being Open Source... Would like to see what I could do

Oh wow! Thank you!!! How cool - /me is off to try new playthings...

Freebie "Tinies" typically have one.

Thanks again...
/me looks at clock willing it to hurry...

There's a tiny AO in the toolbox too.

I so loved your site... will be playing later Thank you!