Making a Proper Shape - A Guide to Human Proportions

i have noticed this as well. the usual offenders tend to be relatively new, while older resis tend to be not only better proportioned, but smaller overall.

It's a good thing to provide information on representing RL proportions in SL, but I hope that it doesn't spawn any self-appointed makeover cops terrorizing newbs into conforming to any particular standard. Playing with the sliders is fun when you're new, and experimenting with even minor variations on reality can expand people's self-images and increase their tolerance of others.

Both my main avatars are caricatures. Nika is a toon girl-next-door, quite short and absurdly slight, very pale, with slightly anime eyes and a bizarrely wide mouth so you can see the smile. She was meant to look welcoming and nonthreatening, and did succeed at that.

Litta is a blingtard satire. Overly tall, absurdly long legs, big rack, wasp waist. She was originally black, so her features look a little odd in the white skins she mostly now wears. Weirdly, she attracts less male attention than Nika, probably because she looks like most noobs, by design. What can I say, Cee and I both got used to her, and now it's too late to change. *shrugs*

Sometimes looking UNreal is a choice.
.

I totally agree. I rarely suggest alterations to another resident unless he or she specifically asks for advice: I made that mistake often enough during my early days in SL. Even the greenest newbie out of Help Island will have an overriding desire to shape and style their av themselves - I see that as a positive aspect of the Barbie and Ken phase we all go through at some point.


All the same I would say that even a caricature or toon-like av would have its own peculiar logic of proportions although the guide under discussion isn't very relevant in this case.

When all is said and done, I don't think many residents actively seek to make their avs look crap unless of course they are making a statement about looking crap.

It's only supposed to be a PHASE?

*grumbles* Pretty damn long phase if you ask me.. lol.

Ephraim Kappler chuckles: well I like to think I progressed quite quickly to my Action Man phase with an ill-advised but thankfully brief nadir as a Teletubby on the way.

I'm working on my GI Joe look these days.

If you get the shapes in the free shops newbies keep getting funneled into, they're beanstalks...

Now granted, looking at the new issue of Lucky magazine today, in the jeans special - all the RL models in there were stretched. They also all looked to be about 14...
- But they still don't look all that pretty with that look. They look haunted and malnourished.

Maybe I should sell my own AV shape as a freebie at Free Dove and NCI...



If you pay attention to what men like - they like what is about average: shorter and curvy. Sex appeal and evolution and linked - the closer a person is to average, and not 'I eat at McDonalds' average, but 'physically active' average - the more attractive they will be to others.

The beanstalks are in fashion magazines, but every -straight- man I've met finds them less appealing than a woman with curve.

Briana -

Thanks so much for posting this. I've been in SL off and on for several years now, and avatar shape and proportions have always been something I've struggled with. The issue is that I'm a technical person and don't have an artistic bone in my body, so every time I tried to mess around with my shape settings I always ended up with something that didn't "look" right, but I could never really identify why. These guidelines to how "real" humans are proportioned will be a big help.

To everyone who is getting defensive or critisizing Briana for posting this as being some sort of "crusade" against your avatar preference, God you people are idiots.

I have gone through the exercise. My avatar's height has dropped from something in 6' 7" range to 5' 7" maintaining the same head and face. I tried enlarging the head as much as I dared, and got my avatar up to a whopping 5' 9".

I have to say, the results are appealing. However, the avatar does not have the same characteristic feel that it did.

And it's immediately apparent that SL is a tall avatar's world. From hugs to furniture, I feel ridiculously short at times. To me it seems irrelevant how it came to happen - the simple fact is that you have to choose how you want to be disproportionate: your avatar or your environment.

Something that has been completely missed in this thread is tall does not always equal out of proportion. A properly or reasonably well proportioned avatar does not have to be short.

Get an animal avatar. For whatever reason, us critters tend to be better proportioned than the supposedly realistic naked apes.

Going by the rules of this guide you'd need a huge head compared to those around you. Hair would never fit until adjusted. Perhaps not a big deal.

This is correct. That is what this is about "proportions", not specifically being 'realistic in size'.

Chris Norse is 7' and is in proportion.

Unfortunately, many people will have a torso that measures 4 times their head size and legs that are 6+ times their head length and when you start looking 10+ heads tall, it looks....different to say the least.

An avatar that is properly proportioned generally looks natural regardless of their complete vertical height. Though you may have some head size issues with hair and hats etc...

The problem i do have with vertical height is that I am 5'6" in SL and all interactions with people 7'4" and taller look extremely weird. Especially when i am standing right in front of an 8' person and i am eye level with their pelvis.

When i started SL (OH NOES I REFERENCED THAT PERIOD THAT CANT BE NAMED), i noticed in my first week that i was 6'11" - i was so stunned. I reduced myself to 5'6", but that was agent height, therefore i was really around 5'10". It was not until 2008 that i learned the difference between Agent and Prim height and adjusted my avatar again - the 2nd major adjustment i have ever made to my shape since (AN EARLIER PERIOD IN SL THAT I CANNOT NAME WITHOUT BEING SLANDERED).

My heights given are prim heights measured with the accurate height meter in the kit.

Yeah, big, but not Peanuts Gang huge. I have pretty tall avatars and do have to adjust most hair.

It's also a guide. If you want to use it, use it as a starting point, and adjust it to whatever you find aesthetically pleasing. Or as a finishing point for ideas on how to tweak your current shape.

I wish this would pop-up in a window every time someone loaded this thread, instead of people coming to the thread and assuming they are being told how to make their avatars and that they are wrong for choosing to look how they wish.

Yes, it is. It is a good exercise to get a proportionate shape though and understand what is involved. In fact, after I've used this shape for a while, I have some ideas on how I might carefully adjust it.

i am too scared to measure myself against the kit

Get one of those cheetah avs from Lost Furest, Love. Speedy name, speedy avatar, that's what I say.

Besides, Lexxi will like having another cat to play with.

Great guide.

I started out really tall in SL when I used the newbie kits that were given out. It just felt weird to me since I'm a shortie in RL. I couldn't find any shapes that I really liked so I started creating my own. But things just felt a bit off. The guide showed me that I was just a bit over 8 heads tall and my head was a little too small. So I sized down my body and grew my head.

It felt weird at first, but I studied fashion photos and artist drawings and discovered humans really do have large heads. Now with my slightly modified shape it all just popped into focus and felt right.

I was happy that I wasn't too far off originally so I was on the right track. Just didn't know the next step.

The only change I made from the example shape is that I sized up the height a bit. The example shape would put me about waist height with everyone. My current number puts me just under shoulder height to most in SL.

No one has ever ragged on me for being a VR shortie. But I have been called a fatty. Which just strikes me as weird because I took about 15 pounds off my avi for vanity sake. LOL

Just ask any woman who's given birth.

though perspective can be a funny thing (hamster is same size below as above)

I have a toy robot. Not an animal, but I don't think the same expectations on proportion apply.

eeks, and quickly posts a picture of self as cat, to try to hide hamster pictures.

You say that like..... HA! Not going there! =^-^=