Making a Proper Shape - A Guide to Human Proportions

But how do you come to that?

What did i say to mark my position as "Arbiter of how one should look" ??

Why are you taking such an aggressive position in a post called GUIDE where i made no judgment or rule as to how anyone should look?

Oh Please, your entire post is a slam to anyone not meeting your perceived concept of normality.

this OP post should have been under services or products.. Its mislabled and disguised for what it really is. a sales tool.

What sales tool? It is a GUIDE. The tool is a freebie.

Wait a minute. You don't even have a leg to stand on - I have SEEN you. No wonder you are being so hostile. YOU definitely do not meet my concept (or probably many others) of normality with your Volkswagen Beetle sized Prim Boobs.

This thread ANSWERS questions people have about avatar proportions.

Yea Ciera - REAL NORMAL:

Um...but isn't this forum about people ASKING questions?


There's been sooooo many shapes discussions already on this forum, it's just getting old. The bottom line is I doubt very much LL took it that seriously when the mesh was created. They probably just did their best to conform to a human body and figured the residents would work it out. And look at us.

Can you imagine.....really imagine....sitting around a room in the REAL world, having THIS conversation, and taking any of it SERIOUSLY? Really.....I'm trying to picture it and I'm just laughing. While we are all just oh so perfect in our little fantasy world.....we're equally and fundamentally as flawed IRL. So, lets just give it up, shall we. Who cares...it's a guide....I read directions and ignore em all the time....actually, more often then that, I don't read directions at all. But it's really kind of a waste of energy to argue as to whether a guide is appropriate or not. Wouldn't it just be wUUUUnderful if we could adjust with sliders IRL~!!! THEN we'd have something to talk about!

It was posted as a guide. Not as "IS THIS INFORMATION RIGHT? ARE YOU TOO TALL?"


People sit around in the real world and talk all the time about peoples proportions. Especially girth and mass.



Fortunately, only 2 people have chosen to make an argument out this, taking the GUIDE personally as if i am condemning how they look (except for you Ciera, you look like crap, seriously...Frankenbarbie).

God, people. Check one:

- I am interested in creating an avatar which approximates average RL human proportions, thanks for posting this thread which seems like it may contain some useful information. Or not, I'll make up my own mind of course.

- I have my own ideas of what my avatar should look like, thank you very much, and it doesn't look like *that* so I'll just go read another thread.

- I am horribly offended that some people are so narrow-minded as to choose to emulate average human proportions in their avatars, this guide is an abomination and a personal affront, and the OP is a horrible horrible person for trying to assist people so I'm going to pick a fight about it and try my darnedest to generate some drama before the weekend is over.

ooh doomed ship is built around human sizes, and offers shapes there when I was checking it out.

I'm short with my avatar but went with the best proportions I could (furry avatar tends to mean a bit of trouble there to get it right)

I know how a real bunneh feels at times.. like the poor thing is about to get squished by the biggies... and people wonder why the little things run off

Yea, Sveid is all about realistic proportions and having LL adjust the avatar creation/editing tools to reflect some sort of representative height value that we can all understand - like actual height values metric or u.s.

I'll take option 4: who wants to be human?

Thanks for posting the guide. It has very useful information in it. I would like to add though that many buildings are oversized because of issues with the SL camera. I find if I do try to build close to RL dimensions then the SL camera acts strangely inside the build sometimes and can often feel clausterphobic unless you are in mouselook. But even with those issues, it is still silly to see these 8 foot tall avatars running around. Mine is 6'1" and people still sometimes ask how young my avatar is supposed to be.

First: No, That's not how I ment it, the mayority of SL residents are simply overly tall, wich unfortunatly results in misunderstandings that others with more RL length avatars are mistakenly called child avatars.

If you want an individual realistic look, then yes, you are absolutely right.

Second part: No my avatar is not matched to my buildings. I use the minimum 5 meter ceiling height to allow the follower camera for normal operation.

What I simply ment to say: a Realistic 1.65m avatar would look like a child in a house if you really take a good look at it.

In the end I believe that SL gives us the freedom to deside how we make our avatar look. Mine is I think maxed out (not sure, shape came with skin if I remember correctly and never tweaked it) and therefor it is not a realistic avatar... but then again... so what, I use a dark grey skin, have cat eyes, so realistic was obviously not my startingpoint anyways.


My ALT on the other hand is the opposite. I created that just to see how often people refer to small avi's as being child avatars. Responces were ehm... interesting.

I'm very short in Second Life because I like being realistically sized and proportioned. I think everyone should be the proportions they want, and the size they wish to be - but based on knowledge, not just conforming without thought. It doesn't really matter, though - I presume people please themselves with their avatar look, and it's not my business. I also like variety.

I think having more knowledge of human proportions whether in order to create an avatar that follows those or deliberately breaks out of them is a better situation than not having that knowledge. /me leads a horse to water.

Can't we all just get along? (^_^)

Don't try and fake it Immy...

We both know you are part of the realistic size avatar brigade.

And something tells me that pic was not taken today. And damn, that does look weird to me.

Great contribution Briana, it's about time some fresh air was let into this stale and musty forum

This article is spot on too, my av is based along the same principles of proportions and as such is quite a bit smaller than most. When I first came to SL however my first shape was very tall to "fit" in with what I saw around me as the norm for humans. It seemed strange at first and progressively felt unnatural to me as time went by and so I began to shrink until seemed natural again. I think I am on my 7th or 8th revision of my own shape due to this and few other things.
The only thing that has not really changed much is the shape of her face, my av has always had the same look there.

Yup, currently an anthro-pony, with very realistic human proportions. The hooves and tail... less realistic and human, but in proportion.

I'm 7'0" and the same. It matters not that I'm sometimes 2+ feet taller than others, or that I'm still shorter than many.. who cares really. I've got ~L$80k worth of land, and nearly all of that was paid for by event and contest winnings... yeah, I know proportions too.

It's a good article.. err.. "guide", Briana. Many people have a hard time seeing the interrelations of the slider settings, and some have no perception of proportion at all. Only thing I'd say about it is that it doesn't take into account the "midget" effect when suggesting height values. Really, only the higher end of normal RL heights for a female let the bones be "long enough" to avoid mesh bunching, or "midget" arms and legs. One fix is to go skinnier, but then you lose muscle volume, the area above the wrists and ankles becomes too slender, and the biceps become noodles also looking wierd. The other proportionate fix is to stretch the limb and keep the muscle, which means growing taller.

"Realistic proportions" are just that.. proportions. It has nothing to do with someone's RL height, OR someone's height in SL. It's the interrelationship between ALL of the applied settings, not just one. "Realistic size" is nothing more than a hangup on what the numbers say, not how the shape looks.. which is the essence of proportion in the first place.

No.

If you are 7'0 tall, and yet your body is 12 heads in length - you look weird - your head is too small for your height. However, this is a common look for the majority of SLers who are 7'+ and most seem to like it and defend it. *shrug*

This isn't a hang-up on numbers. If you read the guide you would know that. It is a hang up on PROPORTIONS - HOW THE SHAPE LOOKS - which is the essence of proportions in the first place, right?

And as cute as you tried to be, it is not an "article". My friend wrote this, created the tools and added the visual aids to help people along. It is a guide, not a rule <AGAIN>.

LOL - What does this mean? I am not following it.

I made 24k being auctioned only once in 2004 - does that make my proportions better than yours? My partner was auctioned for 52k at the same auction and she was shorter than me and with tiny arms but I guess her proportions were better than mine then???

Is there some correlation between your winning events and contests and your avatar proportions? I never, ever thought there was such a thing. I always thought it was 10% personality and 90% teleport skizills.

If you "know proportions" then you have no beef here and should just move along...I also doubt you would be willing to step on a pose stand and measure your head in comparison with your body...Just a hunch.

Chill Bri baby......I'm on your side. LOL

I am a stickler for proportion in SL and when I do shapes I constantly tweek them from one day to the next. Good gawd you should see the ones I did in my first few months. The thing that strikes me tho.....is how I looked at them with these same eyes.....and they were ok. Now looking back.....there friggin scary! So I think there's definitely a learning curve. I would not have thought that I would have such a different perspective 3 years later. And I've been using this huge moniter the whole time. LOL

What I meant by the conversation......was not RL shape....but sitting around IRL....talking about avatar shapes. It just made me giggle. When I was out visiting my bro in CO a couple years ago....he had this golf game on his laptop where you created your player in a very similar way that SL avatars are done. My bro is NOT big into computer games.....but he's a phenominal artist and he was having a ball creating his sexy little female avatar so he could look at her ass while she swung. LMAO.

We got into this big discussion about body form.....he wanted me to do the face because he wasn't happy with it (yet, he can draw a face that is absolutely beautiful) but he didn't want me messing with the body because he felt he had it 'perfect'. But the whole thing was just funny.....cute funny...... THAT is what this thread is reminding me of.

I admit, I am. I like my avatars to be balanced and to scale and I consider the prim-meter to be a matter of fact. At the same time, if someone wants to be tall I say more power to'em. (^_^)

And... The pikkie is probably a couple weeks old. That's Foehn and me hanging out in Hanja. She likes being tall and I don't mind coming up to waist level on her. =^-^=

.... Or lower... that ~is~ my tall avatar. (^_^)y

People might want to consider stretching out to nine heads in height, adding extra length evenly to the lower five sections.

This is pretty common in print ads and on television, when putting three dimensional people on two dimensional surfaces. That medium usually looks about 5-10% wider than the actual, and the generally greater mass of the upper body makes the lower body look a little short.

Good guide though.

As the one who wrote the guide, I can tell you that this is not at all the case. While I do have items for sale, none of them are shapes. The guide, included shapes and tools are and will always be completely free.

Proper proportions and scale in general are some of the most important aspects of design, yet it appears to be widely overlooked. Since the avatar is the starting point for everything, having it fit in properly with the world around it only makes sense to me. A table shouldn't come up to your shoulders, a person with legs three times their upper body length will look odd and arms that don't even reach a person's waist are just silly.

Most people have a poor understanding of human proportions, they may know something doesn't look quite right, that something is "wrong", but may not know what it is. Nearly every art student has gone through this, I don't see how shape creation in Second Life is any different.

In my professional opinion, having avatars, animations and items made with realistic scale in mind can only be a good thing for all involved. As it stands, content creation is currently unnecessarily difficult due to the majority of people not taking proportions/scale into consideration. I started work on this guide to serve as an educational reference point for those interested, NOT the end all be all "you have to look exactly like this" rulebook.

It is a work in progress and the version posted here is quite out of date and incomplete, I am still working on it as I find the time. The version intended for mainstream release will be more thorough, have specific male and female sections, improved tools, better references, be more clear in general and have a few example builds built to a realistic scale, so people can better understand my points first hand.

If you are interested in it, that's great! If not. then please do not try and start something. There is no hidden agenda.

With that said, I leave you all with this article .

http://uncyclopedia.wikia.com/wiki/Sense_of_Proportion

Head size isn't a static number, or height WOULD be an indicator of disproportion. It's not, and so knowing one's height in SL can't infer anything about proportion.
"This is my RL height" IS a hangup on the number value.. Works for many people, but labeling it "realistic size"? Lol WTF is that? It's a short person trying to tell tall people they shouldn't be so tall because it makes us little'un's look like kids.
Wasn't trying to be cute, most guides aren't so biased.