Feral avatars

ive decided i want to make a feral avatar for myself, and i have a list of things i need that i dont know how to obtain, and any help would be great ^-^

1. a shape, i dont know the first thing about making a shape that would support a feral avatar, or should i just use invisiprims? and if so, how do i do that? can someone explain them and how they are used?

2. sculpties, i have wings3d but i cant figure out how to use it right, ive spent hours on it and im ready to kill it, but i dont have money for a better program, any suggestions?

3. AO, i have avimator, im getting Qavimator, i can make poses, i can make animations, but the problem arises when i try to figure out how to make a pose or animation for an animal, rather than the human who's shape is used in those programs as a default, is it just an issue of trial and error? or is it easier to use invisiprims? and if so, how would i do that?

4. scripting a HUD, should i just get someone to help me? i cant script to save my life, i only build, but i would like the avatar to have a hud.

if there is anyone out there who knows answers to these problems im having, please please please let me know, thank you so much

~raine

1. You can make a shape in "Appearance". You might need to be wearing a full perm or moddable shape first. Right click your Avie, then appearance in the pie menu. There are sections for each part of the av to edit. Make each part the length you think it should be and make them skinny. You might have to play around a little but that's easy enough. It might help to have your AO already if your Av will be in a four legged position to build around. You could also make a fixed pose for building around. Build your parts around the shape and you should not really need any invis prims except for backward part of your animals legs, but if you are using an AO all the time, you can bend them in Qavimator the way you need and won't need invis prims.

2. I can't help you with Wings, I use Blender..well learning it lol. It's free and fairly easy to use once you know the common commands. There a few good tutorials on it. Look for Machinimatrix tutorials. There are some scipts you will need for SL. The tutorial tells you where to get them.

3. You will have to use your imagination for creating your AO. Use the human figure in Qav to position it as your animal would be. It shouldn't be to difficult. If you need to make a few for testing, go to the Beta test server, you won't waist real lindens uploading there..and they give you some lindens to use there for uploading. You can find the install at the SL website.

4. I can't help with the hud, but there should be someone in scripting tips that might be able to help you. Also you can join some scripting groups in world.

Hope this helps some

this actually helps a lot, thank you so much, now im all pumped and ready to make one haha, i still need to learn about invisiprims, but you helped a lot with what i needed, thank you.

Learn to walk, then learn to fly. If you haven't built an anthro avatar yet, you have some basic skills to master before you'll be ready to tackle making a Feral avatar.

You've correctly identified several of the most critical areas that you need skill in before you can successfuly make a feral avatar. Add texture making skills to that list, as all those sculpted and normal prims, plus your skin for the avatar if any avatar body parts remain visible, will all need custom textures.

But jumping right in and starting with making a Feral Avatar is sort of like trying to get a gig at Carnagie Hall, when you've only had a few intro classes in Music, and haven't yet settled on which instrument you want to play.

Start with basic building and sculpty making. Get to where you can put exactly the texture you want on any part of a normal or sculpted prim, and to where you can make linksets that look like a decent avatar head, paws, legs, etc...

Then try to make an anthro avatar, which uses the attached normal prim and sculpted prim parts, but does not require special AO stuff to warp the body and make it the right shape and movement needed for a Feral.

Then try to add scripted options and a HUD control for the anthro avatar. Maybe a wagging tail, a mouth that works, ears that move, eyes that blink.

Get all that working, and then worry about making an Animation Override that warps an avatar the way that a feral needs, and that makes the body parts move the way a feral needs.

Buy a couple feral avatars, and look at what they look like and move like if you detach all the prims except the one that has the AO integraded with it.

Get an open-source AO like the Franimations or ZHAO AO, and learn how to add your custom stuff to it.

Then try to adapt your anthro parts to make a feral version of your anthro avatar.

What exactly is "feral avatar"? I'm picturing an avatar that has decided it no longer wants to be domesticated, so it's running all over the grid naked, covered in dirt, growling at people, eating out of garbage cans, ripping squirrels apart with its bare hands.

;0 that could be pretty sweet lol! ;0

Sssh, we don't want the press getting hold of that description!

LoL!

No, it's a quad animal avatar, or sometimes an anthropomorphic animal avatar that can also run around on all fours.

I have a cute feral vixen. She stands in a semi-crouch, and is always looking warily around herself. When she walks or runs, she drops to all fours. And she has a semi-crazy expression on her face.

although i love you analogies, im actually quite experienced when it comes to building and animations, although ive really only built wings, houses and furniture, and i decided its time to try something new, i can build, i can use sculpties, i can make sculpties (not well, but i can) the one thing i absolutely cannot do though, is script. so wagging tails and blinking eyes are out of the question unless i can get someone to help me. i have been wanting a feral avatar of a lynx for a long time, and no one makes them, no one makes any feral avatar that i can even afford (my business is just barely starting, so im kinda poor) and right now im learning everything i can to make the things i want, i learned how to make wings, i learned how to make parts for my avatar, now im trying to learn how to make an avatar the way i want it, thank you for the advice, im doing my best. ^-^

Thanks for the explanation, Ceera.

I have to wonder how that moniker came about. A human who walks on all fours would be called either handicapped or an infant, not feral. Why not just call it a quadrupedal avatar? "Feral" implies a certain kind of behavior, not any particular posture, does it not?

OK, then you are a few steps ahead of the game already. But the point I was trying to make is that there is a world of difference between building a house or simple attachments like wings, and building a furry avatar that looks good. Believe me, I know. I build and custom-texture whole sim projects for clients. I've made basic avatar attachments like wings, or cuff and collar sets, or control HUD's that affect the avatar's attachments or things near them. I've even done some pretty severe modifications on furry avatars for myself and my friends, like adding talking jaws with fully detailed teeth and tongues to fox avatar heads that originally didn't have a muzzle that could move at all.

But making a furry avatar from scratch, whether anthro or feral, is an entirely different discipline. As different as the work of a clay sculptor who makes statues of people is from that of a bricklayer who builds fine houses. Getting a collection of prims, even sculpted ones, to fit together and look like an organic shape is an art form.

Check on xstreet-SL and in the forums. I recall there are several "avatar construction kits" available, full perms and for free, that include such items as basic blinking eyes scripts and examples of use; wagging tail scripts and examples; invisiprims set up for making a basic digitigrade leg; and even animation overriders for things like Tiny avatars. That should get you past a lot of the "I don't know how to script a..." problems.

But an AO for a feral avatar is one of the most complex avatar changes I have ever seen, and I doubt you'll find that AO in a full-perms kit anywhere. Each avatar maker creates their own, depending onthe precise needs of that avatar shape. I own a LOT of quadruped avatars, form a tiny quad fox that hides my entire real body in a way similar to a Tiny avatar, to a Dire Wolf larger than a horse. The tricks required for making the limbs move right and for reshaping the body with an AO are pretty convoluted.

So seriously, try to make a two-legged Lynx, and get past the scripting issues with that simpler project first, before you tackle a quad. It will be a lot less frustrating.

Also, send me an IM in-world. Perhaps I can meet you some time in-world, and show you some of my collected quad avatars, with and without the prim parts, so you can get an idea how a range of different avatar makers have tackled the concept.



The designation is from the viewpoint that a "nomal anthropomorphic avatar" who walks on two legs and wears clothes (maybe) and generally acts like a member of a Human society is "civilized", whereas the animals who still run around on all fours and don't reflect Human civilized behaviors are "Wild" or "Feral" animals. Similar also to the difference between a house pet that has been trained to do tricks and has been "housebroken" and won't foul their home, versus a Feral cat or dog that was born wild and has no "civilized" attributes.

The first ones I recall seeing called Ferals were the Lost Ferals, some two or three years ago to start with, from Lost Furest. They were feral animals, the first was a Lion I believe, now extended to other big cats as well as wolf and a few others. I always think of Ferals as being only those, the pure-animal avatars (Well...wild animal) and I feel like the distinction may be linked to the Lost Ferals line, as I never saw anything called 'Feral' before that.

Then again, I've also never heard of anyone calling anthro wild creatures feral, though it does make sense, I suppose. Since it's an animal avatar in either case, the quadripedal behavior in anthropomorphic animal avs still makes sense, as they are more of a wild representation of the often civilized counterparts. If you look up the definition of feral, one entry even simplifies it down to 'wild'.

I've yet to see a purely human avatar as using all four limbs to move about.... aside from ones wearing things like Neko AOs that have quad-walking animations.

I'm with you on the behaviors part, but I'm still not sure why the mere act of dressing an avatar up to look like an animal, and bending it over to walk on all fours would make it "feral". Unless its operator decides to exhibit uncivilized behavior through it, it's very much a civilized avatar, no matter what it looks like.

In RL, feral humans do exist, and they still walk on two legs. Granted, often their posture is not quite what we consider normal, since posture is very much learned behavior, but they're still bipedal. What makes them feral is the fact that they haven't been enculturated; they behave wildly. But they don't look or walk like any other animal but a human.

And domesticated animals, of course, don't look or walk like humans. What makes them "not feral" is that they behave in accordance with apparent cultural norms. It's got nothing to do with how they walk or how they're shaped.

So with regard to avatars, wouldn't a "feral avatar" be one whose human operator has decided to control it in an uncivilized manner, to make it exhibit wild behavior? And couldn't that happen whether the physical appearance of the avatar were human, animal, robot, alien, bipedal, quadrupedal, wheeled, or otherwise? An avatar that looks like a lion or a tiger isn't feral, under the normal definition of the word, just because it happens to walk on all fours.



That's starting to make a little more sense. Basically, you're saying it's a misnomer, based on a brand name? Just as a photocopy can be a called Xerox even if it's not done on a Xerox brand machine, or a tissue can be a Kleenex even if it says Brand X on the box, a 4-legged animal avatar can be a Feral even if it's not part of the Lost Ferals product line?




Not that any of this really matters, of course. It's just interesting to see where names of things come from sometimes.

I am in full agreement with Ceera on this one. Some say i am a fairly accomplished builder (others tell the truth) but I had a go at making a Praying Mantis Avatar last week and I can only say it was a real challenge. The animations are probably the worst bit to get anything like realistic. (mine still dont look right)

The sculpties are fairly easy when you get the hang of them and making them into attachments is fiarly basic. The difficulty comes when you are trying to get a limb to move when its remote from the limb its attached to. Things tend to fall apart when you move.

I am determined to master this so any tips would be appreciated

That's weaselly explained.



And, no, "Lost Ferals" aren't the origin of the term. The use of "feral" to refer to four legged "intelligent" animals in furry fandom goes back to the '80s at least. It's inspired by Beatrix Potter and Kenneth Grahame's illustrated stories about animals who had *chosen to* walk on two legs and wear clothes. When Tom Kitten or Peter Rabbit loses his jacket then they're "going feral". The stoats and weasels of the wild woods who don't wear clothes like the civilized Mole and Ratty and Mr Toad are ferals. I haven't read the Redwall books, but I suspect that there's a similar concept there.

Civilized animals get up on two legs (it's easy enough for Mr Tod or Squirrel Nutkin) and wear clothes. Savage feral animals don't. It's as simple as that. It's like the difference between wearing a shirt and trousers and wearing a loincloth and a bone through the nose.

Ah, thanks for the history lesson, Argent. The things I've missed out on, not being up on Furry culture. I'd never even heard of Furries at all until I joined SL, and I didn't know there were these different types of them until just now. Learn something new every day.

I suppose my pet birds would probably agree that animals who walk on two legs are more civilized than those who walk on four. They are bipedal themselves, and it's fairly obvious they don't think too highly of dogs. I'm not sure they'd agree about the clothing thing, though. They do wear shirts of a sort (special harnesses called "flightsuits" when we take them outside, but they'll only put them on after heavy protest. Does that make them reluctantly civilized, maybe?




Hey, did you just call Ted Nugent uncivilized?

Aren't we all?

i have been working in Qavimator for the past couple days, and playing on the beta grid to see what kind of body shape and animations i should use, and i have to say, being able to draw really helps, i mostly draw animals, and have been studying them all my life, so it makes it a little easier to make an AO based on an animal that i understand, although i do have a great little book on the anatomy of animals that im using as a reference guide, to help with muscle structure and gait.

i personally am a kimonomimi, i dont call myself a furry because that is an insult to the furry community, i simply relate to animals more than i do with humans, i tend to be a little catlike in everything i do, and if i could be any animal, i would be a lynx, they fit my personality so much better, but i am not a cat. i wish i had cat ears, and a tail, and the body and such, but mostly because it is so much more practical, running on all fours is faster, those ears can hear so well, that tongue is just so handy when it comes to cleaning, the ears and tail both show emotions amazingly, i wouldnt mind having them, but i wouldnt exactly say that humans are civilized and animals are not, its all a matter of opinion.

Thanks Raine

I'll second that!
I typically wear a Red Fox AV bought in world, it's very high quality and realistic and has a HUD with some decent animations. Building an AV from scratch is a real chore I can tell, but the textures and the texture mapping is a critical part of it because images can look darker or different shades after being uploaded, and they have to be good quality to start with and the right size etc otherwise when you start messing with the mapping it doesn't look right.

Building an AV is not something I would try myself!