Custom Creations

Not sure how correct my placement is, but anyway... I am teaching myself slowly how to create all the awesome customer avatars/models/whatever I see people with, but I am very much non-artistic. In the mean time, do people do custom outfit/avatar setups for people for these L$? I presume if so, the amount would be based on creation complexity, but more curious of there are people who do so and if they might have time to talk.

Thanks,

Val Bishop

Hi Validus. Welcome to SL.

To answer your first question, yes, people do creat custom avatars for clients and sell them for L$. As for your second question, regarding pricing, I'm not sure if your question was aimed towards how much it would cost you to buy a custom av, how much you shoud charge for making one for someone else, or both.

I can't really speak intelligently on specifics price points for that sort of thing, I'm afraid, since I got out of the custom business almost 2 years ago. It's just too time consuming. It's impossible to charge appropriately for what my time is worth if I can only sell an item once. Since the exchange rate is about L$250 to US$1, I'd have to charge tens of thousands or in some cases even hundreds of thousands of L$ to cover the time spent on a complex av. Very few people can afford that, and even fewer would be willing to spend that much even if they could.

I'd much rather put the same item on a shelf, price it reasonably, and let it pay for itself as it sells over and over again. Most content creators I know say the same thing. Many have tried the custom biz, but very few have stayed in it.

That's not to say you shouldn't try though. If you can make it work, great. There are some people who do it successfully. Perhaps one of them could chime in here and advise you further.

Creating Avatars and other items for use in SL is definitely an artistic effort. Make no mistake about that. It is one that can be learned, certainly. But it does require artistic talent to do it well. That means at least ability with a graphics program like Photoshop to make textures, as well as building skills in SL for making the shapes of Avatars.

There is definitely a market for all sorts of things in SL. Avatars (especially furries and other non-Human forms), skins for humans, clothes, tattoos, building textures, houses... you name it. But as Chosen said, the prices things sell for in SL are a fraction of what your time and effort in RL to create them are worth. One-off custom efforts are rarely viable.

As an example, some of the really good, lifelike Avatar sets go for L$800 or more. But that is only a couple of dollars in US Currency. You can earn more flipping hamburgers at a fast food chain than you can crafting an L$800 item that only sells once. But if you can create something that will sell repeatedly, to lots of people, you can make a small but noticable income. If you have artistic talent and make LOTS of things that sell well, you can even make enough to consider it a real job. Not necessarily a high paying one, but better than some jobs.

Welcome to SL, and good luck with learning to create things here. If you put some effort into it, you may amaze yourself with what you can create.

Thank you both for the responses... I would be interested in someone who has artistic talent creating a custom av/etc for me, but I don't mind if it gets resold. If other people like my idea (or rather the end result of my input and the artists ideas) and the artist can make something from reselling it, then great for everyone! I will continue to play around a bit myself, but if anyone is interested... let me know.

Thanks again!

Val Bishop

What, in particular, are you seeking? A specific species of non-human anthro? A game character look-alike? A cyborg/robot? An Avatar can be anything at all, from a tiny bunny rabbit to a foxtaur to a giant robot death machine. O^o Not to mention any Human race or ethnic look.

You'll get more of a response if you describe what you want to look like. It may even already exist, and you just haven't seen it yet.

Not 100% sure, so some would be left up to the artistic vision of whoever was doing it... Some sort of sleek looking knight-ish kinda guy. Dark, sort of an evil kinda of vibe, but a sleekish knight would be my best description. heh.

--Val

Actually... that character from the old MDK games would be near perfect... except maybe a less weird head, heh.

http://www.cdaccess.com/jpg/shared/front/large/mdk.jpg
http://www.macgamer.com/features/shoulda/images/mdk.jpg
http://www.auto-sfondi-desktop.com/wallpapers-games/mdk-2/0001/mdk-2_0001.jpg
http://tn3-2.deviantart.com/300W/fs6.deviantart.com/i/2005/075/8/e/mdk2005___Kurt_by_Obsolution.jpg

So yeah, that's the idea.


--Val

Yeah, that helmet is pretty strange.

But the close-fitting body suit is a possibility, and not to hard to design. There are possibly alteady some similar things out there. One thing to note is that SL does some strange surface distortions in certain parts of the figure's body. So some types of patterns on the body are difficult in certain areas.

The cape-like tendrils off the back are a hard part. It would have to be done with prims, or maybe particles. Beyond what I could offer.

I'm relatively booked at the moment, but you might find someone willing to give it a shot. Good luck!

Thanks for the all the responses, I appreciate it! Glad to see I continue to be a pain with my complicated needs, heh. Hopefully I will get some responses, not sure if I should be starting a thread with a more clear subject now... eh.

--Val

MDK, now that's going back. I used to play that game all the time. Never did finish it. There was no way to save you place in the original as I recall, so you had to start from the beginning every time. Also, the sick pleasure I got out of using that sniper mode to shoot enemies in the head from miles away started to bother me after a while. And yes, it was a strange character concept, that face-mounted gun, but hey, at least it was original.

My to-do list is already several miles long and way behind, but I'll add that to it. It woud be a fun one to do. No promises when it will be done though, sorry.

No apologies necessary, happy to see interest. Is your to-do list comprised fully of paid projects? If not, maybe I can contribute to the cause and grease the wheels? hehe

--Val

I like the eager thinking, but I never charge in advance for anything. Keeps me off the hook if I don't get to something in time. All I can say definitively is it will be done when it's done and I'll get to it when I get to it. I know that answer sucks, but it's the only one I can give. I'm so far behind on projects I've wanted to do, it's rediculous.

No problemo. Thanks.