Help on shape sliders

I was wondering if there are numbers out there to help me make realistic avatar shapes. Meaning what is the equal of the slider number to RL measurements in inches or centimeters? ... I know there is a height meter but what would a size 10 be .... or a 34/C .. or a shape of 90-60-90 ..... any help would be greatly appreciated

basically .. slider number = ???

Well, it's all quite variable.. depending on your appearance sliders in other sections, specific ones may change, and so on. It's really basically just whatever looks right. I believe someone had some equivalent measurements for cup sizes or something, but again, that would only work under limited settings anyhow.

It's not super easy to make a good shape, so just work at it and try to make something that looks right to you.

Also, in my opinion, you should avoid the super tall. I feel like a midget around most people and my av is realistically sized at 5'10". Sheesh.

Keira's right. There aren't any good guidelines. The numbers on the sliders are simply percentages between endpoints that don't have RL measurements associated with them, as far as I can tell. Creating a good shape is a challenge, which is probably why there are so many misshapen avatars running around in SL. I am blessed with a great shape, but only because it was created by a truly talented shape artist. Like you, I find the sliders a bit of a mystery.

I don't find it hard to create a realistic and pleasing shape, but I realize that some people do.

I suggest you create a height-and-proportions prim as a visual aid.

1. Make a prim that is the height (in meters) you want for your avatar.
2. Find one of those "ideal human proportions" drawings, in an art book or on the web. These generally give human proportions in terms of "heads", such as, "the ideal human figure is between 7 and 8 heads high".
3. In Photoshop, paste this drawing, or at least a set of ruled lines showing where the waist, head, shoulders, and knees should be. Make the drawing the same horizontal and vertical dimensions as the prim you made earlier.
4. UNcheck "constrain proportions" and resize your drawing as 256x256 pixels. Save it as a .png or .tga file.
5. Upload the image to SL.
6. Paste it onto your prim with a texture size of 1:1.

Now you have a reference to look at as you play with the sliders.

It is indeed pointless to try and equate your avatar measurements to "real world" measurements. Everything is relative in SL. Not only are most people over 6', but rooms, doors, walkways, etc. are all sized differently to accomodate following cameras, during radius, etc. Better to craft your avatar's size and proportions relative to what surrounds it.

That said, one valuable exercise is to understand some "rules" about human anatomy that are useful in creating realistic avatars. For example, a person's eyes are roughly one eye-width apart. Their mouth is generally the width of the distance between their pupils. The length of their nose is equal to the distance from the mid-point between their eyes to the outside point of one of their eyes. A woman's hips are as wide as her shoulders. Her legs comprise half her height. The list goes on and on.

Of course, it is the deviations from all of these that make each of us unique. But keeping these guidelines in mind helps those that don't have a natural aptitude for shape creation make an acceptable avatar.

A search in Google on "human proportions" will turn up a wealth of information on this topic.

Hardly.

There is nothing "pointless" about making your avatar prim height the same as your RL height.

I wear a height detector and i know the height of everyone around me and it just looks so stupid that the majority of SL users MAX out the sliders placing their height around 7'5" for females and 8"+ for males.

Absolutely stupid. My avatar is 5'6" and when standing next to the usual 7"+ tall avatar it just looks dumb. Looks even more dumb when those 7'+ avatars try using vehicles and their heads stick out the top or the cockpit. Gee, i wonder why?

Nothing pointless at all about wanting realistic measurements that match RL.

All SL is pointless in a way, but we do it anyway. Scale avatars are not only possible, but, frankly are highly more attractive from my point of view. I'm not saying I like being realistic as much as being believable. (^_^)

It's not hard. I consider myself quite successful in creating a good to-scale avatar shape. 5'6" for my tall shape. (^_^)y

Having a tall avatar does not preclude it having "good" or "average" proportions. I can make a short avatar that "looks" tall, or a tall avatar that "looks" short just by adjusting the relative size of the head, hands, and feet. Your avatar does indeed look a bit short because of how large your head and shoulders are relative ot the rest of your body. It's all personal preference with respect to how you want to look.

@ Imnotgoing: Just adorable!

The first thing I've done with every shape I've gotten is to make it closer to my real height. I don't feel comfortable with amazonic tallness.

And I tweak my appearance a lot. Always making a backup first, of course. I don't think I've ever found a shape that I liked 100%, and usually end up mixing pieces of them together, like the head from one and the body of another. It isn't hard to compare shapes, because if you are in Edit Appearance and change to a different shapes, you're still looking at the same sliders.

Just remember to make backup copies before you start changing stuff.