Yet another Ugly Avatar thread

Ok I know this has come up before....

While the sheer amount of variation in avatars is amazing, facially they still resemble relatives of Shrek. Worse than that, they move in a completely stilted and unnatural way. They swing their arms like goons, type in mid air, and just look uncomfortable.

By contrast, the avatars in There are fluid and lifelike - with facial movements at random, and smooth walking and running. I do not want to lose the variety of avatars one bit, but it would make me really happy to see more lifelike avatar movements instead of the weird robotic jerking they do now. I know some people will balk at any mention of There, but honestly, in this regard, that game blows away SL. Ugly avatars/strange movement is the most common complaint I hear about SL, even more than the complexity.

...


You want better gestures then?

Yes, better, more fluid gestures - especially the walking animation, which is just odd right now. Don't get me wrong, I adore SL, but as far as the avatars go, they do seem to move in a very strange way that is distracting.

I suppose I agree with you on the movement to some degree, they do move in a little more "stilted" way than There avatars. But I totally disagree that the avatars in SL are not up to par with the Avatars in There and I'll tell you why --the customization system in SL is tremendous in comparison with There (and I've seen a few "relatives of Shrek" in There too ). In addition, the ability to dress one's avatar as one wishes, without having to pay huge sums of money to either upload the clothing or buy it is a big plus. To me, five dollars of hard U.S. Currency is just a little much to pay to upload a shirt which I may or may not have any luck at all selling, which I feel I must do to at least make *some* of that money back so I dress as I please.

To me, the ability to create an AV that looks like the Hulk or one that looks like my creature-of-the-night-forest-dwelling-with-big-hair AV is much more satisfying than having to pay $10,000T bucks just to get a funky-do. That's my IMHO.

Zana

When we get custom gestures, I'm pretty sure they'll allow you to change how walking/running/flying looks. When There gives you custom gestures... ... Oh wait... There isn't going to give you custom gestures...

... My bad

There is cool if you want to look like a cartoon and only wear gender specific items.

Yeah, try looking like a drunken cross-dressing hippo in there for under 1000 real dollars!

nothing personal but if you're making ugly avatars....keep trying. there are hundreds of sliders to coordinate and it does take practice but that's the price we pay for massive variety. everything from aliens to trolls to anime characters to normal people. it can be done....just takes a little practice.

I have much more of a problem with the gestures of the avatars than how they look. I actually prefer how the avatars look in SL as well because of the variety, and I have had no problem creating an attractive avatar - but they are still a little (ok a lot) odd in the way they move. That is all I would like to see improved

PS - this is not a There vs. SL thread at all, so please keep it specific to how the avatars move. Both games are incredible in their own ways and appeal to very different audiences. And yes it is true now in There you can create some very unfortunate looking avatars if you adjust the sliders too much.

Two words:

Motion Capture

p.s. I want to change my walking style to "lumbering" if that can be arranged

i personally like the quirky way my av moves. some of the movements when you are doing nothing are soooo comical. if they were put in on purpose, congrats to the programmer. if not, well..... dunno, ghost in the machine maybe??

well I didn't mean to make that a mini-flame -- it just sorta came out that way -- my apologies . You're right, my Av is super tall with large, wide feet -- Zana the Amazon-- so when her feet get 180 degree turn around thing she looks a little like a girafee with a bad back . But only when she's standing, when she's flying she's a real babe (even if she has no tan!) .

Zana

I liked your old av better... shrugs.

which old av? I think Zan has been white skinned and tall since the beginning, except last night when decided to be preggers twins with Loki for a little while .

Zan

"I wanna hug"

Thats all I'm saying

CatC

Erm... I might be having a brain fart but I could swear that when you were a noobie and we first met at the old disco in Da Boom you were completely different. Shorter, thinner and with normal skin.
You said you wanted to make an art gallery and I offered to give you some free space for it at the disco... remember?

And yeah Cat I wanna hug too. And kiss and give backrubs and tickle and all that other cool stuff you could do in the sims.
Screw custom gestures, just give me decent ones.

I agree -- I want hugs too! I don't care about custom gestures either but I would love to be able to hug someone. I know that hugging is complicated because it involved two avs interacting to make it look "real" but I don't even care about that, so long as I have the option to generally point out that I'm *offering* a hug to someone besides typing "aww *hugs*"!!

As far as my very first Av, I dont' remember that conversation Eggy but that's entirely possible. As to shorter and thinner -- I'm not sure Zan was ever shorter but she's never been thinner from my memory but then again, I could be brain farting too. Funny how folks generally prefer avs who look like "normal people" and fall into the general category of "traditional beauty" imho. Not that I'm accusing you of such a thing, Egg. Just that I think with all the options available to us -- I find it intersting that the majority of folks are going to revert to a definition of beauty that one finds in magazines and in the popular media. I enjoy the ability to redefine my own sense of what makes a beautiful "person" via SL personally. I even find Loki's little orange man sorta cute . But I freely admit that I'm a freak .

Zana