Skins: Can They be Too Real?

A comment from Ann in the latest Shapes and Skins thread led me to post this (In accordance with my new determination to be at least a LITTLE less of a thread-derailer).

We pay lots of money in SL for "photorealistic" skins.

On the other hand, we spend even more money in RL trying to make our skins look "flawless". Makeup, skin care products, microdermabrasion, spa visits, plastic surgery...all designed to hide, diminish, or eliminate every last blemish, zit, mole, pore or wrinkle. We strive constantly for an unrealistic ideal appearance.

So...how "realistic" does an SL skin have to be? Is there some point of diminishing returns?

I zoomed in on someone's necklace at a club the other night and caught a glimpse of their face. It's wasn't one of those photorealistic ones but it was clearly very expensive and incredibly detailed, looking like a very real face.

My only reaction: creeeeepy!!!

Was like watching a corpse walking around. Even worse are the ones that have that insipid smile animation that has your mouth moving every few seconds. Who came up with that gem? Now you have a walking corpse that grins once in a while!

I much prefer nicely done faces that present a certain "look" (young, older, freckles, face shape, make up, watever) and leave it at that.

I've tried on many skins in a variety of detail and price ranges and can't find one I'm more comfortable in than the plain ol' Brann I've had since I shed my newbie skin. Perhaps because it is a little on the simple side it doesn't remind me of someone else and I can be me in it.

B.

I am not an unattractive woman, nor am I as attractive as I wish I had been. Honey's skin, however, was as perfect as I could find...although I do find myself glancing at new skins occasionally. Her second skin had a beauty mark that I didn't initially notice and that sucker drove me crazy until I replaced the skin. Her third skin was cute, with freckles, but reminded me of a farm girl - not the image I wanted to portray. This, being her fourth, has been around the longest and has pleased me the most.

[deleted for thread derailment]

If the skin you are wearing is so real that people start recognizing you as someone they know from Real Life.

Then it is too real.

It's not my fault! *runs off to hide*

Btw, it's not the imperfections I dislike, it's just that, in a cartoon world, overly realistic skins look out place to me. Oh, and most of the photoreal skins I've seen have that quality only in key areas (face, hands, tummy maybe), whereas the rest of it is more like an overly shaded and/or highlighted version of the mostly hand drawn skins I prefer. The skin tone of the photorealistic and non-photoreal parts never quite seem to match either, and that drives me absolutely batshit.

Can you imagine someone making a softwear package that you run and input two photos of yourself... one from the front nude, and one from the back nude, and automatically crafts a SL skin for you (placing it just where it needs to be) from them down to every detail.

Two words: arm hair.

The more detailed the skin, the higher the bar for acceptably detailed clothing. Perhaps it's just me, but a less detailed skin with highly detailed clothing looks *younger*, and the opposite effect also obtains--dramatically, at least as I see it.

I'm also a little freaked out by skins that are really recognizable. Even with a different facial and body shape, the most detailed and distinctive of skins are just too obviously the same skin, like twins separated at birth or something.

I started out using Nyte'N'Day skins about a year ago and never changed. The only time I really see how good a skin looks is when I spend alot of time taking photos of them. Most of the time your too far away to really appreciate them?

Phil Linden hinted at a program to do this with facial photographs


Some skin makers will do that by hand.

Nammsor has some examples in the gallery forum.

impressive but maybe just a lil freaky.

If that ever happens just dig me a hole and I will climb in it....

shhhhh!!! or they will start making cellulite attachments!

there is a place in SL that does this with faces, might be what phil was hinting at

it is called avatar island, you submit a RL face shot and they send you the 3 texture files needed to make a skin, you upload it to SL and create the skin yourself.
I have used it to make some, I also work there as customer service and helper (it is also a portal for new players to enter SL, if they choose to not use the standard orientation islands)


The nice thing about it, is once you have the files, you can do whatever you wish with them.
two of the ones I did, I completely redid, added makeup etc

they are now for sale in my store
(I redid so much they look like totally different skins than what I started with LOL)
It gave me the base I needed to make a totally unique and individual skin

Hi (first post!). I met someone in world last month who had done this. She said she used photos of herself to create it, including nude. It looked horrible. Very blotchy and uneven everywhere considering she had no photoshop experience. She wanted to look like her RL self and she was happy with it so thats what counts in the end I guess.

Who wants to look like their real life *shudder* self *eek*

I remember reading somewhere a movie animation expert talking about cgi people / cgi movies. He was saying that the technology had reached a point where it was not yet able to be 100% indistinguishable from real people, but had passed the point where the images were 'acceptable' to the viewers. What he went on to explain was that people will watch CGI / animated movies and will accept -- even demand -- the films to have a certain level of realism (dependant on the subject matter of course). However, the problem was that there's a point at which we subconsiously stop seeing an image as a 'really well-done cartoon' and start seeing it as a 'very creepy / disturbing / disfigured / unnatural real image'.

This thread reminded me of that interview. I have seen a few very unique avatars who look almost real, almost creepily real. But most of the well-made skins are, I think, enough below that threshold that they come across as 'really well-done cartoons'. If that expert was correct though, then there would be a point where SL skins and shapes got a little too realistic and became creepy/disturbing.

-Atashi

I would not mind looking like my RL self, minus a few pounds LOL
I was told one of my avatars slightly resembles me
*shrug*

Photo-real, cartoon, anime, goth, does not matter to me. I have seen some very good examples of most styles. Also, a few that were a little frightening. Almost anything with a little extra shading better than the stock skin.

Like that female freebie skin with the heart on the cheek. She's a cylon, I tell you. Has to be. There are so many copies!

I, personally, don't like the skins that look "too" realistic. It's a little creepy to me to see the skins that are based on a person's RL photo. Seeing avatars that look too realistic seems out of place in a virtual world. SL is based on imagination and fantasy, for the most part, and some of that feeling of surrealism should exist. I mainly wear RaC skins, and they're about as realistic as I want to get.

Of course, in SL, if you don't like the way your face looks it's easy enough to mess with the shape or buy another skin. In RL, this can only be achieved through a lot of hard work and a lot of money. I don't even want to carry that much trouble over into SL!

I don't have to worry about this since about 95% of the SL population prefers tanned skins while I enjoy my fair skin I have in RL. In 10 months of being on SL, I've only run into 2 other people who I recognized as the having the same skin designer, but not necessarily the same makeup!

Unique is fun!!

I don't think I have seen too many skins that look real, real.
A lot of cute faces and the empathize mentioned on stomaches, hands and feet and good moments of backs.
Ppls still look like to0ns or at best video characters.
At one time there were some skins that body wise,
that looked like diff tones of broiled chicken skin to me and were popular.

I do! notice there are a lot of more pretty fems (like herds) and of course better looking guys since I joined.
I rem 2 yrs ago, when flexy was 3 months off, a shape, a skin, hair, better clothes textures was a chore. Now ppls can join and insta "beautiful ppls"!

The so-called uncanny valley effect isn't universal. As with all such things it comes down to subjective personal preference. I think it depends a lot on how you relate to avatars. Some people see them as people (in which case they're likely to react negatively to too much realism because it brings the artificiality of avatars into sharper focus) while some people relate to them as art, and so are more inclined to to appreciate the craftsmanship of a very realistic skin. There's no right or wrong answer to the OP's question. Different strokes for different folks.

Any of you see 'Beowulf'? I found the eyes a bit creepy and kept focusing on them through out the movie. The movie itself was fantastic, but I was distracted the whole time. I would imagine it to be the same for some looking at avs that are too realistic.

Thankfully, I usually don't focus too much in SL. You all look great to me, lol.

I can't get in to tans either.

I've had a very generous person offer to make a custom skin for me lately. She was a bit shocked that I asked for pale with a hint of blue. In about a half hour, she nervously handed it over to me and the effect came out perfectly. Almost Chameleon even. (^_^)

During the day, I look like the pink & pasty indoorsy type. During the night, I'm heavily vamped out in shades of blue. Standing out will never be a problem for me. (^_^)y

(gets her can-opener for the uncanny valley discussion - personally i think 'photorealistic' is a tad overrated, although probably lots of designers strive for it - myself included...

anyone working in the movie industry would probably say the same - the goal would be to be -more- than realistic - 'hyperrealism', a sort of 'reality' that isn't the exact same as 'real-world reality'. ('cuz rw reality is often rather boring, poorly lit, badly set/framed ...

probably the best skins in sl would be described as 'better than real', so that would fit the category.