Avatar creation help

Hey everyone,
I'm making avatars for several of my co-workers, and while I have some experience creating/customizing avies, I have never really tried to make photorealistic ones (like the ones they want). Anyone have any advice?


Oh, and keep in mind these are mostly middle-age and up white guys

So, obviously, they'll all like to be 7ft tall Amazon porn queens, right?

LOL! I wish...I already tried talking them in to having a little fun with that but they don't want any part of it. I think it's because our boss already has an avatar and wants to meet up in SL, so they want to look all professional.

Does anyone know good skins/shapes/total avatars for older white fellas? Or just some creation tips?

Maybe you can take one forward and one side shot of their face and then use those to make a skin for each of their avatars. Or you can just buy some nice skins for them. They go for about 1,000 to 2,000 lindens.

So showing up in your bosses office as Mickey Mouse characters would be a bad thing, right?

hehe


There are several good skin makers out there. Naughty designs has some, Second Skin Labs, Maxx....

The avatars don't need to be tweaked much, unless you want to add beerbellies and love handles.

I'm sure more poeple will chime in with their skin maker suggestions.

I've done quite a few of these "I want to look like me!" avatars. First, get the shape as close as possible. Also, be sure to get the clients to give you front-facing and side-facing pictures. Ideally you'll have 4 pictures: facial & full body from the front and facial & full body from the side. Once you use these photos to get a very close shape, then take yourself to every skin store you can find. Buy every demo with all close skin tones they have. Try every demo, and when you find the closest matches, take screenshots. Show these screenshots to someone who isn't involved, like an RL friend or family member and have them compare what you've done to the screenshots. You can also show the client but sometimes that can backfire a bit. "Can you get this skin with that body texture and this facial hair and this color lips?" Once that's settled, buy the skin. Most skin makers will allow you to buy just a single from a pack, especially if you tip them a little. If the skins are no-transfer (most are), be sure to have the skin sent directly to the client!

Good luck, hope that helps! I have had the best luck with skins from Second Skin and Lost Therian (Naughty, right?) for the truly realistic avatars.

edit: when it comes to matching hair, you'll most likely need to bite the bullet and make it yourself. People are very particular about how their hair looks on their head-shape and it's really hard to find a pre-made match. There is so much beautiful hair out there, but most of it is not made for business dudes.

Thanks for the great advice, everyone...I think you guys have convinced me to take pictures. I didn't think I would need it but this is much harder than I anticipated. I'm going to check out the stores you guys suggested, especially since this teleporting around endlessly only to find nude super-buff goatee-sporting supermodels with penile enhancements is getting old in a hurry.

Keep the great suggestions coming!

I think Mystikal Faddoul sells thinning hair, if that's something you need. Also, you might check Lemon for shapes...they have some that are intended to be less than 'perfect.'

Yes, Mystikal has some good ones, including a combover, a balding one, and some good grey shades. Tami McCoy also has some greys, but not sure about thinning.

I have a (one stop shop) service that covers what you are looking for. I'll be honest and upfront, it's not cheap (US $395) beacause it's done in a similar way to texturing models for feature films. It's full 360 degree top and bottom coverage for a custom head and shape, and I offer color matching and blending of the neck seam with one of my pre-existing skins.

Here's the URL with full information:

http://www.secondskinlabs.com/Portraits/portraits.html