This morning I tried out a number of skins all mapped onto the same avatar geometry. All of these were free and it is quite astonishing as to what extent the results vary although the facial structure remains the same throughout. 

First the good ones: Except for the Mami skin by Cory Edo (bottom left) all of these are Eloh Eliot’s another skin modifications. The two on the top row were created by Loli Nori and quite a range of her output can be obtained from the freebie wall of the Bare Rose Mall. On the bottom right is my own slight modification to the same template. Since, with the exception of the Mami skin, all of these originate from the same template they do not alter my expression all that much. The Mami skin comes in a vast range of tones and makeup and is actually the default skin of the main avatar. Since she has very small facial features this skin looks thoroughly appropriate on her but on my much larger mouth and eyes it does not look nearly as good. The mouth is especially problematic, I think. Having said all this, chances are still very good that it will look great on you. So, the fatpack can be obtained from Edo’s shop Tiny Seadog at Tableau, and I would most definitely go over there and check it out. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I also tried on the male Drow skin that Loli Nori has created from one of the another skin templates, and which again, can be found at the Bare Rose Mall as a freebie. The main avatar too has tried out male skins (although not this particular one) at one point and has found that this seems to work rather well in that it creates quite a dramatic androgynous effect – except for the stubble of course, which thankfully in the case of the Drow skin is not all that pronounced.

And now on to the bad ones: I will not divulge the names of the creators of these skins. Quite frankly, I am hesitant to even put these here, but in the spirit of experimentation I will. And also, if indeed any newcomers do stumble upon this post it may hopefully help them:

The immediately obvious problem with these lies in the lips. The attempt to create cupid’s bow lips on skins in Second Life seems to fail quite miserably in that more often than not, it results in blurry triangular peaks such as those above. My guess is that this probably has to do with the underlying geometry of the avatar which severely distorts that particular area of the texture involved. And incidentally, there are very expensive skins out there that fall into the exact same mistake as well. The skin will always look gorgeous on the display image. Do not be fooled by that: Unless it is a freebie try out the demo before you make the purchase. And if there is no demo, simply do not buy it.

However the lips are not the only problem, in fact for me they are not even the main problem. It is the lack of expression. Just as the AO gives the avatar a body language, the skin gives the face expression. Unlike you, your avatar cannot really change his or her expression, cannot take advantage of all the subtle layers of meaning that make up the beauty of the human face. He/she has one expression and one expression only. Thus, it would follow that, being in fact the only one that your avatar has available to him or her, this one expression should be endowed with as much meaning as is at all possible: The identical skin mapped onto two different geometries will result in two entirely different faces. Conversely what works very well as a skin on one geometry will fail to bring about meaning in the other. Obviously, I am not allowed to put a photograph of the main avatar wearing the Mami skin into this blog. But take my word for it, on her geometry that skin gives meaning to her face, whereas with mine it doesn’t.

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And finally, talking of faces and skins, a word too, about face lighting: 

The two portraits were taken under identical atmospheric conditions. On the left the facelight has simply been switched off.

Windlight, which has provided SL with wonders such as atmospheric rendering, unfortunately has also created problems in avatar rendering – particularly where a pleasant and soft rendering of the avatar’s face under harsh or dim lighting conditions is concerned. The solution to this has been provided through the development of facelights, which are invisible light sources that are attached to your avatar’s face and move in tandem with you wherever you go. These can be pricey, however a very good free facelight designed by Cognitive Gears, complete with menu and settings, can be picked up in his shop Cognitive Gears. Go get one now, I would say…

;-)

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