This video was showcased on Shopping Cart Disco.  It is a time lapse machinima from an SL designer creating a lingerie set.  Its amazing and the it shows just how much work goes into these digital pieces of avatar wear.

Ball Joint Twist

The styles of avatar have changed considerably since I first entered SL.  When I stepped in world about 3 years ago, the average female avatar was amazonian in height, extremely thin, and a bit cartoonish.  My own avatar was created as a counterpoint to that look.

For about a few months, I looked close to unique.  But it seemed I was just a bit ahead of the ball curve on realism.  Now more avatars are around my height, no longer quite as thin and celebrate different facial types.  Although SL is still overwhelmingly caucasian in appearance, there are more skins being offered that support different ethnicities.

Still I'm on the outer edges of fashion in avatar style.  Avatar fashion has moved away from the super model look and into something more strangely fascinating.

The picture above is from Blastmilk.  Blastmilk specializes in photography of Ball Joint dolls.  These dolls are popular in Asia, particularly Japan, and have a slightly creepy air.  They seem to encompass realism (in their range of expressions and poseable bodies) and fantasy (overly large eyes, baby round faces etc).  I never realized that these dolls had a large influence on new avatar styles in SL until a few days ago.  I was paging through an issue of "Coilhouse" and read an article about doll maker Marina Bychkova.

Seeing this particular photo of her dolls struck me as familiar.  Lately some of the SL blogs have been commenting on strange facial features in avatars lately...such as eyes that were too far apart and lips that were overly large.  The new avatar fashion in SL take after these porcelain ball joint dolls.

Its an overly stylized look to be sure.  And it doesn't quite look human.  Which could account for why many find the look creepy.  Truthfully avatar fashion is a tricky symbiotic relationship between skin designers and customers.  People naturally find large eyes and large lips attractive.  The skin designers cater to this genetic preference.  But left on their own, would the average VR resident create a BJ looking avatar?  I don't think so.  If anything it looks as if one designer (not sure who at the moment) referenced Bychkova's work and created a skin/shape that mimics her work.  And then the look took off from that point.

Do I like it?  No, it isn't my cup of tea.  I've never been fascinated by dolls, even when I was a child.  And again, I'm a little put off by the BJ dolls in general.  But I can't deny that they are an art.  And since now there is some RL reference for this look in SL, I don't find the avatar copy quite so horrific.

The winds of fashion...so to speak.

Pink Lady

The outfit for the day.

Hair - Fri.day - Dylan

Cardigan - Nylon Outfitters - Pink Cheetah

Shirt - BLAND - Posh Red Shirt

Skirt - DeeTaleZ - Golden Wrinkled Skirt

Boots - Zero Number - Used Boots Ami

Peaceful Moment

Green Vision

Saturday around the virtual house look.

Hair - Clawtooth by Clawtooth - Sweet Whispers

Cardigan - Kurotsubaki - Simple Knit

Shirt - BLAND - Stripey shirt

Jeans - Milk Motion - My Boyfriend's Jeans

Shoes - Magi - Take Chucker

Virtual Fall

An outfit for virtual fall.

Hair - Fri.day - Eloise
Shirt - BP - Bottan Shirt
Skirt - Huming - Wool Check Skirt
Tights - Twosome - Cozy tights
Boots - Zero Number (ON) - Wo Gomi

Headache Free

I'm all about easy fashion choices in SL.

Hair - BP - First Date
Shirt - Surf Couture - La Plage
Jeans - Decoy - Stevens Jeans

Achieving Harmony

There is an affliction striking innocent avies all over Second Life.  It causes small heads and tiny hands.  But have no fear, there is a cure.

Now I know many in SL love to be tall, giant sized even.  I'm not here to rag on your desire to fee-fi-fo-fum all over Second Life.  Keep that height, work it and enjoy it.  But what I'm here to point out is that sometimes, other av features get left out of all that hormonal growth.  Namely the head and the hands.  When these are too small on your av, it is working against you not for you.

See that av next to me?  She likes being a sexy Las Vegas showgirl type.  But like many she has not resized her head, arms and hands to fit her height.  It makes her general shape look off kilter.   There are quick easy fixes to these problems.

I'm not going to go into the details artists use in figure drawing.  Although to get a better shape in-world, I would urge everyone to google it up.  The next few tips are just quick and nasty fixes.

Right click on your av and choose appearance menu.

Go to the Torso menu, scroll down until you see the arm length option.  Look in magazines, study yourself in a mirror and watch people on TV or the street, you will notice that arm length usually ends around hip/upper thigh level.  Lengthen your arms to the appropriate length so that you av's wrists hang by his/her hips.

Now go to the hands option just below arm length.  In your studies, you will notice that hands will extend from the wrists at the hips and end just above mid thigh level.  Granted some people will have longer arms  and larger hands.  But the wrists at hip level and hands at mid-thigh will take care of most people's tiny hands problem in SL.  If you like really long legs, as does the avatar in the picture, you will probably have to exaggerate arm and hand length just a bit to look proportional.

Now go to the head option in appearance menu.  I've found that the approximate good proportion between height and head size is about 20 points.  So if you are height level 70 in SL, then your head size should be around...you guessed it...90.

Now I know people hate modding hair and most hair is created for a head size of 50.  But if you don't want to look like a microcephalic, you will need to make sacrifices.  So size up your head and size up your hair wigs to fit it.  If you want to keep head size 50, then size down your body to about 30.  You won't be tall but you won't look sickly either.

So make those quick changes and enjoy your gorgeous and proportionate looking av.