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The shape of things to come
By Celebrity Trollop | October 17, 2007
For the last four months or so, I’ve been collecting pre-made shapes from 14 different vendors, totaling about 41 shapes in all. One of the questions I am commonly asked, especially by new residents is: where should I buy a shape? My long term answer to that question remains the same: don’t; make your own. But when you’re brand new, I definitely understand there’s just too much learning curve to master the sliders and make them do what you want, especially when you’re probably wearing a default skin or one of those everyone-has-one freebie skins that’s floating around.
I hope to post a tutorial later this week about making your own shape, or perhaps tweaking a shape that you’ve purchased to really make it your own personal look. In a world where everyone can literally be your exact copy, your shape and skin together define your look to the rest of Second Life. Eventually, if you spend enough time in Second Life, you will develop a strong attachment to your personal avatar shape, and when you put on “foreign” shapes they feel off putting to you. I think that’s why mostly newer players are the prime market for shapes.
I’d be careful about buying a shape without a “demo” shape you can test with your favorite skin. (What’s a demo shape? It’s a no mod/no transfer shape with size 100 hands.) The combination of skin and shape together makes a huge difference in the way any given shape looks on your avatar. Some skins and shapes just do not go well together. If a shape maker doesn’t already offer demos, IM him or her and ask (politely) for one.
I looked for proportion when I was collecting shapes to review. I wanted the shoulders, bust, waist, hips and leg/arm length to correlate, roughly in the same proportions you’d find on a RL person. I tried to select faces that I considered “runway” ready.
Philosophically, I don’t believe in no mod shapes. None of the shapes I reviewed are no mod, although some of them are sold in a less expensive no mod version. I strongly encourage, if you decide to buy a shape, to buy the more expensive modify enabled version. You will — at some point in the future — really want that ability. Trust me. The price for a shape varied from free (sometimes included with a skin, not sold seperately) to L$1000. Almost all of the shapes came with “style notecards” that give all of the details from skin to clothing to hair to get the exact look photographed on the vendor.
For this article, I used four primary skins: Sin Skins’ Ton Visage Sakura in Bisque, Pixel Deep “Fit” Very Dark, Pixel Deep “Fit” Light, but the default skin I used for most shapes was Tete a Pied’s Paon #2 in Cream. Paon has a thick, glossy lip which on some shapes gave the mouth an exaggerated pout, but I wanted to pick skins which were generally inexpensive and looked very satisfactory if not outright beautiful on many shapes. Some of the shapes I’m modeling here are paired with a skin too. In those cases, I’ve worn the matching skin for the shape. The Jia shape by Skin Within, for example, is modeled with the Jia skin. The bikini is Nyte ‘n’ Day’s Festini Dots. The hair is ETD Tessa in Mahogany. I received review copies of all of these shapes.
Thanks to all of the shape makers:
- Alaska Metropolitan
- Raine Dagger
- Willow Zander
- Lyra Blackthorn
- Sariella Ashton
- Dyna Diller
- camilla Yosuke
- Maddox Dupont
- Zahara Rahja
- Ayesha Bisiani
- Dalian Darrow
- Zada Zenovka
- Zaria Bellman
- Haver Cole
- Faedra Allen
- Elease Graves
- Torrid Midnight
Both these shapes are available free at the SKIN 2.0 store. Created by Alaska Metropolitan to support her SKIN 2.0 line of skins, they’re available to anyone who wants one. The centerfold shape is uhm, tilted towards a woman who wants a sexy busty curvy shape, while the Erin shape is a bit more demure. Erin is modeling the SKIN 2.0 Options (modifiable) skin. You can visit SKIN 2.0 at Nimrod Yaffle (116, 145, 22)
Raine Dagger is a full time shape maker, and currently has about 12 shapes available for you to browse. I chose three of my favorites here: Sydney with her super pouty lips, Rayne with sleek body lines and Angelina with her bee stung lips, almond eyes, and a long lean body. These shapes are all L$450. Find these and other shapes at Beauty Raine, Royal Tropic Islands (154, 27, 22)
When Ginny Talamasca and Lyra Muse rebuilt the Dazzle sim they invited some friends to open some boutiques just off the main store. Willow Zander — the skin queen of Second Life — started her own store called Body Conscious where she offers a variety of shapes for both men and women. I loved the Evie shape shown, but I was really enjoying the men’s shapes — each one a steal at only L$200. If you’ve been dying to get your Second Life man a makeover, you will definitely want to bring him over to look at Body Conscious. Special thanks to Funk Schnook for providing a copy of his delicious FKNY Antonio skin for me to wear with the male shapes. Dazzle (118, 156, 26)
Body Doubles is a huge shape emporium that specializes in creating Second Life shapes of your favorite celebrities. With avatars from movies, to novels, to Battlestar Galactica (although not the delectable Lt. Thrace — coming soon I’m told! She better be!) you’ll almost certain to find a celebrity you want to grab and make your own. I’m wearing the Body Doubles version of fashion icons Brigitte Bardot and Sophia Loren, both shapes by Lyra Blackthorne. And in the final shape, I’m wearing - yep - Princess Leia as Jabba’s slave girl, a very good likeness by Sariella Ashton. Visit Body Doubles at Midnight Oasis (220, 64, 23)
Shape maker Dyna Diller has outlets all over Second Life, but I was most intrigued by the shapes she made for Pixel Deep, Joannah Cramer’s beautiful skin line. Both the Dyna and Joannah shapes are sold side-by-side with the Pixel Deep skins in Hefferroo. For my money, Pixel Deep Very Dark may be the best dark toned skin in all of Second Life. (It’s a steal too, at only L$1375 for 4 makeups). I especially liked the Dyna Neko shape in this set — she has more cat like eyes and a very feral looking shape. Intemporel (245, 61, 252)
camilla Yosuke, the talented designer behind INSOLENCE brand lingerie, shoes, glasses and skins, also has a complementary line of shapes to go with each skin. Shown here are two of them, the newest ones, Jasmine and Sophie. They’re shown in their respective skins as well. These are both very delicate, feminine shapes, not too busty and not too broad at the hips or shoulders. They both scream model to me. Venom (108, 206, 38)
Maddox Dupont and partner Kirk Claymore recently held a blow-out gala celebration for their new sim grand opening. While MADesign has long been known as a place to buy high-end male shapes, I only recently discovered they sold a line of modify enabled female shapes as well. I love all of these shapes — they are definitely some of the best shapes you can buy in Second Life, but that quality comes with a steep price tag of L$1000 each. Nonetheless, any of these shapes would be a fantastic way to kick start a modeling career in SL. Kmadd Enterprise (185, 183, 26)
Second Style model Zahara Rahja also co-owns Savvy Avvy, a shape and clothing store. Here Layali and Naomi are modeling the Pixel Deep Very Dark skin. Among all of the shapes that I wore during this research period, Layali was probably my favorite shape. She looks stunning in almost every skin I put on her from Sin Skin’s Ton Visage in Cocoa, to Celestial Studios in Cashmere, to this gorgeous Pixel Deep skin. Each shape is L$450. You can visit Savvy Avvy at Hake (37, 98, 22).
Speaking of opening sims, Ayesha Bisiani of Skin Within just opened her brand new sim today too. Both of these Skin Within shapes come with their respective skins. One of the things Skin Within offers is a wide range of skin tones and body shapes, each one an attempt to accurately recreate the ethnic diversity of RL in Second Life. I especially liked the Jia shape. Check out all of the various skin lines at Skin Within (130, 130, 28).
Time2Shine by Dalian Darrow is a really new shape store, but she already has a beautiful collection. Dalian offers these shapes in a less expensive L$400 no mod version, but the mod version is only L$200 more. The extra dollar is definitely worth it in my opinion. I especially liked the India shape which has a really curvy silhouette without being hoochy. Lions Shore (84, 69, 28)
Zada Zenovka, the shape designer who runs Shapes by Zada is engaged in a fashion experiment with her Demeter shape. As a response to an earlier post here about the No Anorexia campaign in Second Life, Zada made the no mod version of “plus sized” Demeter shape available for free at her store in Triangulum (24, 22, 26). I was pleasantly surprised to see many other FashCon readers checking out the shape for themselves too. (See Kit Meredith’s blog for some pictures and a longer discussion about her personal reaction to wearing Demeter on her avatar.) I especially liked the Mediterranean features of Aphrodite — a shape which almost perfectly embodies the Paon skin she’s wearing. Zada also includes a pair of pre-fitted prim lashes for her shapes which I know frustrates a lot of newer residents.
A hot tip from a reader lead me to Whimsy Body, a shape store created by Zaria Bellman. When I first visited Whimsy, I dragged along Shai Delacroix who’s comment about Kylie, quote “She’s super hot!” unquote lead me to request that shape for this article. Zaria also sent me two other shapes — the slightly larger sized Darlene and tall thin Linda. Ashley Island (80, 153, 22)
Lemon, the shapes that won’t make you sour, made by my friend Haver Cole have long been my “go to” spot to send people who want to buy shapes. Haver recently released a big new batch of shapes for both men and women (although Haver herself makes the female shapes.) I think her Pretty One shape might be the most stunning Asian shape I’ve seen in Second Life. Visit Lemon on Imogen (173, 23, 60)
Last, but not least, I reviewed one shape each from Faedra Allen of Fantasies by Faedra, Hopes Point (163, 157, 23), Elease Graves of Cherish Studios, Endowyrm (105, 49, 80), and Torrid Midnight of TorridWear, Chartreuse (178, 68, 27).
Freya is a solid, but striking Valkyrie shape that would look perfect decked out in chain mail and a pair of flaming swords. Kristy is a signature shape of Cherish Studios, and she is a very easy shape to love, with some of the best proportioning I saw in all of the shapes I collected. Finally, Torrid’s “Shape #2″ at L$25 remains one of the very best shape values in Second Life. It was a very old blog post Torrid wrote (keep scrolling almost to the bottom of the web page) about avatar proportion that made me rethink the way my own personal shape was constructed. At this price, they are perfect to give you a great foundation — you can experiment with the face sliders and tweak this shape to create your own style.
perfect! i’ll be looking forward to seeing your continued tutorials.
Posted by: EnCore Mayne on October 17th, 2007 at 10:03 pmI don’t know how you do it! I can’t look at more than 3 shapes at a time w/o my eyes crossing!
Posted by: Tamara Kirshner on October 17th, 2007 at 11:15 pmExcellent!! I totally agree about Very Dark skin from Pixel Deep. Looking forward to your next instalment! :^)
Posted by: Roxette Wise on October 18th, 2007 at 4:41 am/me hopes desperately that the shape making tutorial will cover how to lose the “squarish” look to nostrils and the flat planes on the face by them. I’m coming up to my first rezday, and that’s the only thing I still don’t like about my (self-created) shape!
Posted by: Efemera Bisiani on October 18th, 2007 at 5:45 amI wish i had read something like this when i was first starting out. When i was new, all my shape attempts looked so ugly. I couldnt figure out why ( default skin ) but even more than the skin it was actually the noon lighting that was making me look so freakish and horrible. Disturbed by this wierd dent in my cleavage ( turns out it was caused by noon lighting) bought a shape to see if the cleavage dent would go away. Now i am totally attached to it, it kind of became my character. But i cant modify it, so no dress shape. And a semi-micheal jackson nose. and worst of all: SYSTEM EYELASHES so i cant wear prim ones.
i imed the creator, and she told me if i wanted a mod version, it would cost L$10,000. that seems insane to me. I would settle for a tweak just to get rid of the eyelashes, and i was told that was a “very long wait” but never offered any confirmation that i was in the queue or anything.. so i pretty much gave up.
Does anyone have any recommendations of someone who could recreate my shape for a reasonable rate?
Thanks for this guide!
Posted by: delaney whippet on October 18th, 2007 at 6:36 amThank you so much for this feature. I’ve been struggling with SL shapes and skins since ‘birth’ and have yet to find complete comfort with them. I decided to create my own shape, as suggested here, but then trying to find just the right skin can be challenging, since some skins modify shapes, particularly eyes and mouths (which can be quite annoying when you’ve worked for hours to get them the way you want them!!!). I’m looking forward to your next post on these topics!
Posted by: Marigold McBride on October 18th, 2007 at 9:04 amThis is such a great post. Until somewhat recently, I didn’t understand why anyone would want to buy a shape. I made mine and am attached to it - but now, particularly after trying and blogging about Lemon’s shapes by Haver Cole, I wear those shapes pretty damn often. They have gorgeous faces in particular and look good in so many skins.
I think especially for new players, a good shape goes a long way to getting them engaged and keeping them engaged. I recommend Lemon to people who ask me for purchasable mod shapes. You get a great base and can personalize to suit yourself.
Posted by: Gillian Waldman on October 18th, 2007 at 2:30 pmCelebrity, that’s an excellent post.
I agree that everyone should attempt to make a shape - even a bad one. As often unless we put our own touch into things we are wearing someone else’s ideas of beauty. I enjoy more working on “the base” created by my client then starting the shape from scratch. It is much more fun refining some of the common problems people have when doing their own shape and perfecting their SL original then making someone look like they do in real life.
It is hard to teach shapes however in the post. I would be interested to see your take on this. In my experience the most essential skill one can have when making shapes is camera controls. Since if your camera is not properly aligned you will not get good sence of proportion. Shapes are practice and lot of it!
Every time new collection comes out of me I think that I have learnt something new. Where many would disagree with me when I say this since the sliders are limited. I believe that even 1 can make a difference and that there is lot of functions that stand undiscovered. Let me know if you would like my contribution. Glad to help.
Delaney, you can contact me about making the shape based on no mod one - I can do that for you.
MADd
Posted by: maddox.dupont on October 19th, 2007 at 10:09 amCelebrity,
Thank you sooo much for the wonderful insite on shapes….its very helpful. And thank you for the wonderful writing about the “Kristy” shape *smiles*. Look forward to reading more.
Elease Graves
Posted by: Elease Graves on October 20th, 2007 at 4:26 amBeing fairly new, I loved this article. I’m still guddling round SL look at skins and shapes trying to decide whether they look good or not. I’ll be popping in on a regular basis, thanks :).
Posted by: Eve Drechsler on October 28th, 2007 at 5:05 amMaddox made me a custom shape a long time ago and it’s still the best one I have. Was worth the money.
Posted by: thaumata on January 15th, 2008 at 7:57 pm