Strange Faces

[laura_seabrook]

As a bit of "time wasting" I decided to try and make a realistic face in Second Life. I read about a place in-world where this can be done automatically and thought I'd try a manual version. The avatar I use for socialising - Elsie Broek - normally looks like the image at right.

I just wondered if I could make her face look a bit more like mine. That might have been a mistake. I took the following photo as a source yesterday (just a bit after a previous photo). However, at the time I was feeling ill, and the heat was making my skin break out, the lighting less than perfect, and I was less than happy.

From that I got the following face map (actually used for tattoos). It looks terrible weathered doesn't it? Looks like it's owner just fought off a swarm of locusts trying to get at her crop. Anyway:

but here's the thing - look what it looks like when it's worn:

My avatar looks like something out of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre! About the only thing that looks right is the nose. Maybe I should just let Elsie look her (nominally) happy self.

I might experiment with this further when I'm more relaxed, not sick and put on a bit of make-up first. Not a total loss though - at the same time I make a version of a T-Shirt I printed a while ago, and a pair of pants that look like the ones I wear in the garden (neither in the best repair):

  

One of the good things about Second Life is that you can add to your cup size, while making yourself a lot thinner!

Comments

[rashelleym.livejournal.com]

Yeh, fishing for compliments: you know how good your self-interpretation of your avatar looks. The mouth is a straight line, exactly neutral and a blank slate for the rest of the expression (if that makes sense). It looks more like the face of a mature woman than a nymphy characteroid. And of course Elsie's breasts speak for themselves. Just wondering: can you make cartoon ballons float around and follow them? You could have them chat with each other, or recite poetry or something.

[laura-seabrook.livejournal.com]

I don't know scripting language, but if I did, that would a truly bizarre use of it! ;) You know, like the old joke:

"I once knew a man with a wooden leg called Jake."

"Really? What was his other leg called?"

[rashelleym.livejournal.com]

You could teach yourself enough of a scripting language to accomplish a task (if its something you wanted to do quite urgently, rather than a whim).

Actually, it'd probably be easier to make them be eyes. And/or they could each have little sets of arms, twin characters vaguely like Billy Crystal's in Monster's Inc. Wait a minute, though: Elsie doesn't have nipples? Or is posing supposed to be that much of a downer?

[laura-seabrook.livejournal.com]

The default bodies in SL not only don't have nipples, but they don't have genitals either! It is possible to get either by adding "tattoos" to the avatar's skin - that's how I was able to make the face.

Her eyes by the way are mine. I took a photo of my own and copied them into SL.

Smile!

[traci7may.livejournal.com]

You need to smile in your photos Laura!

Re: Smile!

[laura-seabrook.livejournal.com]

I used to, a lot more than now.

Re: Smile!

[rashelleym.livejournal.com]

Sometimes when it's really more appropriate to be smiling, and I really don't want to be bothered to adjust my facial expression, I just show my teeth a little. Works for me!

Re: Smile!

[rashelleym.livejournal.com]

When my own face is totally relaxed, the corners of my mouth droop down in exactly the same way. So, when I have a neutral expression like Laura's avatar (which I frankly practiced in a mirror when I discovered this, decades ago) it feels like I'm smiling a little bit. In the mirror, though, it's more neutral than a smile.

[yuri-sisteble.livejournal.com]

It only looks like Texas Chainsaw because the face tattoo doesn't match the rest of the skin. Try making/finding a realistic skin to match.

OMG!

[sistercrow.livejournal.com]

Elsie has Barbie hooters! If those were real, there's no way she'd be standing up that straight (without a cast iron back brace). WEG!

Actually, I'm with yuri on the face - I like it, except for the greyish pigment, which isn't your pigment, either. And your eyes are such a pretty colour, I wonder why you didn't try to match them. Maybe you could try again with a better photo, and match the complexion up right.

Re: OMG!

[laura-seabrook.livejournal.com]

They just didn't look right being smaller!

I've since scanned my eyes in and uploaded them. :)

[rtropeano.livejournal.com]

Analog Dog sells hair that looks a lot like yours.
I think that would really help more than a photo realistic skin.

Getting the skins to look right is hard, that is why they cost so much