Otherworldly

Strawberry Singh has revisited the “What’s your Digits?” challenge once again and while I don’t think I have made any changes to the proportions of the shape I used for the last challenge, I did want to take part again since the topic of avatar proportions is near and dear to my heart.

The shape I picked for the challenge is one of my favourite personal shapes. Fitting into Standard Sizes with this shape is not an option, so I am using a system layer lingerie set from Zaara.

Proportions Challenge Questions:

Q. Do you try and keep your avatar’s body proportionate and similar to the “average” proportions pictured above?

A. I don’t try for 7 1/2 heads tall, I find that a somewhat more idealized ratio of 8 or 8 1/4 (at most 8 1/2) heads tall is more workable in Second Life. This particular shape, for example, falls closer to 8 1/2 because the head shape is more broad than tall; that can have a considerable impact on how many heads tall you end up being when you measure. I do aim for a correct midpoint, a correct arm length and a correct ratio between head width and shoulder width and between shoulder width and hip width.

Q. What do you dislike the most about the SL avatar mesh?

A. The hands and the feet are of course problematic, but at least that is fixable with mesh parts now. I am using Slink hands and feet here, both in the Large size, though I wish the feet would resize with foot size just like the hands resize with hand size. I could probably go a little larger on the hands, but overall I feel they are long enough, just not quite broad enough. Other than that, I would say the nose and the lips are real problem areas on the avatar mesh; you can’t vary those as much as I’d like without it starting to look bad. I’d love to be able to have thinner lips still look good, for example.

Q. Does it bother you when you see other avatars that are not proportionate at all?

A. I am not sure I would say it bothers me, but it is a bit of a pet peeve and I do roll my eyes at very bad proportions.

Q. Even though this is a virtual world and people can be anything they want to be, do you feel when they are in human form, they should try to keep their proportions close to average?

A. I think that if your aim is to look human, you should at least know what is and isn’t average and/or realistic and your deviations from that should be purposeful and considered. I think the measurements of the Standard Sizing project shows that most people don’t realize how extreme their shapes actually are.

• Height – 39 (163 cm with inaccurate height measure, 181 cm with accurate height measure)
• Body Fat: 17
• Head size: 60
• Torso Muscle: 38
• Breast Size: 50
• Arm length: 80
• Hand size: 35
• Torso length: 50
• Love Handles: 31
• Belly Size: 5
• Leg Muscle: 48
• Leg length: 55
• Hip width: 67
• Butt Size: 37
• Saddle Bags: 25