After first encountering this blog, I wanted to write an article about how to make a good looking avi. I had recently overhauled my avi appearance but thought it might not fit with the fashion theme. Fortunately that wasn't the case. Thinking about how to approach the topic, I decided that merely listing three or four tips on how to make a good looking avi wouldn't be useful. Instead, I will talk through the process of revamping my avi with a few tips that can be pulled from the steps involved.
For my overhaul, I finally took the plunge and upgraded to a LeLUTKA head. Upon researching a few YouTube videos, I decided to upgrade my skin along with it. Obviously, my old hair would no longer work, so that would be updated as well. I already upgraded to a Maitreya mesh body, so my wardrobe would be mostly intact (with the exception of a few pieces of pre-mesh only clothing I purchased early on).
Decide on a skin and head before looking at hair
I'll go shopping for demos of skins and heads but not hair. Learning how to work on an avi without hair is a beneficial habit. A good looking avi will also look good without any hair. Being bald will also remove any distractions and/or influences from the hair, which can be more than you might realize.
Always rely on trying out the skins and heads as opposed to making a decision solely based on the displayed picture. These vendors often use models with high foreheads in order to display more skin (conversely, hair vendors often use models with low foreheads to show more hair).
After spending a few hours trying out skins and heads, I settled upon the following
LeLUTKA Evolution X Milan Head
Not Found Janis Skin for LeLUTKA Evolution X Heads
The combination of the two produced the following bald headed avi:
Look for features that appear out of proportion
Having settled upon a skin and head, I set out to find suitable hair. I tried several demos from three or four different hair vendors. One thing to be careful of, even for fitted mesh, is how the hair lays on your head. With some hair, I discovered small but noticeable gaps between my face and the hair that hung down next to it. I found Doux to be the best fit for this avi and decided to purchase Ylenia. I put everything together after purchasing my choices. I made my selections for eyes, eyebrows, lips, and lipstick, and the resulting avi came out like this:
Everything looked really good, but by no means was I finished. The first issue I noticed was that her eyes and nose were a little bit too big for the head and needed to be made smaller. For those wanting a character with an elvish appearance - some LeLUTKA heads do include pointed ears - the eyes should remain proportionally bigger in relation to what is appropriate for the head
Small changes can make a big difference
When making facial adjustments, I almost never move the slider more than four or five percentage points in either direction. So I made the eyes and nose just a touch smaller. I also noticed that the eyes were a bit too far apart and scooched the slider just a tad closer (four percentage points). Although the lips were well proportioned for the face, I prefer thinner and wider lips. Only around four or five percentage points were needed to get the lips to my liking. Looking at the hair, I realized that too much of the high forehead was showing. Doux Yeji hair had thick enough side bangs to reduce the width of the forehead so that it didn't appear so big.
Final Thoughts
I made all the adjustments, and the avi came out like this:
An unintended benefit resulted from my tweaks. The glasses were originally purple tinted sunglasses. The bangs on the right hand side interfered with the tinting of the glasses and became a distraction. I changed the lenses to be clear, which no longer hid the eyes and looked much better indoors.
There's certainly more than one way to create a good looking avi. Of the three to four hours spent creating this new avi, only around ten minutes was spent tweaking head and facial features. I know another Fashionista who I consider to be better than me at avi design (not to denigrate my own abilities in any way, I just think she's that good) spends a lot of time tweaking her avi. However, we both agree that trying out as many demos as possible is well worth it
Avi design is a big topic, and this article has only skimmed the surface. Having been forced to cut several topics for the sake of brevity (the goal was no more than two pages), my intention is to make this an ongoing series with my next article being about hairstyles for the different facial shapes. Please contact me in-world if you have any questions, suggestions, or constructive feedback.
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