Chinchilla Avatar Progress 02

I've since added the ears since my last post and I have gotten a satisfactory flexy tail in Second Life. I am currently finishing up the UV mapping  for the body and then the ears, eyes, jaw, tongue, teeth and nails will be done which should be much easier than figuring out where the seams should go on the body and hand/fingers.there are slight changes in the hips, body, and head since the last update preview. I have smoothed out the hips and body a bit and modified the area around the chin so that it doesn't look so frowny as well as pulling the cheeks out more.

I have done some quick tests uploading the full mesh before UV mapping in the beta grid and have found the level of detail made by SL to be satisfied that I am not going to be making my own custom LODs and also the typical Land Impact is around 32-36 prims. I will retest once I have the additional poses and am anticipating the LI to be around the 50s. With the Avatar split into 3 parts for body this should be around 15-30 LI per section.

I have decided that the body for the final will be separated out after rigging.

Head

Torso with arms

Hip with legs

This will allow me to assign 9 material zones per part so that changes to the mesh can be switched visually easily. 

Head - 4 eye poses per side plus face base = 9 mt

Torso - 3 hand poses per side plus 3 chest options = 9 mt

Hips - 3 toe poses per side plus 3 hip choices = 9 mt

The static version of the tail is still in limbo as I'm still in the planning stages though I should be able to pull off 9 poses for it.

I'm debating whether to have the genders separate but may update it later after initial release considering how popular it is and customer requests. For my first effort for a rigged avatar I am trying to keep it not too complicated yet have enough options to compete with traditional avatars so far as features and providing some customization.

I am also going to provide the UV maps in-world and out for free. My PSD bases though will be sold as a kit with a typical full perm EULA.

I am really looking forward to getting this ready for texturing as that is the part I most enjoy about 3D content. As I have several ongoing projects I switch between them when I'm getting burnt out on one, this allows me to regroup and figure out issues in the background while I focus on something else. This is why you may often times see me post about progress about various projects.

Peace and Carrots,
Amethyst Gears