The Whitetail is the product of a joint effort between AnthroXtacy and resident Dynameaux Chuzen. Cervines are a relatively rare avatar species, and many of the ones that do already exist haven’t aged well, or are modkits made for other avatars. This realistically-styled avatar looks like it will be a treat for the deerfolk among us.

Out of the Box:

Observations:

Skin and Textures

On a whole, there are no major complaints about the skin or textures. Everything fits together well, the hip seam is well hidden, and the areas where prims connect to the mesh are very smooth. The avatar’s fur shading is some of the most realistic available, matching the real-life whitetail’s fur very closely – straight, relatively short, and non-clumping.

The overall shading on the avatar is noticeable, but not overpowering or in contrast to the fur shading. The differences between the male and female skins are pronounced and fit their shapes well – defined muscles on the male, with less definition and a more slender feel on the female. This avatar also comes with a mature female skin. You can view that HERE (WARNING. PICTURE UNDER LINK IS RATED MATURE).

Overall Build

The majority of the avatar is sculpted. Some of the sculpts are a little rough, but this isn’t terribly noticeable unless inspected closely. On a whole, the sculpts fit together well, with only a little prim clipping and texture mismatching.

In-Depth Body

Before we begin the in-depth review of the avatar, let’s make a note: The avatar does come with male and female parts – separate legs, heads, ears, et cetera to fit the gender better. They’re identical sculpt-wise, but have been adjusted to fit with the avatar shapes (i.e. male vs. female). These pieces are mixed together in one folder when you unpack the avatar; something the creator has acknowledged. This should be fixed in an update sometime in the future.

The hooves are one of the more noticeable parts of the avatar. Compared to their real-life counterpart, they’re very accurate – cloven with two dewclaws on the rear of the hooves. Depending on how you look at it, the hoof texture may look a little rough, but this isn’t noticeable unless inspected closely.

The legs are the first body part we come to that has male/female variations. The male version is thicker and looks more muscular, while the female’s is more slender. The creator has opted not to include invisiprims on this avatar, requiring the use of an alpha layer. Those without a compatible viewer must add their own invisiprims or upgrade to a new viewer should they wish to wear the avatar. The digi legs are textured a bit lighter than the mesh legs, mostly due to the fur texturing. This is most noticeable on the backs and sides of the legs.

The tail, too, has male/female variations. The most noticeable difference is that the female’s tail is set higher on the back to accommodate for the female shape. That aside, they’re essentially the same. By default, the tails are upright and twitchy. There are no controls to disable the twitching or lower the tail, so if you wish to stop the twitching, you need to disable the scripts.

The hands also have male/female variations – the male hands are more masculine, larger and a bit more muscular-looking than the female version.
Rather than being humanoid, the creator has opted for a  hand attachment styled more on like a cloven hoof. The hands are basically two main hoof (fingers), with one dewclaw made larger and used in place of a thumb.

Those wishing to use the mesh hands instead of the prim hands must find a different alpha layer – the one that comes with the avatar also removes the hands, so the attachments can be of similar size to the mesh hands.

In-Depth Head Summary

As with almost all avatars, the head is probably the most distinctive part of the avatar. The creator has tried to keep this avatar as close to reality as possible, and has done well given the limitations and boundaries of SL. The ears and head both come with male/female forms. The only major difference between the male and female heads are the lack of antlers on the female form. The ears are wider for females and narrower / pointier for males.

The entirety of the head is sculpted. There are a few small inconsistencies in the texturing where the muzzle and jaw meet the main head prim. This is most noticeable on the sides of the muzzle and jaw, as well as the underside of the jaw, where the head texture gets darker but the other part doesn’t. How prevalent this is depends on the lighting and/or what colour of avatar you’ve purchased.

The avatar comes with the Anthro.speeX typing/voice jaw system. The jaw, when voice gestures are activated, responds to both typing and voice, just as one would expect. Given the narrowness of the muzzle, it’s surprising how wide the inside of the mouth appears. The texturing provides a nice perception of depth, getting darker the further back you look. Viewed from the outside, the jaw looks very believable, likely due to the sculpt style of the jaw.

The eyes are independently recolorable, with four default colors included in the HUD (you can also save your custom colors over these). Dilation is also controlled via the HUD, as is brow mood (angry, surprised, neutral) and eyelid openness. The ears, like the tail, are twitchy by default, but unlike the tail, this can be disabled via the HUD. The ears can also be posed independently with three default poses.

On the male head are, as one would expect, a pair of antlers. These antlers roughly follow the real-life Whitetail’s antler style, but are a bit too straight. Then again, if the antlers were curved as they are in real life, they would clip through the avatar’s ears.

Features and Heads-Up Display (HUD)

This avatar, as mentioned before, has male/female versions of most of the included attachments.

Fawn spots are included as a tattoo layer and two textures (should you wish to make them into other clothing layers). These aren’t necessary if you’re an adult deer, but if you wish to look a bit more youthful, you may want to wear them.

The HUD is relatively simple. It’s one-paged, hideable, and doesn’t take up much room. To be brief, the things controllable via the HUD include:

• Eye color, dilation, and state
• Ear twitching and position
• Jaw and tongue state
• Typing / voice AO override

Customization

The creator does offer custom recolors of the avatar. More information can be found in the included information notecards.

Aside from eye colors and custom recolor commissions, there isn’t a whole lot one can do to customize this avatar without some ability to modify avatars well.
The avatar’s head is relatively humanoid in shape, so fitting third-party hairs shouldn’t present too much of a problem. As always, make sure the hair you’re buying is modifiable so you can adjust it to fit your avatar.

Conclusion

It’s always nice to see a creator tackle a rare species like deer, especially in a realistic style. The result of this effort is a well-done realistic cervine, an idea that’s up until now, mostly been poked and prodded at in the minds of creators.