From the same creator as AVentity, we see a second line of avatars under the .:Chimera:. group brand. For our first review from .:Chimera:., we discuss their Smilodon, perhaps more affectionately known as a Sabertooth.

Out of the Box:

Observations:

Build and Skin:

• .:Chimera:. has worked itself a good pattern of very competent, detailed texturing that straddles a comfortable medium between realism and cartoony-ness. The result is an avatar that looks at home in Second Life, while still maintaining rich colours and vibrant markings. The avatar has a number of spots and strips all over the body, each well detailed, as well as ample shading and highlighting to give the body shape some dimension. The soft transitions between fur colours really do give the avatar a look of softness all around.

• Build-wise, the avatar’s construction is considerably sound, with all parts of the attachments appearing smooth. There’s pretty much no wrinkling in the sculpts, and the way that the avatar was put together has ensured that creasing between prims is minimal, though some may notice a bit of it on the joint between the digitigrade leg and the feet. The build is completely symmetrical.

Attachments:

• Starting off with the attachments on the lower body, this avatar has rather large feet and equally girthy digitigrade leg attachments. As this avatar comes with both a male and a female shape, the creator has included differently sized versions of the leg attachments for both. This helps to ensure sexual dimorphism between the sexes.
• The feet are somewhat feral-looking, with wide paw-pads and big-cat claws. Despite being somewhat wide at the rear of the foot, they hold their own nicely at the joint between leg and foot. The leg itself is very stocky, giving the avatar a stout bulkiness that reflects well on the Smilodon ‘image’. For the female shape though, adjusting the body shape so that the thighs are a bit smaller would compliment the digitigrade leg attachments well.
• Next up is the tail, which, from all angles but one, looks very fluffy, short, and well designed without any alpha texture flicker. The only downside to the way this tail was constructed is that looking straight-on at the tail from behind shows a sizeable hole. It’s not a huge issue, but it can be one of annoyance if you’re looking straight at the behind. However, an amateur modder can do some modification to cover this up.
• As such, that pretty much covers the attachments. There are no hand-paw attachments with this avatar, but there are well-textured paw-pads on the palms of the body shape.

Head:

• The head is the absolute strongest part of this avatar, with the most vibrant textures and the most detailed sculpting. For the .:Chimera:. Smilidon face, there’s not only well constructed facial features, but a good bit of character.
• The most prominent feature of the face for me has to be the fangs. The execution was pulled off neatly, both fangs looking at home on the face. Even when the muzzle moves during speech, the fangs don’t poke into the rest of the face, which is good.
• The muzzle shape is definitely feline, appearing rather close to that of a member of the big cat family. While broad, it is not too much so, remaining the right size for the head. An interesting observation is that the nose itself is not a prim, but a texture right on the muzzle sculpt. This was done so well as to almost have fooled me into thinking it was a separate prim.
• The eyes are oval shaped and spaced apart nicely, giving the face a rather attentive, clear glare. However, depending on where the avatar looks, the eyes may look slightly unfocused or cross-eyed. Otherwise, the eye textures are distinct and stand out. Users are able to use text commands to choose different colours.
• The head as a whole is actually very interesting in its shape and size; in a way, it’s perhaps one of the smaller full-prim furry avatar heads I’ve seen. The back of the head is a little flat, but this just makes it easier to wear third-party hairs with your avatar.
• The cheeks of the avatar are lined with coloured fluff, and the ears at the top of the head are positioned more towards the side of the head, really giving the impression of how this is a prehistoric cat, rather than a modern felid.
• All in all, the textures and the build quality of the head together do a great job of bringing Smilodons back to life.

Features and Heads-Up Display (HUD):

• This avatar does not come with a HUD. While this can be a draw-back to some, this avatar is not as feature-rich as others that we’ve come to see from other creators. However, the creator makes sure that people are able to get by with the minimum necessities by text commands included in the Smilodon avatar instructions.
  • The following is just a few features offered through the text commands:
    • Eye Colour
    • Muzzle Talking Function Toggle On/Off
    • Eyelid State (Droopy, open, closed, etc.)
• Users can change eye-colour depending on either preset colours listed in the notecard, or RGB (i.e. <0.38,0.69,1.0>). The included technical manual educates the user on how to take advantage of some of the more advanced commands for the avatar with their own scripts.

Customisation:

This avatar comes as both modifiable and copiable, so users are easily able to do much with this avatar. Again, thanks to the head-shape and size, third party hairs are a great deal easier to wear.

Conclusion:

The .:Chimera:. Smilodon is a strong build that brings an extinct feline back to life within Second Life. The avatar has character and presence to it, despite how clear-cut and cleanly constructed the build is. The markings are strong and distinctive, and, combined with the sculpts, shows how much the creator aims to make their avatars as polished as possible. There may not be as many features as some would like to have with their avatars, but the 600L price more than makes up for it. All in all, a very strong Smilodon avatar with a great aestheticism.