DSD brings us their interpretation of a well-loved yet surprisingly uncommon creature, the deer. With additional pieces to turn this cervine into a gazelle too, we take apart this feature-rammed avatar package.

Out of the Box:

Observations:

Build and Skin:

Since Oken has changed his style of shading in his more recent avatars, there have been fewer instances of concern, if any, of the overall quality of the skins. The deer is no different. Seamless where it counts, the skin blends easily with no obvious lessening of detail or any real weaknesses.  The textures on the attachments of the avatar are heavily sympathetic to the skin, and blend to provide a pleasant transition between body and prim.

The avatar comes with a few different skins to accommodate the user’s choice – The deer skin, which comes in both PG and Mature versions, also comes with a (tintable) tattoo layer for spots, referenced from those found on young deer – For those who want their tattoo slot to remain free, a spotted deer skin is also provided. The package also includes a gazelle skin, differing in style through the inclusion of darker lines along the belly and rear of the main body. The standard shapes that come with the avatar are a little on the narrow side, and both genders are formed out of the SL default female mesh. Any aspects of the shape can be adjusted easily by the user if it is not to their taste.

The standard to which DSD avatars are built leaves very little to be critical of. The build quality is maintained as high – there are no creases visible anywhere on this avatar. Perfect symmetry is to be expected, and is delivered. The provided alpha textures mean that attachments such as the head, hands and small feet fit easily onto the body with not interruption from the rest of the ‘standard’ mesh.

Body:

No detail has been left behind on this avatar as we begin with the feet. Purposefully sculpted cloved hooves peek out from the fur of the feet. They are small but perfectly formed, suiting the proportions of the rest of the deer easily. The colours are interchangeable via the provided HUD – Users can change either one at a time or all at once depending on the desired effect. This feature is also available for the ankle bones/fetlock region (my anatomy knowledge fails me here, if anyone knows the scientific name for these please feel free to add to the comments) at the base of the lower leg attachments, resolving the overall look of the feet. The legs are smooth, and join easily to both the leg and foot with gentle and deceptively simple textures.

The DSD deer avatar also comes with two tails, one to suit the traditional deer skin, and the other for the provided gazelle skin. The tail is comprised of a small set of slightly flattened flexible cone prims. The minimalist nature of the build provides a light, simple effect, and the heavy layering of detail means that the attachment blends to the lower spine with no massive differentiation in texture when the tail is at its standard settings. The tail is also adjustable, the user has the benefit of making the tail fluffier or longer to almost limitless extremes.

The hands for this avatar are of special interest – They are a hybrid of sorts between humanoid hands and cervine hooves, resulting in a pleasantly unusual piece of sculpting. This could suit those who prefer a more ‘feral’ approach to their avatars, but without losing the illusion of palms and fingers. These are also scripted to allow for changes of colour and texture

The male variant also comes with some back and shoulder ‘fluff’, to add substance to the back, and provide a masculine transition from the head to the spine. Hair is also provided for both the male and female variants.

Head:

The deer head comes in a few different variants – Users can choose the standard head, a version with horns or antlers, a head with piercings, or a combination of these variants. The head is comprised entirely of sculpts, with separate pieces dedicated for the head, the muzzle and the jaw. The textures are also highly sympathetic to the rest of the avatar, and the patterning of the skin moves seamlessley onto the head prim, allowing the user to wear the avatar without humanoid hair should they wish,

As with the majority of DSD’s newer avatars, the head is small, but accurately formed with clear referencing from the real-world species. Soft corners and the seamless line up of textures create the illusion of fewer pieces, resulting in a gentle and placid face. The eye expressions can be tinkered with to represent a happy, sad, tired or alert look. The eyeballs used are similar to those added to the more recent DSD avatars, where the user is able to change the colour, dilation and pupil shape via the HUD.

The ears can also be utilised in the same manner, and users are able to tweak a few preset positions. The long, pointed ears can also be set to move whilst typing and speaking, which is a positive detail we have come to expect as standard from this creator. The package also contains a set of pierced ears, so it is possible to mix and match these pieces to assemble a style right out of the box. My one criticism of the ears is the dialogue in a couple of the scripts. For instance, selecting ‘pet’ or ‘pinch’ will deliver the message to chat that the avatar wearer is a good/bad ‘meow’, which is possibly the remnants left from the previous Ocelot avatar.

Completing the main part of the head construct, the jaw attachment sits crease-free and central. Packed with carefully sculpted teeth and a small flat tongue, the addition of HUD controls mean that the user can select whether to have the mouth open or closed, with the tongue visible to varying degrees outside of the muzzle.

Lastly, the heads that come with antlers are topped with a pair of slight lumps at the top of the skull in order to logically transition to the large, skeletal extremities. By default, the avatar starts with a small set of basic antlers – but the user has a wide choice of styles that they may cycle through, carrying from simple, minimalist horns to more intricate antlers.

Features and Heads-Up Display (HUD):

The deer comes with it’s own HUD. Much like it’s predecessors, it is very simple to use, well illustrated and easy to tidy away with one click. Users are able to toggle eye colours and textures, ear positions, hoof textures and antler choices.

As previously mentioned, the avatar comes with pierced variants for the head and ears. The box also contains an alternative tail, skin and tattoo layer depending on whether your preference is for a deer or gazelle avatar.

The avatar also comes with a set of leg warmers. These are a little different to the traditional pieces that one can purchase that tend to cover the entire leg – These come attached to a second set of deer legs, and are strapped to them in such a way that the original leg continues to show through. Whilst this is perfect for those who wish to use this avatar as all one piece, users who like to mix and match may have some difficulty in using these particular accessories on other avatars, but they are fit to purpose and come as a welcome extra.

Customisation:

Due to the sheer amount of extras crammed into the avatar box, it is possible to have a customised avatar straight out of the box. The head shape also allows hair intended to human avatars to be added with no real quarrel – users wishing to use hair with bangs may find they need to readjust a few stray prims, but this is nothing drastic, and can be easily accomplished with little building or modding experience. Due to the uncluttered nature of the avatar, it should not be too difficult to add clothing, prim or otherwise to the completed avatar.

Conclusion:

All in all, this is a high quality build that comes as a standard from DSD. Flawless in its sculpting quality, and well-researched in its texturing – the avatar is a great representation of its species, and due to its ease of customisation becomes a very user-friendly avatar. Despite the fact I’ve never really paid too much attention to deer avatars before reviewing this one, I have been pleasantly surprised at just how versatile it can be. I feel that there could also be a great deal of potential for modification – fewer sculpts of course meaning fewer textures.