Recently, Dark Spot Designs decided to venture back into the realm of vulpines with the release of this Red Fox-based avatar. This avatar comes not only with normal-ish red fox colours, but a full plethora of bright shades and hues.

Out of the Box:

Observations:

Quality:

• Skin and Textures:
  • The skin for this avatar is up to the usual DSD standards
  • Females generally receive more shading on the breasts, males receive prevalent abs. Some users may find the abs a little overstated and overpowering for the avatar.
  • The avatar comes with both a male and a female skin; females receive a full set of textured nipples and bits, while males receive just nipples. As we’ve seen before, the nipples appear as if they rest atop the fur. (Warning, Link is RATED MATURE)
  • Overall, the avatar’s textures are fairly strong, managing to portray that of a fox’s fur patterning while using brush-strokes to make the colour transitions more believable. A strong suit to this avatar is that the textures.
  • This avatar comes with two different types of skins; a “Red Fox” variety, and a more generic ‘Fox’ variety. The difference between the two is only in whether the skin includes the typical vulpine ‘sock/gloves.’ Users can unpackage either when they rez the box.

• Build Quality:
  • The avatar’s construction is sound, with no wrinkling found anywhere on any of the attachments. Like the textures, this upholds the quality of build that Dark Spot Designs has set for themselves. All of the sculpts are smooth, and the design and construction was done in a way to minimise any kind of creasing between prims. About the only location where users may notice creasing is right below the eyebrows; between the eyes.
  • Additionally, the avatar comes across as being symmetrical; there is no lopsidedness in the attachments.

Attachments:

Lower Body:

• As usual , Dark Spot Designs offers very competent legs which suit the avatar perfectly. The transition from the body shape to the leg is fairly smooth, and the entire leg structure looks like a believable limb. The foxy fur fluff on the back of the leg might seem out of place for some people since there’s no other prim fluff like it anywhere else on the body besides the cheeks.

• The feet and the legs come default with invisiprims enabled, so to disable them, just click the “Invisiprim” option in the HUD and then wear the alpha layer skin in the “Accessories” folder.
• This avatar comes with two different types of feet, as we’ve seen with the prior-released Dark Spot Designs Cheetah. The ordinary paw-based feet work extremely well with the included digitigrade legs. Users are able to adjust the textures of the claws, the paw-pads, and each toe. Overall, the digitigrade version of this avatar’s lower limbs are very well made.
• This avatar comes with plantigrade feet, based more on human feet. They have the exact same amount of customisation that you have with the paw-based feet (i.e. claw/toe/paw-pads) and feature a great paw-foot cross that leans more to the human form.
• Users get a flexible tail with this avatar; remaining true to vulpine fashion with a bushy ‘brush.’ The textures for the tail do an excellent of making sure the tail matches the body and have a floofy appearance. As is custom with Dark Spot Designs, users can change the fluffiness of their tail, as well as its length and other customisation options. Some users may find themselves wishing to make the tail a little shorter and more floofy.

Upper Body:

• The hands follow suit with the plantigrade feet in being a 50/50 cross between human hands and feline paw. The fingers are all re-colourable (3 different texture choices, and like the feet), the claws are retractable. (Yes, red foxes have partially retractable claws).

Head:

General Impression:

• At first glance, this avatar manages to pull off a fox face with some accuracy, particularly from the side view. The head seems to sit in the middle of the spectrum of realistic avatars and cartoony ones, allowing for the creator to remain true to the target species, while having a little artistic licensing with the facial features.

Muzzle:

• The muzzle on this avatar is medium length, thus not being too long or too short for the face. Overall, the size suits the headshape and size perfectly. Some could argue that they wish that the muzzle were a little longer, but that really is left to personal opinion. Otherwise, the muzzle makes for one of the better fox muzzles that I have reviewed. The interior is strongly textured and features excellent teeth. The tongue also comes with a few different states, including curled in, curled out, and more.

Eyes:

• The face of this fox features almond-shaped eyes that suit the face equally as well as the muzzle. Users are able to switch between a few different facial expressions, including Sad, Alert, and a more. Each of the eyebrow expressions are expressive, and have a plethora of options, including changing state while typing/away/busy, or choosing blink speed.
• The avatar comes with three different eyeball textures, each with a different style that adds a little something new to the avatar. The eye shine transparency is adjustable, as well as the pupil size. One criticism that I have for the irises is that the textures have a very rough and grainy look to them which detracts a bit from the overall cuteness and smoothness of the face.
• The only other criticism that we can offer on the head is the crease between the forehead and the area between the eyes, which, depending on the colouration of avatar that you purchase or eyebrow expression you wear, may be more prominent or not.

Overall, the head comes together nicely as a reproduction of a fox in anthropomorphic form. Aided with cheek fluff to round out the face, and versatile, prim-fluff-lined ears, the look is complete. In the next Sub-Heading, users will see all of the options available to this avatar in a photo.

Features and Heads-Up Display (HUD):

This avatar is completely controlled by the HUD. The HUD itself features one of two commissioned photos; either a sassy naked female with strategically placed butterflies, or a smug-looking male fox. Both photos were very well done. The photos above show all of the controls of the HUD, and by extension, almost every single option that this avatar has. The HUD is very user-friendly, which is helpful in a case of so many features.

As usual, the “Accessories” folder houses all of the optional items for this avatar. The avatar comes with alternate versions of the head with piercings as shown above. Dark Spot Designs usually surprises me with how often they work on making new piercings and their placement. You can select which piercings you want to have visible, and change some of the colours or textures of piercings by left-clicking and holding until the dialogue menu comes up. As you can also see in the photo above, rather than coming with the customary leg-warmers, this avatar comes with a little shoulder-bunny, which, besides being extremely cute, will match the colouration of the avatar purchased. This little bunny is modifiable, so you can keep it around as a house decoration as well.

Customisation:

This avatar comes as being both modifiable and copiable, so users are able to modify the avatar very easily. Coupled with the HUD options, users are able to easily wear third-party hairs made for human heads or apply modkits.

Conclusion:

The Dark Spot Designs Fox is a very competent avatar that achieves a foxish look while keeping the creator’s signature style. Overall, the avatar is fairly versatile, as I’ve noticed modkits available for it already. Dark Spot Designs has settled into a pattern of the creation of cute avatars that have some appeal, while remaining completely unique. The features and the accessories, are as usual, extremely flexible and bountiful, adding an extra dimension of customisation for this fox.  In terms opinion, while I do feel the eyes could have benefited just a little bit from softer texturing, those looking for a recently created fox with a cutesy spin can easily consider purchasing this one.