We have seen numerous creators create unique, non-normative creations from their imagination in the past. DERP joins this group of creators through the offering of the recently released Serbex avatar. We look forward to taking a look at this interesting species.
Out of the Box:
- Male and Female Shapes and Skins
- Sexually Dimorphic (Different heads, ears, and hairs per gender)
- 4 Facial Expressions
- Surprised, Quizzical, Mad, Default
- 8 Eyelid Open-ness states
- Moving Eyes with Tri-Colour Irises
- Custom Eyelid State Slider
- Output Eye Colour Settings to text for saving
- Blink On/Off Toggle
- 8 Mouth Open-ness states
- Tongue In/Out Toggle
- Muzzle Talking Function with On/Off Toggle
- Ear Twitching On/Off Toggle
- A complimentary “wrap” of sculpted cloth
- Viewer 2.0 Compatible hands, legs, and feet + Alpha Layer Skins to avoid using Invisiprims
- A notecard including the story of “What is a Serbex?”
| Measurement | Value |
|---|---|
| Script Time / Memory (With HUD) | ~0.0-0.1ms / TBD |
| Script Time / Memory (without HUD) | ~0.0-0.1ms / TBD |
| Avatar Rendering Cost (Scale Here) | ~820-1050 (Depending on Attachments) |
| Modify? | Yes |
| Copy? | Yes |
| Transferable? | No |
Build and Skin:
The Serbex comes in a variety of different available colours. The patternings on the avatar are among the most detailed and intricate that we’ve seen from DERP, though their Tiger avatar’s skin was fairly complex. At the same time, this avatar breaks from their line of previous avatars with a good amount of detail in the markings; not just the shading or highlights of body parts or the fur. The pictures are self-explanatory; the colour combinations and the markings are just right for the avatar’s style. In a sense, they compliment the visual style of the avatar neatly.
Following their previous Bovine avatar, DERP continues to offer a male and female version of the skin, with males receiving lighter definition in the pecs and a slight bit of abs under the fur. Females receive a greater deal of breast-accentuation and a completely soft midsection. An improvement above their prior avatars has been the near-complete erasure of the line that separates the upper body and lower body of the skin.
All of the sculpts employed in creating this avatar are up to DERP’s standard; cleanly made, neatly fitting together and minimal seams. There is no immediately noticeable wrinkles in the surfaces of the sculpts.
Attachments:
Lower Body:
DERP has, with each of its more recent avatars, created strong lower body attachments; whether they are tails, legs, or feet. This avatar maintains that standard with well constructed feet and digitigrade legs that merge neatly with the shape leg. DERP usually placed much too large invisiprims over attachments which made the legs look weird when they were transposed over a semi-transparent background. Without these now, (Both Viewer 2.0, the latest Emerald and other 3rd Party Builds allow alpha clothing layers) the legs look far better and clipping is very minimal.
The feet are the regular for-toed, clawed-tip kinds of feet that we’ve seen employed across numerous different creators’ avatars. This avatar, however, foregos the need for paw-pads, instead, having features foot soles. The digitigrade leg transitions seamlessly with the shape leg and the back of the foot, though depending on the angle, the foot-leg connection can seem the slightest bit ‘off’. Appreciably, considerable highlights across both the legs and feet give them some extra dimension.
The tail is the most detailed part of the lower body; fully sculpted, but with only one tail-state. Having this one tail-state has allowed the creator to go all-out in decorating the appendage. Starting off thick at the base and ending with a small, bright ball at the end, the tail is every bit as ornately textured as the avatar’s body. The shape is vaguely reptilian, with a flat underside and a curved dorsal surface. The end of the tail ends with that aforementioned glowing ball with softly glowing particles emitted from it. The included notecard describes this ball as playing an integral part of the mating process for this species, like fireflies, in a way.
Upper Body:
The upper body comes with hand-attachments, wrist-fluff, and neck-fluff. The hands themselves are relatively simple and four-fingered. Each finger is tipped with the same claws as the feet, and don’t have any paw-pads. The look of the hands themselves is relaxed and neutral, meaning that they should work in just about any situation the user is in. Contrary to the feet, however, they are coloured in the same ‘main’ colour that the user has bought.
The hands deserve some mention, because despite having slightly thick fingers, the hands are absolutely perfectly sized to the avatar. Unlike many hand-attachments we have seen, this avatar is one of few to achieve a good, realistic size that does not stand out too much from the shape. Despite not needing it, the creators have included wrist-prims which add a little bit of ‘fluff’ to the avatar’s wrists.
The neck fluff is fairly simple; some sculpted fluff to provide a slightly mane-like look; smoothening the visual transition from the fairly small body frame to the large head.
Head:
This avatar comes with two different heads and attachments; one for each gender. However, the traits and the overall look of the face remains mostly the same between the two despite the differences. DERP has always done well at their eye textures, though some have argued that they felt the gaze of their avatars seemed vacant. With the Serbex, the eyes have slightly bolder pupils which add a sense of direction to the eyeballs. The head itself has been sculpted for a fairly semi-feral shape, which means that the eyebrows are a little prominent on the head. However, this makes the included eyebrow expressions more believable.
One area of difference for the muzzle is that males receive a slightly thicker, blockier muzzle, while females have a few curves here and there to exemplify the feminine side of this avatar. The nose is a bit broader for the males, but the largest difference between the sexes is that of the tusks. Males receive tusks that are far more prominent and pointy-tipped than the female’s. To the contrary, the female’s tusks are short and somewhat blunt-tipped.
The ears are another area of difference where males receive long, slender ears with a lot of stylised fluff sculpted directly onto the ears themselves. Females themselves receive similar ears, but half as long as the male’s. The patternings on the front of the ears really adds a little more decoration to the head. Just between those ears, both genders receive large horns. Again, the males have larger, curved horns, while females get more sloped horns. The accompanying photos show all of these traits in a Male-Female Comparison.
The avatar also comes with two separate hairstyles; one for the male and the other for the female.
In all, DERP deserves a little extra mention for how well the head comes together. The seams have been made to fit together neatly, minimising any ragged appearance in lines, and the addition of shading to exaggerate different areas of the face add a nice touch. In all, this may be the most complex, and complete head that we’ve seen from this creator.
Features and Heads-Up Display (HUD):
DERP. HUD – Serbex v1.0
The Main Control HUD design has been revamped; opting for a modern, streamlined look. You click the logo to go through the various options with extreme simplicity. The accompanying photo shows the options.
Eye Colour HUD
- Choose the Eye Colours of three parts: Middle, Edge, and Shadow
- Saturation Level slider
- “Automatic” random eye colour generator
- Independent Eye Colour Options
- Export Colour Settings to Text
Clothing:
This avatar also comes with a dark grey ‘wrap’ that is worn around the waist. While the look may not meet every user’s tastes, the cloth has been neatly done; portraying a kind of tribal look. Additionally, two different versions are offered; one fitted to the included male body shape, the other to the female’s body shape.
Customisation:
This avatar comes with modify and copiable permissions, so users should have no real issues modifying it to suit their tastes. A GNU license has been included in a notecard, named “DAS.Copying.” DAS collectively stands for “Derp Avatar Scripts,” and it is there because all of the scripts have been made completely modifiable, transferable, and copiable; allowing users to modify the avatar’s scripts to their interests. This is a bold move on the creators’ part.
Conclusion:
The DERP Serbex joins an incereasingly long line of unique creations that have been created out of the imaginations of their creators. Complete with its own legend, the Serbex has a kind of other-worldly presence to it. DERP has also done a good job at experimenting with their style a bit, and also with the way they have presented the avatar. With little details like the erasure of the stomach line, clearer eye pupils, and more complex patterns to their avatar, the Serbex appears complete and offers a full visual experience.
