See More Avatars from: EXL
16 Nov 09 | List Price: L$
EXL presents a Doberman avatar, which is basically a fairly popular rehash and recolour of their wolf avatar. Most of the time, users make these kinds of edits themselves, but sometimes, creators will modify one avatar into another for users. In this review we discuss the EXL Wolf-turned-Doberman.
Out of the Box:
- Over 20 Eye colours
- Blink Toggle
- 2 male skins (Adult/PG)
- 3 female skins (Adult/PG/Multi)
- Random eye/tail/ear movement
- Eye Position Control
- Tongue In/Out
- Mouth Open/Closed
- Muzzle Talking System
- 7 tail positions and wag
- 5 ear positions
Measurement | Value |
Script Time with HUD | ~0.260 |
Script Time without HUD | ~0.08 |
Avatar Rendering Cost | ~620 |
Build and Skin:
As this avatar is mostly the EXL wolf, we will not spend too much time overstating the similarities between avatars; instead focusing on the differences. You will not need to read the EXL wolf avatar to get a fully descriptive review of the EXL Doberman.
Again, EXL has put a good deal of emphasis on showing differences between Male and Female versions of the avatar. In terms of skins, this avatar does as much; with the most detailed musculature that we have seen on an EXL avatar. Females receive very effeminate curves and smooth textures over the entirety of their body. If anything, this avatar appears to have strived for sex appeal body-wise, and it would seem successful at doing it. Males are absolutely ‘ripped,’ an impressive texture-job of fitness for those interested in it. The Doberman comes with a few variations on the black-brown combination for those are interested in alternative colourations.
EXL’s mature skins further emphasise the sex-appeal of both genders with anatomically correct skins. Females receive Mature Skins with either 2 or 6 nipples and female genitals. Males, on the other hand, receive masculine nipples in their mature skin. This avatar does not come with non-functional EXL genitalia. To avoid stick-on-nipple syndrome, the nipples are slightly covered with fur.
Take Notice: The pictures under this link are rated Mature – Click here to view the Male and Female Adult Skins
The feet and legs are thick and stocky, suitable to the included, slightly chubby female, and the stocky male shape. If one tries to shrink down the shape a bit, some modification may be needed to size the leg, feet, arm, and hand-paw attachments to the new body shape. Aside from the fairly slim Alphyn, it’s not easy to recall any EXL avatar that was proportioned like a twig. Rather than the feet standing out as separate from the leg, they look very much as part of the digitigrade leg thanks to how the leg attaches to the back of the foot rather than the top. The sculpt fluff in strategic locations on the avatar accentuates the overall image though there is decidedly less of it overall than on the Wolf.
The hand-paws are the same ones that we have seen used on most of EXL’s early next-generation avatars, (e.g. the EXL Foxen, Wolf, Therion). That is; the hand-paw cross with four meaty digits, thick pawpads, and tipped with claws. Naturally, this avatar comes with the most commonly seen Doberman tail; a stubby, cut tail with the dark colour on the top and the lighter fur colour on the bottom. While cute when it wiggles, the tail could have benefited from being a touch more detailed.
We finally end up at the head. Suffice to say, the head is very much the EXL wolf head without fluff-prims on the cheeks, but also with an extensive recolour to the new target species. The end-result is actually a very smooth and appealing transition of one cartoon-ish canine avatar to another canine species. As usual, the avatar comes with the now-trademark EXL eyes; expressive, cartoon-ish eyes that exude attitude and disinterest. This time, both males and females receive the same colour eyelids with no differentiation by sex.
In the EXL Wolf avatar, I had talked about how the muzzle structure was generic enough to pass as a wolf, but general enough to be modified to a new species, and still work. This is an example of that; the good texture-job successfully has turned the wolf into a Doberman. Again, the Doberman comes with a detailed oral interior with all the mouth textures looking wet with saliva, and a believable, thick tongue with a few splotches of black on it for extra canine effect. The teeth are slightly yellowed and neatly sculpted and aligned. The jaw differs for females and males again; female avatars again get to have the thick, black bottom lip, but males get a normal chin (without a goatee).
The Ears are a major point of deviation from the original; instead of being rather concave and more fluffy on the interior of the ear, the Doberman comes with fairly thinly profiled, erect ears that identifies more strongly with a Doberman’s. Finally, the avatar comes with no hair-styles; the user must supply their own with third-party hairs, or hairs from other EXL avatars.
Heads-Up Display (HUD) and Features:
This avatar has the exact same functions as the wolf; and as such, is not as feature-filled as the avatars that came after the wolf (e.g. Therion, Alphyn). However, most of the basic functions needed are readily accessed through a user-friendly HUD.
The HUD therefore controls the following:
- Ears: Relaxed, Perked, Down, Forward, or Back for One or Both Ears
- Eyes: Toggle Blink, Change Eye State (Open, Mid-way, Closed), Eye Position, Eye Colour for One or Both Eyes
- Mouth: Open/Close Mouth, Toggle Tongue
- Tail: Tucked, Relaxed, Right, Left, Up, Upper Left, Upper Right
The only issue with the HUD in each EXL avatar that I keep forgetting to mention is the Toggling of the Random Eye Movement. When users turn this off by clicking the eyeball to point the pupils forward, there is no way to turn on Random Eye Movement other than to detach then re-attach the head. This is a very small issue, but is easily worked around as just mentioned.
Customisation:
The ears on this avatar are de-linked from the avatar, which allows them to move on their own and lets users attach piercings to them so that they can move with the ears. This differs from the Wolf which attaches the ears to the head, possibly because for an additional 50L, users can buy ‘floppy’ ears that they can wear as both or as a combination. Those wishing to acquire the floppy ears can go to the Mordheim sim and find them. Otherwise, the avatar is modifiable and copyable, so there should not be any real issues in terms of avatar customisation. As usual, the head shape is very spherical, so users may need to fiddle with third-party hairs.
Conclusion:
The EXL Doberman has presented itself as a new species taken from the best parts of the EXL Wolf, and succeeded in channeling its real world counterpart. The powerful new texture-job, the new ears, and the absense of fluff in certain areas gives the avatar a wholly different appearance from the original and gives a little bit of new life to an avatar than just a simple re-colour could provide. It is always interesting to see how creators can reuse some of their avatars and parts thereof to create a fun ‘mods’ of avatars in-between releasing wholly new avatars.
Tagged canine, doberman, EXL, featured, gallery.
