Up to this point, we’ve seen that In the Fur Enterprises strives for the creation of avatars with a unique, or less commonly followed species. Additionally, we have reviewed only their avatars with a mix of avatar shape head and prim features. With the giraffe, we’re seeing an example of what ITF (In the Fur) is capable of in terms of a full-prim face.
Out of the Box:
- 2 Versions included with each avatar: Deform or Normal neck
- Muzzle-Talking Function
- 20 Eye Colours
- Multiple Ear States
- Twitching Tail
- 5 Tongue States
- Deform/Undeform Toggle
- 10% of Proceeds go to the World Wildlife Fund
| Measurement | Value |
|---|---|
| Script Time / Memory (With HUD) | ~0.05ms / TBD |
| Script Time / Memory (without HUD) | ~0.025ms / TBD |
| Avatar Rendering Cost (Scale Here) | ~1100-1300 |
| Modify? | Yes |
| Copy? | Yes |
| Transferable? | No |
Attachments:
Build and Skin:
Giraffes are iconic in that they are generally splotchy creatures with a few streaks of colour and mane. The ITF giraffe comes in numerous different colours which reflect the giraffe species with considerable detail. Users can choose from more natural colours to others that are, for example, albino-based. While the textures are not as strong as some of their more recent avatars (this is an earlier one of their avatars, after all), the giraffe holds its own with markings and ample shading to accentuate areas of the body. Male and female versions of the avatar are sold separately, and in terms of skin, there are some differences. Females get a higher degree of focus on the breasts while males have more chiselled abs and less focus on the pecs. I cannot tell if the nipples are meant to appear as if below the fur, or if they are merely tinted the same colour as the surrounding fur. A downside is that these haven’t been included in separately offered mature skins, but again, this is one of ITF’s earlier avatars, so we won’t stress the issue.
Sculpt-wise, the avatar is of managable quality; but sub-standard compared to their later avatars and those that came later. As such, there is a touch of wrinkling here and there. Sometimes, the sculpts themselves will appear bumpy and incomplete in small areas such as where different sculpts meet with one another. This is something to watch out for, but we again have to keep in mind the avatar’s age.
Lower Body:
As Giraffes are known for their incredible height and obviously appear scrawny and long-limbed, the avatar’s shape and all the attachments must be designed to reflect that. The creator has risen to the occasion right away with the feet and legs fit for a real world giraffe .
Holding up the avatar are a pair of cloven hoofs in dark black, but with a fair amount of sheen. The hoofs appear large enough to support the bulk of the avatar and form a decent foot structure. The unguligrade leg attachments ends at the avatar shape’s kneecaps. For the most part, the lower legs are very simply textured, but shaded to bring out the contours and features of the legs themselves. This has been done well except for the area where the ‘hoof’ part meets the actual leg attachments. There’s a slight bit of texture mismatching here that only begins to look better the further away the user’s camera is from the legs.
The only other attachment featured on the lower body is that of the tail, which comes ready to attach in two different places; both the pelvis and the stomach. When the user first wears the avatar, be sure to detach one of the tails so that you do not have both worn simultaneously. The base of the tail is made up of a curvy sculpt textured well enough to suit the rest of the avatar’s fur coat. The tip of the tail itself is made up of semi-transparent flexi-prims which give the impression of a shaggy-haired tassel. An unfortunate occurance is that the tassel part of the tail itself has a few white artifacts that show at the bottom of the prim and around the textured hair.
Upper Body:
The hand attachments are the only attachments on the upper body other than those of the head. The creators have opted to offer users the ability to wear a simple 4-fingered hand with thick hoof-like protrusions on the tips of the fingers. The hoofhands themselves are of decent quality though the positioning and sculpt quality of each finger-digit could have been done better. However, the actual ‘hoof’ portions of each of the digits has been very well made, shaped and textured neatly enough to give the impression of a true hoof-hand cross.
Head:
This part of the avatar is the area I have been looking forward to pointing out. For this giraffe, the neck is almost as big a focal point, if not moreso than the head. In children’s books, you can exempt the head and the body, show children the neck and they would likely be able to suggest they were looking at a giraffe.
The neck extends from a fairly decent-sized width between the shoulders before sloping up to thin into the iconic neck structure that is familiar to many. On the back of the body, a separate prim is joined onto the neck-sculpt to smoothen the transition from the back to the neck.
Before we get to the discussion of the neck, there are two different issues we’ll bring up.
- Users are given the choice at unpacking between using a deform version of the avatar or a normal version. The deform version means that a “deform” is applied which stretches the neck, allowing the avatar shape’s head’s attachment points to be used. This offers users the chance to use more attachments for the head.
- When you unpack the original package, the skin is under the first folder; after you choose whether you want the “Normal” or “Deform” version, you must drag the skin from that folder to the new one. This is unfortunately not very intuitive for Second Life beginners.
- Unfortunately, we note that the avatar lacks a mane on the back of the avatar towards the top of the head for people who use the “Deform” option. This is not a huge issue, but would have helped to add to the avatar’s authenticity for these users.
For those who use the “Normal” option, the mane is well made and textured, adding a brushy effect from between the shoulders up to between the ears. Users can also wear the neck without a mane. The neck sculpt itself remains gracefully shaped and does considerable justice to giraffes in terms of their proportion. It is difficult to make avatars with extended necks, but ITF has done well in addressing the challenge. The largest criticism in regards to the neck is that sometimes the spotty textures just do not match up too well, looking a tad disorganised and inconsistent.
Finally, we discuss the head itself. Regardless of whether one chooses either (Normal or Deform) option, the face remains the same. The sculpt quality on the head is a bit on the bumpy side, but holds its own in replicating the right shape. The muzzle is distinctively giraffe with the bulgy muzzle with protruding upper lip and front of the jaw. The interior of the muzzle itself features well detailed bottom-front row of teeth and a purple-tinted tongue which can be contorted into numerous different positions. Whether the user wishes to have the tongue hanging straight out of the mouth, in a corkscrew, or other different positions, they all make for some interesting photographic moments.
The eyes of the avatar are set in a semi-disinterested look; half-closed with a sculpted blink. Users are able to change the colour of one or both eyes as a whole using the HUD, but with commands as described in an accompanying notecard, change the colours of specific portions of the eyes themselves. With the “Deform” version of the head, the eyes move according to the camera position, while the “Normal” version of the head has the eyes pointing straight ahead. The sculpted blink is extremely roughly done, marking itself the weakest part of the head.
Rounding out the appearance of the head are the ears which stick out horizontally from the head in just the right giraffe form. The placement and shape of the ears themselves are well done, accenting the shape of the head. On the rear of the head are the two short, slightly doorknob shaped giraffe horns just behind the thick brows on the top of the head. Arguably, the head for this avatar is one of the best we have seen from In the Fur despite the sub-par sculpt quality, achieving a strong replication of the creature it intended to remake.
Features and Heads-Up Display (HUD):
This avatar has kept things simple and short, forgoing a lot of the regular features for just the barebones expected of most avatars. All of the avatar’s options are managed by the HUD which relies on the built-in Second Life dialog box to change options.
The options are as follows:
- Individual Left and Right Ear Position, (Twitch, Back, Up, Angled)
- Deform/Undeform Toggle
- Eyes: Choose from 20 of preset eye colours
- Tongue State (Out Dip Up, Droop Side, Corkscrew, Out Dip Down, In, ::Close::)
- Blabbermaw: Muzzle Open/Half-open (Smile)/Closed, Muzzle Talking Function On/Off, HUD Messages On/Off, Talking Animation On/Off, Show Hide/Fish
Note: In some versions of the avatar, there is also a listed option under the Tongue Dialog menu to activate ” ::Close::”. When the user clicks on it, nothing actually happens. We remain curious what function this was intended to play, or if it was added by accident. Additionally, there has been a mistake where the “Show/Hide Fish” option is still available in the Blabbermaw option; this function obviously does not work with this avatar.
Customisation:
This avatar comes as both modifiable and copiable, so users are able to make changes and customisations to the avatar as they see fit. Of course, as the head is of a non-normative shape, third party hairs made for human-shaped heads will not easily fit on this avatar. Some tweaking may be necessary.
Conclusion:
The In the Fur Enterprises Giraffe is one of their strongest avatars despite its age and sub-par sculpt quality. Considered as whole, the sculpts have come together to make an avatar that doesn’t seem to be all too bad while providing some few options which give users varying levels of customisation. We’re not forgetting that there are a considerable number of issues that manifest themselves across the avatar, but when all is said and done, the ITF Giraffe does manage to come across as an alright avatar for those who wish to don the image of the long-necked ungulate. At the same time, the pricing of 500L helps to account for some of the issues in sculpts. We look forward to seeing ITF tackle more avatars with full-prim heads.
