In this review we discuss one of Kinzart Kreetures’ earlier offerings; their interpretation and re-rendering of one of the most exotic of big cats. This avatar recreates the striped cat with a brooding, yet regal presence. Here, the Tiger takes the spotlight for the review.

Out of the Box:

PG and Mature Male and Female Skins and Shapes
Moving Eyes with Blink settings, Pupil size adjustments, and color Change
Posable hands
- Retractable claws on both hands and feet
Tintable male and female hairs
2 Tails (Flexible and Sculpted)
Digitigrade/Plantigrade Leg Toggle
Whiskers with hide/show features
Muzzle-Talking Function

Measurement	Value
Script Time with HUD	~0.245
Script Time without HUD	~0.068
Avatar Rendering Cost	~2019-2600 (Dependent on hair)

Build and Skin:

As Tigers are known mostly for their distinct fur pattern, it is important that a Tiger avatar reflect that. The Kinzart Tiger does manage to produce a good pattern of stripes, but many of them are too rounded in shape rather than made of sharp lines This isn’t a major issue, but one wonders if sharp lines could have made the tiger truer to its real-world counterparts. However, the skin is very presentable with ample shading and tone over the entire body. Males receive a six-pack and well defined pecs while women have a softer midsection and shaded breasts.

One area of interest on the skin would have to be the rump. The fur there is very light and separate from the majority of the body; leading to a ‘baboon’-like bottom that stands out. This may suit some users’ taste, and maybe not so much to others.

Take Notice: The pictures under this link are rated Mature – Click here to view the Female Adult Skin

This avatar was released in late 2008, and much like other avatar producing companies, Kinzart has since grown and used new skills since that time.

The paws that are included with the avatar are effective in appearance. The underside is textured with a large, dark pawpad that turns pink towards the edges. The feet are not sized to be human-like, but remain a mostly tiger-ish paw with 4 claw-tipped toes. The back of the foot is rather spherical, which gives way to the choice of either a digitigrade or a plantigrade leg. The Digitigrade leg is built and textured well, with the bend in the leg at a good angle and height, and accented with semi-transparent fluff. This will become a common theme across the avatar (e.g. chest fluff, cheekruffs). The plantigrade legs are acceptable, but are a little bit too much like awkward rounded cylinders, which do not intersect with the feet as well as the digitigrade legs do.

The hand-paw attachments are a good mixture of hand and paw; a thick palm with a pad, 4 thick fingers and a thumb. The only criticism for the hands could really be that the thumb looks hook-like. Before I forget, a neat addition to both the hands and feet are the feline claws. They’re well sized and textured, but also come with the option where you can sheathe and unsheathe them using the HUD. When the claws are ‘sheathed,’ you see a textured slit where they sat before.

The tails are fairly simple; the avatar comes with both a sculpted and a flexible tail. Both have a decent quality, though the sculpted tail is much thicker and less limp than the flexible tail. The textures on both are good, though one small issue is that at the end of the tail there’s a little bit of a reddening mark just before the white tail-tip. This isn’t a major problem, but sometimes looks a little strange on avatars that don’t have any orange/red colours, (e.g. the White Tiger variety).

Finally, we reach the head. The level of texture detail over the muzzle parallels that of the body, but is done in a way that doesn’t look too confusing to the eye. There is a concentration of stripes on the forehead as well as the back of the head to allow users to either go without hair altogether, or use their own without any issues. The included hairs (Male and Female) are tintable as well.

The facial structure is very well done for an anthropomorphic tiger; a broad and thick feline muzzle with plenty of thick whiskers and semi-transparent chin-fluff. The muzzle expression itself is tough to decipher though. For some it could be a frown, yet for others be a more neutral look. Either way, the interior of the mouth is well sculpted and textured, though we find that the head prim peeks in through the back of the throat. This problem is usually not acceptable, but given that this is an older avatar and Kinzart has not had this problem in any of their avatars since, it can be overlooked. Fortunately, when this avatar is talking, you can only see the problem if you are looking upwards at the roof of the mouth.

Rather than going for eyes that were distinctly feline (slitted pupil), the creator opted for a cloudy-eyed look with eye whites. The pupil is round and can be resized to the user’s taste. The resulting, frosty eye will make the face look more regal to some, dark and moody to others, or just too cloudy to still others. However, the eyeball prims themselves move slightly oddly, so having the cloudy eyes helps to mask the imperfection in stare. The Facial Expression option allows users to wear an “Angry” facial expression that makes for an extra peeved look.

This avatar has a sculpted blink which looks great in principle, but the eyelids over each eye are their own separate prim. This means that the eyelids may occasionally blink at different times or rates than the others, making for a lazy, unsynchornised blink in areas of medium-to-high lag.

To finish the description of the head, the ears are appropriately shaped with a good amount of semi-transparent fluff prims lining the inside of the ear, and white markings on the back of the ears.

Heads-Up Display (HUD) and Features:

The HUD is the control center for this avatar; this avatar was released before Kinzart took on the policy of offering text commands with their HUD. This avatar comes with two separate HUDs; one for the avatar as a whole, while the other focuses only on the eye colour. The following is the list of functions that users can adjust with their HUD.

Tiger HUD:

Tail: Toggle Wag On/Off, Toggle Up/Down
Ears: Toggle Twitch On/Off, Toggle Up/Down
Pupil Size: Increase or Decrease the Pupil Size
Eyes: Toggle Eyelid State
Legs: Toggle Plantigrade/Digitigrade
Face: Happy, Angry Faces
Whiskers: Toggle Show/Hide
Claws: Toggle In/Out
Hands: Choose hand states

Customisation:

This avatar comes as copiable and modifiable; so users are able to modify the avatar to their benefit. Hair is fairly easy to fit on the head despite the high forehead, though you may need to tweak a little bit more than usual; depending on the hair choice. Additionally, for those who wish the eyes to look a little bit clearer; the eye gloss is a sphere directly over the eyeballs. Users can change the transparency from 0 to something like 30-40 for a much clearer look.

Conclusion:

This Tiger is really a mixed bag. That is, it has some shortcomings, but at the same time, many of these are forgivable as the avatar itself is older and Kinzart has corrected all of these issues in their later avatars. Therefore, it’s important to really review avatars in terms of the timeframe that they were created in. Keeping this in mind, it is reasonable to say that the Kinzart Tiger is a very presentable reflection of a Tiger as viewed through the eyes of its creator. This avatar does not encompass ‘cute’ as much as it does maturity and intelligence, which gives users a little bit extra to play with when using the avatar.