ForepawzThe Lost Ferals Snow Leopard follows their regular leopard avatar released in early 2008. For the most part, the body and the features are almost exactly the same as the ordinary Leopard, save for textures, prim fluff, and a different head.
Out of the Box:
- Full Animation Overrider ( Customisable Default)
- Stand, Sit, Lay, Dance, Default AOs
- Dances: Swaying, etc.
- Customising Colour HUD
- Leopard Gestures and Poses
- Sleep, Stretch, Lick Paw, Nuzzle, Drink, Play etc.
- Attacks
- Claws In/Out
- Flexible and Non-Flexible Tail
- Different Tail States
- 2 Pupil Sizes
- Pounce an avatar option
- Tongue In/Out
- Camera Adjustment for better viewing angle
| Measurement | Value |
|---|---|
| Script Time (With HUD) | ~0.8-3ms |
| Script Time (without HUD) | N/A. (AO in HUD) |
| Avatar Rendering Cost (Scale Here) | ~2650 |
| Modify? | No |
| Copy? | Yes |
| Transferable? | No |
Aside from the head, most of the body is a replica of the Lost Ferals Leopard avatar. As such, we will be using much of the material for that review here, with exception of parts that are different between avatars, which we will point out.
Build and Skin:
The avatar’s textures are ‘spot-on’ in terms of replicating a snow leopard’s markings. The actual base prims of the avatar that make up most of the body and the attachments are a straight, simple colour, the one that users bought. The spots instead rest on prims sitting just above those. This creates an interesting visual effect, but sometimes can cause clipping and merging of spots in places where prims meet. However, it means that people can colour the spots and rosettes in the fur individually from the ‘main’ fur colour underneath. The textures are good for the most part, but the biggest issues like where joints and prims meet, leading to a bundle of spots that don’t merge together well. Lost Furest would eventually go on to alleviate some of this in their later avatars.
The build quality itself, while not the best that we have seen compared to later quadruped avatars from Lost Furest, is appropriate for the time period in whence it came. All of the sculpts appear clear and clean-cut with little wrinkling.
Attachments:
Body and Legs:
This avatar is a very bulky and short, standing at max of around 0.9m tall. Compared to, for example, the Lost Ferals Cheetah which is around the region of height, this avatar is thicker; with a wider midsection and bulkier thighs and paws. As such, you get the impression of a compact stature which would have worked best if the avatar was larger. In short, the build is slightly more tiger-like than leopard-like.
The paws for this avatar are relatively simple, but are a point of difference between avatars. With this particular avatar, while the paw-structure remains mostly the same, the toes themselves are much larger and thicker. As such, the pawpads on the underside are a little bit thicker and appear cuter. We note the single, thick dewclaw on both of the front paws, but exempted on the hind-paws. The lower legs attempt to mimic the digitgrade stance of felines, and does it appropriately well. The rear legs sufficiently pull off the digitigrade stance with the arches in all the right places, and a set of powerful thighs.
The biggest issue with the legs, however, is the joints where the legs meet the trunk of the body. On the front of the body, the legs appear as if they’re human-like arms, propping the avatar up from doing push-ups. This problem replicates itself with the hind legs; the haunches project widely from the sides of the body, making the lower body look deformed. This problem is all the more exemplified when the avatar sits down; the legs simply bend in a way that they shouldn’t. However, we again recognise that this is one of Lost Furest Creatures’ first feral avatars, (early 2008), and they have since corrected these issues with their later avatars, so we won’t hold this against the avatar too much. We also make note of the fact that as this is a Snow Leopard avatar, the creators have used a great degree of prim fluff to cover the chest and belly of this avatar, which significantly covers up this problem to make the avatar look better as a whole.
The torso shape is well made, consisting of three separate pieces which allow for variation and flexibility in body movement. The sculpts that make up the torso are also well shaped and textured; shifting focus away from the legs to the body itself. The length of the body is also on par and appropriately proportioned to the head, but the legs take away from the overall look. The photos show the aforementioned prim chest-fur on the underside of the avatar.
The tail itself is decent; with good texturing all the way through to match the body itself, though sometimes there is a little bit of clipping between alpha layers every now and then when the tail swishes (The flexible tail, that is). A small issue with the tail lies in its placement; this tail appears a little too low between the rear haunches, which is more akin to where the anus might be, rather than the tailbase. There is also a sculpted, non-flexible version of the tail which looks better than the flexible tail. Users can raise it or lower it. We prefer this tail to the flexible one because it appears fluffier and quite large, definitely befitting of a snow leopard.
Head:
Now, on to the head. This is an area of departure from the Leopard avatar as the size and shape are different. The focal point of the head is still the eyes; both eyes being built to have the gaze follow the camera, wherever it is pointed. This effect has sometimes made some avatars creepy, while on others it can add some character. This avatar comes with the ‘large’ pupils enabled, so the eyes look fairly cute and lively. The ‘small’ pupil option amy be preferred by some, but to others it will make the face look vacant. This head has a fairly wide gap between the eyes, giving the muzzle substantial room to take up. The muzzle itself isn’t very long though, and remains close to the face. As such, it remains true to its real-world inspiration. The whiskers themselves are placed on flexible prims at the sides of the muzzle instead of as individual prims.
The nose is simply textured and not a huge detail to the head, making way to the cleft which then forms the upper lip of the muzzle. The inside of the muzzle has simple, torus-based prim teeth and a sculpted tongue on the interior. Users are able to stick out this tongue or keep it inside the muzzle. The sculpted tongue is far superior to the flexible prim tongues we’ve seen on some other Lost Furest/Ferals avatars.
Additionally, the face comes with a snarling/rawr type of emote in which the thick brows above the eyes curve down over the eyes and the mouth opens wide to show all of the teeth. At the same time, the ears fold back. The implementation of the snarl emote is much better than with the other Lost Ferals Leopard avatar. The teeth themselves are also sculpted smoothly, making them like more realistic fangs with a sharp bite.
The ears themselves are well rounded, but have slightly pointed tips with white, furry lining on the inside, and a single white leopard spot on the back of each ear. Under the ears is some prim fluff to add a last bit of dimension to the face itself. As a whole, the avatar’s head is far better than the non-Snow Leopard Feral from Lost Furest. The sculpts are cleaner and better put together, and the face looks a fair bit cuter. The connection of the head to the neck is also improved from the other avatar, thanks to a more appropriate head-size.
Features and Heads-Up Display:
This avatar has many features; of which have been dispersed in-between the two available HUDs and a small set of text commands. The only option not controlled by HUD is the selection of on of two of the eyes’ pupil size. The HUDs are self-explanatory thanks to the accompanying guides that come with the avatar.
Animation Overrider:
As with the other Lost Ferals avatars, the animation overrider maintains a huge importance since it provides character and style to the avatar. There is at least a few dozen animations, sounds, and gestures that bring the avatar to life. Users can go through dances, attacks, drinking, etc. animations on a whim through the provided HUD. There are also a few other pre-set animation overrider themes that users can access from the HUD. Remember though, that the AO is inside the HUD, and not wearing the HUD will cause the animations not to work. Thankfully, users can shrink the HUD into a small button, even though the HUD itself uses a corner design that is amazing at saving space.
Customisation:
This avatar is no-modify and no-transfer, but it is still copiable. So if users make mistakes or whatnot, this avatar will still be copiable. While users are unable to directly modify the prims on the avatar, there are a large number of attachment points still available, which allows users to create their own attachments or use the attachments made available by an active Lost Ferals content creation community.
Conclusion:
The Lost Ferals Snow Leopard replicates the real world species well. Users will be able to take advantage of and have fun with the numerous features that are available to them. The animation overrider remains a strong part of Lost Ferals avatars, even from this early stage. Despite the age, this avatar does hold its own as well, aesthetically and functionally.
