In our second Lost Furest Evolutions avatar review, we look at the fox-like Maned Wolf, native to South America. Often people seem to mistake these for taller-looking foxes when they are distinctly wolves. It is always good to see creators venture out of the regular canine avatars with different breeds and species.

Out of the Box:

• Both Male and Female included
  • PG and Mature Skins
• Ear Positions including Twitching
• Prim Eye States and Blink
• Jaw Positions and Expressions
• Clickable Tail Functions
• Tintable Flexi Tails
• Muzzle Talking Function (Voice and Chat)
• 15 Different Pupil Choices (Slitted to Round to O.o to X.X, etc.)
• Kitty Typing AO (bat the keys like a kitty) included in special collar
• Yapper for typing (a yapper is a LF special, emit textures as you type as if you were speaking them)

Measurement	Value
Script Time (With HUD)	~0.238
Script Time (without HUD)	~0.238
Avatar Rendering Cost (Scale Here)	~3740
Modify?	Yes
Copy?	Yes
Transferable?	No

Build and Skin:

The Maned Wolf has been notably called a ‘fox on stilts’ due to its russet red-fox-like colouration and long limbs. This avatar manage to portray a good bit of the foxish type fur patterns, but differentiates it enough to portray its real-world counterpart. Additionally, the patternings of fur across the body are markedly different from that of a fox (while remaining similar in just few aspects) to get people guessing exactly what species the user is wearing. In terms of body quality, the creator has done a good job of texturing the entire body and the attachments. Instead of going for the cartoon-ish or hyper-realism direction of textures, Lost Furest has seemed to have settled on a comfortable in-between of paint-like fur and transitions between fur colours. The result has been depth and dimension in all of the textures. The avatar comes in both male and female forms, and with mature skins for each. To get the Male form, you must unpackage the Male avatar box in the Female folder and wear the attachments in there. An alternative to packaging avatars this way would be to allow to users to unpack either a male or a female avatar immediately upon rezzing the avatar box.

In regards to the male and female mature avatars, the males receive small nipples half-buried in fur while females receive much larger nipples and female genitilia. It is through the fur slightly covering the nipples that Lost Furest has avoided the ‘stick-on-nipple’ effect.

An immediately prevalent trait for the feet on this avatar are the large, and very thick pawpads on the undersides. The undersides are a dark pink-black before turning a straight pink. Between the toes, we can see some detailed prim fluff which is a common theme across the avatar, least of all the feet. The toe-digits for the avatar are thick and wide, numbering 4 with a short and shiny black claw. This avatar opts to have the avatar stand digitgrade even without the digitigrade leg attachments by having the toes and paw-pads touch the floor while the heel slopes up and away from the ground.

From the base of the foot upward, users can choose whether they want to use plantigrade or digitigrade leg attachments. The digitigrade legs by themselves are well made and textured with a good angle at the joint in the leg. All-in all, the digitigrade legs really help to give the impression of the stilt-like look of Maned Wolf legs. However, when one wears the digitigrade leg with the foot, it’s plain to see that the foot is a good deal wider than the leg. As a result, there is an odd connection between the digi-leg and the foot. This is not a huge issue, but a slight weak point to the avatar. Additionally, if users wish to wear clothing without either plantigrade or digi-leg attachments, the back of the foot juts out a little bit from the shape leg which can look a little off. However, the plantigrade leg attachments look far better with the avatar than do the digitigrade leg attachments.

The tail comes in two forms; either as a sculpted or as a flexible prim form. The flexible one is fluffier in appearance and swishes about when the avatar wags its tail. The sculpted one, however is more shapely and suits the rest of the avatar better because of the shape and contours. To set options for the tail, the user must click on it, where they can set the tail to sit upwards or downwards, as well as choose options pertaining to movement. Users can choose whether they want the tail to swish back and forth idly, wag playfully, twitch, or just stay still. While the sculpted tail looks better, the flexible tail is smoother looking when it wags. Overall, the wagging could benefit from being slightly less jerkiness in movement. Males and females also receive butt fluff to frame the rump-cheeks and add extra decorative fur.

The hand attachments mimic the feet pretty well, but with obvious differences marking it out to be more hand-like then foot-like. That is, we see 4 finger-digits and the addition of an opposable thumb. The pose of the hand is relaxed and the fingers look more akin to paw-digits than hands; thick and meaty with pads taking up the majority of the finger underside. The entirety of the underside of the paw is a pad as well. Meanwhile, despite the hand attachments being of a good size, the creators have included a wrist prim to smoothen the visual transition between the hand-attachment and the shape. This was not really needed, but does add to the avatar with a little fluff.

We’ve often said that the head is often a major part of the avatar, and this is no different here. However, Lost Furest has included a lot of fluff prims around the neck and head regions of the avatar which really give the entire body extra dimension and fluffiness. As such, the avatar comes with:

• A mane that travels down from between the ears to the small of the back
• Chestfur
• Extra Cheekfur

Users can easily go without any of these attachments, but for a good number of people, these attachments make up a huge amount of the avatar’s presence; it almost seems a shame to wear clothing and/or take off these prims because it makes the maned wolf look less fluffy and somewhat ‘naked.’ (See picture on right)

A landmark on the face is the crystalline eyes that move through script automation. Credit is given for the usage of the eye texture styling that Lost Furest has adopted in their recent anthropomorphic avatars. As mentioned in a prior review of a Lost Forest Evolutions avatar review, users are able to choose from round pupils various lengths and dimensions, but also, users are given the ability to choose from some more unique eye-textures, like one that literally emulates the ” O.o” or “o.O’ expression. Other choices allow users to wear a X.X expression or even a robotic eye kind of eye with only a coloured, full-bright center. Additionally, users can apply up to 7 different eye ‘shine’ textures; from stars to hearts, as shown in the accompanying picture.

It is through looking directly at the eyes that one notices the muzzle. The shape of the muzzle is thick as it is wide, lending to a wolfish look. For those who nitpick over the avatar needing to be similar to the real-world animal, the muzzle could arguably have been thinner. For the most part, however, that does not matter in this review.

The mouth itself is set in a fairly neutral facial expression with the enigmatic curl of the corners of the mouth. The interior of the muzzle features the full array of teeth that you’d expect for any canine, as well as a sculpted tongue on the interior. The roof of the mouth is well textured and the mouth includes a uvula at the back of the throat. The only criticism offered here is that of the tongue when the user sticks it out. Compared to the sculpted tongue, the flexible tongue appears flat and fits in with the muzzle a little bit less well than the sculpted one.

Another feature of the head that stands out is that of the ears. The tips extend a good height away from the base in a triangular shape, but they are also deeply concave. For good effect, the creator added some transparent fluff to the interior of the ears, which really helped to make them stand out. Users are able to easily change the positions of one or both ears at a time.

It should be mentioned that the forehead does slope a fair bit, meaning that there is a slightly more feral-shaped than human braincage. Thus, the addition of third party hairs may be difficult for those hairs that rely on a very human-shaped forehead. At the sides of the face there is a frame of prim fluff which widen the face to more wolfish dimensions. They do a good job when the user wears some of the extra fluff or an appropriate third-party hair, but on its own, the cheekruff doesn’t account for the nakedness of the head if the user does not wear the mane or ‘additional’ cheekfur.

Features and Heads-Up Display (HUD):

The bulk of features that come with this avatar are accessed mostly through the HUD, while those that pertain to the eyeballs themselves are accessible only through text commands.

HUD controls:

• Eye-Width State
• Individual Ear State (Up, Down, Perked, etc.)
• Muzzle Talking Function Toggle On/Off
• Tongue In/Out Toggle

*To Access the few States of Mouth openness, you must turn off the Muzzle-Talking Function or the mouth will close automatically after hitting the custom rotation button

Text command controls:

• Eye Colour
• Eye Pupils
• Eye Shine Type

Customisation:

This avatar is readily able to be modified due to its copy-modifiable nature. The default state for the avatar is female; but users can unpack a little moon box found inside the avatar folder to access the male hair, shape, and PG and mature skins. As mentioned, the forehead is a little sloping, so some third-party hairs might be a little difficult to use on it. But with a little tweaking, most hairs should be able to fit. Do keep in mind that the feet do jut back from the leg, so it may look odd if users wear ordinary pant/trousers. Prim pant/trouser-cuffs will help remedy this.

Conclusion:

The Lost Furest Evolutions Maned Wolf shows how the creator continually seeks to take new approaches in their style of avatar creation. This re-creation of a rarely covered canine in Second Life has successfully managed to channel the original species while maintaining the unique style that the Lost Furest Evolutions line aims to provide to their customers. Additionally, this avatar is a sign of how fluffiness through prim fluff can give an avatar visual depth and dimension. On the flip side, without the prim fluff, the avatar is a shadow of what the avatar was prior to the removal. It is neat to see a creator trying to find the right balance.