Lusk continues to go through and update their avatars one by one; their Big Cats, Wolf, etc. The Luskwood 1.0 Skunk came into being in 2004, and received an update to v2.0 in 2007. Now, in 2010, they’ve revamped the v2.0 with some tweaks and stylistic upgrades, bringing the avatar to 2.5, with comparable quality to their other updated avatars.

Out of the Box:

Measurement	Value
Script Time (With HUD)	Unknown / Unknown (Unable to acquire)
Script Time / Memory (without HUD)	Unknown /Unknown
Avatar Rendering Cost (Scale Here)	~850
Modify?	Yes
Copy?	Yes
Transferable?	No

Build and Skin:

As we mentioned in our review of the Luskwood Skunk 2.0, the issue with skunks as a species is that by default, they tend to be monochromatic; in varying shades of black and white. As such, the creators for this avatar have to ensure that in the absence of colour variation, the avatar manages to show off markings clearly. Luskwood has managed to do so again with the Skunk v2.5, just as much as the update preceding this one. A big difference is that there was some work done to add highlights (or shading, depending on the colour of skunk purchased) to the body. The end result is still detailed markings, but with additional focus on textures with shading and highlights to prevent them from appearing flat and featureless. Users who purchase the avatar can choose between two variations of skunk markings; a striped skunk and a spotted skunk. Photos of such variations are scattered through the review.

This avatar comes with ‘alternate’ skins, of which a few different ones are shown in the photo below. The differences between the ‘normal’ and the ‘alternate’ skins range from small adjustments such as how much of the ‘alternate’ fur colour covers the chest, to the degree of muscle definition in the skin. The included notecard mentions that one skin-type aims for a more ‘contoured’ look, while the alternatives aim for a more ‘realistic’ look. The option to choose between two skins for each avatar allows the user a little bit of extra customisation.

Build-wise, the avatar maintains the standard of quality that we’ve consistently seen from Luskwood; polished, clean sculpts and a construction that provides absolutely no imperfections in the build.

Attachments:

The attachments for this avatar include hand and foot attachments, wrist and leg attachments, and the chest-fluff. It goes without saying that the avatar comes with the typical skunk-tail that one would expect to see. But we’ll talk about the tail after we go over the paws. The hand and foot attachments are slightly exaggerated in size, showing the inspiration of this avatar from a cartoon-ish background. Both the hand and feet attachments are a 50/50 cross between a paw and their human counterparts, but with 4 digits and long dark claws on the ends. Skunks are not digitigrade, so the included leg-prims come only in plantigrade form. The wrist and leg prims help the visual transition from the body shape to the paws.  All in all, the limb attachments function very well, though the leg-prims may stand out a bit if you’re wearing a lighter-coloured avatar.

A defining feature of Luskwood Skunk avatars has always been the tail, and with the addition of sculpts, has re-delivered. The tails have been complimented nicely with sculpted prims, thus having a more contoured form. The tail comes in two different states; up or down, which users can swap between in the inventory. The overall shape of the tail is very smooth, and the fluff prims on the sides and undersides gives the tail a more ‘full’ look.

Head:

The head comes in as being the most integral part of the avatar. Those who own the Skunk 2.0 version of the avatar, or have read the review of it here on SLARF (Click here for Luskwood Skunk 2.0 review), will find that the two different versions of the avatar have similarities in design. As such, the personality and most of the appearance remains in tact with the Skunk v2.5, but the introduction of sculpts has made for a smaller head, smoother muzzle, and a sprig of modernity.

The markings on the head are just as well done as on the body, with the stripes or facial markings perfectly arranged perfectly anywhere on the head. The photos in the review will show these fully. If users choose to wear the hair that comes with the avatar, they’ll be able to see that it maintains the skunk stripe or mottled appearance. Users can change the both the primary and secondary colours of the hair separately via the HUD.

There isn’t anything we can criticise about the head from a technical perspective, leaving more qualitative observations to be made. In sum, the head creates the impression of a friendly skunk with some liveliness and character. The marked differences between the male and female eyes nudges the avatar into a more or a less feminine or masculine character, and the head-size makes it a fair bit easier to apply third-party hairs.

Features and Heads-Up Display (HUD):

This avatar comes with the usual HUD that we’ve seen from Lusk in the past few years. The HUD itself is very user-friendly, so buyers shouldn’t have very much of a problem working with it. Users are also given the option to operate the avatar through commands, which are listed in the included notecard.

A major feature that has been added exclusively for the Skunk line of avatars is partly controlled by the HUD, but the majority of its functions lie outside of the HUD’s control. In particular, the HUD has a toggle for a curling-up-on-the floor animation, as well as the ability for a user to posture themselves into positions suitable to their respective behaviours in spraying. In particular, the striped skunk gets down on all fours and arches their back to spray, while the spotted skunk does an impressive handstand for its preparation. Unique to the striped skunk is the ability for the user to have their avatar stomp on the ground in warning as well. And of course, there is the ability for the avatar to spray a stream of particles.

Many of these animations are not controllable by HUD, but by text commands:

/1curl                 Toggles a curled sleeping position.  (@ button on HUD)

/1recline           Toggles a leaning back, reclined position.

/1crossedsit    Simple sit for the ground.

/1layback         Toggles a lay down on back position.

/1laybelly         Toggles a lay down on belly position.

/1pounce         Pounces forward and returns.

/1scratch         Scratches back of head briefly.

/1stop             Stops all running animations (takes a few moments).

afk                    Goes away (move your avatar or type to return).

Customisation:

The avatar is easy to customise as it is both copiable and modifiable. Thanks to the smaller head-size, it is a good bit easier to fit third-party hairs on the head. If the third-party hair has a lot of alpha textures, though, they might have alpha-texture-flicker with the head. As usual, this isn’t the creator’s fault as much as a limitation of the Second Life client.

Conclusion:

This update of the Luskwood Skunk has brought the avatar into the modern fold with Luskwood’s Big Cats, Wolves, and Hyenas. While some may feel that the avatar appears much the same as the previous Skunk update, this could very well be this avatar’s strength. With an updated based on the prior version of the avatar, the personality and the character that creators put into an avatar remain, despite the adjustment in style. To that end, then, the Luskwood Skunk presents itself as an expressive, cute option for those seeking to don the image of their favourite mephit.

One More Thing…

The Luskwood skunk also comes in a “Valentine” form. This version of the skunk comes with a special hairstyle, as well as a modified skin that incorporates a heart textured onto the chest-fur. Also included are wings and a custom colour-scheme. While Valentine’s only comes once a year, this version of the Luskwood Skunk appears to be one that can easily be worn at just about any time of the year. A photo follows.