See More Avatars from: Pound's L'il Av Shop

20 Oct 09 | List Price: L$

Upon doing rounds on updates to the avatar market, I came across this new creator. Having dabbled in smaller, less complex avatars, the creator has branched out to touch on a very often ignored species of animal. We have the pleasure to touch on Pound’s Bovine avatar.

Out of the Box:

• Male and Female versions
• Blinking Full-Prim Eyesu
• Wagging Tail
• Twitching Ears
• Moving Jaw with Special Ruminant Features
• Choose from Different Horn Styles
• Optional Piercings
• Tongue Toggle
• Recolourable Horns, Ears, and Tail-tip
• 2 Hairstyles (Male and Female) in 2 Colours (Av-Matching or White)
• 2 HUDs

Measurement	Value
Script Time with HUD	~0.230-0.0240
Script Time without HUD	~0.130
Avatar Rendering Cost	~912-1408

Build and Skin:

This avatar comes with both the male and female versions, but when users buy the avatar, they will first unpackage the female version. To get at the MALE version of the avatar, they must unpack the “Extras” box under the Female Folder. The skins and textures on this avatar are simple but effective, signifying the intent not to be as much a realistic cow as much as a somewhat cartoon interpretation. The skins come in numerous varieties and colours; from black/brown and white Holsteins to green and black ‘alien cow’ colouration. To avoid looking flat, the avatars use slight changes of tone to highlight body areas and smooth out the avatar’s look.

The feet on the avatar consist of cloven hooves that segue into a digitigrade unguligrade leg. The feet and hooves are not overly detailed in build or texture quality, but suit the overall image that the avatar is striving for. Despite the legs and feet being mostly a uniform colour, texture-work was applied to accent areas like the back of the legs. The hand attachments compare very closely with those of the feet, with two large fingers and a hoof-thumb. The design faintly reminds me of work done on the Mutation Industries’ Unicorn’s hand-attachments. The application of hoofhands has been well done on this avatar.

The tail that comes with this avatar is a flexible one, which could be worrisome, especially for an animal with a tasseled tail. However, this avatar does a very good job of recreating a tasseled tail with flexible prims. Worthy of note is the artisticly designed tassel that sways neatly with the base flexies of the tail. Some may wish to see the base of the tail a little bit longer so the tassel seems more proportional to the length. That aside, the tail is one of the most well made parts of the avatar.

The head is the centerpiece of this avatar, and it does a good job of representing a bovine’s head. Immediately upon looking at this avatar, viewers are acquainted with large, wide eyes that attract attention. The eyeballs are brightly textured and have a glossy sheen over them when the eyes are open. There is a criticism for the eyes however; from the side, the eyes look well placed and point forward, but from a front view, we see a gap in space between the eyeball and the eyelids. Since the gap is black, it is not too noticeable, but detracts a little bit from the head.

The muzzle is well constructed, with the fur giving way to a furless nose and an optional nose-ring. The textures are nice and the bridge of the muzzle is well sculpted. On another note, the head could have benefited from a longer muzzle  and wider muzzle-bridge, but the current structure is good as it is. The avatar comes with a muzzle-talking function; the mouth even has the option to chew cud absently when the avatar is not talking. The inside of the mouth is obviously fashioned for herbivory with a large wide tongue that you can stick out between flat teeth. Here we also find that the avatar is one of a growing number that include a uvula in the mouth interior. A small down-point on this avatar is that on the left side of the jaw, there is a little sculpt-wrinkling that takes away from the face.

Atop the head is a pair of arched horns with a prim-furred base. These come in a single default size, though it is easy for users to change the size themselves if they wanted to. The ears are very cow-ish, sitting horizontally and flapping back and forth. Males and females get a mohawk and dreadlocks respectively in two different colours that match the body’s colour scheme.

Features and Heads-Up Display:

The avatar comes with two different HUDs that control all the features of this avatar. The design of the HUD is very simple, large, and easy to read. All the regularly used functions are accessible in one HUD, while the colour-options have been placed in the other.

BOVINE HUD

• Ears: Flick Toggle, Ear-State Toggle for Each Ear (Up, Middle, Down)
• Tail: Wag, Tail State: (Up, Middle, Down)
• Eye State: Open, Closed, Tired, Squint
• Nosering, Horns, Tongue Toggle: Visible/Invisible
• Jaw: Idle Cud Chewing Toggle, Jaw State (Open, Half-Open, Closed)

RECOLOUR YOUR AVATAR

• Horns/Tailtip Recolour
• Left and Right Eye Individual Recolour
• Both Eyes/Nosering Recolour

Customisation:

The avatar is easy to customise; both through the HUDs which customises colours, facial features, etc. But the avatar comes with both sexes and separate hairstyles for each sex. Otherwise, the avatar is modifiable and copiable. Users should have no problems playing with the avatar. Users should keep in mind that the hooves do not work well without the unguligrade leg attachments. Anyone wishing to wear pants layers to their feet will have to do some modification.

Conclusion:

For one of their premiere avatars, the Bovine represents not only the starting potential of the creators, but also what the creators intend to bring to the market. The choice to create an avatar that is based by an often under-represented species of animal was a good one, which presents consumers with a new fun and unique choice. A particular novelty has to be the irregularly coloured bovines which let you don a Radiant Purple or Radioactive (Green) Spotted Cow. This is a solid start for the L’il Av Shop, and we look forward to watching them grow in the future.

All references to “Digitigrade” Legs have been replaced due to an error on the author’s part. How quickly one can forget their animal anatomy! Thank you Malison!

This review was written by Forepawz - Contributor and Senior Editor | Filed under Avatar Reviews, Pound's L'il Av Shop
Tagged bovine, cow, gallery, holstein, pound lunt.