Rez Fantazy, with their Kirin avatar have moved to new territory; rather than doing conventionally furred animals based in reality; we see a more fictional creature that has been brought forth from the imagination. This is Rez Fantazy’s 5th avatar, so in this review we take a critical look at the maturing creator.

Out of the Box:

• PG and Mature Skins
• Blinking eyes
• Digitigrade Legs
• Eye Colour (Both and Individual)
  • Eye Glow
• Horn Colour
  • Horn Glow
• Twitching ears
• Swishing tail
• Paw Prints
• Talking Jaw
• Sound HUD

Build and Skin:

The Kirin is a departure from the normal texture quality of Rez Fantazy avatars. Usually, the avatars have great texture-work and a slightly less polished sculpt work. The textures this time are of decent quality, but unfortunately not as powerfully done as the preceding avatars. That is not to say that it is not a creative skin. I am unsure whether the avatar is covered in fur or scales, or both. The digitigrade legs are fuzzy, so it’s likely that the body is mostly furred, however. Every part of the skin and the attachments are covered with ornate plates and stylistic patterns that produce some of the most interesting designs that I have seen on an avatar. The only real downside is, as mentioned before, is that the actual quality and strength of the skins have suffered a little during the daring use of style.

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

The Kirin feet are hoofed, leading up to a digitigrade leg. In all, the foot and legs are mostly sculpted, and even come with an array of sculpted fluff prims to add some visual appeal. On the front side of the legs we see some of the mysterious plate/scales in two vertical stacks from hoof towards the kneecap. A strong point of the legs is that the usage of sculpted prims has been placed in strategic locations across the legs and over the hoof.

However, there are a few criticisms. First of all, compared to the sculpt digitigrade leg and most of the foot, the actual hoof is slightly bent, profile cut cylinder. Therefore, while most of limb is organic and smoothly sculpted, we see a mathematically perfect shape that creates a stark and visually disturbing edge. While there is nothing wrong with using sculpts and ordinary prims together, in this example, it makes a visual distraction. Second, regrettably, we see that the left leg and foot have not been properly aligned with the avatar. Therefore, the left leg slants inward and is raised higher up off the ground than the other. Fortunately, wearers of this avatar can move the left leg and foot to match the right.

This avatar opts not to include hand-paw attachments, instead using the shape’s default hands. This is very acceptable, though we wish that we could have seen a little detail and differentiation so the hands did not merely look like furred-over human hands. The tail is of a tassel fashion, with a medium length base, and an equally long tassel. The tassel itself is well textured and usually tinted a vibrant colour. Dotted in the hairs of the tassel are random sparkles which make for a nice touch.

Finally, the head.  We are pleased to see that Rez Fantazy has made a more symmetrical, yet still organic head that does not appear lopsided. The sculpt quality is the best for what we have seen in their head, though we still see a little bit more roughness in the contours of the head than smoothness. The relative evenness across the head is very welcome, though. The horn is a focal point on this avatar, standing fairly tall above the forehead and glowing fairly brightly.

The eyebrows are very pronounced, with textured ridges over the top and meeting at the muzzle. All in all, the shape of the face is interesting, and fortunately, Rez Fantazy has taken care to make the eyes look more to the front than to the sides. The eyes themselves are beautifully textured, with an interesting, if not slightly imperfect sculpted blink. We note that the top and bottom eyelid manage to close in on each other at the same time, which is a plus.

The muzzle is broad and tipped with a very large and flat nose. It should be noted at this point that the textures as a whole are notably more remarkable than anywhere else on the body. The avatar comes with a muzzle-talking function, and surprisingly, the mouth is rather bare; there are no teeth or fine detail on the inside, which is not a major issue at all with the avatar, but does detract from the overall visual presentation. The jaw, much like the head could have benefited from a more smooth sculpt.

The ears are decently shaped, though the quality of sculpts makes them look as if they were a malleable metal that was hammered into shape rather than the smooth, organic appearance that they were intended to be. The hairstyle is very much the usual fare that we have seen included with past Rez Fantazy avatars; nothing too special other than hair that reaches past the shoulders. It would be nice to see the creator use different hairstyles between avatars, but this is probably irrelevant since people often replace the stock hair with choices of their own. If that is the case, be aware that the avatar head underneath is peeking out of the prims of the avatar head (See Head 360 above).

Heads-Up Display and Features:

This avatar is not feature rich, and nor does it need to be; the options offered take care of most of the basic functions that people utilise when using their avatars. Most of the functions are operable from a dialog-menus, which works well, but has its limitations that simple text commands or developed HUDs bypass.

The HUD that comes with this avatar is, as usual, a ‘sound’ generator; clicking it will induce a growl and snort of some kind.

Customisation:

The avatar is copyable and modifiable, so users should have no real issues customising it. However, the head shape, being unique as it is is a little bit more difficult to put a third-party hair on; especially with the human shaped head poking out of the back of the prims in the head.

Conclusion:

The Rez Fantazy Kirin is a unique interpretation of a fabled creature. A lot of thought went into creating a magical quality to the avatar; from the intricately designed skin to the glowing horn and random sparkles around the body. The head is one of the better ones that Rez Fantazy has produced in its evolution, but what holds the avatar back a little is an overall sense of incompleteness. While important to design an avatar and texture it; fine details like ensuring smooth sculpts, changing up hair-styles and keeping body parts aligned add up to detract from the avatar as a whole. Again, we look forward to what they will produce next.