Doing a haunt of Northstar Polaris, I came across a series of avatars with a recogniseable style from the past. Having seen his works distributed as gifts among good friends a few years ago, it would seem that Satch Flan has decided to produce commercially available avatars using sculpted prims and modern techniques.

Out of the Box:

• One shape/One Box covers both genders
• Twitching Ears
• Talking Muzzle
• Moving Eyes

It’s important to immediately recognise that this avatar does not come with any super features. In terms of functionality, about the only feature other than the talking muzzle is the fact that the eye prims are attached to the eye attachments underneath the head. This means that the avatar can talk and move its eyes. There is no HUD, nor is there any ability to change anything on the avatar through automation. To be fair, however, the avatar itself is well done enough that the lack of scripted features is forgiveable and easily overlooked.

Build and Skin:

There’s no better way to start this review by stating that it’s very cartoony. Many of the textures on the avatar are relatively simple, without much shading or fur details, other than stylised cheetah rosettas patterned into the skin. These rosettas are thoroughly placed over the body following the contours to the point where the patterning looks fluid. On another note, the avatar does not come in “Female” or “Male.” The shape that is included is very clearly unisex and easily modified to represent either sex. (Seriously; I don’t think Lion King featured human-based mammaries).

Moving to the attachments, the feet, legs, and thighs use completely different attachments. Each part is sculpted well and fits with the cartoon-based theme of the entire avatar. The feet can be worn by themselves without the leg or thigh attachments. That means that this avatar can easily wear a pair of pants or even shorts without much need of modification. For those that seek a flexible tail, this avatar does not come with one, but with a a sculpted, stationary tail.

Finally, we move to the head. From the start, the head is well designed to offer a tastefully sultry and classy facial expression befitting of a toon cheetah. Additionally, the eye-textures make the eyes look bright and attractive. What is particularly interesting about this head is that despite being designed for unrealistic proportions, the eye-prims still to attach to the eye-attachment points under the head, thus allowing good eye movement. However, it will not always be perfect as at times, the eyeballs may rotate so far that you may only see the eye whites.

However, two issues may arise for some potential customers. First of all, this avatar does not come with blinking eyelids, so the gaze is permanent. (Do cartoons blink? There’s a question for you.) Second, for still other people, the eyelids may rest too low over the eyes themselves, which may seem too sultry for them. However, this issue is easily remedied like any minor issue on other avatars by raising the prims that make the eyelids. Moving on, the ears twitch at random, and the talking jaw function is well timed.

Heads Up Display

This avatar does NOT come with a HUD or any commands; as the scripts have been kept to a bare minimum.

Customization

The avatar is fully modifiable and copyable, with the exception of the scripts in the ears and bottom jaw. The eyes textures are again well done, but there is no way to change its colour other than to substitute your own eye textures or get a new eye texture. These are all easily remedied by amateur to master modders.

Conclusion

The avatar is quite a lot of fun and has a unique look about it. While there is nothing wrong with the march onward towards realism in avatars, Satch Flan is showing through his avatars that going ‘toon is but another way for avatar creators to create avatars with character. Regardless, if one wants a sultry cheetah that can pass as a 1920′s gangster in a film noir, or a French aristocrat in a lavish 19th century mansion, this is a very flexible avatar.