Beebo Brink

I've been out shopping this morning, and once again I was somewhat taken aback by the dubious choices some designers have made in terms of models for their product photography.

I won't name names, but on more than one occasion I've seen vendor ads with models that are just plain ugly. I'm talking a mis-shapen, ill-proportioned body that makes it difficult, if not impossible, to tell how the clothes would fit on a normal avatar. Or a face that is marred by severely underslung chin or other oddities of construction that render the face ugly beyond a subjective factor.

As a shopper, does this bother you? Does it affect whether or not you buy a product?

I have to confess that although it may not actually stop me from buying something I really, really like, more often than not it makes me think twice before buying. Which means I can often times talk myself out of an impulse purchase.

With clothing, I worry that the distortions I see on the avatar may partly be in the cut of the clothing. Sometimes I'm just so turned off by the model's appearance that I don't even notice the product, just kind of skim my eyes to something more appealing. And then I also find myself questioning the sensibilities of the designer: if they think this model is the best representation of their product, what other deficiencies of design aesthetic may they possess?

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Surreal

I can believe you'd be so insensitive as to mock and malign those less fortunate than yourself. Poor souls victimized by a slip of the creator's slider hand or congenital bad taste.

What next, pointing and laughing at maxed boob, butt sliders?

Beebo Brink

px plz

Ewan Took

They're probably just trying to emulate the RL model scene. Some of those, eek!

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Sela

it does make a difference to me and I usually will go elsewhere to shop. If they overlook that sort of detail I don't trust the product to be of good quality.

Aodhan McDunnough

Things that tick me off avatar-wise:

Ill proportions. It's nice to have the "perfect body" and in SL we can but, OMG, some people think that "perfect" means exaggerate the "best parts" and end of story.

The #1 criminals here are male avatars with max shoulders and minimum waist. These guys overlook the fact that bodybuilders achieve those proportions only when in competition posing. When they move around in their daily lives their bodies un-flexed assume more natural proportions.

Furthermore the aforementioned distortion makes arms look like they're tacked on at the shoulders using pins rather than skeleton and muscle. Someone ought to take pictures of these and slap them in their faces.

These avatars look their absolute worst the moment they put on formal wear, specifically tuxedos.

Over-sized irises. The default SL iris is HUGE. This iris is ok, in fact perfect, if they're after an anime or cartoony look. The moment they start slapping on realistic skins they better get irises to match. A newbie once commented how realistic my avatar looked versus the other well-outfitted avatars in the welcome area. I told him part of it has to do with the irises. He studied my irises and his own and commented "OMG I have eyes like a COW!"

While we're here would it be too much to ask them to make properly proportioned eyeslits?

Too much painted highlights. Highlighting and shadows help us achieve more realistic looks. Unfortunately a lot of skins out there have way too much of this. The oiled look may be sexy but it's so unsexy the moment it starts looking like bodypaint.

Finally Death-masques. At least that's what I wanna call them. These are skins derived from photographs but are too realistic and slapped on the wrong facial shapes. I subscribe to the theory of the uncanny valley, that is, there is a point where more realism causes the model to have LESS realism and look more zombie-like. It's the reason I'm not pushing the realism of my skin much further than what you see in my pic.

Steve Mahfouz

I don't care for the suntan oiled up look at all. But that's just me, your fave curmudgeon

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Aodhan McDunnough

I have a name for those: "Glazed barbecued Barbie and Ken" ... but maybe it should be "Glazed barbecued silicone Barbie and steroids Ken"

Beebo Brink

The worst example of body distortion that I've seen on a shop model was similar to this. Huge shoulders and head, small waist, but also these really really short legs. The result was a Quasimodo wannabe displaying what might have been decent clothes, but I wasn't about to spend L$ to confirm that there was a fit. And to cap it all, the shape itself was for sale!

Women's shapes tend to be of better quality, but the faces may be problematic. With clothes, that's not so much an issue, but selling skins with an ugly face has got to be a losing proposition. One skin shop in particular (haven't been back, so I don't know if it's even still in business) used a model who had next to no chin, and what there was of it was severely receding. wtf? If this was the base shape for the designer's shading, I can't imagine how it would look on anyone with a chin.

I'll never know because I took one look at that face and fled. That choice made me distrust the designer's aesthetic sense and I didn't even bother getting a demo.

Parker McTeague

i agree, i would question the quality if i saw models like that. it sounds superficial and judgemental for me to say that, but often how you present your product is an indication of the care you spent on the detail of your actual product.

i also would tend to suspect if the product does look great but is presented horribly, it's the result of a stolen texture or selling something with a bungled permission/freebie.

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Beebo Brink

It's difficult not to make that assumption, or at least consider it, since a good quality design talent is rarely concentrated in only one area of production. It tends to also extend to an overall sensitivity to color and form.

That presumes, of course, that the designer is handling all aspects of marketing as well. But if they are not, then they need to find someone they can trust to do a good job. Even if their business judgment is flawed, they should be able to look at their own store and vendor ads and judge the display quality.

CoyoteMomiji

I find it... extremely distracting, to say the least; I've gone to some clothing shops and spent time staring at the models while forgetting to buy anything.

Yes, my attention span is that short.

The worst part is when I see something that would be gorgeous, but I cannot. Get. Over. The. Model's. Mesh.

And when I know the model is also the creator?

I run. Fast.

Miriel Enfield

Serious, related comment: I saw an ad the other day where the model had her boob sliders maxed, or close to it. Bad enough as it is, but guess what she was selling?

T-shirts. With writing on them.

It boggles the mind. Even if the designer doesn't realize that huge, angular boobies don't look good, shouldn't she have noticed that the writing was distorted nearly beyond recognition?

Wildefire Walcott

OMG I've been waiting for this thread. I've been saving some screenshots I never posted because I thought it would be too catty.

But thank you for opening the door, Beebers. *rowr*



(Got 'em on another computer.)

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Wildefire Walcott

This vendor sells both shapes and skins. Unlike chocolate and peanut butter, they don't seem to go too well together. All shapes seem to suffer from acute AHS (*).

* Acorn Head Syndrome

Squeedoo S

Eep! That make-up does NOT look good on that Black skin! What in the world? O.o

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Squeedoo S

Also: Yeek, blue lipstick blooper on the top? I wonder if the creator actually thought that looked good?

Jackal Ennui

Absolutely. And if I'm going to trust a designer with the look of my AV, I'd rather buy from someone who has at least a basic understanding of human proportions. Stuff like: arms do go lower than the waist - a mouth is usually significantly narrower than the face - only M. Jackson has a size 0 nose ... Too often a really weird face becomes such a distracting element that I remember the face, but not what the ad was for.

Oh, and I'm guilty of the cow eyes myself. But on purpose. Got huge eyes in RL too.

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Beebo Brink

At the very least, this person hasn't realized that noon is the very worst lighting condition for photography. Hell, NO one looks good in noon light. So:

1) s/he has made her product looks as ugly as it is possible to look in SL and hidden any quality it may possess

2) revealed that s/he has no sensitivity to the effect of light and shading, which are central to crafting both shapes and skins

CoyoteMomiji

You forgot 3), Beebs:

3) Made me LOL by putting pictures of Sandra Bullock up, when a drunken Russian hamster could tell the shape looks nothing like her.

Cocoanut Koala

And the tiny head.

Well, now, I gotta disagree with you there. To me, it's like stage make-up, and the eyes are a big part of it.

When you get eyes that are more normally proportioned, mathematically, sometimes they can look like slits or little dots and just really can't be seen well on the computer, unless you zoom into their face. There are some people I have zoomed up on to see what the heck is wrong with their eyes, and find normal eyes there, just on the small side.

I got me all my stage make-up on in SL and you're not gonna make me part with it!

coco

Cocoanut Koala

Haha!

coco

Cocoanut Koala

Sandra Bullock, Cro-Magnum version, they mean.

coco

Steve Mahfouz

LMAO !

Envoy Costagravas

Coco, I'm sure you meant Cro-magnon. The one you refer to was our ancestor that was shaped like a champagne bottle.

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