mothmallow
Timid Phantom
Runway dump.
I'm not sure how much I will keep doing Runway. I had some concerns that were what kept me from trying it all this time, and unfortunately, it seems I was right. This type of thing stresses me out and takes the fun out of making avis. I feel like either I'm not making them for myself or to my own taste, or if I am then when they don't perform well I feel like my taste is bad and I'm bad at making avis. I end up feeling a lot of embarrassment over my avis, justified or not. Even if I liked the avi when I made it, if it doesn't do really well then I'm like "Well I'm clearly wrong and I should feel ashamed about liking the avi in the first place." I don't even want to wear or post it. It takes what's normally a fun outlet for passing some time (when I have it) and being creative and turns it into homework and insecurity. There are a couple of achievements for entering, so I may keep trying until I finish those, and then I will reassess.
click to favorite.
"That's Guro-ss! - Lolita fashion is incredibly versatile, but today let's dress up in guro lolita fashion! What can I say? Nothing says 'doll' like cute and creepy."
I based this one on several reference images since I wasn't too sure what style of Lotita this was. Not sure how well I captured it. I tried to add more blood, but it wouldn't layer right with the apron so it looked kind of weird.
"Item Showcase: Jenny's A-Line Dress - Pick up this sweet dress from H.R. Wesley and make a sweet look! (Dress Must Be Visible!)"
I tried to work with the green and orange of the dress and mixed the petite spring colors and the calabash colors since this Jenny dress is sort of in between them. The dress is actually my least favorite part of the look though and I did make an alt version for myself that uses a different dress.
"Space Mermaid - Make an alien mermaid who swims through space! (NO Human Skin Tones!)"
I had originally made this one as not a mermaid and then tried to mermaid it for the prompt. I think ultimately it doesn't have enough "space" to it, but I was envisioning her being from an alien aquatic planet with all of these crazy bioluminescent flowers and the mermaids also have the flowers on them to help them blend in with their surroundings ¯_(ツ)_/¯ The original version came from the same general idea, just not as a mermaid.
"My Humble Hobby - At first we fail, then we succeed: Your avatar has picked up a brand new hobby and needs a little experience & practice."
I used this cozy sweater avi as a base and tweaked it for the theme, inspired by my trying to learn knitting at the moment. I'm decent at crochet, but I find knitting a lot harder. This one actually performed pretty well on the Runway and got 4th place.
"I Do Exclaim! - Create an OC that is acting out what the Exclamation bubble says. (Required item: any exclamation bubble)"
I don't have a lot of exclamation bubbles, but when I was looking through my inventory I found this one and thought I could make a goofy avi for it. I had a couple of versions, but my boyfriend said this one captured "pumpkin spice" the best.
"Plaids & Plaits - Can you combine plaids & plaits successfully?"
I really liked this theme, and I was really happy with this avi. I had started working on it a while back when the mushroom hat came out. The last thing I needed to finish was the hair, and plaits/braids worked perfectly for what I had in mind. It got 10th place, which isn't too bad.
"Shorts Weather - Yay, it's finally warm enough! Show off those legs in your favorite pair of shorts!"
I tweaked this avi to fit the prompt since I thought she captured the "weather" aspect well and that outfit would also look cute with shorts. I had a hard time finding a good background to go with her. I think that my aversion to backgrounds hurts me in The Runway in particular because my avis don't have as much storytelling or atmosphere as the ones that have background elements and lighting to help convey the theme. I like partial backgrounds with cutters, but not all backgrounds work well with them, which limited my options here. I don't know what it is but I just really don't like using full rectangle backgrounds with normal avis.
"The Corn Has Ears - Haven’t you heard that the farm is haunted? Why aren’t you leaving? (Scenics Welcome!)"
See the above comments about hindering myself with background cutters. I think I just made this look like a mess. I was going for a murderous scarecrow.
I may try to make an alternate version without the background cutter at some point.
"Unconventional Beauty - You're beautiful, but not by society's standards. What do you look like?"
This is an avi I made a while back but hadn't posted. Originally she was just a ghost, but I made her into more of an alien for the prompt. I wasn't sure if I should interpret the prompt as referring to fantasy creatures or normal humans that are a little unconventional, but I felt like a fantasy made more sense to me because there is so much variety in what human cultures find beautiful and it seemed trickier to make something that didn't end up having a lot of elements of conventional beauty mixed in due to the limitations of the gaia avi design and what items are available.
continued in next post.
I'm not sure how much I will keep doing Runway. I had some concerns that were what kept me from trying it all this time, and unfortunately, it seems I was right. This type of thing stresses me out and takes the fun out of making avis. I feel like either I'm not making them for myself or to my own taste, or if I am then when they don't perform well I feel like my taste is bad and I'm bad at making avis. I end up feeling a lot of embarrassment over my avis, justified or not. Even if I liked the avi when I made it, if it doesn't do really well then I'm like "Well I'm clearly wrong and I should feel ashamed about liking the avi in the first place." I don't even want to wear or post it. It takes what's normally a fun outlet for passing some time (when I have it) and being creative and turns it into homework and insecurity. There are a couple of achievements for entering, so I may keep trying until I finish those, and then I will reassess.
click to favorite.
"That's Guro-ss! - Lolita fashion is incredibly versatile, but today let's dress up in guro lolita fashion! What can I say? Nothing says 'doll' like cute and creepy."
I based this one on several reference images since I wasn't too sure what style of Lotita this was. Not sure how well I captured it. I tried to add more blood, but it wouldn't layer right with the apron so it looked kind of weird.
"Item Showcase: Jenny's A-Line Dress - Pick up this sweet dress from H.R. Wesley and make a sweet look! (Dress Must Be Visible!)"
I tried to work with the green and orange of the dress and mixed the petite spring colors and the calabash colors since this Jenny dress is sort of in between them. The dress is actually my least favorite part of the look though and I did make an alt version for myself that uses a different dress.
"Space Mermaid - Make an alien mermaid who swims through space! (NO Human Skin Tones!)"
I had originally made this one as not a mermaid and then tried to mermaid it for the prompt. I think ultimately it doesn't have enough "space" to it, but I was envisioning her being from an alien aquatic planet with all of these crazy bioluminescent flowers and the mermaids also have the flowers on them to help them blend in with their surroundings ¯_(ツ)_/¯ The original version came from the same general idea, just not as a mermaid.
"My Humble Hobby - At first we fail, then we succeed: Your avatar has picked up a brand new hobby and needs a little experience & practice."
I used this cozy sweater avi as a base and tweaked it for the theme, inspired by my trying to learn knitting at the moment. I'm decent at crochet, but I find knitting a lot harder. This one actually performed pretty well on the Runway and got 4th place.
"I Do Exclaim! - Create an OC that is acting out what the Exclamation bubble says. (Required item: any exclamation bubble)"
I don't have a lot of exclamation bubbles, but when I was looking through my inventory I found this one and thought I could make a goofy avi for it. I had a couple of versions, but my boyfriend said this one captured "pumpkin spice" the best.
"Plaids & Plaits - Can you combine plaids & plaits successfully?"
I really liked this theme, and I was really happy with this avi. I had started working on it a while back when the mushroom hat came out. The last thing I needed to finish was the hair, and plaits/braids worked perfectly for what I had in mind. It got 10th place, which isn't too bad.
"Shorts Weather - Yay, it's finally warm enough! Show off those legs in your favorite pair of shorts!"
I tweaked this avi to fit the prompt since I thought she captured the "weather" aspect well and that outfit would also look cute with shorts. I had a hard time finding a good background to go with her. I think that my aversion to backgrounds hurts me in The Runway in particular because my avis don't have as much storytelling or atmosphere as the ones that have background elements and lighting to help convey the theme. I like partial backgrounds with cutters, but not all backgrounds work well with them, which limited my options here. I don't know what it is but I just really don't like using full rectangle backgrounds with normal avis.
"The Corn Has Ears - Haven’t you heard that the farm is haunted? Why aren’t you leaving? (Scenics Welcome!)"
See the above comments about hindering myself with background cutters. I think I just made this look like a mess. I was going for a murderous scarecrow.
I may try to make an alternate version without the background cutter at some point."Unconventional Beauty - You're beautiful, but not by society's standards. What do you look like?"
This is an avi I made a while back but hadn't posted. Originally she was just a ghost, but I made her into more of an alien for the prompt. I wasn't sure if I should interpret the prompt as referring to fantasy creatures or normal humans that are a little unconventional, but I felt like a fantasy made more sense to me because there is so much variety in what human cultures find beautiful and it seemed trickier to make something that didn't end up having a lot of elements of conventional beauty mixed in due to the limitations of the gaia avi design and what items are available.
continued in next post.
