These are not guides. Those are helpful. This is basically self-indulgent posting about item/avatar related things.
Posted: Sat Nov 21, 2020 10:25 am
Naming convention:
Basically the 2nd best idea I've had related to archiving avatars. 1st best is using my wife's site instead of relying on a third party upload.
But anyway, Naming conventions are part of my job that carries into my free time.
2020/0026_heki_freeform_siblingrivalry.png
Folder name = Year
Simple enough, mostly.
All of my 2019 avatars are mixed in with my 2017 avatars because I had like 10 of them and it was late in the year when I got back from Hiatus.
Number = Order of creation
Also pretty simple. The picture above is the 26th avatar I made in 2020. Four digits is because in 2013, I made over 1000 avatars and wanted the naming convention to be consistent and stay in chronological order.
Alternates are given a letter after the number. So the alt of the one above is 0026a
When misnumbering happens the latest of the misnumbered ones goes to the end of the line. Especially if I've already posted some of the previous ones.
Username Prefix = User avatar is for
All of these are pretty much just heki for Hekiko. But if I ever decided to dress up my mules or other users they would get their own prefix here.
Categorization
All avatars are given one category to group them with other avatars.
Freeform = I make what I want without thought to a project or guidelines. Runway = Avatar was made for the official Runway Contest = Avatar was made for a user run contest Challenge = Avatar was made for a challenge. Item reference = Item is central to avatars. (omg for my Omg Hat Girls, mizuchi for Mizuchi's Jewel) ET CETERA
Name/Title Gen
The actual name of the avatar. The starting or ending concept that makes the avatar unique to anything else in the grouping. The example avatar is Sibling Rivalry, which actually matches the name.
Other times the title gen is a starting point for the actual title that gets posted.
catharsisphone = Ring Ring Catharsis Phone (like Bananaphone)
And that's how I keep the naming convention consistent. So yeah. gaia_bunny
Making vertical halfatars is hard. I have no clue how people do/did it without any kind of reference.
Maybe it was the colors I was using because of Mizuchi's Jewel, but if you're not specifically collecting for avatars it is HELL on the inventory. My invo problems are more on the side of too much rather not enough, and it was still difficult to find items that worked.
It's much easier to decorate the near side of the avatar (the right side in the avatar creator) than the far side.
More than usual, the process with halfatars seems more iterative. Usually, I'm more one and done with these kinds of things, but I have alts for both of the halfatars I tried for mizuchi, and I'm sure I could have more if I really wanted to work at either of them.
In short, I'm glad I did it, and I'll probably do it again when something calls for it, but ******** if I can imagine ever doing that for fun.
Posted: Mon Nov 23, 2020 9:00 am
Why I never place in Gaia Runway:
But I use backgrounds....
I also play Love Nikki mobile game, and there's a similar format of contest as one of the games, where players dress up to the theme and then voters are given two 'random' avatars and vote on the one they like better.
In practice and assuming at least a small level of good faith on the parts of voters, what the voting tends to come down to is which avatar reads better at a glance, given a theme. It's a format that only mildly rewards cleverness and creativity.
And this is about two things really: How direct and/or humorously does the avatar fit the theme, and how close is the avatar to a certain popular aesthetic? Depending on theme this might balance more towards one of the other.
Fitting the theme is about finding a very simple/direct read on the theme and then doing it in a way that can be recognized by anyone with a passing familiarity on the theme.
Said popular style seems to involve very fancy/formal avatars with a moderate level of detailed item elements and backgrounds with lighting effects and, if the theme doesn't suggest against it, florals/greenery.
But the thing is, my aesthetic tends towards quirky/pop rather than gorgeous and my ability to work towards a theme tends to go oversimplified or a little too much of a twist. It's not that I can't win or that I could totally win if people would just appreciate me, it's that I don't naturally work well in the styles that do well, and TBH, I usually don't care enough to force myself to make something amazing for runway.
gaia_bunny
Also I am bitter about my meme one placing at the bottom of the last page. YOU ARE ALL BABIES. Badgers is and will always be iconic.
The last couple of avatars I've made have had important items that were later either removed or completely covered up.
The first is this Alien Girl (Alien GF) which beyond just trying to get the tentacles working on the face, was going to be in the default experiment color palette of murky reds/greens and dusky.
This changed when going through my invo looking for skins that could work to blend tentacles, which brought me to the Oni-ly You item and recolors. Which made me think of giving the avi a girlfriend.
The one that worked best ended up being the pose in Thezil, and the station test pattern on the screen ended up being the inspiration to pull in the bugbear items (bright yellow green and blue) as well as setting the overall style/mood of the avi.
Eventually, I took off the companion because the avi looked better as a standalone. Keeping the companion would probably have meant making a background/scene so they'd look like they belong together.
gaia_bunny
This next one started with the inspiration of the eyes + christmas tree hair looking festive but disturbing.
It grew into a beautiful festive mess. Now the inspiration hair is still equipped, but not at all visible under the avatar.
gaia_bunny
On a side note. Her Obsession and recolors has a blank face mod that is useful for putting together an avi without worrying about the base hair and eyes influencing the final result, especially if it hasn't been used.
Posted: Mon Jan 17, 2022 12:28 pm
Making the Top 10
I'm a big believer in the concept of quantity equaling quality. That is, making 200 avatars a year, if only 10% of them are 'excellent' (whatever that means) then that's still 20 excellent avatars in a year compared to someone who may make only make one avatar a month. Plus, it gives me a chance to practice and play with ideas that I wouldn't do if I were focused on perfection.
That said, I do like to preserve my top 10 avatars in any given year.
Step 1: Highlights
As I post avatars throughout the year, I'll ago through older ones and select about 20-25% of them that stand out to me over the rest. This could be about the look alone or a combination of the process and result that make it stand out beyond just the look alone.
For 2021, let's call this the Highlight Set:
Step 2: Shortlisting
This step is about finding the standouts amongst the standouts. Since at this point I've forgotten the context around most of these, this will be about 80% aesthetic with just a few important or sentimental avatars mixed in.
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Step 3: Creating a top 10
Now to actually create a top 10. This is about individual avatars, but it's also about creating a set that shows range. For example, these 2 aren't going to make the top 10 together because the atmospheric effect is similar on both of them.
And this one isn't making the top 10, because stand out as it is, it's a remake of a classic avatar. She's had her time in the top 10.
There are also a couple that are going to be shoe-ins at this point, because they're already classics in my head:
This one is unique as a scenic, but I'm not in love with it:
And something that makes in because it's represents a vibe very well without being too similar to other top 10 entries:
Here's a choice that ends up going between pure aesthetic preference (left) vs. challenge/meaning/range (right)
And then as the spots fill, the last few are just to see which fills out the range the best.
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