Maverick Design has a “BEST LOOK” competition going on with a list of prizes that’s pretty impressive including cash and merch that’ll total over 80K. When I heard about it, I knew I wanted to enter. After all these nightly competitions I’ve been doing for the last few months, I have a lot of practice in creating new looks all the time.
The First Rule is that it has to use a Maverick shape. Since shape is the base, I’ve taken a few days to look at some Maverick shapes and I’ve settled on “Disorder.”
I picked it because I liked the shape of the skull, and because it was a very different looking shape than my own while still not being the square-block, all shoulder look that I don’t really like. I tried out “Intense” and “Taker” shapes – they were hunt prizes and I got them for free – but for the competition I wanted to make my entry as “stand out” as possible, which meant biting the bullet and buying one of the stock shapes at full price.
When looking at shapes, I find that getting the skin off so that I’m not being fooled by shading and color is really useful to get an idea of what the actual structure is that I’m working with. I built a custom, red skin that has the basic avatar shading baked in but omits all the other details that a skin applies.
This is a model sized avi (7’10″) and two things jumped out at me – calves and skull. This shape has a bit of development in the lower leg, something I’ve never noticed before, and the skull is almost perfectly oval. He has nice shoulders and hips that aren’t too narrow or too short.
For comparison, here’s my normal shape with the same red skin and three veiws.
My normal shape is 7’9″ and I think the extra inch is in the skull. Roland has a flat top skull! The other thing that jumps out at me is – again – the legs. The legs on the Disorder shape are about equal to the length of the torso, while my Roland legs are about the same length as my full upper body, including my head. That puts my normal midpoint at crotch level while Disorder is slung a little closer to the ground.
I was intrigued by the differences in the two head shapes so I lined them up to see what, exactly, the differences were.
Face on, Roland’s skull doesn’t look quite so flat on top, but the structure is wider, and less ovoid than Disorder. Note that pupils and mouth corners are lined up in both. That’s one of the things I look for in a shape. The width of a person’s eyes – pupil to pupil – is about the same as their mouth.
In profile, the differences are more pronounced.
The depth of Roland’s skull, along with the more vertical forehead gives Roland’s head a heavier feel and more depth in the face. It also requires that Roland’s jawline be lower so that it lines up more realistically with the back of his skull. Disorder’s skull, being shorter front-to-back, gets a more natural looking egg shape. It should be interesting fitting hair, although hats will probably be easier.
I’m allowed two photos in this contest and I have to include the styling sheet with the specific body parts and/or clothing that’s in the photo, along with a LM to the shop where it can be bought. One of the pictures should probably be at least bared to the waist, but the other could be almost anything.
And, ladies, this contest is open to women, too, with separate prize piles going to each male and female. Find out more at Maverick Designs.
The contest ends at the end of the month, but initial entries get posted in the shop. I think I’ll try to get mine in early.
