Written 1 September, 2011
Chey, Your Skin Sucks!
I bought my skin in October 2006 and have been happy with it. Its tone matches mine in real life, and it works well on my shape. It's the only skin I've ever used and I don't feel quite right when I'm out of it.
I've gotten lots of compliments about the skin, but not the other night from an avi at Help Island Public.
IM: I'm reading your profile and wonder why you don't invest in a good skin.
Me: I beg your pardon?
IM: I'm wondering why you don't have a skin like the other ladies. You know, from ____ or _____ or ____.
I cammed about and identified the individual who had IMed me. He was wearing a horrible photorealistic skin. I began to understand his issue.
This isn't his skin, but it's not dissimilar.
Me: Erm, some people prefer drawn skins to photosourced.
I sent him a link to my post on the subject.
Me: I prefer drawn skins.
At first I didn't think he understood or appreciated the difference. But at one point he said:
IM: Most skin makers now blend the two.
That's when I started looking at some of the avatars around HIP and saw he was right.
Most of the mens' skins, like the avi who had IMed me, were entirely photosourced:
Fully photosourced skins create-- at least for me-- an uncanny valley effect. They just don't look right in a drawn world.
Most of the womens' skins were indeed a blend of drawing and photosourcing. On one level they weren't as creepy as the mens', but on another they caused-- again, in me-- even more revulsion..
I most definitely did not want a lip area that looked like most I saw. For comparison's sake, I'll show mine first:
Note especially the philtrum, that little groove that runs from the base of the nose to the upper lip. By the way, scientists don't know why it's there-- although it seems to me the perfect channel for the conduction of tears and other fluids.
Now for some of the skins I saw at HIP and other places that night:
I don't object to the increased definition of the philtrum, or to the blended lips, but I most definitely don't want real-life lip reflections or a shiny, wet-looking area above my upper lip.
Admittedly, some skin-makers are more skilled than others. Here's a photo of a lovely avatar on a sign at Amorous Jewelry:
Here's a blow-up of the lip area:
I'm unclear whether the lips and philtrum are entirely drawn or are a sublime blend of drawing and photosourcing, but for some reason my uncanny valley instincts aren't triggered.
Skins are a matter of individual preference. Clearly, the guy who IMed me didn't like mine. I'm just trying to point out my own preferences here.
More on the uncanny valley in my next post.
2 comments:
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder :)
Skin Drama!
Sweetie says,
One thing i notice about many of the skins, even the one that are drawn, is Stage Makeup. I find the photosourced skins repellent and i see very few painted photosourced skins that disguise the photo sections well enough to suit me. I also eschew photo-sourced clothing adn building textures for the same reason.
What bothers me more than photo-sourced skins as opposed to painted/drawn skins, is that on so skins the shading is made for over-exposed light sources. l
it isn't that the eye make up is heavy or the lips are dark. i am talking about the contouring of the skin being over wrought. Like the false shadows and highlights you use to over emphasize a characters features on stage.
The highlights on the cheekbones are a full shade lighter than the skin and the hollows of the cheekbones a full shade darker. the shading is mirrored in the highlight and shadows on the breasts, the apps, the bottom and even areas like the thighs and knees.
I look at these young avatars and they have contouring on their skins is so heavy it is as if they are ready to step out center stage and play a character 15 years older.
Why do they look so harsh to me? Because I live in an SL without windlight skies.
I know you are thinking" OMG Sweetie, how can you deprive your self of such beauty?!" but while you are thinking about that that my FPS are like 100 per second so i can Snicker-Snack with my Katana, a blur of speed. can relieve my enemies of their over highlighted heads before they can finish that thought. To the same ninja ends, i also do not wear a nuclear face light so my enemies can hunt me down from 3 sims away.
So to look beautiful to myself, and really who else can be harder to impress :) i stick to the older skins that don't look like they'd fit in a "Houri's with Abs!" review and i let my Katana give off all the highlights it wants.
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