Iris Ophelia and The Next Big Thing

After a long lamented absence, effortlessly stylish fashion maven Iris Ophelia returns to NWN so she can offer her thoughts on a topic that makes my male gorilla brain melt:  future trends in avatar-based couture.  What innovations will revolutionize metaverse glamour?  Iris ruminates expertly after the break.

Ophelia's Gaze

by

Iris Ophelia

What are we going to look like in four years? And by "we", I mean all of us in Second Life who take our avatars beyond system defaults, whether we approach it as fashion, or in more neutral terms, as  customization. Think of things that have revolutionized how our avatars look in the past; the things before my time and maybe before yours, and the things in recent history.

They can be broken into two categories: Developer-Instigated, or User-Instigated.

Fashion goes flexi

Developer-Instigated changes in avatar fashion would be things the developer of the platform (in this case Linden Lab) is responsible for introducing, and include the creation of the initial avatar  customization settings and sliders, the creation of prims, and more recently, creating the flexible prim which started a practical fashion renaissance.  While hair can survive without being flexi, prim  skirts simply cannot (with the exception of skin-tight minis which don’t flex in either life). Flexi-prim fashions used to be uncommon enough that you could put every flexi-prim Classified ad in one  window.  Now, it's taken almost for granted that if an outfit is out on the digital rack, the prim skirt, prim ribbons, etc. will be built of flexible prims. Adding a specific check box or mention of it is  nearing the point of redundancy.

User-Instigated changes, things that are introduced by the Residents, are a lot less predictable, because it takes one to think outside of the box, transforming a tool they've always had, and then turning everything upside down. These changes include the move to tattoo-on skins instead of the makeup sliders, and the takeover of prim hair instead of the basic textured mesh hair from the Appearance panel.

These were each, at one point in SL's past, The Next Big Thing.  More than a fad, they're something that eventually makes the previous incarnation or alternative incredibly dated and, frankly,  “uncool”. A non-flexi prim skirt, a lump of mesh hair, or a default-esque skin all fit in this category.

So again I ask, where are we going?  I've been wondering about which group will initiate the next trend, and what it may be.

Flesh Physics
3D modeling programs like Poser offer the best source of ideas for what could change things significantly, but it’s a comparison which has its shortcomings (since Poser is about posing, and not about sustaining an entire virtual world) but bear with me. There are things we could learn. A highly unlikely but very enticing idea is flesh physics, where clothing tightness would affect the shape of  the actual body, and where large areas of fat (breasts, butts, and  bellies) would be malleable and moveable like the real thing.

Better Hands
There are more practical possibilities, though. Right now we have hand morphs, which are more like a preset, cookie-cutter set of choices, instead of being able to manipulate every joint for a pose, like the rest of your avatar. This means prim attachments (rings, talons, nails, etc) often just plain suck the second your avatar decides to make a fist. These morphs also screw around with as well as limit the kinds of poses and animations available, so hands and fingers with the same articulation standards as the rest of the avatar would be a huge step. The Poser figure that SL avatars are closest to is Poser 2, which also uses just hand morphs, as most animation makers are already aware. Poser is now up to version 8, and they're long past the hand morph.

Eyes on prim lashes

Alpha Hair, Prim Lashes and Toes and More
Resident-Instigated changes are more practical but far less predictable.  When you see something clever there's no way to tell if everyone else finds it as clever as you do. A few things have potential: Alpha textures (textures that have a transparent element to them, like feathered tips) in hair are almost at the edge of the Big Thing threshold; a few hairstyles can make it without them, but all the  best new releases seem to have Alphas in there somewhere, breaking up the sculpted look and adding more realism. Prim lashes are also nearing that point, though they're held back by the "insider  knowledge" dilemma-- new players just don't know about them until they meet the right person. Furthermore, there’s no option for men to wear prim lashes without looking a little unusual.

Some of us may remember the shoes that came out last Summer, with the little prim toesies. They  seemed like a brilliant idea, but they went nowhere after a few pairs of shoes. Combine the idea of prim toes with the desire for articulated digits. If kitty ears and fluffy tails can be animated in various forms, could a talented person perfect the prim hand?

My gut reaction is “LOL Hell no!”, but that's what makes this a fun topic. You really can't rule anything out as the Next Big Thing, because eventually you'll be wrong.

Read more from Iris at her blog.

Comments

[Melissa Yeuxdoux]

Flesh physics would be really nice. I would settle for shirts and blouses that aren't painted-on textures, so that when I put on a T-shirt with a slogan, it's legible! (Stress wrinkles would be great, too...)

[Ignatius Onomatopoeia]

Iris' points are very well made. Her work is strong enough to send my students there to study her blog as part of our writing class. And I look forward to a sports coat that would drape half as nicely as a real one does.

I also have this perverse desire to chase my own hat down the streets of SL. More physics of this sort would add to game fun, though given how we all attach prims it's unlikely unless we could script in this behavior.

This is actually a serious point; SL realizes the Surrealists' fantasies so well that I often feel myself to be in a Dali painting. But in SL, I could FLY down the street to grab my hat. . .