CAM-501 in Mainframe
I first spotted Cirr Marat showing off his teen grid space station, so when I noticed he'd sent in a submission to my Teen Avatar Expo, I lept to check it out.
"This is the second version of the avatar I made since a few months after joining [Teen Second Life]," Cirr Marat, 16, tells me. "It has the 'official' name of CAM-501-- Corvian Automated Mechanoid 501. The 'Corvian' part came from old plans for a multigadget that never came to fruition, and 501 is just an arbitary number. It's a robot bird. Not a robot fish or a robot fly, as some people seem to think, but then, the bird parts aren't really that obvious.
"It has, at time of this expo, a built-in gun in the right forearm, a built-in auto-targeting 'Point Defense Unit' in the left upper arm, which knocks everyone nearby back, and a built-in jetpack on the back with adjustable speeds.
"What do I like most about it? The fact it has much more detail and looks so much better than the old one. Also, I've yet to see another robot bird on the whole Teen Grid. Being one-of-a-kind is both great and annoying at the same time, especially when random strangers start begging for a copy of 'that av'. There's only one or two other people on the whole grid who own more than one part of this avatar, and then about just under ten who own the head of it when I gave it out as a freebie for a limited time.
Beautiful robot bird, lovely plumage
"As for inspiration, well, I'm not entirely sure how I ever came up with the idea. It just came to me and seemed right... perhaps there's some sort of expression of inner subconscious turmoil or other psychoanalytic evidence there, but I just wanted to make an anthropomorphic bird robot avatar. And that I did.
"The screenshots were taken in a fairly new and unfurnished room of Mainframe, the robotics room. You may have heard of Mainframe already. It's a floating spherical lab/place where I go to build things, and has of late been a little neglected while I focus on other projects, and of course my First Life."
If you're on the Teen Grid and want to enter your avatar in the Expo, here are guidelines for submission:
-
Take 1-3 screenshots of your avatar at its most amazing. Make sure
they're .jpegs that are well lit, close-up, and detailed, and without
the interface in the shot.
- No Photoshopping or other post-production; in-world particle effects
and other "natural" elements are fine.
- Try to include a cool background in the image.
- No pics over 500K please!
- Include a description of your avatar, where you took the screenshot,
how you customized the avatar, and what you like about it most. Also
tell us what inspired you to create it.
- Be sure to include your avatar name for credit. If you like, include
your RL age.
- E-mail them and the description to [email protected]
- Deadline is April 1st!
I haven't counted at all, so this is an off-hand impression: are there more interesting avatars to be found in TSL? Or are you getting more response from there?
Anyway, the plumage don't enter into it ;)
Posted by: Laetizia Coronet | Tuesday, March 20, 2007 at 08:45 AM
Haw! I was planning to mention this down the way, but yeah, I got this idea because TSL coordinator Blue Linden once mentioned how the teen avatars are way cooler than in the main grid. Seems to be so!
Posted by: Hamlet Au | Tuesday, March 20, 2007 at 10:15 AM
Cirr's avatar was great (unlike my human with slightly altered sliders to make it look like the RL me). It was probably the best I've seen yet.
It's a pity he quit SL a couple of weeks ago. :(
Posted by: Katharine Berry (TG) | Thursday, March 22, 2007 at 03:50 PM