Outside her store, Smashing Prims-- since 12/07, up to 1000 chests served
In her first life, Raven Ivanova is a woman who was none too satisfied with the size of her chest. "I've always been small breasted and disliked being that way most of my life," she tells me. Motherhood recently changed that, however, giving her what she dubs "half decent breasts". She chuckles, recounting how she took that transformation strutting outside. "I wear more revealing clothes now," says Raven, "and for the first time I wear bikinis and like to populate hot tubs."
In a sense, this is the experience she offers customers in her Second Life store, Smashing Prims-- website here, direct SLURL teleport at this link-- through a unique synthesis of virtual fashion and technology. Raven's fashion comes from the evening gowns, lingerie, and custom skins she creates. The technology is derived from two relatively recent innovations to Second Life 3D building: "flexi prims", building blocks which bend to physical forces like wind and gravity, and "sculpties", prims designed to more realistically simulate organic shapes. Merging art and science, Raven Ivanova has launched a quiet revolution in female avatar fashion-- and for that matter, the very definition of what women avatars should be:
Bouncing breasts. Breasts that you can snap to your avatar as attachments, or in a dress you wear. Breasts that sway and gorgeously swell under clothing, when a woman walks; breasts that briefly take flight, when a woman moves with still more vigor, such as dancing, or maybe a bout of kung fu. To see them up close is to see the Uncanny Valley crossed at chest level, but failing a first-hand look, Raven's product demo video should suffice.
"This is interesting," I tell Raven when I meet her at Smashing Prims, "because it's usually assumed only men
want big breasted avatars."
Raven Ivanova will have none of that. "Lots of women love to feel sexy wearing big breasts. They can make my breasts smaller, too. Today I had a customer ask me to show her in person how to make hers smaller."
"Small but still bouncy?
"Yes," says Raven, "she was happy about the bounce."
I ask her if others are less impressed, perhaps thinking her product offensive. She says no. "[S]o far no one has told me that they find the breasts vulgar or sexist," Raven tells me. "My intention is to provide women with the option to make their avatar a bit more realistic, by mimicking the motion of real breasts. It's the same reason why I and other SL creators make realistic skins. We are trying to reproduce reality."
A seasoned tech worker and seamstress (among other real world talents), Raven Ivanova's breasts have developed into a cottage industry, since her product's December launch. "[L]ots of customers buy both nude breasts AND bouncing breast outfits," she reports, after rough counting her sales on a calculator. In less than two months on the market, by her estimate, she's moved "Somewhere between 700 to 1000... Nude breasts go for L$500, and outfits are around that figure, can be between L$400- 600 in most cases."
It's my turn to calculate, converting Linden Dollars to their US$ exchange rate. "Holy crap," I realize, "that's about $2000!"
She thinks they're a bargain at going rates. "It takes me literally twice as long to create a pretty 'Bouncing Bosom' outfit, as it does a regular designer." That's because she has to upload the sculptie breasts, then fit them into a gown or lingerie design in a way that's believable. But the movement of a woman's breasts ultimately depends on gravity, and once the Havok 4 physics engine is introduced, renewed forces of nature will have their way with Raven Ivanova's breasts.
"I don't know enough about Havok 4 yet," she tells me. In fact, Raven adds, she's researching the technology now. "If it affects scripted sculpties, I'd love to see the outcome."
Thanks to Trinity Serpentine for spotting Raven's breasts first.
Well done mis Raven.
For a long time bouncing breasts was one of the most voted client features (in the old feature voting system). Inexplicably many times more popular than other features of far greater general utility - testament that those who have an opinion on these things feel very strongly about bouncing breasts indeed.
These may not be for everyone (me particularly) but just go to show that innovation still pays dividends. Even from a technical build standpoint they appear quite sophisticated. I would have thought it impossible to do convincingly, and I've said so to folk before. I stand corrected. Bravo!
Posted by: Pavig Lok | Wednesday, January 30, 2008 at 06:27 AM
I don't have the fastest computer and card in the world, so for a while when I first come across someone wearing sculpties, they're just spheres. So I look forward to seeing these breasts on someone. :-)
Posted by: Valerie Bethune | Wednesday, January 30, 2008 at 09:01 AM
Bravo! This is one more wonderful step in the right direction. I do my very best to make my avatar look like me in real life, but have been unable to get that one portion of my anatomy accurate.
I am small and fine boned, with something upward of a D cup on my very delicate frame---that's a 32 band size, on the very smallest set of hooks. That is full and soft and rounded, the only part of me that is. If the breasts on my avatar were large enough, they stuck out like they were built for a Barbie Doll, even when I used the gravity slider. They just didn't hang right. So I ended up making them smaller just so they would be less obtrusive, leaving my avatar disappointingly boyish.
Thank you, Raven. It looks like I will be doing some shopping.
Posted by: Doreen Garrigus | Wednesday, January 30, 2008 at 01:14 PM
I think its the responsibilty of every male on the grid to look into this! It may need our help at some point in time ;-)
Posted by: Tristin | Wednesday, January 30, 2008 at 02:24 PM
OMG Hamlet, you didn't!
*face plant*
Posted by: Nightbird Glineux | Wednesday, January 30, 2008 at 11:17 PM
I are reddy to check this-hear produckt out if'n enny o' yu gals wishes tu strap 'em on n' kum on by my i-land so's I kin take a closur look n' pro-vide y'all wif an egg-spert opinonion of them-thar buxum buzzims.
Seems wee am wun step closur to parry-dice: Virtool Daisy Mae (o' Daisy Duke--same differunce).
Sinned by mee,
Pappy Enoch, Virtool Hillbilly n' Shiner
Posted by: Pappy Enoch | Thursday, January 31, 2008 at 10:42 AM
This is weird, even for Second Life.
I was on the voice client and telling a friend about this, when my wife, who thinks Second Life is weird and I'm weird for doing it, walked into my home office, just as I was saying, in my usual loud, New York conversational bellow: "BOUNCING NATURAL BOOBS!"
So that's been my day. How is yours?
Posted by: Mitch Wagner | Thursday, January 31, 2008 at 05:01 PM
In other news, who else thinks "Bouncing Natural Boobs" would be a wierd name for a pop band?
Posted by: Patchouli Woollahra | Thursday, January 31, 2008 at 11:42 PM
great job Wagner. i got a set. what else should i do with my discretionary funds near the end of the month. your readers might be interested in the results. check out my blog post called: http://maynelinefashion.blogspot.com/2008/02/boobs.html>Boobs
Posted by: EnCore Mayne | Friday, February 01, 2008 at 05:26 AM
You know, I can sympathize with Ms. Garrigus. I've long been frustrated by my inability to create a suitable simulacrum of my RL self. Until recently, SL technology just wasn't up to the task of creating a realistically jiggling spare tire and love handles. Does Ms. Ivanova do commissions for other torso features?
Posted by: Moriash Moreau | Friday, February 01, 2008 at 07:33 AM
Ah, Moriash. It is just about the softness. I am not creating a fantasy avatar. I am creating a good approximation of myself to go exploring in Second Life. I am content with what I look like in real life. But to look right, I need a little softness.
My next request would be for that bit of flesh at the top of a female hip that bends inward slightly when you are wearing panties or a bikini bottom that presses into it. Even my skinny little hips have that layer of subcutaneous softness.
What do you need to feel real?
Posted by: Doreen Garrigus | Friday, February 01, 2008 at 10:53 AM
@Mitch Wagner: "This is weird, even for Second Life."
Word.
Posted by: Nightbird Glineux | Saturday, February 02, 2008 at 08:02 PM
These are absolute rubbish. Don't waste your money. They don't look natural, and they certainly don't move naturally.
Posted by: Rumblelizard | Saturday, April 19, 2008 at 04:52 AM
- What a beautiful red tie you are wearing, Mister James.
- 'Not my tie, baby, that's my tongue !
Posted by: Harsh | Tuesday, December 30, 2008 at 01:28 PM
I'm very interested:)
Posted by: Sergio | Thursday, April 02, 2009 at 03:40 PM