Animated Mesh Tears Will Win Your SL Heart By Breaking It

Iris Ophelia's ongoing review of virtual world and MMO fashion

Nyagos Kidd of ++NODe++ [Teleport to NODe in SLOW] recently released a set of stunningly animated attachable mesh tears that stream down an avatar's cheeks when worn, and understandably, they have fashionistas all aflutter. I'm no stranger to tears in Second Life-- at least, trying to find a good set as an accessory for a photo-- and these are easily the best ones I've ever tried. Tattoo layer tears never look as crisp as they should, and many sculpted tears look goopy and cartoonish.

So naturally I was so taken with this new alternative that I slapped together a melodramatic little clip of them in action. See the video (and read more about these beautiful tears) after the cut!

They flow a little more smoothly when my computer isn't struggling to render shadows and depth of field at the same time, so I included shots with and without shadows enabled to do them more justice. While these tears are mesh, they aren't rigged, so they can be moved and resized to fit however you like. Better still for photographers, the animation lets you snap when the tears are streaming or when the eyes are only just watering.

The one shortcoming of these tears (as you probably noticed in my video) is that it looks rather unnerving and unnatural when a human eye is overflowing with tears but not blinking or moving at all. As far as I know, avatar blinks are one of the few things that can't be bent to the will of a clever scripter, so we may have to make due without a feature that would add to the realism and overall affect of these pretty streaming tears. Nevertheless, they're a beautifully realistic add-on for photographers, machinimators, and even avatars who're just feeling a bit blue.

And if you're looking for eyes to do these tears justice, check out this post I did last week about finding the perfect pair of eyes for your avatar.

Iris Ophelia (Janine Hawkins IRL) has been featured in the New York Times and has spoken about SL-based design at the Fashion Institute of Technology in Manhattan and with pop culture/fashion maven Johanna Blakley.

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Comments

[Toxic Menges]

....and machinima makers all over SL were overjoyed! Mesh is a game changer for SL and machinima :) Nice heads up on this thanks!

[Pussycat Catnap]

Content like this is what is going to make the SL of a year from now something so alien to the SL of today. Mesh frees up a lot of past limits.

Right now folks are paying most of their attention to clothes and avatars, because that's "sexy".

Things like tears, 'male bits', hair, feet, tails, ears, and so on will bring dramatic changes even for 'non-furries'.

But the big shock is going to come when things that you rez on the land get a serious looking at - since those need to consider prim cost, and the prim cost of a mesh is set by its -SIZE- when rezzed. The smaller you make it, the less prims it uses.

And that will cycle us right back into discussions about things for avatars: since mesh items worn on avatars -AUTO- scale up or down regardless of avatar scale - the need to be the size the item was made for now no longer exists (you just need to have the bust-waist-hips it was made for).

http://catnapkitty.wordpress.com/2012/02/22/mesh-scaling-to-reduce-prim-cost-smaller-scale-in-sl-really-is-better-now/

http://catnapkitty.wordpress.com/2012/02/23/standard-sizing-package-for-mesh-clothing-design-good-or-bad-idea-or-a-bit-of-both-3/

[Melissa Yeuxdoux]

I am amazed; very nice. Where are Godley and Creme when you need them?

[elizabeth (16)]

is all about the eyes really when we wish to convey emotion facially. is all a bit wooden without

being able to animate blinking, lowering your lashes, eyeball movement, closing your eyes, etc is probably one the most desired things we have yet to get from linden

[Pep]

If you're not using a mesh compatible viewer it looks like you're vomiting from your eye sockets.

Pep (He stoppeth one of three.)

[Pep]

Oh, and there is a discussion going on in the feeds about how mesh clothing doesn't fit all sizes.

Pep (Despite what Pussycat claims)