In one of
may previous posts I referred to a recent fad connected with IMVU skin design.
Well, maybe it’s not THAT recent but I haven’t been a really active member of
the community for a while, so I might have missed it… anyway, I’m talking about
buck-toothed skins!
I get it! I
think we all do - a model with slightly opened lips, maybe even showing some
teeth, is supposed to looks sexy. If she really does is just a matter of
opinion, judge for yourself. So… I get what IMVU devs are trying to achieve…
but simply drawing teeth on the lips doesn’t do the trick! It won’t fly, people! Lips are protruding,
and drawn-in set of whites will also be protruding, making your avatar look as if she had an overbite. It’s not that bad when you look straight forward but once the
avatar moves her head… oh gawd. Why not do what other devs do and simply… NOT
do it?! Why not just leave it be and let users decide? There ARE heads like
that, you know. Granted that you like looking like a common mouthbreather, of
course. But hey, they do exist and even if I personally think such heads make
your avi look slightly retarded, they’re still n-times better than the teeth
texture on the freaking lips.
In the pic
above you can see some apparently very popular buck-toothed skins – all taken
from the first 10 pages of the “Hottest Products” section. I must admit I was
mistaken thinking there are more of them – I simply judged their vast amount by
the number of displayed advertising pictures. But that teaches me the lesson not
to judge the book by its cover! Most of those seemingly buck-toothed skins are
regular looking ones, but the models are obviously wearing a duckfaced head like this.
Sneaky Muneca,
you tricked me!
Here are
the links to skins presented above (and more ranting, if you’re interested) :
Top Left - KisaTheCutie – no, just no! I have nothing
against the skin itself. I do like KisaTheCutie's products, she’s a really talented
developer… but she definitely dropped the ball on this one. Due to overbite the upper-to-lower lip ratio is totally messed up and it makes me think of this guy.
Top Right -
Low – ok., I admit, it doesn’t look that bad in
the photo. It’s cute and pin-uppy - a truly beautiful skin
I’d seriously consider buying if it weren’t for the lip fiasco.
Bottom Left
- thegangstamuffin – to be honest, this is the best
skin with an overbite. Can you see the teeth texture?! A-freaking-mazing,
thegangstamuffin rocks as an artist. I’d let this one slide, because it’s not
even that much visible…
Bottom
Right - Low – again, but this time Low
reached her artistic bottom. Just a white blob in the center of the lips? No
attempt to make it look even vaguely tooth-like? My avi looks as if she was about to
spit some yogurt on my screen… gross. But hey, maybe some peeps out there dig that kind of stuff.
