Overbite!

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.