CAVs (The Guide)
Entering the Editor
Custom Avatar design is done using the CAV Editor.
However, before you can edit your design you must bring up this editor by selecting 'Custom Avatar' from the avatar menu and then hitting Ctrl + F6.
The editor is divided into a picture in picture and a long list of editable options displayed on the right (by default). |
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Editor Basics
Welcome to the Custom Avatar editor, when you first enter this editor you will find yourself as the default
male wearing nothing but a pair of gray shorts.
As we edit this avatar we can change its dimensions, clothing and various colours.
You will then be able to wear your Custom Avatar in all worlds in which CAVs are allowed.
The Viewer
The image to the left is a picture from the CPiP or Custom Avatar Picture in Picture, it is a zoomed version of your current avatar design that you may rotate and manipulate as you like, before applying to the world.
To zoom in over an area of the avatar place your mouse cursor over it and scroll your mouse wheel down. Be careful to ensure your mouse position remains over the area you wish too zoom into after each rotate of the mouse wheel or you may zoom to an area you did not intend to.
You may rotate your design using the left and right arrow keys. To change the direction your design is facing right click upon the image and drag in the direction you wish to face.
Selecting Species and Gender
To begin editing your avatar design you must first select a mesh to base it off.
Meshes are divided into species (type), gender and then one or more gender options. Depending on which CAV templates you are working with there may be only one option available per sub-category, or maybe even none at all.
Begin by selecting your avatar species type, its gender and the base options before moving on to step 2. |
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Skin Colour
You have a choice of colour for many of the different parts of the avatar, mainly focused around the facial area.
You may choose the skin colour from either a small colour pallet of any colour or from the larger skin tones box below.
The easiest way of finding the colour that you want is to hold down the left mouse button over the colour display and then with the mouse still held down move the pointer over the various colours.
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Eyes and Lips
In addition to the skin colour you may also edit things such as eye and lip colour (to name a few).
Click the colour boxes to open up a familiar windows colour picker box which you may then select the colour from.
Unlike the skin colour you will not be able to view live changes by dragging the mouse over the colour box; instead your design will only be updated once you have clicked the OK button of the colour selection box.
Certain options, such as Lip Color, will cause a slider bar to appear to their right once a colour is selected. This bar changes the intensity of the colour to prevent the need to re-enter the colour picker dialog and change hue.
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Shape and Geometry
Changes to your design are grouped into 2 categories - these are the shape and the textures.
The next section of the editor, the "Shapes and Accessories" deals with the shape of your avatar design such as the style of clothes it is wearing
To begin changing your clothes select items from in each drop down list. You are not required to select something from each option however your later choices may be limited if you do not. |
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Hair / Outfit Options
These are just a few of the many options you have available.
Certain options such as the wooly hat will allow you change its colour in the previous colours section discussed earlier or in the case of hair the length can be changed which will be shown later.
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Loose Style |
Wooly Hat |
Cowboy White |
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Default |
Pants |
Shorts |
Gender Differences
All of the above clothes styles belong to the male gender specified at the start of the process.
Depending on which gender you selected you will be presented with various choices of clothes that you may wear on your avatar design.
Below are 3 examples of the female Lower Body options with the Pants Style set to Paint Jeans.
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Default |
Medium Skirt |
Sari |
Styles and Color
Styles effect how the avatar looks such as the material its clothes are made out of - or anything placed upon the avatar such as tattoos.
The main difference between styles and shapes is that styles are placed on the avatar in layers, in the custom avatar editor the highest options in the list are the lowest levels of clothing and the lowest are those which are placed on the avatar last.
Shown to the right is a female avatar wearing a blouse selected from shirt-over and bra-set1. Notice that the bra is not visible at all as the blouse completely covers it.
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Most style options allow you to pick their colour.
This is done by first selecting the item you wish to use, upon doing the usual colour editor box will appear below the option box.
Certain items also allow you to change their colour intensity or transparency, as before this is achieved using the slider which appears next to the colour box button. |
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Shape Modifiers
Modifiers allow you to distort the shape of your avatar design along various dimensions.
These distortions are entered as a value of -127 (most reduced) to +127 (most expanded) with 0 being the default.
To change these values you may either type a number directly into the box or use the slighter to the right hand side which will automatically updates your design as you drag it - allowing you to better see what changes you are making. |
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Certain modifications are only applicable to certain types of avatar.
The image to the right adjusts the Bust Size and Bust Lift to their maximums which relates to the general breast size of female avatars.
However, the same settings applied to a male avatar design will have no effect. |
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Visual Examples
Here are some examples of the various shape modification settings.
These examples raise each slider from 0 to their highest value of 127 with all other sizes set to the default 0. Arrows indicate the direction of distortion for growth, when reducing below 0 this distortion will be reversed.
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Overall Fat |
Shoulder Width |
Arm Length |
Brow Forward |
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Hip Shape |
Muscle Tone |
Crown Size |
Waist Fat |
Applying
Up to this point your avatar design has only been seen by you.
To let other users view it you will need to apply it, this saves it in the universe database. To do this scroll to the top of the editor windows where you will see buttons marked Reset, Undo and Apply.
Hit apply to save your avatar. |
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