Since November of last year, I’ve drooled over the Snow Rabbit mesh head featured on NWN. When I saw the videos showing the smooth facial animations, I was blown away by how beautiful it looked. The S@R Hybrid Avatar (Nea) by Shirousagi Noel will be released at Skin Fair on March 15th — but you may have already seen a teaser or two from blogger’s preview this week.
Included in the S@R Hybrid Avatar Head package:
S@R Hybrid Avatar Head Nea
S@R Hybrid Avatar HUD Nea
S@R Hybrid Avatar Mini-HUD Nea
S@R Skin in Milky White, Natural White, Natural Beige, Bronz, and Dark (regular&cleavage version)
S@R Eye (Left, Right)
S@R Mesh Alpha (with eye, without eye)
S@R Tears (by NODe+)
S@R Mesh Shape (size XXS-S)
S@R Face Light
Manual (English & Japanese, read it online)
(Facial animations)
I’m wearing my shape, with head size 50 (the default is 30) and I am not wearing the included mesh eyes. If you do wear your own shape, make sure you adjust the eyes to fit, and the tears too. Before you do anything, read the entire manual, and the Q&A, it is extremely helpful.
Shown above is the Mini-HUD, and the full size HUD. Use it to control facial animations, change makeup, change eye color, turn tears on/off, turn on full bright and face light, etc.
I recommend turning Full Bright OFF, and never using face light. If you do, the result could be very bright and not pleasing to look at. Read the manual, you’ll know why the creator included a Full Bright option, but it is NOT RECOMMENDED BY ME.
Eye makeup in a range of colors, so lovely!
Lipsticks are glossy and natural.
The HUD also includes the option to change Eye shadow, Lipstick, Blush, and lash type. These makeups are great for a fresh and natural look, but I’m hoping for more lipstick options in the future too! Also, I want different colored brows.
I think this head is perfect in ever way, except for the neck area.
Left – With Ambient Occlusion OFF | Right – With Ambient Occlusion ON
The neck area of this head is slightly transparent alpha for the animation to work, so I’ve noticed that with Ambient Occlusion (and shadows) ON, the neck area is not seamless with the body. To combat this, you can turn full bright on (NOT RECOMMENDED), turn shadows off, or just turn Ambient Occlusion off (your shadows will be jagged, but at least your head won’t be full bright). I hope that makes sense! If you get a chance to demo or wear this head, you’ll know see what I’m talking about. I wish there was a better solution, such as having the neck area not be slightly transparent alpha, but it’s necessary.
(A short video showing facial animations) The full video is on my YouTube channel.
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Face looks waaay too young in my opinion. Would be awesome for a child avatar if that’s your thing but for an adult it just looks weird.
Actually no, obviously those who see this as just a child avi head have a bit of a sick mind… o.O the kind of people I’d suggest avoiding actually.
This head can actually be made to look a lot older, it depends on your creativity and what you add to it, mine looks very late teens to early 20’s with a bit of work.
my only issue and I can never find help with it is how do we use her makeup layers with this head?
I agree with Ayami. This face is very very gorgeous, but it does look like a 12-14 year old, which, in my opinion, is very weird. But it is a beautiful craft and very impressive!
Aw, I think she looks gorgeous! Also, sorry to be the annoying one this time, lol, but what hair is this? I love it :]
Stay tuned, I’m blogging the outfit in my next post! I was going to with this post, but it’s already super long.
Even though I think the face looks very young, I do like this mesh head WAY more than the Logo one which has just a horrible sideview imho.
*Cries* I thought I had just kicked my mesh avie habit, and then you post this beauty!
I will be buying this for sure. It’s gorgeous!
Omigosh
Ditto the drool and anticipation. I don`t care if we all look the same, I adore it. She’s adorable! I`m all a squee!
You want to look like you’re 14 years old in Second Life?
Beats looking like a 5 year old like some ppl : /
Good to have a wide range of age-inappropriate “jailbait” avatars in SL? There’s a thought.
If it’s not a 14 year old behind the avie, what’s the harm in having a young looking avatar? It’s not hurting me any that I look freakin’ adorable in world, and it hasn’t caused harm to anyone else that I know of….
Necro replying here, do forgive. Who are you to judge how anyone wants to live their Second Life? And by ‘live’ I mean dress their dolly. Honestly, this has to be my biggest pet peeve about the wonderful world we live in. If i wanna be an airship, I`ll be one, if I wanna be a furry, I`ll gosh damn be one. If you wanna look like mutton dressed up as lamb, go for it. By the way, living surrounded by young, beautiful Japanese girls everyday, I can say for certain that many of them *do look* like teenagers, when they are much older. They`re awfully lucky like that. Not that that matters either way. Wasting breath here, no doubt.
K rant over. I finally got inworld today to buy Nea today and I love her oodles.
I knew I was waiting for further development of hybrid heads and I’m super happy that snow rabbit has come out with this one.
cant wait to get it!
But…. do I want to look like everyone else who’s gonna buy it? What I love about SL is the amazing amount of different shapes you can create, which combined with all the skins available out there, makes everyone unique. The mesh avatar kills that uniqueness.
This said, she is EXTREMELY pretty!
If I could have this head all to myself, I would!! 😀 But even if you do look like everyone else, at least it’s adorable!!
(this said I will most likely get it!) 😛
I agree with Ayami too!
The av (as well as all other mesh av’s I’ve seen thus far) look WAY too young!
I don’t want eye bags and wrinkles, but … there’s just something about the face of a woman in her 20’s/30’s that’s so much more INTERESTING than in the face of a 15 yr old!
NWN blogged about a more mature looking mesh head from Redgrave.
Thanks!
I’m getting closer and closer to getting a mesh head, but the only ones I’ve seen so far are too young, or too thin (one of the ones you’ve reviewed, the demo requires 0 body fat! That’s dreadful!)
What is NWN? I’d like to check out that mesh head.
How about loop tech ? They will looks real too,right ? I mean how about loop tech and this head movement ?
Do you know what it will cost? Can you post a body image in bikini? The yellowish skintones and the profile of the LOGO head has still made me not buy it… Even if it was affordable. I wish full size mesh heads could be like the petites, so that many more could do makeups for them. That way we would not look the same.
Hi Marianne! This is $3k/per tone or $6k/fatpack. I will add a full body pic when I get home.
So pretty! D: Any idea of how much it’ll be? :3
They are L$3k each and L$6k for the fatpack
Beautifully made mesh avatar. I see from the response in the comments that the Second Life race to pack as much jailbait as possible into our virtual world continues apace. It’s beginning to look like Children of the Corn every time I leave my SL home.
Honestly, you look about 14 years old in that avatar…but then again, that’s apparently what a lot of people in SL want. Yikes.
I love the face but not too fond of the nose. If only the nose had more options…
Gogo, where did you get those eyes? They’re gorgeous!
From Aphotic Gloom https://marketplace.secondlife.com/stores/1010, but the one I am wearing is a custom color request.
Okay thank you ^_^
Thank you for a splendid article. I took it favorably.
The environment of Second Life is not perfect. The connection of the face animation that you are smooth and a smooth neck. Which do you choose if you suppose that only one these two either is available? I was troubled with this choice for a long time.
I try it again
Just buy it and i love my new Doll face ! Thank you Juicy and tank you so much Shirousagi, we are waiting for your updates (lashes and make-up). Oh Juicy, what is the shape you worn ?
My own shape, with head size 50 😀 You can probably do it to yours or check out my shape store.
I worn your shape (Bridgett) with head set at 50. But to adjust ears please ?
Hi Noirceur, if your ear is inside your head, just edit the ear and pull it out and adjust it however you like for it to fit.
Love the face … was wondering which skin tone you are wearing in your beautiful pics ?
I’m wearing Natural White 🙂
Wow! So thrilled to see a note from the creator here. You have done such a great job! I hope there will be more variety in the mesh heads in the future (by variety I mean slightly older looking avs).
I’ve tried the demo and I’m still enchanted by this gorgeous little masterpiece of “pixel-art”: it looks quite perfect, even its sideview is well-modeled (and this is, in my opinion, the facial feature where other creators too often fail).
Hope Snow Rabbit will release something more mature in the future, because this adorable but extremely child-looking face is not like what I would see and feel myself, even in-world.
Can someone list a LM to the where you can view the mesh head.
Thanks
I think the young look stems from the fact it was made by a Japanese creator, and looking young and youthful is a big thing there.
It’s adorable, and I’m greatly debating getting it!
I love this! I bought it and haven’t taken it off yet. Others are right, she does look VERY young but if you style the rest of your avatar right, it kind of downplays that look. I also wear mesh breasts (not to ridiculous sizes but because I think they look nicer than the standard avatar breasts) and those coupled with more ‘adult’ clothing (i.e. grown up clothes, not little girl clothes) and hair gives her an early-to-mid-20s look which is perfect as I’m 27. I would still like to see a more mature model come out from this designer though. I do like this head better than the Logo heads, not because Logo heads are bad, just as a personal preference. 🙂
I have to agree, with appropriate hair, clothing and shape, I think my avi looks more about 22ish with the Nea head.
Sabrina, where did you buy it. Can you give me a clue where it is found. Thanks
Hello Sabrina, I found the location now. Its at the Skin Fair in Sim 1 at the center. Thanks everyone.
Hi Gogo… Thank you for sharing a wonderful blog for a totally amazing product. I purchased Nea about five minutes after I heard about her. I also have Chloe from Logo and while they both have their own merits, me thinks you will most likely see me in-world as Nea. 🙂
I cannot for the life of me, understand the misconception of everyone looking the same if you use a mesh head. If I change my hair and makeup, I sometimes do not recognize myself. 🙂
And as far as the “youthful” look… Sabrina could not have said it better. If you elect to dress Nea in a schoolgirl plaid skirt, blazer, white shirt. Mary Jane shoes and pigtails, then something can be said of your intentions. With my “adult” shape, proportionately sized Tangos and age appropriate clothes, Nea indeed does nothing more than make me feel as if I am in my early 20’s again. Woohoo!!!!
So my hats off to all of the naysayers,,, the more, the better and fewer of us who will be traipsing around in-world looking “fantabulous!”
OMG I miss SL so much and the pretty things!!!! Just stopping in to see the beautiful Gogo!!
I agree with Kira Zobel. The avatar looks 18 and over from my perspective… and I am Japanese.
It’s interesting to know how people from different backgrounds see things differently.
Phat Azz free appliers? I bought this avi, its awesome. You can get free lolas tango appliers, but not phat azz.
i love it coz it’s so cute and it’s more alive than the regular avatar or other mesh avatar coz it has facial expressions ..
But what about body? face is beautiful but the rest?…I realy don’t like skin 🙁 I tried on demo version and it’s horrible in my oppinion, it is so flat and dull… But if skin of full version has better layer than demo, please, PLEASE let me know then I’ll take a risk and gonna buy it cos face is amazing!
I’m having the same issue – the head is gorgeous, but the skin looks nothing like the pictures in this blog. It’s hideous and grey. Is that just the demo that’s like that? I really, really want to get this, but I’m certainly not going to do it if my body is all grey. The demo makes me look like a zombie… never mind that none of the skins actually match the head.
do not buy this head is because hybrid avatar with various defects
and the owner does not resolve
it solves nothing and hardly answered the ims when we leave
will only fix headache buy