Say hello to mini Gogo!
My friend Sparkle and I decided to make mini versions of ourselves. To successfully do this, we had to research everything about making child avatars in Second Life. I came across this Baby Avatar Customization – How to Make a Second Life Baby by MeelaVanderbuilt, which is both entertaining and informative. There are some good tips here, if you want to make a mini of your own. I also followed the Second Life Kid Bloggers group on Flickr for some shopping ideas.
I’ll have to give a huge thanks to Sparkle for doing most of the in-world shopping research, and finding us the best of the best items for the mini customization. We wanted to focus on doing minis with very realistic proportions, faces, and mesh bodies that were supported by lots of brands.
Just like making a new adult avatar from the ground up, first you’ll need a mesh head and body, then skin, eyes, hair, AO, etc. We decided to make our minis on a separate avatar, cos it would cause chaos in our inventory to resize everything 500% smaller to fit. And, we wanted to meet our minis to take photos, so a separate avatar worked out best.
MeelaVanderbuilt used a Genus head for her baby, but I recommend using a ToddleeDoo or Bebe, which are specifically for child avatars. From what I know, these are the two major brands in Second Life for baby meshes, comparable to Maitreya/SLink in the adult avatar world. If you were doing a kid or a teen avatar, the regular adult brands of mesh heads would work, if paired with a youthful skin.
Check out these sweet faces! My friends thought we were Zooby babies, but we’re not! We are real Second Life pint-sized avatars, about the same size as a Zooby Baby, but so much more customizable. If you decide to make a mini, budget $3K-$5k lindens just for the base avatar (head, body, skin, etc.). I found that my mini could use many of the regular hair brands, but I stayed away from overly formal hairstyles that a child would not have. Overall, it’s about the same price as making a regular adult avatar. Once you have great base going, you can take your time adding to your wardrobe.
Would you like to see me cover mini fashion in SL on my blog? Let me know in the comments if you have a mini, send me recommendations to brands that are must-haves!
Have a wonderful Fourth of July!
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