State of the Avatar: The Female Feet 1.0

When I joined SL in early 2008, the Shoe Fair that year featured some shoes with built in toes and opinions about them were as vocal and divided then as they are regarding mesh feet now. I thought the toes resembled Vienna Sausages so I just quietly bought some lovely closed-toe pumps and more Victorian boots. Thank goodness I live in Caledon!

Feet and shoes in Second Life are an interesting topic, subject to quite a history of creative innovation. I am as fascinated with SL shoes as I am RL styles, perhaps even a bit more since you can dance the night away in impossibly towering stilettos as graceful as a ballerina or go barefoot anywhere, completely immune to any of the common human pitfalls save one…the aesthetics of Linden Classic Avatar bare feet (shown below) really are not very popular with their sharply angled ankles and undefined sausage-like toes. You can try to prettify these feet by adding a pedicure layer…but it doesn’t really offer much improvement. Linden Classic Avatar shoes sold by most designers are designed for a size zero foot setting as well despite the fact that the majority of female avatars are over 2 meters tall, adding to the illusion of stunted, undersized feet.

The newest SL mesh avatar feet (shown below) are not much of an improvement over the Classic feet shown above and with (as yet) no available alphas to make them more versatile or wear existing shoes for sale from SL designers. These bare feet may look better until you realize there is no way to fit new shoes, no pedicure choices and since the Linden Mesh Avatar shoes are not interchangeable, they are far less versatile. Below I’ve shown the ‘Delilah’ mesh feet in her shoe booties and bare which are the best of the feet in my opinion. Her mesh body is quite distinctively tattooed with no option to change that either so that’s unfortunately a hefty trade-off to work around for the nicer feet and only one pair of shoes for her.

Having introduced the Linden Avatar feet in both Classic and Mesh version, another option is purchasing 3rd party mesh feet of varying heights but opinions are quite divided on their usefulness and beauty. They are expensive, (The most popular are Slink feet shown below in flat, medium or high feet @ L$675 each single set with no fatpack on the marketplace) and sometimes difficult to match to older avatar skins unless the skin makers have released appliers which are sometimes sold separately. Even at best often a line at the ankle is visible, and can be unsightly. Some people do like them because of their shapeliness, many new shoe choices and pretty pedicures made for them but they also cannot wear shoes made for Linden Classic Avatars and require shoes made to fit them exclusively in each height and none are compatible with others.

Like all mesh attachments, any mesh add-on feet, clothing or accessories often rez slower and require a mesh enabled viewer with more advanced and faster computer graphics and CPU speed capacities to be viewed in a timely and correct manner by yourself & everyone else nearby, also not something everyone uses or wants. Mesh attachments can also be more laggy than their prim or system counterparts though not always.

To introduce another issue that is still a current pitfall here is a little look back:

Historically, with Viewer 2 introduced in Beta in early 2010, invisiprims (with the accompanying halos illustrated below) became passé and using a foot alpha mask became the new shoe standard.

But…all the options for Linden Classic Avatars still use them and as illustrated, the alpha clash creating the halo around the shoe is still very visible when you wear these and has become a noted ‘fashion faux pas’ among today’s SL Fashionistas. A tutorial may be need to modify and remove them and I am experimenting with that when I finish this article.

Many invisiprims in older but modifiable shoes and boots can simply be replaced with the new alphas, and fortunately Japanese shoes like Geta, Zori and Okobo can be worn with either sculpted prim or mesh Tabi socks to shape the foot with an alpha (If you favor Japanese style of dress or mixing in Japanese footwear with your other styling) but I have had trouble with some of my good old favorite pumps and flats. Some are no-mod. Others feature more open tops, peep-toes and cutaway vamps and need special alphas so until I can find a solution they will continue to look very dated or sit in my inventory.

Rest assured, the ongoing SL shoe situation is not just confusing to newbies!

I try to take advantage of the best of everything available in SL so while I was eager to test the new Linden Mesh Avatars and I do like some of their mesh shoe choices, I like some of the 3rd party mesh feet as well, I still use my custom Classic Avatar (which I modified to a Standard Size) much of the time and have only very recently purchased the available versions of Slink feet to experiment with. I hope to have more findings to report in a State of the Avatar Female Feet 2.0 article with more tests ongoing. Did I mention I love shoes a LOT? Testing them is becoming a hobby of sorts.

Sometimes the choices are overwhelming to me though so I often make a different avatar choice altogether and the range of non-human avatars, while having special requirements of their own at least may not require shoes!

Ultimately, I decided I would take my time to experiment more, seeking correct alphas for my older prim shoes, hoping for alphas for the new SL mesh avatars or some other new developments. I’ve again quietly reverted to my old ways, wearing my Classic Avatar and treating myself to some lovely (and foot hiding) new mesh Victorian boots to add to my growing collection of items from Lassitude and Ennui. A couple of their smart unisex pairs of laced and high-top boots will likely soon join my collection as ‘Boy Fauve’ is light on new and stylish footwear as well.

Editor’s Note: Lassitude and Ennui’s main store is in Noveau. The store has also been a valued class sponsor for Caledon Oxbridge University for many years.

The package contains 2 sizes, perfect alphas and shoe bases for flawless alignment with no adjustment needed on my Classic Avatar as well as on several other Standard Size avatar shapes in varying sizes. They have the beautiful lines and detailed textures I especially look forward to in well crafted items. I will explore their more modern offerings and delicate sandals made for Slink feet in the future but admiring these new boots, all I could do was breathe a sigh of relief and think to myself once again, “Thank goodness I live in Caledon!”

Postscript

1) A fun way to experiment with SL shoes (or any new items, really) is to participate in some hunts, Special Gacha events with lower priced goods and look for shop Freebies or Dollarbies that many designers offer to familiarize yourself with the range and types of products available and to help you find the kinds of items that will suit you and your style before investing in larger purchases.

2) A basic tip for all mesh items is to look for these symbols below to guide you in basic fit selections for your Avatar of choice and then always test the demos that are freely available for most mesh items to confirm the fit before purchase. Standard Sizingshapes refers to Linden Classic Avatars and some modifiable 3rd party mesh bodies and are available here free of charge.

I modified one to use my own custom head and face settings so it looks like ‘me’ but I can now take advantage of effortlessly wearing clothing and shoes in these standard sizes.

Some guidelines and SL sizing standards exist but they are not always a guarantee of fit

The State of the Avatar is intended to be an occasionally published series of focused articles and discussion on a single topic, addressing the many ongoing hurdles and challenges of styling our Second Life avatars. I really enjoy reader interaction, comments and feedback so I welcome welcome any useful input or your shared experience and tips about the articles I write.

Please do always feel free to drop a message about this or any Caledon Oxbridge Gazette article at the inworld Gazette mail box. [SLURL]