[littl3chocobo]

i've never heard of voltra, what is it's main draw?

[Stabbsworth]

Originally Posted by Tohopekaliga

I don't think anyone does. It's just that the old editor still supports it, because it's old and quite stable.

The new one does not, but it has lingering bugs which prevent me from releasing it as anything more than a "beta" option.

i was a tad tired last night, but will we be able to use the old editor if the newer one gets released?

[Coda]

Originally Posted by Voidbarker

i was a tad tired last night, but will we be able to use the old editor if the newer one gets released?

We're not going to release the new one officially until it covers everything the old one can do. At that point we're not likely to keep the old one around because we intend to add more features and it'd kinda suck to have to keep going back to add them to two separate editors.

[Stabbsworth]

Originally Posted by Coda

We're not going to release the new one officially until it covers everything the old one can do. At that point we're not likely to keep the old one around because we intend to add more features and it'd kinda suck to have to keep going back to add them to two separate editors.

ahh, that makes sense.

[mdom]

Originally Posted by littl3chocobo

i've never heard of voltra, what is it's main draw?

small feet, big head
many rainbow recolors but not as much as trisphee

[Stabbsworth]

idk what avatar sites' obsessions are with big heads and chibified bodies tbh.

[littl3chocobo]

hahaha, i've hardly seen any sites that don't like big heads and small feet x'''D for sure it reminds me of that one goth site where everything was 20 shades of neon and raccoon-stripe ponytails were everywhere

the obsession though is actually hair. big heads means big hair and small bodies mean you do not have to commit to large avatars

[Coda]

Big heads are to have more room for facial expressions and makeup and stuff. Since faces are the most individually-identifiable part of the body, the detail there matters more than anywhere else.

[Stabbsworth]

yeah but things usually seem proportionally off in that regard, hence why i heavily dislike the style.

[littl3chocobo]

for sure it isn't for everyone XD

[Stabbsworth]

besides, there's a lot more than just the face to tell the differences between people?

[littl3chocobo]

heads in general work. at least when it comes to art and customization XD

[Coda]

Originally Posted by Voidbarker

besides, there's a lot more than just the face to tell the differences between people?

Yes and no. Human brains are wired for facial recognition. It triggers more accurately and more rapidly than basically any other form of perception.

Sure, we CAN tell who someone is by other factors -- uniforms work for this purpose -- but for distinguishing which specific individual someone is, faces work best and everything else takes more effort.

[Stabbsworth]

not sure how to respond to that. i'm not good at remembering faces too well, but i can recognise them if they're in front of me?

plus there's that whole thing where you can't recognise faces no matter what.

also, Cube World is coming out soon.

[littl3chocobo]

this seems to be moving away from avatars and art and moving towards actual human faces which isn't quite the same at all, especially since the needs of the viewer is a bit different in each case. with aatars the faces change and so theme often becomes more important than facial distinction right away, in fact people seem quite willing to disregard faces if a theme matches close enough and 'body double' avatars are rarely told apart by the faces on them

i've also done some outside study and have noticed that identical faces are given a pass in both media and in individually purchased art. i have also seen and experienced individuals accepting the complete removal of distinct facial features when images are small enough as long as the integrity of the profile is maintained and it is done almost entirely through hair

of course if you watch anime you'll notice this all of the time. a specific face is picked for a few different characters and they are instead made distinct through colours and haircuts(which makes sense if you are trying to reduce workload especially since you cannot be lazy with hair regardless of the work in the face). as long as the emotions track correctly the rest means very little

[Coda]

Well, sure, I'm not saying that avatar faces have the same importance for identification. But we ARE wired to identify facial features. We perceive them as important. (This is in fact the explicitly-stated rationale for the design of Bratz dolls.) So art styles that emphasize the face and deemphasize other parts of the body are meant to provide a bigger canvas to play with in a place that people notice.