Ayiki’s Fashion Design Pose Model, ver 2.0

The Day I Turned Into a Man

By Pollywog Gardenvale

The packages arrived as I logged in Sunday morning, but little did I suspect that soon I would be transformed into a man. I also didn’t know who had given the Ayiki’s Fashion Design Pose Models to me, but as a hat designer, they were clearly something I could use.

This time, I would read the instructions first because I am notorious for clicking things just to find out what they do—a habit that has gotten me into trouble more than once. (Just because I write manuals for a living doesn’t mean that I read them.)

Each package contained two boxes; one for the mannikin and one for the corresponding scripts. The instructions explain what to do, but it was confusing because all of the boxes look the same. But all it took was just one look in my inventory to see that everything was where it was supposed to be. I was feeling confident now.

So while I was in my inventory, I decided to poke around to see what else was in there. Of course, one thing led to another and before I knew it, I had clicked Wear. Words cannot express the dumbfounded, jaw-dropping shock that I experienced as I rotated my camera around for a better view. “What?!!” There was this girly man standing there, wearing my clothes! As I took stock of the situation, my mind started to clear. “OK, I can fix this. Now, where did I put my skin? Did that skin come with a shape, or did I pick that up somewhere else?”

Man oh man, my inventory is a mess and I didn’t even know where to begin looking for my lost self. The one thing I did know was that I had a date at noon, so I had to get this fixed pronto.

Fortunately, I found my skin in my Body Parts folder, but my shape was who knows where. Finally as the clock struck noon, I settled for a default female body with an unfamiliar face, put on a hat and veil, and hoped that no one would notice. My date didn’t seem to mind, but I didn’t feel quite like myself for the rest of the day. Later that night, I found my shape and backed it up.

Before you unpack this product, you should save your shape in a Body Backup folder, along with your skin. But enough about me—on with the review.

Ayiki’s Fashion Model Posing Stand holds your avatar still while you try on and edit your fashion creations. While you are on the stand, your avatar merges with the poser model, as shown in the snapshot below. However, in the next release, the mannikin completely disappears while you are on the stand, which makes the experience feel more natural—unless of course, you’ve undergone a sudden sex change.

The set of mirror scripts that comes with each mannikin is used to create a mirror copy of an object. Let’s say for example, that you have a nice puffed sleeve on the left shoulder. You can use the Y mirror script to make a perfect puffed sleeve for the other shoulder. The script places the mirrored copy at the corresponding position on the opposite shoulder.

To mirror an object, simply put the original on the mannikin and make a duplicate (in Edit mode, hold down the Shift key and drag a right or left arrow). Then, press Ctrl-Z to snap the copy back to the original position. The two objects now occupy the same space. When you drop a Y mirror script on the object, the duplicate flips along the Y axis and moves into position on the opposite shoulder. Pretty cool! The mannikins are based on a standard avatar shape, and because of the complexity of the scripts are set to No Modify.

Chat commands can be used to change the color of all—or part—of each mannikin. I changed the color of mine because I don’t care for pink and blue, but I really do like the red, white, green, and black stand. It’s very sharp.

Ayiki originally created the Fashion Model Posing Stand for her own use, based on her experience as a VRML world designer back in late nineties. In her other life, Ayiki Takakura lives in Belgium and teaches children who are hard of hearing.

Ayiki’s Fashion Model Posing Stand can be purchased for $L 250. If you purchase the product before the release of 3.0, you will receive a free upgrade.

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