avatars

While many may feel a special affinity to their avatars, some want to make it legal. Alyssa LaRoche runs a design studio called Aimee Weber 3D Content Cration, named after her Second Life avatar. Since the avatar and the brand name are connected in the minds of public, she is seeking legal trademark of the avatar itself.

It’s a general move to protect my brand. We haven’t seen any problems yet, but prior to the trademark, we wouldn’t have been as well protected if somebody wanted to plaster my image all over an unrelated product.

Of course this means that if she wants to protect her brand she can't change the avatar's appearance ever again. In LaRoche's view this isn't much of a sacrifice as Weber is just a character she invented: "Aimee is the Dilbert to my Scott Adams."

Trademarks aren't often enforced in virtual worlds. Speculation on whether Nike would sue someone for the creation and trade of virtual versions of their shoes has been ongoing, but brands like Coke have outright encouraged it as a great way to promote their product. The difference, perhaps, is that the primary focus of these brands is entirely outside of Second Life while the Aimee Weber brand is entirely contained in-world.

Will that make a difference legally? If someone finally gets sued, we'll let you know.

(via Virtually Blind)

Cyberextruder, the folks behind Avatar Island that opens today, have kindly agreed to give the Things To Do group a guided tour of their new facilities, AND a free photo realistic 3D face for your Second Life Avatar to demonstrate the system. You will need to bring a good photo, see below for instructions.

What You Need To Do

• Join the Things To Do group
• Have a forward facing, non-smiling (really, the plainer the better) photograph taken in good lighting, preferably against a homogeneous background handy.
• You DO NOT need to upload this to Second Life
• A passport photo makes a very good choice, as it will generally fulfill all of the above criteria

When and where:

Be at Avatar Island at 1pm SLT/PST, 9pm GMT, 10pm CET today, and make sure you're a member of the Things To Do group!

Tomorrow morning, at sunrise in the virtual world of Second Life, a giant head will materialize over Avatar Island. It could be the head of a celebrity, politician, virtual world resident or a recent customer of Cyberextruder, a 3D facial modeling firm with a long history in designing photo realistic likenesses of gamers. The picture you see to the right is the head of one of the developers of Avatar Island rezzing into existence, at sunset, it will explode. Cyberextruder hope it will become a landmark and talking point for Second Life residents, and help drive sales of their new avatar service.

If you're wondering, from left to right: Me, 57 Miles, (almost) photo real 57 Miles

Started in 2000 by Jack Ives and Tim Parr, Cyberextruder, who have previously worked on games such as The Sims, Unreal Tournament and Max Payne, have high hopes for the new island. They tell me that Linden Lab, makers of Second Life, are watching closely and that if all goes well, they hope to work with them to improve the service technically, and better distribute lifelike "skins" for regular residents. It's not that they're expensive now though. With around $15, residents who're prepared to follow some simple instructions, and submit their avatars to "the table", a frightening, but seriously fun cartoon style conveyor belt that models the Avatars face, can be good to go in around 10 minutes.

Tonal Mismatch

The process isn't without it's problems. jack Ives, one of the founders of Cyberextruder told me that the biggest issue they faced with this first generation product was tonal mismatch. Where the face, which is provided as a jpg file via email to the resident, doesnt match the neck skin of the Avatar, causing a visible seam. At launch, they recommend that residents wear a modifiable skin, so that once the face is delivered, they can blend the tone to match. To this end, they've partnered with Cryogen Labs, a Danish skin maker that now has a presense on Avatar Island and will provide modifiable skins to any who need them. I spoke briefly to Michelle Margett of Cryogen. She said she'd seen the original press release for the launch and just contacted jack. Before long, the two had partnered on Avatar Island and she was excited to see how it all went.

One other issue is avoiding user error. As anyone that's ever built an application that relies on user input will tell you, that input is best treated with asbestos gloves, and quarantined until scanned for sanity. With photos, it's very hard to check that the user has uploaded something suitable, and 95% of complaints are solved by helping the user to understand what makes a suitable photo to work from.

What does make a good photo? Well you can forget smiling for a start. A plain, forward facing expression, preferably shadown free in good lighting against a homogeneous background. Sound like a lot of work? It is, but the alternative, if you want a really realistic likeness in Second Life is to higher a professional Avatar maker, and that could cost you thousands of real life dollars.

If you try the service and need help, for now simply email slsupport@cyberextruder.com

Facing the Future

Post launch, as feedback is gathered, and the service matures, Cyberextruder are looking to automatically blend skin tone for you. Also, they'd like to provide an entire skin, not just the face, so that the service becomes much easier for regular folks to use.

The company has had several talks with key figures within Linden Lab's, including CEO Philip Rosedale, and hope that enough uptake and demand will encourage Linden to help them improve their service.

Celebrity Face Off

There is no doubt in Jack Ives' mind that some people will abuse the service by using it to create celebrity faces and sell them on sites like SLExchange.com. This isn't an if, it's a when. How will the firm respond? Simple, they'll make those same faces themselves and distribute them for free, undermining the value of the (maybe) infringing products.

Exclusive to Metaversed: Try it for Free!

Members of the Things To Do group will get a guided tour of the facilities tomorrow, and the chance to bring along a photo and get their avatar for free.

If you're not a member of the group, join today! It's a free, fun way to explore Second Life with fellow adventurers!

Second Life Avatars tend to fall into to main camps: Realistic, and fantasy. Fantasy avatars range from tiny insects to 10ft tall monsters, and all manner of things in between. Realistic avatars are well, not as realistic as we who prefer them would like, but given a little knowledge, or a little money, not bad representations of our real life selves. My own avatar is slightly better dressed then my real self, but doesn't do a bad impression of me. The look cost me around $30-$40 and although Im not 100% happy with it, im reasonably satisfied with the results. My friend Mitch Wagner recently worked on his own Avatar, and wrote about trends in business attire for companies in Second Life. You can see my efforts in the picture on the right here.

Certainly Avatar customization is not easy. It's an art form and an industry all in itself, from body shapes, to skins to clothes, and the first thing any newcomer to Second Life does is start hemorrhaging Lindens in an effort to lose the "default dork" look they step out of Orientation Island with. Having a professional customize your Avatar im told is expensive. There are apparently companies and individuals who will take a photo from you and work on getting your skin tone, face and body shape just perfect.

Enter CyberExtruder, who despite the unfortunate name, (well really, they sound like a security firm don't they?) are about to open Avatar Island, who's centerpiece will be a photodrop point for people who want realistic Avatar customization without, presumably, the expense of having somebody do it for them by hand. The idea is, that you drop a "reasonably good" photograph of your face into the system, and a few minutes later, you're emailed a 3D model and texture of your head and skin. Creepy? You bet.

CyberExtruder's COO Jack Ives says that the software firm, specializing in facial recognition and 2D to 3D modeling services, plan to give away land on Avatar Island to complimentary services, creating a hub and focal point for Avatar customization. “Our plan is to build the focal point for avatar customization within Second Life. We want to attract the best avatar skinners and designers and bring them all together in one place. To that end, we’re supporting Avatar Island and will give space at no charge to others that bring relevant value to the group.”

I'd wondered more than once when somebody would put together a big presence for just such a purpose. Im guessing that more money is spent on clothes, skin and shapes as well as enhancements to Avatars than land, or possibly even gambling and sex in Second Life.

Avatar Island is scheduled to open on June 14th.