Broken Plot Device - Liz

Lizardbeth

Hello, everyone! First of all, I would like to apologize for not bringing this out as soon as I had planned. Two things had happened since my last update:

1.) I was asked by a friend to fill in a mod request for him, but didn't have any motivation - or any idea on which direction to take it - to carry it out. And,
2.) I moved house! In SL, that is. So I was busy decorating to put time into avatar modding.

Which leads into my third reason - I thought Liz was going to be a nightmare to work with, due mostly to her hair frills. It turned out to be quite the opposite! What I thought was going to take weeks of frustration turned into an easy weekend job, just like with Max. But first, let's get down to introducing Liz to everyone. Say Hi, Liz!

Liz doesn't really need much of an introduction, since she is her own star in BPD. But for those who need a refresher, or just aren't a frequent reader, Liz is the resident artist and cartoonist of the Byron Apartments. A very creative individual who's pretty easy-going, but a bit of a ditz with an overactive imagination, and a total coffee addict.

Like Sunny, Liz is completely custom made, except that she uses parts that were used to make Sunny and Inix. The head is a Curious Ringtail Dog, the tail a Kinzart Kreature Eastern Dragon, the feet from Pixel Puss, and finally, the skin is a modified Rintail. And as usual, since it's a trademark of my avatars, Sensation's Nails.

Liz's hair was a challenge, but not frustrating, as I've come to learn. It was a matter of experimenting with Toruses until I found the right shapes for her hair frills. At one point, I considered texturing them, too... but they look fine as they are now. Maybe in the future I'll update them with textures.

Not much to say about the pendant, except that it's custom made. I'll get around to detailing the choker at a later date.

Alrighty! Now that we've covered the basics, let's have a look at Liz's wardrobe. As soon as she's had her Sushi lunch :)

First up, her default outfit.

Here, she wears a purple tanktop from Happy Undead, and a pair of blue garage jeans from League. A very simplistic outfit for our reptillian heroine. So let's spice up a little bit with...

Her famous Nuclear Hoodie! This one comes from Insanya, and it's a very impressive - and detailed - piece of Mesh clothing. It didn't come in white, though, so this color will have to do.

Next up, some swimwear for Liz, fresh from grindHouse.

Followed by a nice-looking dress from Madison. Even if Liz isn't one for socializing or formal do's, I felt it was necessary to add something formal like with all the others.

And a shot of Liz wearing a set of Godzilla PJs, wrecking havoc on... her poolside, or something epic.

And that's it for our beloved cartoonist! Now that we've covered all the girls of BPD, next time we'll be going over the men of the comic, starting with beefy lionman Sid.

Before I go though, here's a shot of Liz trying to imitate one of my favorite all-time Liz drawings. Have fun :)

Broken Plot Device - Max

Maxine

Next in my Broken Plot Device project is the Byron Apartment's resident hardcore cynic, Maxine. Max plays the role of "shoulder angel and demon" to everyone in the apartment block, and is just as capable of getting her peers into trouble, just as she is getting them out of it. She doesn't care about the repercussions of her actions, and isn't afraid to speak her mind.

To be honest, I didn't really like Max that much until I started working on her. When I finally got around to doing her avatar, I can see why she's one of the more popular characters in BPD; Her brutal, cynical personality, when coupled with her feisty, flirtatious nature, makes her one of those "impossibly hard to get" characters that everyone wants, but just can't have for obvious reasons. (Well, she -is- a cougar, and I don't mean those older women types.)

Surprisingly, Max was my easiest avatar to make - she doesn't use as many different avatar parts as Sunny and Inix did. The head was made using the Curious Chinchilla, while the rest of her body is a Felis. (The ears, however, come from another Chinchilla mod, which, amazingly, is another cat mod.) Every texture on the body is custom made, the skin once again being a modified Felis skin.

And finally, she stands at 5.45 feet in-world.

Texturing Max's head was much easier, having learned from my mistakes when trying to reskin Inix's head. As a result, the head textures look much smoother and less squashed. Whilst working, I realized that the markings under her eyes are meant to be muzzle markings. I left them under her eyes anyway, because a.) they look better under there anyway, and b.) the avatar feels more consistent with Liz's art style and Max's character design.

Finding the right hairstyle was pretty difficult, until I narrowed it down between two hairstyles - one from Truth, the other from Calico Ingmann. I ended up choosing the from Calico - while Truth had better, more detailed hair, Calico's matched Max's hair very well, and it had less bounce so it didn't fly all over the place whenever I walked and obscure the ears. I even shortened the bangs a little to give it that more natural "v" shape, and added her trademark hairclip on the left side.

Max's ear piercings consist of a hoop and three studs on each ear. Each hoop was made using two toruses linked together to form a more "bottom-heavy" earring, and studs were added on both sides of her ear, as shown in Max's character sheet. Something that a friend had pointed out to me.

Again, her claws are from Sensations, same as Inix. Except Max's are a little lighter in color.

While Maxine doesn't wander around barefoot like most of the BPD cast do, I felt it was necessary to give her bare feet for outfits like her bikini. Again, they're from the Curious Felis, reskinned to the same color and pattern as Max does in her character sheet. Same for toeclaws, too.

Next up are Max's tattoos. She wears two distinctive tattoos on each arm, one of a crescent moon face, the other an angry sun. Because Second Life has some seriously poor texture rigging for avatars (the arms are mirrored for some reason), each tattoo had to be made by adding them to an invisiprim on each arm. It's not perfect, but this kind of workaround will have to do for now.

I also added a small heart tattoo to Maxine's lower hip, towards her inner thigh. While it's not really necessary, and since people aren't going to be seeing her nude anyway, I added it anyway for the sake of adding detail to Max.

(...What, you didn't think I was going to show you her genitals, did you? c.c)

And finally... HOMG SMOKING IS BAD!!!!11one

*ahem*

Now that we got the basics out of the way, let's have a look at Maxine's wardrobe. Max is a little different from Sunny and Inix, having five outfits instead of four.

First up is her default costume. Here, she wears her trademark "CENSORED" top, knee-high boots and red tartan miniskirt. The top itself is made from a shirt template (hence the straps, which I couldn't get rid of), and the skirt is mesh clothing, so you won't be able to see it inworld without a mesh viewer. Being mesh, part of Max's legs clip through it a bit, and there really isn't much I can do about that. In addition to these articles of clothing, Max also wears a black collar from Derp, a cigarette, and a black studded belt from Grasp.

Next us is Max's "hoodie" outfit. What's remarkable about her hoodie is that it's made from two separate articles of clothing. The upper part and arms of her hoodie comes from Apricot Paws, while the body is another custom made shirt, with a feline-inspired Jolly Roger painted on the front. The rest of her clothing (panties, ripped jeans, and sneakers) were all bought from League.

Now here's a costume that some of you might like. This skimpy-looking bikini is from Blow-Up, one of the shops I was browing for Max's tartan skirt. I picked this one up, because it fits in nicely with Max's flirty nature, so it's a little fanservicey, I'll admit.

Here's Max wearing something simple to lounge around home in. Her sneakers and collar have both been recycled, except this time she wears a pair of cuffs, also from Derp. Her pants are a pair of brown canvas pants from King's (they're marketed for men, but they fit Max pretty well), and the Kami top is from DE Designs.

And finally... a rare shot of Max wearing something formal. As most fans will know, Max doesn't wear anything typilcally girly or lacey, so the dress I picked out of her had to be both sexy and revealling, and still match her taste in clothing. The dress itself comes from TGIS.

Her shoes also had to match Max's tastes too, since Inix's shoes wouldn't really do the job. Thankfully, HOO~ did a pair of high-heel shoes made specifically for feline characters. The feet and toes were easy to recolor, but I had to add my own toeclaws from Max's feet.

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And that's all there is to Max! I'll be taking a break to work on a mod request for someone, but when I do come back, we'll be covering the creator herself, Liz. See you soon :)