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Plans for the future!

So, since a lot of people may be wondering about the big question, aka: “you updated all the bits, what’s next?”, we decided to set up a little post talking about what we are working on right now, and what we will be working on well into the next year, most likely.

Right now our focus has shifted away from bits, and toward the avatar market. That of course does not mean we are done with bits by any stretch, it just means that we have other, very cool things on our plate that we want to turn into a reality. With Project Bento almost here, aka an expanded skeleton for the SL avatar, we are suddenly able to do all kinds of cool things with avatars, such as animated hands, tails, wings and even facial features!

This wealth of possibilities is making it easier and more fun for us to take our next big step: A proper base for our anthro avatars as well as subsequent avatars making use of the new technology. Our first step here, currently in the works, is the creation of multiple mesh bodies that use the SL texture map, meaning you will be able to use regular SL skins on them, as with most mesh bodies out there. Additionally, we are including a set of hands and feet to cater to the human market as well, looking to bring a set of affordable, yet high quality mesh body replacers to the market which are designed to work with lots of different avatars. We are very much creating several distinct shapes, and beyond the simple male/female variants, we are working on a proper androgynous form, and planning to have buff versions of each variant as well. On top of it, we’ll of course include a good alpha system to hide parts of the body, as well as a clothing layer for texture outfits.

Once we have this product ready, we will move on to creating avatars using this body. We will provide a mix between re-releasing old avatars such as the fox, and making completely new ones, all of them making use of the new bodies, which should make it much easier to find fitting clothes, as well as mod the avatar in general. The facial expression features Bento provides will also make for much more expressive and alive avatars, by rigging the entire face to respond to the face shape sliders, as well as being able to make smooth animations for expressions and emotions.
So in short, our new furry avatars will be able to smile, frown etc much more smoothly now, rather than requiring us to build extra heads for each expression we want to make.

All in all, big things are coming, and we’ll work hard to ensure they are both high quality, as well as customizeable, to give you the best experience we can 🙂 – stand by for work in progress pictures down the road, we will keep you posted!

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