Avatar Review: Orange Nova Sergals

By Theonlyjohnny Resident

Sergal, the very mention of the name confuses a lot of non furries. However, when mentioned to furs, the first thing that used to pop in their minds, was KZK. The original makers of the Sergal Avatar.

However, recently, a new set of Sergal avatars have been created, and placed on the marketplace. Now, I know that they have every right to make an avatar and sell it, however, it's not the same when you make an avatar, that is already in SL, and call it the greatest.

Comparing the two Sergals, it's clear which one is best. Some people will tell you that the newer Orange Nova Sergals are best, while others will tell you that the older KZK Sergals are best. To find which one is better, I looked at both of them, and this is my conclusion of which is better.

First, look at the price. At Orange Nova, the avatars cost a whopping L$1,900 per avatar. A bit of a steep price considering what you really get. KZK wins this round, since their Sergals are actually affordable, at L$800, a whole L$1,100 less than the price of the Orange Novas.

Next, we will look at body shape. While the Orange Nova Sergals are taller than the KZK sergals, this was achieved by distorting parts of it. The neck is stretched a bit too much, and the mesh legs are stretched to the point of more comical than what most people look for. The point for this, also goes to KZK, due to their sergals having a more realistic shape.

The overall look of the avatars is what we will look at next. While they advertise it as being gorgeous, and high quality, the Orange Nova Sergals are more cartoony than furry. By this, I mean it looks as if they were meant more to be in a squash and stretch cartoon, than in SL. KZK wins this round as well, since their Sergal actually looks like a furry, and is not too detailed, but not too little detailed either.

Overall, KZK is the store to go with, not the Orange Nova, dare I say it, knock offs. If you don't believe me, then get both avatars, and have a look for yourself. If you really want a sergal, then like I said, go with KZK. They are cheaper, yet they are better looking.

Theonlyjohnny

Kinzart Kreetures and Their Upcoming Gryphon

 by Grease Coakes

One of the pastimes of Second Life just like real life is shopping. Gee golly, I’m bored as anyone could browse around a furry mall or a clothes store looking for the newest and coolest trends to throw on your avatar. 


Furries in general get excited seeing and hearing about a new avatar to show off their furry pride and wow their friends. Recently Kinzart Kreetures, or KZK for short, released a Ferret avatar for 1,000L with many new features including eyelashes. The release party was at furnication a few weeks ago. After many tries I finally got a hold of Sylver Bu and Flame Soulis the two owners of KZK.


As lots of furries know recently, KZK held a poll to ask the burning question. If KZK were to make a new avatar, which animal would everyone want to see get built? The choice was an owl or the griffin. According to the poll, the griffin won the poll by lots of votes.

Through persistence I did contact not only Sylver Bu and Flame Soulis. Sylver Bu told me a lot of options would be included with each avatar. Basic colors would be included for people to pick and choose. I asked what would stand out in Sylver’s griffins and she had this to say, "They'll come with a variety of attachments so you can easily modify the griffin into a hippogryph.  Not really much else to say than that. It’ll come with all our standard features as well as a new set of wings." In addition Sylver also added the standard features, "blinking colorable eyes, expressions, poseable hands, wings that open in flight, some alternate tails, ears, and beaks."

That’s plenty of bells and whistles for an avatar. Sylver quoted the price at 1,500L Wow! That’s a lot to ask for an avatar.

Sylver is in charge of building the avatar and physical appearance. Flame Soulis is the main furry behind all the scripting to make the avatar twitch this way.

Flame talked about the AIO which is short hand for all in one script. Here’s what he had to say, "Well, the Ferrets are using the latest AIO scripts we have, which manage all customization options. The Ferrets are also the first to use a single script based mesh blink system, with support for eyelashes. The griffins will most likely use the same system."

One of the things Flame strives for is that the scripts in the KZK avatars. He wants them to operate faster and take up less memory. A major concern of any furry is during a tail sale or a major party is this. Is my avatar burdened with lots of scripts? It’s no fun for anyone to walk into a sim and get a warning you’re too scripted or some such. So Flame is looking to minimize that on KZK avatars.

In fact Flame likes borrowing features from older avatars to be included in newer avatars. For example the KZK ferrets have an eyelash feature. That same eyelash feature and more will be included in the griffin avatar coming in the near future. Flame said remade avatars get updates as KZK continues to promote their avatars.

I asked the big question that griffin fans everywhere are biting their nails/claws to know, "When will the new griffin avatar be released?" Flame had this to say, "Somewhere within maybe June or early July, but it depends on our schedules."

At the very latest August as Flame also wants to insure that AIO script to operate the avatar works properly. He seemed dedicated to make sure the avatars don’t spaz and glitch. He might also develop a new AIO script which he will name the AIO2 script.

I myself will be excited to see the new avatar when it comes out and I do have a KZK fox so I can say they do make good avatars. Whether you are a fan of griffins or you just want a new shiny avatar to show off to your friends. The KZK griffin coming in the near future might be the fur and feathers package you may have been looking for. Sylver was nice enough to show me this web link as a preview (possibly not safe for work).

http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Okarthel/112/156/24

http://www.kinzart.com/news.php


Grease Coakes