When I first started getting comfortable with making mesh items one of the first masks I made was the Columbina Curia, a meditation on pretty, curly flourishes that I can't seem to get enough of. I had fun designing and sculpting and tracing pretty swirls all over my new mesh masks. Unfortunately, now that I am looking at all of my mesh items as a collection I realized it's a weak link. As I took new pictures of my masks to update all of my vendors I just couldn't quite get myself to give the Civetta and Columbina Curia the same treatment. At the time, I just didn't have the chops to do the concept justice, so I made some clumsy mistakes.
With the new standardized basic shapes providing a potent platform for pretty permutations, I wanted to revisit the Curia. I opened up some 10(!) year old files and threw my improved skill and experience at a new version to satisfy my insatiable perfectionism.
The new Columbina Curia uses the same base mask and color options as the basic Columbina, along with my six metal trim colors for the flourishes. The geometry is smoother, the textures are silky smooth, and the mask is a single object now to make fitting much easier and more customizable to your avatar.
For comparison, here is the old version in the same color combo:
I won't pretend it's terrible, I can understand it still has some appeal. Where I see the flaws, I know some people might see the charm. The two versions are distinct enough from each other that the old version could be missed if I did away with it completely. Because of this, I'm going to keep the old version for sale, but the vendors will not be updated to the new standard and the prices will be discounted.
I think it's funny that in that original blog post I predicted that one day I would look back with the "facepalm of hindsight" at this mask. Well, now that we have reached "one day" I will be more kind to myself, and recognize that it held up pretty well considering its age. I just can't help but always want to strive for better.
Like the Barocco pieces, I plan on creating Curia versions of some of my other basic masks, starting with the Civetta and I'll see where I go from there.
The new Columbina Curia is out now at my store on the Twilight and on the marketplace.
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