Wednesday, May 16, 2012

A New Generation of Ears: Your Picks!

The results from my survey are in!  I'm very pleased to say that I will be able to make a good amount of you happy with the ones that were picked, because a couple of designs stood above the rest.  The results made your preferences crystal clear, and the ones I had to make were obvious.

To those who missed having my smallest ear, I'm pleased to say that the size labeled "Vulcan" did very well, with almost 60% of the respondents saying they wanted to see them made!

It's true that sometimes subtle is best. These sweet little ears will only barely poke through your hair, and are just a tad larger than normal ears. They're a great option for if you're displeased with the ears that came with your skin, or if you'd like to roleplay as a half-elf or Vulcan.  The reason I excluded them from the original six was that I was having trouble making the same base mesh that made ears like the drow and elfin as small as I needed it to be.  But since I found out it would be worth the trouble, I managed to compress it down into the pixie size that you know and love.  I think the shape turned out great!

However, the true star of the survey results was one that got everyone excited.  From a rough concept submitted by Aiorii, these blossomed into being chosen by an overwhelming majority.  With a full 40% making it their first choice out of seven, I just had to make the curly tipped ears!


They have come to life! These ears are just adorable, with a good helping of whimsy and playfulness.  It was quite obvious they were a hit and I just hope I fulfilled your hopes and expectations.  With so many people feeling passionate about seeing these made, I felt a bit nervous!  Luckily for me though, the shape came easily and turned out to be the one that gave me the least trouble.  I love how they came out, and I've been wearing them around my build spot feeling so cute.


But, now for a twist.  I said that I would only do two styles.   I said that, but what the survey results told me is that you guys really were hungry for more.  Two other styles did very well, the long "Fae" ears had a good number of responders, and the absurdly long "Poison" ears seem to have an impassioned following.  Using my brain thing, I realized it wouldn't be too difficult to reconcile these two shapes and merge them into one amazing super shape



People just kept wanting longer and longer and so here you are!  I built these alongside the old poison ear to compare and align them so everything you loved about the old ones will be reborn.  They're just as large and have a similar angle, but have a dramatically better shape.  While my sketch of the Poison ear had a downward curve, I brought the dip and upturned tip in from the fae style.  The long trail keeps the shape feeling delicate and realistic and kept it from being too unwieldy.

These are the last of the basic elven ears I'm planning on doing.  I haven't ruled out, however, doing a few completely new ears.  As I mentioned before, people seem to be really excited at the prospect of semi transparent finned mer ears, or torn and chewed up elf ears.  If I do those, they will not be in the same glorious spectrum of shapes and will mostly likely be in just one or two varieties each.  I just have to decide if I'm going to start doing jewelry first or after!  But don't worry, jewelry is definitely going to happen.

Out now at the store: 300L

Pixie Ears on the marketplace
Sprite Ears on the marketplace
Sylph Ears on the marketplace




2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Suggestion: One thing I really miss in any(or most) elfears on the grid are proper earholes.
An ear without a proper earhole that goes deep into the Head (or atleast texturewise looks like that) is just incomplete no matter how awesome it looks otherwise.

and I'm happy that you liked my idea with the semitransparent finned merears. I'm really looking forward to seeing your version done.
I've been frequenting your store for years :D

best regards
Shuri Dreamscape

Siyu said...

If you look closely at my new ears, there is actually a proper ear hole! It's textured on as well as being modeled as a slight indent, in the anatomically correct position of being behind the "tragus", or the cartilage bit that comes out in the middle. I agree that it's one of those little details that you rarely see in ears, but makes it that much more convincing. You have to cam around a bit to see it though, so no worries about missing it :)