New: Antonio skins @ FNKY! [1]
April 16th, 2007 at 12:00pm Catero Revolution
If you’ve never heard of or owned any product created by Funk Schnook, creator of FNKY!, please crawl back under your rock and continue to live in your hollow little world bereft of urbanity. I’m certain many friends and loyal customers may have begged the well-rounded designer to expand his brand to include skins. To this reviewer, this transition into skin creation was only natural. It was only a matter of time, really. Funk has won over consumer audiences with his pragmatic, conscientious and polished aesthetic treatments which exude the most ravenous sense of savoir-faire.
FNKY!’s debut skin line serves to bolster quality male skin selections in a market where discerning men tend to be hard-pressed to find variety in quality product.
“Antonio” comes in 3 modifiable skin tones - pale, medium (worn) and tan - each offering 10 facial hair options. Now a standard choice of high calibre epidermal vendibles, “Antonio” offers both a bald and hair-mapped head base. Other product offerings include two ab musculature choices - one being more pronounced than the other. At 1,750L, a singles pack comes with the facial hair of your choice varied with the hair basing and ab shading options - making up 4 skins per pack. One also has the ability to buy an entire skin tone set for 10,000L which includes the entire range of facial hair manicuring and musculature articulation - a prolific 40 skins in total. Demos showing 5 facial hair types are available @ 1L and come with a detailed notecard outlining the product offerings.
It’s interesting to note that Funk has been trying his hand at skin creation since his early days in SL. Says the multi-skilled designer, “I’ve been making skins since I joined SL but never sold them. It was actually one of the first things I tried. You can still see my old skins on some vendors (the Smooth Criminal suits) and inside notecards which include pictures of products (headphones, textured glasses, eyes, etc.),”.
In speaking with Funk about the scope of his skin creation process I was shocked to learn just how much of himself he invested into “Antonio”. Literally.
“The face is about 80% of my real life face. I took about 600 macro snaps of my face under my bathroom light. All the beards are my own. I was crazy enough to grow it out for about 8 days, then shaved all those shapes in and took snaps. Parts of the body (knees, nipples, butt, etc.) were sourced from a well known membership site for 3-D content developers, while other parts were hand-painted - the abs the most obvious.”
For one month, Funk toiled 14-hour days to create the athletic skin. His creative approach combines photosourced and hand-drawn elements with time spent learning and practicing techniques in 3-D painting applications. “I wanted something that would let me paint directly on the avatar mesh so I could get perfect seams. Doing it in Photoshop on 2-D images was proving to be impossible”. The end product is a matte finish skin with a defined physique - the texturing of which shows signs of the soft-stroke airbrushing technique. Potential customers should note that the abs have been specifically designed with the broad-chested avatar with a narrow waist in mind.
On a personal note, I’ve walked around in-world wearing the Antonio Medium skin for over a week. Every one of my friends, upon seeing photos I had taken of the skin for this review, were incredulous that it was actually my avie in that skin. I don’t know if I should take it as an insult or a compliment.
This one girl: Is that you? Or a stripper?
Catero: What?! A stripper?
This one girl: It doesn’t look like you. New skin? New shape? I never knew your ears were so cute.
This one girl: It’s a new something. I know that much.
This one girl: New skin. Where is it from?
Catero: It’s new skin. From FNKY!. Those’re my review pics.
This one girl: See? I knew it! LOL. It’s nice.
With the technical know-how now secured firmly under his belt, Funk promises more facial hairs, eyeliner options and the potential of a completely new face for future skin releases. The addition of blonde and redhead hair types to the FNKY! line-up are also in the works. Ryan will definitely be pleased.
“I know people will draw comparisons to other skins, but for me the face is unique because I see myself”, says Schnook.
The topic of avatars and personal identity in SL is an interesting aspect of newly emerging cybersociology studies. The desire to have one’s avatar in some part reflect the physical appearance of one’s real world self is a common aspiration for many residents (check out the pseudoscientific Uncanny Valley theory). I find it intriguing based on experiences with friends in-world in addition to Jesseaitui Petion who, following the release of his Aitui Premier skins, mentioned that his motivation in creating the skins was to have his avatar look more like himself.
For an outer layer that’s sure to feature your best qualities saunter down to FNKY Cake Island (128, 45, 25).
Note to readers: Ryan is bringing sexyback.
Model: Devo Whippet
Disclosure: Disclosure: Seen in World: Yes | Review Copy: Yes | Friends List: No
Notes: On Catero: Suit, Smooth Criminal Suit in black (FNKY! / Funk Schnook); Shoes, City Walk shoes (Shiny Things / Fallingwater Cellardoor); Underwear, Plain Boxers All White (*G*L*A*M* / Chloris Hathor); On Devo: Skin, Vogue Skin - Champagne - Deviant - Twisted (Celestial Studios + Last Call / Starley Thereian); Hair, Anisa in platinum burnt (ETD / Elikapeka Tiramisu); Neko ears, Anisa's Neko Ears (Outland Tech & Curious Relic / Anisa Naumova); Neko Tail, Bandage Tail - not yet released (The Syndicate / Tyreak Takashi); Dress, Black Silk Shantung Dress (Frangipani Designs / Rach Snookums); Shoes, Uptown Black Stilettos (Prim Seduction / Sylfie Minogue); Rosary, Bono's Rosary (Unveiled / Sythia Veil); Bracelet, Pearl Wrap Bracelet (Calla / Haedon Quine); Tattoos, Henna (InkD Tattoo Studios & Designs / Laylah Mistral)
12 Comments Add your own
1. confused | April 16th, 2007 at 12:46 pm
Is it me? Or do all mens skins end up looking like Lost Thereian’s? Is that what everyone is striving for? Or does it just end up that way because everyone has the same standard for good-looking?
2. Milla Michinaga | April 16th, 2007 at 1:56 pm
I agree with comment # 1 ;))) Antonio is no doubt very handsome and well made, however, I too would love to see some variation. We are approaching an SL society of male ND clones ;)).
Also, the price of Antonio, at 1750, is rather steep….Comparing with female skin, that would buy you more than one make-up .
3. Dery Lufbery | April 16th, 2007 at 5:47 pm
My sentiments exactly. Need less of the same thing.
4. Jesseaitui petion | April 16th, 2007 at 6:21 pm
There`s already a HUGE discussion on this over at style disorder.
Yes it does look similar to the ND skin.
Personally I think Lost has reached a ‘best’ point with skins. And until someone finds a way to surpass it, everyone`s skins are going to be looking similar.
I`m waiting for someone to surpass. What more can you add to dante to make it better? Little things. But all around- nothing i can think of.
Aside from this having nice qualities like Naughty skins have. This has better facial hair..very realistic. However im not a fan of abs, they look like they`re being squeezed in.
My personal opinion is..great skin, but I look better in a ND. I also look VERY different in this skin than i do a ND(-N-..wtfever). But ive also seen people wear this skin who look exactly t he same in their ND. So…again, personal preference will decide if you get this, a naughty…or something else.
For a photorealistic skin, this and ND are, imo, TOPS. others just look too real or just dont “do it”
1750 really isnt too high of a price for MALE skin market, bu soon I believe that price has to, and will, drop. More and more are making male skins these days. It probably won`t stay up there for long.
5. Catero Revolution | April 16th, 2007 at 7:38 pm
One’s avatar appearance in a skin relies heavily on one’s shape and Jesse has touched on that point. I think a lot of people forget that - which is why it’s highly adviseable to actually put in the time and effort to make your shape unique.
Avid shoppers will notice that most male and female skins are youthful and athletic - as are most avatar appearance products. That’s just the current climate of the industry. Things are slowly changing with releases for older avies by designers like Aemilia Case (shapes), Lechium Candour (skins), Mystikal Faddoul (hair) and Sachi Vixen (skins). And I think it’s awesome because variety is the spizzice of life.
As for the mention of “clonage”, Lost’s “Dante” skin is primarily photosourced from images purchased from a well-known 3-D developer’s site. Funk’s “Antonio” skin is a hybrid of photos taken of himself, some elements of other photos and airbrushing (just like the Aitui Premier skins). Which requires more creative critical thinking, imo, since one must rely on their own creativity and imagination to “fill-in-the-blanks”. You can’t hold it against the guy that he doesn’t look like a troll irl.
All-in-all, I highly suggest readers scroll through the SL Forums from time to time to keep abreast of any alternative releases that may be of interest. There are non-athletic skins out there, my friends. My personal fave are made by Nylon Pinkney.
6. Men’s Second Style &hellip | April 16th, 2007 at 10:24 pm
[...] When a few days ago he showed me some pictures from the über-sophisticated photo shoot for his review of the new “Antonio” skins from designer Funk Schnook of FNKY!, I thought, “Hmm, [...]
7. Ryan Darragh | April 17th, 2007 at 2:33 pm
Interesting points by all. I have in previous skin reviews emphasized what I firmly believe is the highly subjective nature of our response to skins. I’m sure I’ll never cease being fascinated by the varied responses to different skin designs.
Another less athletic/muscular skin you might want to check out is Garbage Prototype’s relatively new skin at Random. I’m blanking out on the name–I want to say “Andrew,” not sure if that’s right. Last time I checked this was the only version available, so it should be easy to spot.
8. Takeshi Kiama | April 21st, 2007 at 7:12 am
The shape is the thing. Too many people just put it on straight out of the box and don’t play with the shape settings. I’ve managed to get a different look each time. ^^
9. Dery Lufbery | April 23rd, 2007 at 6:17 am
I need to clarify on my previous comment lest misunderstandings arise. “Need less of the same thing” refers to the current climate (as Catero pointed out) of athletic youthful skins for the immaculate Ken-doll-ish men in SL. And thanks to Catero and Ryan for pointing out the alternatives. Cheers to all.
10. Catero Revolution | April 23rd, 2007 at 10:31 am
Dery, now you have me paranoid that my av is a shallow, plastic Ken doll. I hope he’s not. But on the serious side, you are right. I have a middle-aged avi (click for pic) and it was hard for me to find him a non-muscley skin that was appropriate for his age. I just used the default skin.
The climate only changes when consumers tactfully voice their needs to designers. Actually, now that I think about it, Nylon Pinkney makes custom skins. Send her an IM in-world, Dery, if you like her style.
11. Ryan Darragh | April 23rd, 2007 at 1:16 pm
Cat, you so are not a Ken doll. My sister had a whole collection of Kens, and you look nothing like him. You tend to be far better dressed, for one thing.
I think a lot of us idealize our SL selves to some degree, for one or more of a variety of reasons, likely including “because I can.” This goes a long way to explain the volume of products (skin, hair, clothing) aimed at making people beautiful. That said, I’ve been encouraged lately to see some new variety in styles of quality skins and hair, including but not limited to Chip Midnight’s skins for black men and Mystikal Faddoul’s hair for older men. I’m also encouraged to see the positive response from readers to our coverage of these items. We will continue to bring you info about products like these as often as we can in the future.
12. Feature: Where the Boys A&hellip | January 1st, 2008 at 10:20 pm
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