An Objective Opinion

I was informed yesterday after my review was posted that there has been some hoopla concerning Beauty Avatar and Minnu’s skins (DMCAs filed, suspicions arising, etc). While I read about said hoopla on Gogolita’s blog several weeks ago, I was under the impression that it had been resolved considering the comment made by Miabella Foxley, a Minnu representative I believe.

Now, I have actually never purchased a skin by Minnu Palen — however, out of my own curiosity, I did stop by this morning to pick up a demo and do a little comparison of my own. What can I say… I’m naturally inquisitive. Here are my results and an objective opinion on a sheet of controversy.

We’ll begin with the most obvious starting point: the face. Both skins will be compared in their natural makeup option, both in the tan skin tone available (Beauty Avatar’s will be Nemesis in Bronzed and Minnu’s will be Gen4 in Tan). Click on the shots to view the larger pictures, if you like!

My avatar has always had a rather “distinct” face. It changes, dramatically, 90% of the time, whenever I wear a new skin - as I’m sure most do. But rather than do a split screen comparison, I’d rather post a full composite of both faces, side by side, to demonstrate the obvious difference of each:

Aside from the (in my opinion, obvious) difference in faces, there are also subtle details to consider when comparing these two skins. For example, the philtrum (again, thanks, Winter!) on Minnu’s skins is almost the reverse of the one on BA’s skins … Minnu’s is notably narrower at the ends where BA’s is notably wider. The detail shading and highlighting I believe speaks for itself here, as well as on the bridges of the nose where BA’s extends further towards the forehead. The eyelid crease is only slightly higher on the BA skins, and the lip shading and detail — clearly different. The only real similarity to the face that I can see clearly is the painted on eyelashes — which could easily be a free-for-all photoshop brush (considering I have several of my own which I use for photography). To be perfectly honest and objective here, I believe the lips is where these kinds of suspicions arise — if I am not mistaken, Minnu was one of, if not the, first to have such pronounced and defined lips, dating all the way back to her Gen1 line. I can think of several designers whom have adopted this characteristic since then, and each time I see it I can’t help but wonder how many people’s eyebrows perk up at the thought that a scandal may have been born. Let’s continue to the rest of the skin though, shall we?

Here is another view point of the face and head, with the ears clearly in view (and notably different from each other).

The only similarity I can note in the upper abdomen and breasts is the muscle group shading, which is hardly grounds for suspicion. I myself have photoshop brushes that I’ve created with similar abdomen shading, which I use to add details to clothing that I make. Same goes for the shading under the breasts. The nipples are clearly not the same though both are obviously photosourced; the collar bone is much more pronounced in Minnu’s skins than it is with BA’s, and overall the BA skin is much smoother.

The abdomen, again clearly different from each other. The navel on the Beauty Avatar skins is larger and softer with a tiny beauty mark to the upper right side whereas Minnu’s is the traditional supermodel small-as-a-button navel. I do not believe the genital area needs any comparison, as you can probably see for yourself that they are clearly different.

The knees and legs — the knees at first glance look similar in their shading. However, upon further investigation (and I am sorry that I didn’t take the time to make an animated gif) by placing each pair of legs on top of each other and comparing them that way, I’ve found that Minnu’s knees are actually positioned differently on the legs — they are much further inward than are Beauty Avatar’s. Another subtle difference is on the Beauty Avatar knees — there are small muscle shade lines on the outside sides of each knee cap, which are not seen on the Minnu skins. The feet and toes — obviously different.

Another striking difference I noted was the elbows seen above — Beauty Avatar has virtually no elbow detail, whereas Minnu has a clearly defined skin patch of elbow detail.

Last, but not least — the entire backside. As we can see, Minnu’s shading and details are much more pronounced where as Beauty Avatar’s skins are softer and smoother. The bum highlighting is further up on Minnu’s bottom whereas BA’s highlights are more centralized. Both bum details appear to be photosourced in my opinion, however BA’s deeper shading appears to be focused more towards the lower half of the crack, whereas Minnu’s is much more pronounced in the center.

After reviewing both skins, I really must say — I just don’t believe that they are similar enough to raise suspicions, or even to support the claim that they are Minnu “inspired” (inspiration has many names — photosourcing alone, in my opinion, counts as “inspiration”, and as everyone has seen — nearly all skin designers do that). If I had to make a claim that Beauty Avatar’s skins were inspired by anything, my first judgment would be based on the feet and genital areas alone and would point to Eloh Eliot’s PSD files, which is, if it is true, perfectly acceptable. God is in the details, and using Eloh’s skins as a jumping off point to begin creation is fine for any creator, as is clearly stated on her blog.

No, what I think we have here is a new skin designer who has entered an already tense world of content creation. The good comes with the bad, I guess. But as Miabella stated on Gogo’s blog, people will shop based on quality — and I will gladly be visiting Beauty Avatar again.

/endopinionatedpointofview