Homework 1

• What did you have control over? Were there things you wanted to have control over that you didn’t?

For the anime avatar, I can select the feature I want by clicking on the option. But I can't move the feature to the position I want or change its size. All features, for example, the location of the mouth is prefixed. Sims avatar has much more freedom to play with because I can freely adjust the size, color,and location of certain features. I can change the shape of my nose or eyes by doing 3D modeling. Yet there is still limited choices on color combination, hairstyle and cloth. But overall, anime avatar is more "pre-fixed" by the author, and on Sims I can create more of my style.

• Is this avatar an accurate representation of you? What is missing?

Instead of shaping myself, I more often create avatars that reflect who I want to be in the internet world, but not necessarily who I am in the real world. These two avatars reflect only partial parts of me, for example, my obsession with black, red, and white. But overall, I felt that the anime avatar represents more of my "internet personality" while the Sims represents more of who I am in the real life. Perhaps the Sims, with 3D model and more realistic art style gives me somehow a sense of restrain, a feeling that I want to make it look normal. While anime style avatar really drives me wild.

• How do the two avatars compare to one another? What is the original context for this avatar (what game or social platform was this for)?

The anime avatar is created on a Japanese website https://picrew.me/discovery specifically for creating an online avatar. Authors can upload their avatar models to the website for people to use. The second avatar is from Sims, which is a very fun simulator of living an alternative life. Because the anime avatar is created by individual artists, they are very stylish yet with limited options. Usually, I only have four to seven choices for big categories like eyes styles. On the other hand, the Sims avatar is less stylish because it tried to offer every possible choice the player can think of. It takes me much longer to find the style I want in Sims because I had too many choices. In addition, when I was making my anime avatar, I felt that my thinking was influenced by the artist's art style. But on Sims avatar creating process, I am doing my own style more.