Call to Creators – new starter avatars needed

[Dot Matrix]

Please read all of this! We tried to keep it short.

Greetings! Kitely Grid is planning to replace the Starter Avatars at the Kitely Welcome Center. Smaller sets of avatars will also be offered to new members via the Kitely website and Setup Kitely app.

Kitely creators are invited to contribute avatars or avatar components.

Why? Because no grid can have too many starter avatars, nor offer visitors too many options. Everyone benefits if new members are presented with well-liked avatars. We'd also like to include non-human avatars such as robots, tinies and other creatures.

These new starter avatar packs, we hope, will encourage visitors to shop for more avatars and avatar components at Kitely Market. People love collecting avatars!

Contributions from new artists are especially welcome – this will be a good way to get your name out there! Each contribution, if accepted, will include your creator name, marketing information, and links to your Kitely Market store and your Kitely inworld shop.

What we need from you
Some make complete avatars; others specialize in areas such as clothing, hair, shoes or stuff we haven't even thought of yet. Whatever your area of expertise, we need it.

• Full general-rated avatars: body, skin, shape, clothing, shoes, hair, eyes, fuzzy ears, ... – everything required to instantly wear the entire avatar.
• Avatar components: skins, shapes, hair, clothing, shoes, accessories and other parts so that more experienced visitors (or those with a creative streak) can assemble their own avatars.

For each contribution we'll need a notecard listing components (textures, mesh, etc.) and licensing details. If you don’t create everything from scratch, you can include content created by others but ONLY if
(a) they explicitly agree for the content to be used by Kitely as above OR
(b) the content has been provided using a Public Domain, CC0 or CC-BY license on the actual creator's website – for example, components by Linda Kellie or Arcadia Asylum, whose creations are widely recognized as freely licensed for virtual world use.

You’ll also need to sign up to a special license provided by Kitely — but don’t worry, it’s been designed to be as friendly and open as possible, while keeping everything legal and safe.

Thanks in advance!

The Kitely Welcome Center (KWC) team
Ilan Tochner (CEO, Kitely Ltd)
Ada Radius, Snoots Dwagon, Dot (when RL permits) (KWC volunteers)

PS. We could use another volunteer to help out with avatar and license review.

What will happen next?
The Kitely Welcome Center volunteers will review each contribution in terms of technical requirements, maturity rating, and licensing (see the separate guidelines below for details). Their review and advice will be passed on to Ilan Tochner, who will have the final say over whether a contribution is accepted or not.

[Dot Matrix]

CALL TO CREATORS: Requirements

Each contribution needs to meet requirements in just three areas:
1 Technical requirements
2 Maturity rating and cultural sensitivity
3 Licensing

1 Technical requirements

(a) Avatar complexity

• Kitely grid is used by students worldwide, many of whom have older, less-powerful computers. So that they (and everyone else) can see your work, please aim for an avatar complexity of no more than 75,000 for a complete avatar (use the viewer figure as a rough guide). Avatars with complexity much lower than that will get preference.
• Avatar components such as hair or shoes should, of course, be far lower.
• Consider using Bakes on Mesh to reduce viewer load.
• If appropriate, ensure scripts and HUDs are as efficient as possible.

(b) Mesh attachments

• Make sure these have a clean, evenly spaced topology.
• Check that the UV mapping is efficient.
• Avoid any mesh face overlapping and/or other clipping

(c) Texturing

• Avoid obvious seams
• Avoid non-aligning textures
• Avoid obtrusive conflicts in alpha rendering
• Avoid gaps and visible back faces
• Ensure appropriate shading, i.e. minimal baked-in ambient occlusion or over-highlighting; good ‘shininess’; appropriate use of bump/normal maps

(d) Rigging and vertex weighting

• Make sure these are appropriate in fitting and movement
• Minimise any clipping

2 Maturity rating and cultural sensitivity

• Contributed avatars must meet Kitely’s criteria for General Rating. Templates showing required coverage for human avatars can be downloaded from here.
• Note that while child avatars are allowed on Kitely in general, they cannot be used for Kitely starter avatars.
• Animals, robots and other non-human avatars may not need to ‘cover up the bits’.
• Please do not include national, religious, commercial or ethnic symbols.
• If a small change might help a contribution meet these criteria, the KWC volunteers will work with you. However, the committee will make the final decision.

3 Licensing
For each contribution, list on a notecard ALL the components (templates; textures, including diffuse, normal, specular and sculpt maps; mesh; prims; scripts; etc.) and licensing details.

If you don’t create everything from scratch, you can include content created by others but ONLY if:
(a) they explicitly agree for the content to be used by Kitely as Starter Avatars at the Kitely Welcome Center, and via the Kitely website, and through the Setup Kitely app; OR
(b) the content has been provided using a Public Domain, CC0 or CC-BY license on the actual creator's website (provide the URL).

The KWC volunteers will use this list to review the licensing of the components. They understand this can be a tricky area but will work with you.

There is one further requirement to do with licensing, and that is to copy, sign and send the following in an email to contact@kitely.com

In contributing this content (the "Content") to Kitely Ltd. ("Kitely") I agree to the following (the "Agreement"):

1) The Content only includes components that were either: (a) created by me from scratch and for which I own the copyrights, or (b) were created by someone else whom I ascertained distributed them using a Public Domain, CC0, or CC-BY license.

2) I have no legal or other cause that prevents me from accepting this Agreement and no part of the Content is licensed using terms that prevent me from entering this Agreement.

3) I grant Kitely a non-revocable, non-exclusive, royalty free, perpetual, worldwide license to use and distribute the Content using any and all Kitely-related services.

4) I agree that Kitely will not be held accountable for people's use of the Content, including their attempt to profit from the Content, using Kitely-related services or otherwise.

5) If someone includes the Content in their Kitely Market product listing then I retain the right to request that Kitely suspend that listing. If I decide to do so then I will use the Report Product option on that Kitely Market product listing page to make that request.

Next steps
Box your contribution and send it, full perm, to Ada Radius. Please include:

• User instructions, if needed.
• Your requirements for the final permission (copy, modify, transfer, export).
• A notecard with your marketing information, URL for your Kitely Market store and landmark to your Kitely inworld shop.
• Notecard list of component licenses (see above).
• 1024x1024 full perm images of the contribution on a white background:
  • For an avatar, one image should be a full-length image of the complete avatar, and the other a close-up of the head and upper shoulders.
  • For an avatar component (shoes etc), isolate the component on a white background.
  • Hair will need a mannequin head – confer with Snoots in this instance.

Any questions? Please ask in the Kitely forums.

[Snoots Dwagon]

Halloo all creators. Greetings from the Kitely Starter Avatar Team: Ilan Tochner, Dot Matrix, Ada Radius, and myself, Snoots Dwagon.

PLEASE READ ALL OF THE FOLLOWING. Thanks.

Dot has listed the details for submitting your work in the posts above. If you have any questions please feel free to contact Dot, Ada or me... or ask in this forum.

A very brief summary of the benefits of this project and why creators will want to donate:

* New starter avatars will help promote Kitely... which in turn promotes you, our creators.

* The starter avatars are being completely replaced... resulting in a more favorable first-impression.

* As reward / thanks for your submissions, all items selected will include your Creator Information... a notecard, landmarks, Market URLs, etc. This reflects Kitely's appreciation for those who offer their best work to help promote the grid and welcome new visitors to Kitely.

WHAT'S NEXT?
As Dot details above, once you have your submission ready, box it up (with all the requested items, all full perm) and send the box to Ada Radius.

The submissions will be examined by each member on our team, the perms set to your requested specifications (according to Kitely guidelines). Rest assured your submissions are in good hands. Ada is our renowned mesh expert. Snoots is an avatar creator with 15+ years experience. Dot is a professional editor and virtual world specialist. And Ilan is one of the grid owners and understands Kitely better than anyone.

Thank you creators, in advance, for helping us put our best foot forward at Kitely Welcome. You are appreciated!

[Ada Radius]

Note: Snoots and I may be contributing avatars. We will not be doing the reviews on our own work. I know, duh. But need to say it.

[Snoots Dwagon]

I dunno... I plan on reviewing my own work. Mwahahahaahaa <---- ebil laugh

[Frank SquirrelHerder]

I'm really loving what you've done so far! What a fantastic resource to offer new denizens of Open Sim.

I visited the sim today to get an HG LM and snap a photo to include in my "HG Travel Brochures" I offer newbies. While there, I picked up Ada's emote HUD...however I see it's not exportable.

Were you intending on making content exportable so HG users could shop here too?

[Ada Radius]

Thank you for letting me know! I went in last night, rezzed out the HUD, re-set the perms and reloaded a new vendor box. Cross fingers.

You should be able to get items from the boxes and other vendors - click on them to buy for KC0 and you'll get a folder - and take them back to your home grid, if that grid's settings allows it. I tested on Discovery grid and a sim or two on OSGrid, by using the Suitcase folder, and it was fine. I don't have the expertise to do more testing, but I'll do what I can on the Kitely side.

I have a longish to-do list for KAI - more content to bring in, repairs or removals of clothing items that are probably no longer in the database, fix perms issues, swap AO scripts for the Khaos AO script and such. Anything anyone finds that needs fixing, please let us know. If you'd like to donate content, please IM me inworld.

Thank you!
Ada

[Frank SquirrelHerder]

Looks like I was able to get that emote hud, Ada, thanks!

I didn't have time to test any other stuff out yet but I'll return.