Meet Ander, the first of the two new skins from Imagen’s Rack Brautigan. I was blissfully unaware that these were coming until someone mentioned them on Plurk, and then I saw pictures on Rack’s plurk timeline. That made me sit up and pay some close attention, because the skins looked very good indeed. I was then reminded that I had some very early prototypes that Rack had made available as gifts or hunt freebies… and, well, there’s no comparison; she’s made tremendous leaps since then. Rack makes no bones of having used the Eloh and Sezmra skin templates as her base, but she’s done more to make them her own than I’ve seen from just about any other designer of male skins who has similarly drawn from them.

As some may recall, for awhile I even ran around in a self-modded Lf0y from Eloh, so I know whereof I speak when I can remark that this is pretty much a total conversion. The skin has been textured to give it a sense of pores, well-done body hair has been created (each skin pack comes with body hair and scalp hair options, for a total of four skins—more on that later), the abs are really well done and a far remove from Eloh’s (they remind me, in certain respects, to the Belleza torsos), and there’s a lot of work to give the face both character and depth. As far as negative points, one area which I think can be improved are the pectorals, which hew a bit closer to Eloh’s Lf0y; there’s something that’s always been a bit off about the shading on the underside, to my eye. I think perhaps the rear end is maybe a wee bit too well-rounded for a male skin, as well, but I have to say that otherwise the lower body is quite exceptional.

The skin is sold in four skin tones, with each individual skin priced at L$995. Fatpacks are, of course, available at a reduced pricing. Imagen has a very classy vendor design, with the skintones following cardinal directions (as given in Spanish): Norte is palest, Este is next darkest, Oeste is a very pleasing tanned look featured in these photos, and Sur is quite dark.

When I went over to look at the skins when Rack finally released them, she was there and was very pleasant to chat with as I tried on demos. I ended up buying the shaved Ander Oeste featured in the previous picture, because it perfectly suited on of the shapes that very few skins liked, but Rack offered to send some extra review copies. Taking her up on it, I was able to feature the facial hair options as shown on Ander. There’s a total of a dozen facial hair options, ranging from shaved to a full beard.

One of the most unusual things about these skins are that they’re mod. This was done by Rack so that owners of the skin could adjust the color of scalp, eyebrow, and facial hair using the skin tinting modifiers. The darker skins, which come with naturally darker hair, get a fairly limited effect from this tinting option. However, it might be just enough to nudge what would look like a brunette towards a lighter blond or darker sort of red hair, which is handy. Below I’ve featured four the facial hair options. These are Shaved, Poet, Jacob, and Beard. I quite like the eyebrows on all the makeups—nicely shaped—and the mustaches on skins like Poet are quite nice. However, I’m unsure that the beard is successful. I think this is certainly due to the constraints of trying to make the color change feature useful, so it’s an honorable attempt at something that for me doesn’t quite work. The scalp hair goes quite the other direction and is in fact a very dense and only faintly textured section of fairly solid color. It’s not my favorite in the world, but it’s acceptable.

Eloh’s male mod of her Lf0 skin was remarked by some of being too boyish and “pretty”. Rack’s acknowledged that the cute, boyish look is definitely still there, but that’s because she really likes it. I can only say that I’m glad of it, as it really did suit that particular shape (and, as regular readers know, most of my shapes relate to RP characters who I have specific visions for) in a way that a more rugged skin would not have. That said, Rack has plans to eventually do different faces, so perhaps everyone will get a chance to find a skin to suit them.

Rack’s other skin release is Gael, who (so far as I can tell) is currently released in only two skin tones, the pale Norte and the slightly darker Este, featured here. This is a freckled skin which, I think, owes a lot to Eloh’s later Pleiades skin template with its super-cute freckling, ruddier skintone, and vector lips; I could be wrong about this, however. Regardless, there’s a distinct difference in the face. The body is in broad strokes largely the same, but as you can see there’s freckling across the shoulders, chest, and arms. It remains a rather beautiful young man’s sort of skin (and is, indeed, somewhat younger in appearance than Ander), but I’m not going to complain.

If there’s any negative feature, it’s a very minor one: the shading under the mouth. It’s more distinct here than in Ander, and I think it’s a touch too much. It certainly gives the sense of a somewhat pouting mouth, but too much so. Still, it’s a very small quibble, and currently I’m ruing the fact that it’s freckled because if it weren’t, I’ve got yet another character who would like very smart in Gael. Perhaps a skin idea for the future.