Second Life Avatar height

On ZEN METAL locations, avatars are built for realism. On Second Life in general, you’ll find fantasy characters fitting in several different realities, and the average Second Life character is 7-foot tall. Most SL furniture is also created for these larger-than-life characters. (ZEN METAL furniture, in the future, will be very much in the same 1:1 scale as all ZEN METAL locations.)

That is to say, Second Life avis are different outside ZEN METAL. Scary. Large. Surreal. Plasticy. If you’re into that, tho, you know where to find them. 😉 (Everywhere else, really.)

On ZEN METAL, you are expected to be your own height (but men are allowed to add no more than 3 centimeters to their height to counter for the SUPER HIGH heel standard on female avi shoes, as they’re a) too pretty for anyone to ask them NOT TO wear them and also near impossible to find in anything but super high.)

3 cm boost is: if you’re 1.70 M, your new height will be 1.73 M, no more. This boost is optional, however.

The “Feet” column refers to the avatar shape editor value that shows the Imperial units in Feet only.

Feet, inches	Feet	Meters*	RL References
4 feet 10 in		1.47 m	Height below which is, in adults, considered dwarfinism
4 feet 11 in	4.91 ft	1.5 m	Most children reach this height when becoming teenagers. This is considered the minimum adult height. Usual minimum avatar height to be considered “adult” on Second Life
5 feet		1.52 m
5 feet 1 in		1.55 m	Lady Gaga height
5 feet 2 in		1.57 m
		1.59 m	Average Asian female height.
5 feet 3 in		1.6 m	International AVERAGE adult female height.
5 feet 4 in		1.63 m	Average American female height.
5 feet 5 in		1.65 m
5 feet 6 in		1.68 m
5 feet 7 in	5.59 ft	1.70 m	Beyonce, Kate Winslet, Sandra Bullock, Audrey Hepburn, Keira Knightley, Michelle Pfeiffer, Celine Dion, Tom Cruise, Robin Williams height
		1.71 m	Average Asian male height.
5 feet 8 in		1.73 m	Sebastyne Alpha (the author) RL & SL height. (Just saying, gentlemen. 😉 ) Robert Downey Jr., Bruce Lee, Rihanna, Kanye West, Katy Perry, Zac Efron, Jennifer Garner, Ricky Gervais
5 feet 9 in		1.75 m	Minimum female runway model height. Average American male height.
5 feet 10 in		1.78 m	Johnny Depp, Princess Diana, Sylvester Stallone height.
5 feet 11 in	5.89 ft	1.8 m	Minimum height for male runway model, maximum female runway model. Taylor Swift, David Beckham, George Clooney, Brad Pitt height
6 feet	6 ft	1.83 m	6 foot male
6 feet 1 in		1.85 m
6 feet 2 in		1.88 m	“European 6-foot,” “well tall enough” guy, and top height limit for male runway models. Cristiano Ronaldo, Barack Obama, Ryan Reynolds, Will Smith, Arnold Schwarzenegger
6 feet 2.5 in		1.90 m	Chris and Liam Hemsworth height, Will Ferrell, Gregory Peck
6 feet 3 in		1.91 m
6 feet 4 in		1.93 m
6 feet 5 in		1.96 m
6 feet 6 in		1.98 m	Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant height
6 feet 6.5 in	6.57 ft	2.00 m	The point after which a European guy replies “I’m 2 something tall,” because centimetres are completely irrelevant after this point. Tony Robbins
6 feet 7 in		2.01 m	European “too tall guy.” Hulk Hogan, Stephen Merchant (the tall guy that hangs out with Ricky Gervais). Average basketball player height.
6 feet 8 in		2.03 m
6 feet 9 in		2.06 m
6 feet 10 in		2.08 m	Sebastyne Alpha’s supposed height if scaled to “Second Life average” height adjustment.
6 feet 11 in		2.11 m
7 feet	7 ft	2.13 m	People taller than this have a condition called gigantism. People like this exist, but they are a rarity! Second Life avatar’s “average” avatar height, fantasy characters included.
7 feet 1 in		2.16 m	Shaq O’Neil height
7 feet 2 in		2.18 m
7 feet 3 in		2.21 m	Peter Mayhew, who played Chewbacca, height
7 feet 4 in		2.24 m
7 feet 5 in		2.26 m
7 feet 6 in		2.29 m
7 feet 7 in		2.31 m
7 feet 8 in		2.34 m
7 feet 9 in	7.79 ft	2.36 m
7 feet 10 in		2.39 m
7 feet 11 in		2.41 m
8 feet		2.44 m
8 feet 1 in
8 feet 2 in
8 feet 3 in		2.72 m	Tallest man with gigantism ever lived

*) For those just as confused about the Metric System as I am about the Imperial System, a meter is divided by 100, and these units are called centimeters. Therefore, when someone says they’re “175 (centimeters),” it also means “1.75 meters.”

How to edit (or create) a shape?

Video:

If you prefer it in text:

Most shapes you get are editable; if not, the following cannot be done, but you can easily create a new shape and start from scratch for ANY avatar you’re wearing.

Right-click your avatar and choose “Appearance => edit shape.”

To create a NEW shape based on the one you’re wearing, make a copy of your shape in your inventory, wear it, and edit that, or make a small edit to the shape you’re wearing to activate the save as button and then save it as something new. Now, you can safely make tweaks to this shape without messing with the original. Make sure you’re now wearing this new shape before making further edits.

To create an ENTIRELY new shape, go to your inventory and choose “Create -> Body Parts -> New Shape.” (If you’re curious, remove all of your clothes and attachments and create an entirely new avatar by adding new body parts from that menu and see how you look like. You’ll die laughing.) But for the purpose of this tutorial, only create a New Shape and name it whatever you want. 4 ZEN METAL is a good approach.

First, make sure your gender is appropriately set, Usually it is, but it’s not a given. (Male is the one with an arrow: circle and an arrow – Field of vision narrow, constant source of sorrow, right?) If you have to change it, your shape will significantly change, so it’ll take some more time to fix, but you’ll notice some things not working right, such as the automatic selection of gendered seats with AV-sitter.

Now, right under the name of the shape, there is the height indicator. Notice that it does not show feet and inches; it shows fractions of feet. (The ‘leftovers’ are ‘how many tenths of a foot,’ not inches.) Therefore, to get the right height, you’ll have first to use the above chart to convert it to meters or convert your height to meters in a way you’re used to.

The height slider is not “a percentage from a human height” slider. It is a percentage of all character heights, including fantasy characters and giants. It also depends on your shape/mesh body combination and how tall you can make yourself.

The most important sliders when adapting a commonly used SL shape to a realistic scale:

Body height – slide until it matches your goal height.

Body Thickness – due to your height change, you might want to make yourself thinner.

Head size – you’ll probably want it smaller.

From Torso -> Arm Length – you want to check your arms look about normal.

Hand size

From Legs -> Foot size. 

Obviously, for perfect results, you’ll want to tweak every slider to perfection but start with these to get your bearings with the new shape. (You might want to do it on ZEN METAL location, too, to give yourself confidence that you can, actually, fit a 1:1 sim quite nicely. I’ve got a sandbox with sized objects around.)

To help you build to 1:1 scale; ZEN METAL Systematic package

I have put together a package of objects scaled directly to match real life. I call it the Zen Metal Systematic package. It is free to pick up and use and is available on the Marketplace.

ZEN METAL Bums Back On Seats is a NEW tool to adjust animation positions to a newly resized AV-sitter furniture in minutes rather than hours. Full instructions included.