The Art of Making a Statue out of your Live Avatar

Back in February of this year while our attention was focused upon the upcoming Second Annual Penny Arcade Expo East (PAX East 2011) in Boston, the Elves who toil without limits in either energy or creativity at Microsoft's Xbox Live service were busy rolling out their newest promotion -- their 'Unleash Your Avatar' program -- which they brought to our attention as a feature of the Xbox Live monthly email newsletter, and by creating a web page for it on the Live site.

"Your Xbox LIVE avatar is already on your console and on Windows Phone 7, and now you can unleash your avatar -- literally! Get your Xbox LIVE avatar image on posters, Zune devices, 3D figurines and more. Unleash your avatar with these cool new products" the announcement declared.

The Xbox Live avatar is an animated image that is part of your identity on the service. Most gamers choose to model their Avatar as closely to their real-life appearance as they can -- and the customization options are rich enough that you can come very close to duplicating the real you in this cartoon-like caricature with minimal effort. The fully-animated image is part of your "gamertag," often waving at your friends who visit your page, and is capable of making a range of gestures and facial expressions.

After the "Unleash Your Avatar" campaign was announced, it wasn't long before news services began to examine the program with an eye towards the obvious artistic side -- noting that a combination of new computer imaging capabilities and new three-dimensional printing technology appeared to be a case of computers creating art!

Fathead Avatar

Fathead is a brand name of life-sized, precision cut vinyl wall graphics manufactured by Fathead LLC, and is best known for large, high definition wall graphics of professional athletes, animated heroes, entertainment characters, team helmets and logos that decorate bedroom walls and office windows all over the world.

The addition of an Avatar line for the product is not a great stretch of the imagination, and using a web-based ordering system gamers just enter their gamertag, select from one of ten poses, pick the size they want (there are four sizes starting at 2 ft x 3 ft up to 4 ft x 6½ ft), and Fathead prints and ships your custom Fathead Xbox Live Avatar to you. The Avatar can stick to pretty much any smooth indoor surface, and is moveable and reusable.

Zune Originals

Assuming that you wanted to own a Zune media player and not an Apple iPod... Big assumption... Zune Originals let you choose from 10 Avatar poses to be etched on the back of a Zune HD. If you noticed the past-tense voice we are using good on ya! We are phrasing it that way because the Zune Originals program has been canceled -- and a click on the link in the original announcement will take you to a page that explains that they are no longer accepting orders. Now, if they had just done a deal with Apple...

Custom FigurePrints Avatar Statue

"Recreate your favorite Xbox Live Avatar as a fully detailed 3-D replica rivaling the beauty of any miniature figure ever made. Using 3-D modeling techniques pioneered by special effects houses and manufacturing technology that allows even the most complicated of these models to be created, FigurePrints can bring your fully outfitted, one-of-a-kind Xbox Live avatar to your doorstep."