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We're back with another edition of Avatar Artist Spotlight!

This time the awesome Degu, who was the primary artist on the zippy new Cheeten, sat down to give us some insight into the making of this slick new avatar.

Can you describe the design process for this avatar / What was the inspiration behind the markings chosen for this avatar?

The key motivation for this avatar began with summer! It was a hot one this year, and we knew that we needed a good summer avatar. Albeit this is a little late, one can only hope it brings back some good summer vibes as we transition from summer into autumn.

I've always loved cheetah's and their aesthetic. For this avatar we made it possible to have normal cheetah and/or king cheetah marking patterns. While the mane is usually less prominent in adults, we decided to exaggerate it for maximum-cuteness on the Cheeten!

What was the hardest part?

For me the hardest part is always the laying poses. Some might say the away-facing standing pose is the hardest, but for me it's those. These get increasingly difficult with avatar size, if you ask me, but the finished product is always worth the struggle.

What was your favourite part?

This time my absolute favourite part was the first standing (The first pose we all start with and get correct before progressing with our avatars). I've helped on many many avatars, but I haven't done my own, full, first-standing since the Ruffen. It went more smoothly than i could have expected and I was very proud of the final product!

What problems did you run into during testing?

Usually when testing an avatar the most common testing issues we run into are:

• Shading flashing (dramatic changes between shading as the avatar walks)
• Marking flashing (dramatic changes between markings as the avatar walks)
• Shrinkage or growth of the avatar in certain poses

On this occasion, I was blessed with a sincere lack of issues during testing! The main thing I found that needed changing was the size of the sitting poses, and some slight tweaks to leg positions. The lying down poses needed some extra chest size so that they didn't shrink, but nothing much.

How do you feel about the finished product?

I'm exceptionally proud of it, I think it came out really well. James was a great help with tweaking the laying poses to be exceptionally cute on this one. It's my first FULL avatar since the Ruffen, meaning that I was the main artist on it from start to finish. Usually I help others or bring in the help of our other wonderful artists. It was an exciting challenge and I can't wait to see how the community feels about it too!

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Thanks Degu!