Hey there! That sounds like a rad idea! Such an idea hasn't been done before, so it'll be a fresh new look for sure. What sort of tips are you looking for?

I've made so many customs that I got hired as a site artist lol, so I'm more than happy to give you some advice!

Mostly positioning I think? I haven't done a thorough check over the bases, but do the torsos change position in any of them?

[@nebulousHarmony]

Yep! For a body item like the tail, you're gonna need to make four versions: confident masc, confident fem, cheerful masc and cheerful fem. And a thumbnail for the item as well!

[@Ruevian]

Okay! I'm curious to see how my usual style would interact with this, since I'm used to putting shading and color on the same layer to get the color blending to work. I'd like to make a few versions for different kinds of sharks, but that's just the fish nerd in me :P

[@nebulousHarmony]

Oh you're definitely not the only fish nerd on this site XD You'll probably enjoy the Coral Reef if you haven't unlocked it yet!

You've probably already done so, but make sure to check out the custom submissions tutorial page: https://tatteredworld.com/page/custom-item-tutorial

A shark tail sounds awesome!

In case you haven't seen it yet, there is also this thread of tips and tricks for custom item design.

A shark tail sounds great! Definitely check out the tutorial and the thread leslie linked- you can also look at some of the existing tails in the dressing room to get a feel how others have made tails work- not necessarily fish tails, but might give a good idea of what is different. If you show all items in the dressing room and then search the #tail tag, a big variety should show up!

Other quick tip- what I do for stuff like tails and wings that will be in the same position for all the avatars, but the body is different so I will need a slightly different silhouette, is I will actually draw a fuller version of the item, and then make copies for the different poses, select the pose, and then delete the bits of the custom item that cuts over the pose that I don't want. Hopefully they makes some sense, I can grab images tomorrow to better explain what I mean there if it would be helpful.

Y'all are really helpful, thank you so much!

Pulled myself away from work for a quick sketch. Everything solid so far?

Ooh looking good to me!