
Zooby, a long-established brand already well known in Second Life for its animal avatars and animated creatures, has just released a new line of animesh babies. Animesh is short for “animated mesh”, and it is a brand new Second Life feature which allows independent objects to use rigged mesh and animations.
For the first week only, the Zooby animesh babies are for sale for L$4,000 each (about US$16.00; after the first week, they will be sold at L$5,000). So I decided to take advantage of the sale and pick up a little bundle of joy for Vanity Fair, whom I have decided to name Ryan, after myself:


Watching baby Ryan crawling around in Vanity’s kitchen actually reminded me of when I was a small child, crawling around and playing under the kitchen table in my childhood home!

The animations on these babies are particularly well done. Here’s a five-minute YouTube video showing you a few of the many animations:
A separate texture HUD allows you to change almost any aspect of your baby: skin tone, hair colour, and eye colour (you can buy several different races of both male and female babies at the Zooby store).
Although it is not required to enjoy your Zooby baby, you can provide her or him with love, food, baths, sleep and diaper changes to keep the baby happy and gain tokens which you can exchange for toys. You can also purchase gems that will level up your baby with new animations. Using the associated website, you can even assign other people to care for and hold your baby.
You can get more information about the new Zooby babies from their website, including a Frequently Asked Questions section and many video tutorials for new parents.