...Cutter? How long has your spinning diamond had a boob backdrop? Am I REALLY that unobservant? Because I just noticed it right now. 
{Ransom X asked in May of 2011, 10 years ago}
Somewhere, there is a brief history of the Cutter Avatar that Kithara and I did for him. But, in short, we saw that he had asked for an avatar very early (around 2004) and we got to talking to him and created the early spinning gem. A few years later,
around November of 2008, we were all talking in the BEA chat and the topic came up again. Cutter sent a reference idea photo (as he works with gemstones) and we ran with it. After some back and forth refinements we settled on a hovering blue sapphire, spinning in a woman's cleavage.
The attached contact sheet has some of the development steps. These were all rendered in 3D with a full environment (sky dome of a studio room) and lighting effects into a full high res movie and then crunched down to a GIF the size that would fit within the BEA file size restrictions at the time. This was all on a Workstation running Windows XP at the time. It took about an hour to render one full rotation of the gem. It should be noted that the last image was the original reference photo Cutter sent us.
As can be seen in some of the early test models the woman was to be more busty. However in discussions with Cutter and the surrounding lore or backstory, it was set that the gem (Cutter) would have bust enhancing properties along with a few other effects, so the proportions of the model were reduced prior to the final renders. Sort of a backward Tomb Raider effect.
It was an interesting exercise and we had fun interacting with Cutter and getting some more insight into his character. The stone was based on the [Polly] Logan Sapphire in a brilliant cut and thus slightly smaller at around 400 carats, or about the size of a standard chicken egg. The color is an indigo blue unlike the Logan which is velvet blue as the indigo rendered better against skin tones. The skin texture detail was contributed by Kithara by the way, so people have been seeing Kith's bare skin all this time. The female mesh is based on the Venus of Arles dated to the end of the 1st century BCE and depicts Aphrodite in a demonstrative pose.
Other trivia:For a brief moment we considered having some BE but that was shelved as we did not want an oscillating bust line.
This was the second animation we had made at the BEA, the first being the original Cutter spinning gem avatar.
The Cutter gem has also appeared in character in the KC Strip comic here at the BEA off-topic section.
Cutter gem likes to snuggle in cleavage to stay warm and can "sense" bust size from a distance.
Cutter gem can emit a "boob beam" to temporarily enlarge a chest but greater size uses more energy and increases recuperation time. Thus creating a very large chest to snuggle in means he must snuggle longer.
Cutter gem can levitate up to about 2m above the ground but must rest after a while and he can move about, again with limitations on exertion. Resting in cleavage is the fastest way to recharge.
Cutter gem dislikes the cold, being dropped, the color orange, burnt marshmallows, and people who yell.
Cutter gem likes silly cocktails, North Carolina Bar-b-Que, the color blue, rabbits, and warm snuggle cleavage.
Cutter hinted that he might have another secret power but did not disclose it yet.