Mesh Avatar Tutorial

[Jennifer Boyle]

I'm thinking that it may be getting close to time for a mesh avatar.  I do nopt understand them at all.  When can I find god, comprhense, and, hopefully, concise informatiuon abouty how they work and what is possible with them.

It is particularly important to me that I look likew the same person, i.e., have the same facial shape, because I feel like that's my indentity in SL.  Would that be possible if I got a mesh avatar?

[Marianne Little]

I am biased, because I wear the Maitreya mesh body "Lara" with the LBD Vixen and can't seem to change. :matte-motes-kiss:

I have bought the mesh bodies Wowmeh(not for sale), Slink Physique, The Mesh Project(TMP), Belleza and Maitreya.

I have been unhappy with parts of each body, and then let it sit unused in my inventory when I changed to a new body. later, there has been updates, but then I already moved on and just let the updated ones sit in my inventory.

Slink because I found the body shape just plain disappointing, I thought I could adjust the sliders under appearance to make it work but no. It didn't have the flawless fit for their own hands and feet either.Maybe I am too critucal, but it is their own product, I expect more because of that. The body appear to be cheap, but you have to buy the feet and hands, because they are not included. So calculate that in the cost. Some skins are included, 5 I think. They didn't wow me.

TMP is the body I loved most until Maitreya came out. It is just lovely, but the business practice has annoyed me. You pay a Shopping HUD and you can't withdraw the money... and if it does not add up, well there the money is gone. So shopping in TMP takes such a long time. It is also hard to shop when the shopping HUD blocks your view. Price is another factor. It is the most expensive. All The Shops skin tones comes with it. No Slink fit at all.

Belleza was the biggest disappointment. I wore it and I was like "OMG, what have I wasted money on? The Slink fit that was advertised demanded that muscles was set to 50 in both torso and legs. And while I can pull off 50 in the legs, 50 in the arms just look clumpy. I always had about 10 higher muscles in the legs than the arms. The push up effect looked silly IMHO. Worst was the awful neck fit (I understand it is improved) and that I couldn't match any of the Belleza presets with Bellezas own skin that I bought 2 weeks before. The body comes with Belleza skins and other skins.

Maitreya is my favourite because I think I got the best body closest to the way I want to look. It is also cheaper than Belleza and TMP. It looks just fantastic because I like Glam Affair skins more than Belleza. All Glam Affair skin tones comes with it. Much better Slink fit for those who have a collection of shoes for Slink. You have to can down to the ground and then up to see a tiny seam.

The breast form is important to me. Even if we can adjust size, buoyancy and the third slider( that I forgot the name for) the overall shape will not change. I have heard people say they hate or love every shape because of the breast shape.

No one of these cover your head, so you can wear all your skins and makeups and keep your face. They have different neck fits. I found TMP to be the best neck fit, with Maitreya as second.

Since I have not worn all the updates, I recommend that you read some blog posts. And demo.

This blog has reviews of all I mention, plus Eve and Lush. They don't review TMP. http://meshbodyaddicts.com/mesh-body-reviews/ (You find Maitreya here, but you have to go to the blog's "home" and then select Maitreya from the tags)

Here is TMP included: https://catnapkitty.wordpress.com/2014/09/28/mesh-bodies-themeshproject-vs-belleza-with-a-little-on-slink-physique/

And here is Belleza vs Maitreya: https://readmeri.wordpress.com/2015/01/07/the-mesh-body-reviews-maitreya-lara-vs-belleza-venus-naked-and-unedited/

In short, I would say Maitreya because I love it.

 

[Jennifer Boyle]

Marianne, thanks for taking the time to respond at such length.  What I am looking for is not a comparison of products, but discussion of how mesh avatars work in general, what, if any clothing or avatar components not  made specifically for use with them will work, how skins work with them, how i can have changeable makeup, whether there can be attachments, how much the shape can be customized, whether i can get a mesh avatar that looks just like my current avatar, but with better craftsmanship.  I also wonder if there is a prospect of some standardization and interchangeability among makes.

[Pussycat Catnap]

Mesh avatars replace the avatar body, and with some of them, the head also.

If they replace the head - you are stuck with whatever face they used - part of a clone army.

If they replace the body, look for "Fitted" - as these will respond to shape dials and physics.

Almost everything that has come out since mid-2014 has been fitted:

Slink Physique, Lena Perky / Lush, Banned, vString, The Mesh Shop (TMP), Eve, Belleza, Maitreya, Brazilia, and maybe a few others.

Lena Lush, vString, and Brazilia are for extreme body types. Everybody else is normal body typed. vString actually has 2 normal, and several extreme.

My guess is the real competition now is between Belleza and Maitreya, and it seems more or less friendly competition at present (a lot of people end up getting both).

 

Skins... work with "appliers". You will need to find a skin that has an applier for your mesh body, or for Omega (unless you opt for Slink or TMP's mesh bodies, which are closed approved designer only systems).

- You wear the skin to get it on your head, and then "apply" it to the mesh body with the applier. The appliers work by making the texture of the mesh body the one the applier is set for.

"Omega" is a 'cross compatible easy to use' applier system that is rapidly gaining ground among mesh body parts because it lets skin shops put out applier, and call it a done job.

So Omega is the answer to your standardization question.

The Omega "system" is either free or $1L (I forget), if you join their free group. More if you don't. The group is good to join if you make mesh body products or buy them - it is very active in discussion and very good for getting help. Often if you have a problem with 'mesh product X' you can get help faster from somebody in the Omega group than from the designer's group - because there is so much wealth of expertise in the Omega group (but its not likely to have the 'maker of product X' in it... so if you need something like a refund, its not a useful group. Its like these forums: lots of helpful people, but no official staff. But the actual builder of the Omega system IS active in it.

For most mesh bodies, you need to go to Omega after getting the body and also buy the 'omega kit for body X' - which again is usually 1L for group members, and more for others.

The person behind Omega is probably not getting rich off the system... but they are doing good business with rental shops around their shop because well... if you get into mesh bodies its a good sim to landmark and visit often... because some handy shops rent space there...

(although the black and purple color scheme is horrid... but that's just my preference.)

 

Makeup and so on... will be as normal if you just have a body and not a mesh head. If you have a mesh head... the answer to this will depend on the brand of mesh head... and I gather there are no standards on that.

 

Can you make it look just like your current shape? "Maybe". I don't know what your current shape looks like. But you can probably get pretty close. For me on Belleza, it was like 'shaving off the rough edges', and then getting more natural looking boobs... But to fit back into my "standard sizes" clothes, I did have to tweak some dials away from the standard sizes. If you are super picky here... pass your shape to an alt, mak her "skin" something like the solid color blue... rez two pose stands, put them in the same spot, and both you and the alt stand on them. Dial your mesh body shape until you "fit" your alt. But I suspect you will end up noticing that the alt looks pretty ugly with lots of funky rough edges... once there is something so much better on your screen to compare it to (especially if you get Belleza, Maitreya, TMP, or Eve).

 

Clothes...

Old style texture clothes work with appliers, and there's a whole field of people putting out this kind of clothing. I personally don't like any of it. But tastes vary and if you like it you will find a lot of choices; especially if your mesh avatar accepts the Omega system.

Mesh clothes... can be tricky. It takes a little work to fit yourself into them - and the ability to do this will be very different for different brands of mesh bodies. This is a big reason why people end up switching mesh body brands. The "Alpha" system in some of them if very bad, in some very good, and in others - just right where you need it to be for most stuff, but very bad for that one outfit in your collection...

More rare but starting to grow is fitted mesh clothing made FOR specific mesh bodies.

- This is starting to pop up for Belleza, Maitreya, Eve, and TMP. Maybe some others, that's just what I've noticed. These are "supposed" to fit perfectly... but as I type this my avatar is sitting inworld wearing some demo clothing specifically for Belleza and I notice that its rigged a little differently and my 'side boob' keeps popping out when I dance... So... Demo everything.

 

 

[Mystic Moyet]

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Jennifer Boyle wrote:

Marianne, thanks for taking the time to respond at such length.  What I am looking for is not a comparison of products, but discussion of how mesh avatars work in general, what, if any clothing or avatar components not  made specifically for use with them will work, how skins work with them, how i can have changeable makeup, whether there can be attachments, how much the shape can be customized, whether i can get a mesh avatar that looks just like my current avatar, but with better craftsmanship.  I also wonder if there is a prospect of some standardization and interchangeability among makes.

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Marianne,

The world of mesh bodies is a fascinating one. You can get a fittedmesh body and still keep your face as the fitttedmesh bodies do not have heads. Slink offersa Versage head seperate from its body. Always demo products before purchase that way you get a good idea what you looking for. As with anything nothing is perfect. Each mesh body part add ons and/or mesh bodies will in someway have its inperfections. The thing that I look for in a mesh body is a copmprehensive alpa layering hud. So far slink and Maitreya both have an amazing alpha layering hud that allows more freedomg for mesh clothing. Mesh clothing is the sole purpose of the alpha layering portion in a mesh body hud. I have Slink, WowMEh(not sold anymore), and Lena Lush. There is a array of selections in the mesh body department to choose from. Majority of clothing designers supply clothing applier huds for various mesh bodies and mesh body parts. You just have to do your research and find what suits your liking. Some fitted mesh bodies allow a lot of leeway with the shape sliders. Yes you get to use any shape you want. All the mesh bodie are is to reoplace the avatar traditional bodies. So you can keep the shape you have now. You will either use the skins that comes with the bodies ot find skin designers that have applier huds for the body you choose. The outcome is limitless. Hope this helps you