How does your avatar look today ?

[Laika Ravikumar]

[MattNight84]

https://mattnight84.wordpress.com/2019/08/08/la-isla-bonita/

 

[Skell Dagger]

5 hours ago, Nalates Urriah said:

You are great at makeup... I'm jealous.

Thank you so much

5 hours ago, Caerolle Llewellyn said:

I am still confused/confounded by one thing. Perhaps I just shouldn't worry about it, but I cannot detach my old eyes (my new eyes don't replace them somehow) or get rid of my old skin. It seems like since I have a shape under the mesh body and head, it requires a skin. There are a couple of other vestiges of the old system avi like that. Drives me a bit crazy, lol.

You can't get rid of those. There are four system items that your avatar must remain wearing beneath any mesh avatar, because without them you simply won't rez at all. Even your mesh body and head wouldn't rez; you'd just be a cloud. Those items are:

• system eyes
• system skin
• system hair (we still need this for a brow-shaper, even with a Bento mesh head)
• shape

Edited August 8, 2019 by Skell Dagger

[Maitimo]

5 hours ago, Caerolle Llewellyn said:

I am still confused/confounded by one thing. Perhaps I just shouldn't worry about it, but I cannot detach my old eyes (my new eyes don't replace them somehow) or get rid of my old skin. It seems like since I have a shape under the mesh body and head, it requires a skin. There are a couple of other vestiges of the old system avi like that. Drives me a bit crazy, lol.

@Skell Dagger explained it well but I should add one thing; your mesh head likely has an alpha layer that will alpha-out your system eyes as well as the rest of the head. Some heads, where the eyes are in the right position, allow you to keep the system eyes visible in case you want to use them but if you are using prim/mesh eyes, you'll likely want to make the system eyes invisible. If there isn't an alpha for it in your mesh head folder, there still may be an eye alpha in the pack for your mesh eyes.

Edited August 8, 2019 by Matty Luminos

[BelindaN]

6 hours ago, Caerolle Llewellyn said:

Yes, I agree there are some highly-styled, impressive, beyond perfect ones! I don't have the talent to do that, but I am ok with that. That is not me anyway.

Just enjoy the tweaking. It never stops and its a big part of my SL. Mesh heads are intimidating at the start, but with time, you'll get the hang of most things.

And the eyes and make up are there to be messed with. Just remember to write all your slider numbers down so you can get back if you mess up. That's saved me a few times. Slider play is very absorbing!!!!

[kiramanell]

1 hour ago, BelindaN said:

Just enjoy the tweaking. It never stops and its a big part of my SL. Mesh heads are intimidating at the start, but with time, you'll get the hang of most things.

And the eyes and make up are there to be messed with. Just remember to write all your slider numbers down so you can get back if you mess up. That's saved me a few times. Slider play is very absorbing!!!!

 

Why, your tweaking seems to have worked out wonderfully well. Magnificent avi! 💎

As for them sliders, won't they get saved with the shape you save? I best write them down then, indeed, if not. Especially for the head. Thx.

[Kotelle]

4 minutes ago, kiramanell said:

 

Why, your tweaking seems to have worked out wonderfully well. Magnificent avi! 💎

As for them sliders, won't they get saved with the shape you save? I best write them down then, indeed, if not. Especially for the head. Thx.

I have lost several notes with slider numbers written down, so I usually keep one shape save which I call "basic" - like a start shape which looks best with my favorite skin, brows and most of hair. Then I copy it to separate folder where I have all "basic" shapes for all my heads.

[VanillaLovelace]

[Rhiannon108]

5 hours ago, Laika Ravikumar said:

Beautiful! Where is this?

[Laika Ravikumar]

Rhiannon  Hi,

It was at The Looking Glass.

 

[Caerolle Llewellyn]

5 hours ago, Skell Dagger said:

Thank you so much

You can't get rid of those. There are four system items that your avatar must remain wearing beneath any mesh avatar, because without them you simply won't rez at all. Even your mesh body and head wouldn't rez; you'd just be a cloud. Those items are:

• system eyes
• system skin
• system hair (we still need this for a brow-shaper, even with a Bento mesh head)
• shape

Thanks for the explanation! Those are the things I knew I couldn't get rid of, but I didn't know why. I am pretty ignorant of most of the technical workings of SL.

[Caerolle Llewellyn]

5 hours ago, Matty Luminos said:

@Skell Dagger explained it well but I should add one thing; your mesh head likely has an alpha layer that will alpha-out your system eyes as well as the rest of the head. Some heads, where the eyes are in the right position, allow you to keep the system eyes visible in case you want to use them but if you are using prim/mesh eyes, you'll likely want to make the system eyes invisible. If there isn't an alpha for it in your mesh head folder, there still may be an eye alpha in the pack for your mesh eyes.

Yes, absolutely. My head came with 2 or 3 alphas, and it is easy to hide the system eyes. It just bugs me that I can't detach something I don't seem to need. As per Skell, I do need them, though.

[Caerolle Llewellyn]

3 hours ago, BelindaN said:

Just enjoy the tweaking. It never stops and its a big part of my SL. Mesh heads are intimidating at the start, but with time, you'll get the hang of most things.

And the eyes and make up are there to be messed with. Just remember to write all your slider numbers down so you can get back if you mess up. That's saved me a few times. Slider play is very absorbing!!!!

I actually keep a spreadsheet of my starting values, I am such a dork, lol. However, what I usually do is just keep saving new shape versions, with somewhat descriptive titles, so I don't have to write down every change (Athena rounder jaw and so forth). I don't ever overwrite my more-or-less acceptable shape.

[Caerolle Llewellyn]

1 hour ago, Kotelle said:

I have lost several notes with slider numbers written down, so I usually keep one shape save which I call "basic" - like a start shape which looks best with my favorite skin, brows and most of hair. Then I copy it to separate folder where I have all "basic" shapes for all my heads.

I do the same thing with the basic shape! If nothing else I like to switch back and forth for comparison after I make changes.

I keep slider values in a spreadsheet. Nothing paper is secure with me. If someone has incriminating documents they needed to get rid of, they could give them to me and they would never be found again, lol.

[Scylla Rhiadra]

11 hours ago, kiramanell said:

Finally I'll have a presentable avi, like the rest of you.

What Caer said, above: your pre-mesh avatar is not merely presentable, but more than a little adorable! (So, btw is, Caerolle's.)

There are lots of people here posting absolutely gorgeous shots of their avatars with system heads; check out GoSpeed Racer's pics, for just one instance. It's great to want to have a mesh head, but no one needs one. And I hate the idea that the posts here are making people feel pressured to get an expensive upgrade.

The main reason -- initially, in fact, the only reason -- I went to a mesh head was because I wanted to get more into photography, and mesh just seemed to me to provide a far more realistic and detailed look. It was a terrible wrench for me to abandon my old look, and I spent days trying to replicate the face of my system avatar on my new mesh. And that's sort of the point: why upgrade to a new technology when you closely identify with the look and identity you've already created through the old one?

At this point, I'm actually sufficiently used to my "new" mesh look that it is my identity, but that in part is because I think I've finally managed to reproduce, not the exact look, but the "personality" that was communicated by my old one. I wouldn't go back to my old system avatar: as fond as I am of how I looked then, this is "me" now.

But speaking solely for myself, what I most love seeing here are the pictures (however technically good the photography is) of people looking like themselves, if that makes sense. I'll cite the example of GoSpeed again: her system head, which is lovely, IS her: gentle, and smiling, beautiful and sweet.

Anyone with a system avatar almost certainly spent hours working to make that an expression of who they are, and I love seeing those expressions, whether expressed in mesh or old system heads.

[Nalates Urriah]

11 hours ago, kiramanell said:

You'd be amazed, btw, how far one can fall behind not keeping up for the last 2 years. It's like everything has changed, LOL. And most of my wardrobe, looks like I can toss that now, as I will need Maitreya compatible stuffz.

Maitreya is WAY popular. Unfortunately, the polygon count is way high. With BoM coming soon we will see body poly counts going down. Several of the bodies with lower poly counts will reduce their counts even more. I assume Maitreya will reduce their's too. We will have to wait and see how that works out.

BoM is unlikely to cause anyone to change their bodies 'size' as regards clothes. So, poly count is the only negative for Maitreya.

1 hour ago, Caerolle Llewellyn said:

I actually keep a spreadsheet of my starting values, I am such a dork, lol. However, what I usually do is just keep saving new shape versions, with somewhat descriptive titles, so I don't have to write down every change (Athena rounder jaw and so forth). I don't ever overwrite my more-or-less acceptable shape.

You can export and import a shape. I don't need to copy down or re-enter shape values manually. I exported my shape, which creates an XML file. Easy to read and edit. I then split it into 2 files. One with all the settings for my head and the other with all my settings for the body. This lets me use a new head and its shape. I can then import the body-only shapefile as a new shape and restore my body shape and because there are no new values for the head, the system blends the existing head body shape into a single shape. The same process for a new body to keep the head's shape.

I do the same multiple shapes thing. I include the date in my shape names. It's a rename and tweak thing.

[kiramanell]

7 minutes ago, Scylla Rhiadra said:

What Caer said, above: your pre-mesh avatar is not merely presentable, but more than a little adorable! (So, btw is, Caerolle's.)

There are lots of people here posting absolutely gorgeous shots of their avatars with system heads; check out GoSpeed Racer's pics, for just one instance. It's great to want to have a mesh head, but no one needs one. And I hate the idea that the posts here are making people feel pressured to get an expensive upgrade.

The main reason -- initially, in fact, the only reason -- I went to a mesh head was because I wanted to get more into photography, and mesh just seemed to me to provide a far more realistic and detailed look. It was a terrible wrench for me to abandon my old look, and I spent days trying to replicate the face of my system avatar on my new mesh. And that's sort of the point: why upgrade to a new technology when you closely identify with the look and identity you've already created through the old one?

At this point, I'm actually sufficiently used to my "new" mesh look that it is my identity, but that in part is because I think I've finally managed to reproduce, not the exact look, but the "personality" that was communicated by my old one. I wouldn't go back to my old system avatar: as fond as I am of how I looked then, this is "me" now.

But speaking solely for myself, what I most love seeing here are the pictures (however technically good the photography is) of people looking like themselves, if that makes sense. I'll cite the example of GoSpeed again: her system head, which is lovely, IS her: gentle, and smiling, beautiful and sweet.

Anyone with a system avatar almost certainly spent hours working to make that an expression of who they are, and I love seeing those expressions, whether expressed in mesh or old system heads.

 

Thank you, Scylla. As usual, you say incredibly wise things, and say them incredibly well. 💛

Changing my identity, as it were, is indeed a biggie for me. While I love the whole 'Surrogates' spiel, part of me really feels uncomfortable having to reinvent myself. New mesh head looks lovely, but I still need to tweak it plenty, to make it my own. I kinda got used to my current avi; it really feel like me: tiny, sweet, and a bit frail. It will be hard to replicate that in my new body. So, looking at your avi, I am all the more (again) in awe over your talent, as I know now, from the last week or so, that the kind of sophisticated tinkering you did is pretty darn hard to do. I am actually astounded by most all avis I see here. On this page alone, I think the avis of Kotelle and BelindaN, for instance, look adorable too. But that's the excellent point you were making: they're not just great looking avis, but really carry their personalities somehow. And that makes them awesome. Same as with you. It's kind of a silly thing to say, as I haven't seen your previous avi, but it truly feels like you.  To paraphrase the German poet, "In der Personifizierung zeigt sich erst der Meister."

[kiramanell]

Okay, I wasn't going to do this yet, as the work isn't nearly half-way done; but since ppl have been so kind, just a small preview. Avi look may be subject to change (or be completely swapped out for something else), but presentable, at least:

 

 

 

And here's Bento, ftw!

 

Edited August 8, 2019 by kiramanell

[kiramanell]

And now for a bit of levity, this is what happened on my first day, trying out the new Catwa head. Something went vewy, vewy wrong. 😛 (True strory, actually; I had to unpack a new copy of the head in order to fix it) 😛 

 

[Laika Ravikumar]

7 minutes ago, kiramanell said:

And now for a bit of levity, this is what happened on my first day, trying out the new Catwa head. Something went vewy, vewy wrong. 😛 (True strory, actually; I had to unpack a new copy of the head in order to fix it) 😛 

 

Actually that happens when you don’t wear the shape that comes with the head. I did that too first time I got mesh head. 

[kiramanell]

2 minutes ago, Laika Ravikumar said:

Actually that happens when you don’t wear the shape that comes with the head. I did that too first time I got mesh head. 

 

Thanks for the explanation.  That's exactly what happened, I think (as I was just loading/unloading various parts).

[VictoriaGrwd]

[kiramanell]

Well, since I decided to go with blonde again, here's a blonde question, LOL. No, seriously, how come all your screenshots look so perfect? I mean, mine look all edgy (like with no post-processing, like AA, it seems). I just use PrintScreen. Is there a better way?

[TatianaNikolay]

17 hours ago, BelindaN said:

Oh PLEASE don't get me thinking about wedding dresses again...........although the church does look, well, appealing.....(see what I did there?).....

Anyways, I think Tati is next on that list........... @TatianaNikolay 🥂

Lol yes. My sister is loving helping me  plan this wedding!

[kiramanell]

10 minutes ago, VictoriaGrwd said:

 

Those glitters on your body are very distinct! ❤️