Do I need to buy a new Bento shape?

[DorianDiaz]

Hi there guys. I purchased my shape around 1 year ago. I've read the advantages of new Bento shapes, but I don't want to buy another shape because I'd lose my "identity" hehe. And the most attractive feature of Bento shapes for me is finger movement So what do you suggest? Would I buy bento hands? or would I buy a new shape anyway. Thank you!

[Bobbie Faulds]

You don't need a "bento" shape. What makes a difference is if you get a bento head. They are rigged a bit differently and you'll have to tweak the shape so the head looks normal. https://gyazo.com/bdfa5349bf9e6cea3841ade1d18a342d with my default avi.... https://gyazo.com/e63210bdc5f2cea348c7fc6bd13a45ff after I tweaked it for the Bento head...that was the new LOGO Quinn. Then you just save that shape. I saved as BobbieQuinn. I also have one that says BobbieCatwa and BobbieLelutka. Since each head is rigged differently, the underlying shape is different. 

So, As long as you don't wear a mesh head, you're good. If your shape is, mod, and it should be, if you do get a mesh head, just some tweaking will be required and you'll still be you.

[DorianDiaz]

thank you for the answer.

Looks nice. But I'll look different anyway. And how about the rest of the body? Does the extra movement come with the head?

[Alwin Alcott]

24 minutes ago, DorianDiaz said:

thank you for the answer.

Looks nice. But I'll look different anyway. And how about the rest of the body? Does the extra movement come with the head?

no also the body/hands/feet and so on.. will need to be rigged on the bento bones, or it won't work... and of course you need the animations for it.

[Chase01]

As Bobbie pointed out the shape you purchased will not be directly usable if you decide to get a Bento head. You can however use it as a reference for modding. While all Bento heads are adjustable, each has inherit facial traits that are more specific to that head and while you can minimize some of those features—generally speaking they will still be apparent after modifying. This is what gives each Bento head model a unique look.

The Bento hands (sold separately) are independent of the head. These do not use specific shapes but their size is based upon your body sliders. There are AO's, animations and poses that take advantage of the additional movement the Bento hands offer. There are also HUD's available on the market that allow you to more finely tailor your fingers to a specific pose which can be helpful if hand poses are important to you.

[Marianne Little]

I don't know why we talk about a Bento head, since the OP does not mention it at all?

But for hands: You can't move your fingers with a Bento shape, unless you buy a set of mesh Bento hands. It is the Bento body part here that is essential. You wear the hands with your old shape. I do not know if you are new to this whole mesh bodyparts thing?

In that case, you want only the hands, no other mesh part, I would suggest you to demo Slink Dynamic hands. Because the demo will work just as the hands you purchase. There should be notecards provided with the demo, walking you through the steps. http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Slink/45/124/24

This "Bento shape" industry is mostly to reap the whole Bento newness. It can be needed for heads for those who can't adjust the face shape on their own (Now I am talking about heads!) but is not needed for hands.

[Chase01]

17 hours ago, Marianne Little said:

I don't know why we talk about a Bento head, since the OP does not mention it at all?

But for hands: You can't move your fingers with a Bento shape, unless you buy a set of mesh Bento hands. It is the Bento body part here that is essential. You wear the hands with your old shape. I do not know if you are new to this whole mesh bodyparts thing?

In that case, you want only the hands, no other mesh part, I would suggest you to demo Slink Dynamic hands. Because the demo will work just as the hands you purchase. There should be notecards provided with the demo, walking you through the steps. http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Slink/45/124/24

This "Bento shape" industry is mostly to reap the whole Bento newness. It can be needed for heads for those who can't adjust the face shape on their own (Now I am talking about heads!) but is not needed for hands.

Probably because he mentioned loosing his identity.

[Pussycat Catnap]

Bento animations make sense...

But a Bento shape is a total scam of an advertisement. It is like saying "Now selling Candy with sugar added."

Anything bento can be shaped by the normal shape dials where it can be shaped at all by a shape file... this is just a marketing scam.

 

[Pussycat Catnap]

On 5/19/2017 at 0:51 PM, Bobbie Faulds said:

You don't need a "bento" shape. What makes a difference is if you get a bento head. They are rigged a bit differently and you'll have to tweak the shape so the head looks normal.

That depends on the brand. Some brands don't need to be tweaked because they used a mesh form that looks closer to the original SL default head, but without the flaws we've all grown used to seeing. Look at Mel Imako and Mayreal's heads. Maybe some others too I have yet to find. The same shape anyone has been using since 2003, will be usable on those, but just look a little better.

 

[HarrisonMcKenzie]

Because I don't believe anyone has answered the question yet, I don't believe you need a new system shape in order to take advantage of Bento. What you do need though are animations and objects that are rigged to use it.

To test if your system shape is Bento ready, look for a Bento-rigged item or animation and see if it works (I have a cloak from Fate that came out right when Bento launched). If it doesn't work and your system shape is mod, you might just need to write the values down and make a new one with those same values, but I'm not sure if that's necessary.

Now, if you're taking about a mesh body you bought a year ago, you're SOL unless the creator has a Bento rigged version and offers upgrades.

[Chic Aeon]

Your shape has nothing to do with Bento. Bento is MESH, not shape. Maitreya updated Lara to be Bento. I unpacked and wore. I look EXACTLY the same except perhaps for the hands which were the new feature (BENTO HANDS). 

Unless you get a mesh body that is Bento enhanced (or and update) bento will have nothing to do with you. You may or may not miss it. I mean we have had 14 years without it.

There ARE Bento items that are not hands and heads such as wings. I wore all the ones sent to me successfully without my upgraded Bento Lara so I see no reason you need to worry about a new shape.  I had no plans on buying either Bento hands or head (and have not). The hands are handy since some of the folks I blog for are making Bento rings, but ....

I agree it is a scam much like advertising cheese as glutin free -- well DUH.

 

[Nikolai Warden]

Purchasing any shape can be seen as a scam really, as anyone can modify the system shape with which an avatar is virtually born. When I see "bento" shapes on the market, I see them advertised as being optimized for a particular bento head, and they usually come with a style card. So really, what people are buying is a shape that will influence the look of the bento head. It is no more a scam than selling any shape for those who are shape modifying impaired, so to speak.

[DorianDiaz]

Thanks for advices guys. So two conclusions:First, purchasing a complete bento shape is a scam/not necessary.

Second my avatar can look nice with the same shape and a Bento head, as long as it's compatible with my shape.

So... will it take too much time to customize the new head, hands, etc? Don't you need builder skills in order to get good results?

Thank you again.

[Clover Jinx]

38 minutes ago, DorianDiaz said:

Don't you need builder skills in order to get good results?

No, just lots and lots and lots and lots of patience. The key is to start with a head that is the closest to your current shape or one that you like the basic shape of the mouth. I've had the hardest time getting a bento head to adjust the mouth the way I would like due to the teeth and animations.

[Theresa Tennyson]

41 minutes ago, DorianDiaz said:

Thanks for advices guys. So two conclusions:First, purchasing a complete bento shape is a scam/not necessary.

Second my avatar can look nice with the same shape and a Bento head, as long as it's compatible with my shape.

So... will it take too much time to customize the new head, hands, etc? Don't you need builder skills in order to get good results?

Thank you again.

This might sound a little complicated at first, but it will help you understand things better once you grasp it.

All Second Life avatars are built on an invisible "skeleton". This skeleton is what animations actually move. The body you see is designed to follow the "bones" of this skeleton - this process is called "rigging" and means that certain parts of the body will move when specific bones are moved. The default avatar comes rigged to the default skeleton automatically and this information is written into your viewer.

Mesh clothing, heads and bodies can also be "rigged" to this invisible skeleton. This rigging is done by the maker of the mesh when they upload it. It always follows the same default skeleton already part of your viewer though.

What Project Bento did is added a lot of new "bones" to the default invisible skeleton - there are now new bones in the face and hands, as well as new "back legs", "wings" and a "tail." This revised skeleton is part of the viewer and takes the place of the old one, but still has all the same bones that the original skeleton had so animations and old rigged mesh will still behave the same way.

However, now mesh makers can rig to these new bones and animators can write animations that move these bones. For instance, Bento hands are rigged to the new finger bones. If you play animations that take advantage of the new bones the fingers will now move. You don't need to do anything other than having appropriate animations. Most Bento hands already come with a few animations or at least poses.

With the face, there are now tiny bones that mesh makers can rig to in the face as well. They can do two things - first, they automatically move with the shape sliders (the same sliders that have always been in the shape editor.) This means you can use the shape editor to modify the look of a Bento head. Also, these bones can be animated, meaning that you can play animations that can change your face expression. Bento heads usually come with a few expression animations already built in and playable from a HUD, and again, you can change how they look with the regular shape sliders.

Hope this helps!

[Marianne Little]

4 hours ago, DorianDiaz said:

Thanks for advices guys. So two conclusions:First, purchasing a complete bento shape is a scam/not necessary.

Second my avatar can look nice with the same shape and a Bento head, as long as it's compatible with my shape.

So... will it take too much time to customize the new head, hands, etc? Don't you need builder skills in order to get good results?

Thank you again.

The hands should do fine in a few steps. let us say you purchase Slink hands. (This is not promotion for Slink, I just don't know other hands)

It has details in notecards and on the blog. But there is two important things: If you want a good fit, you MUST choose one of the following sizes for the fat and torso muscle:

-XS
Body Fat: 0
Torso Muscle: 28

-S
Body Fat: 1
Torso Muscle: 37

-M
Body Fat: 5
Torso Muscle: 51

-L
Body Fat: 13
Torso Muscle: 72

-XL
Body Fat: 22
Torso Muscle: 88

So take a look at your shape numbers and see if you can fit into one of these sizes.

Second, if your skinmaker sell appliers, then you do this: attach hands, add applier, press applier and hands are perfectly matched to your body.

If your skin is old, and not updated with appliers, then you have to tint manually, and it is not impossible. But harder to get a good match. The skin applier does the job for you, it actually sends the skin texture to the mash bodypart and applies it over it, to give you the best match. Not only the skin tint, but highlights, shadows, painted on muscles and veins.

The skills needed is to adjust the shape, in body fat and torso muscle numbers, and then to tint manually if you can't get an applier.

But try the hands first and see if you are ready to use a head later. The head is more difficult to get used to.

[DorianDiaz]

Thank you so much for such great tutorials ladies