Still Struggling after days of research. Help, please?

[BbytheLake]

Hey everyone, I have spent a good couple weeks trying to learn the ways of SL. Still feeling discouraged and really haven't expanded my knowledge with my own research and tutorial finds. I am hoping some kind soul out there is willing to help answer a few questions I have and help guide me in the right direction..

Goal #1: Appearance satisfaction... I am willing to spend about $20(US dollars) to find something that fits my personality and style. Currently not enjoying what I have found. and having trouble getting her right.. see attached photo that includes current SL me, my extra foot.. haha and what I'm wearing so maybe someone could tell me how to take off my flat feet to add my high Slink feet? I can't seem to get anything right.. I don't like her yet

Goal #2: Finding a cute little beach house, fully decorated with an adult rating. I enjoy the sand, water, campfires... somewhere I can unpack an outfit I bought that requires me to have my own spot.. willing to pay a rental fee of about $10(US dollars/month)

What are your favorite creators and places to be? 

Thanks for any willing help!

 

[Chic Aeon]

You need to wear the ALPHA for the feet if you are using just the feet with a classic body. It will have the same icon as the one in your list that says JUMO : Hair - Alpha

You can also get full free bodies that are VERY nice and will improve your appearance. 

eBody  has two free versions (regular and curvy) and altamura has a free body still also I believe (very thin gal so probably not good for your look anyway).   

$10 a month is a fair amount to pay for rent so that really shouldn't be a problem.  Many places come without furniture of course because a lot of folks LIKE decorating and shopping :D.  But there are still plenty with furniture. 

 

Good luck and know that we all struggeled when we are new. SL has a steep learning curve. You are doing fine. 

[LittleMe Jewell]

Look for an inventory item called "Slink AvEnhance Feet Alpha" in your slink folder.  That will make your regular feet invisible so that the Slink feet are all that show.

[Elora Lunasea]

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I'd suggest playing around with your shape. First thing I noticed is the hands are extremely large. You want to size them down quite a bit.

There's lots of good shapes you can buy. Strawberry Singh makes reasonably priced shapes for nearly every body/head available.  She sells them for only 99 Lindens which is a steal for a a well made shape.

https://marketplace.secondlife.com/stores/63740?search[category_id]=333&search[maturity]=General&search

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[angeoco]

First the Slink feet. You need to wear the alpha layer that comes with the feet. That will hide your system feet.

With an appearance budget of 5,000 L$, a mesh body is a natural first step. It will do for your body what the Slink feet do for your feet. Chic has mentioned some very good free options, but you will most likely want a fully-featured body in the long term. Popular options include Maitreya Lara (the current market leader), Slink, Belleza, as well as the full EBody and Altamura bodies among others. Get demos of all the bodies that interest you before making a decision. You will also want quality skin, hair, clothes, shoes, etc., which could make a serious dent in the rest of your budget.

A mesh body (typically) covers everything from the neck down, so after settling into their mesh body many people then turn their attention to a mesh head, which is a separate purchase which could cost anything between 500 and 5,000 L$ for a quality head.

For a house, keep an eye on the property sections of this forum; they all provide links to the spot where you can go and visit it before deciding anything. Your budget of 600 L$ a week should get you a nice little place.

[Bree Giffen]

As far as getting a beach house, instant teleportation makes your home location irrelevant. You can have a skybox on g-rated land and instantly poof into a sandy adult oriented beach.

[Morgan Rosenstar]

Hello and welcome on SL.

For your goal 1, there are two ways to improve your appearance : edit your shape (or buy a shape if you struggle too much with the sliders) or get a meshbody. However the option 2 (to buy a meshbody) might get you off your budget as you'll have to buy a new skin and an applier too.

I see you're coming from Imvu and dressing your avie here works very differently. We've different ways to dress our avie : clothing layers for the default avatar, rigged meshed clothings that requires to adjust your shape to fit in, standard fitmesh clothings that stretch with default avatar shape, fitmesh clothings for one meshbody that stretch with one specific meshbody (maitreya mesh clothings, belleza freya mesh clothings, etc...) and also appliers that paint a clothing on your meshbody. So be ready to hear about rigged meshes, fitmeshes, appliers, standard avatar and meshbodies.

And alphas too. That's what is missing to hide your default feet (see Littleme and angeoco posts).

 

For your goal 2, I can't really help as I don't rent on a themed/community sim but one thing I can tell : be careful with the privacy options if you don't want all your neighbors to cam into your house 24/7.

[Bobbie Faulds]

Inverse has some really nice low prim fully furnished homes that are adult.

For a body, there is also the Toni's Fine that comes with hands and feet with the Omega already installed. Most of the Maitreya sized clothes will for the Tonic without a problem.

For tutorials, I'd suggest http://meshbodyaddicts.com/video-tutorials/

There are a lot there as well as reviews of the various heads and bodies.

Remember that demos are you friend. Demo, demo, demo.

[BbytheLake]

Thank you all so very much!! I am feeling refreshed and ready to try again today with your helpful tips and suggestions. I won't give up(again). Thanks for the encouragement.  I was able to hide the flat feet, find heels for my slink feet and adjust my big hands.. i'm still a little jagged looking after playing with the sliders, so I will be searching to buy a smoother shape and skin. As for the house, I am big on decorating and i'm sure I will really get into that as I figure everything out. I just need starters for appearance and house as I learn more and am ready to edit myself. I appreciate your help. SL community rocks!

Edited January 28, 2018 by BbytheLake

[Claireschen Hesten]

51 minutes ago, BbytheLake said:

i'm still a little jagged looking after playing with the sliders, so I will be searching to buy a smoother shape and skin. 

The jagged look is simply down to the system body, getting a smoother body can easily be remedied by acquiring a mesh body or if you want to continue with the system body you can mask it by wearing mesh clothes

[BbytheLake]

Wow! what a difference a mesh body makes! Demos are so helpful. Having so much fun looking. 

[Anna Nova]

14 hours ago, BbytheLake said:

Wow! what a difference a mesh body makes! Demos are so helpful. Having so much fun looking. 

One bit of advice when shopping for bodies and heads:  The look is important yes, but the controls are what makes it a joy or not to use.  Check out the HUD(s), and check out things like an Autohide mechanism - for me that is the clincher for Maitreya.   And think how you are going to manage all your hundreds of outfits.  Do you need a wardrobe manager?

[Anna Nova]

15 hours ago, Claireschen Hesten said:

The jagged look is simply down to the system body, getting a smoother body can easily be remedied by acquiring a mesh body or if you want to continue with the system body you can mask it by wearing mesh clothes

Indeed, if you mainly wear pants and long sleeves, then there is very little need for a mesh body at all.  Hence the slow sales of Male Mesh Bodies I guess.

[BbytheLake]

I have tried the demo version enough to know I want to buy, where do I find it to buy? I just see the demo version. thanks... Opps found it!

now to figure out how to delete this post.,..

Edited January 30, 2018 by BbytheLake

[LittleMe Jewell]

12 minutes ago, BbytheLake said:

now to figure out how to delete this post.,..

You can never delete posts.  You can edit them but only within 24 hours.  And you cannot edit any post down to nothing - there must always be at least one character.

However, unless you've said something you really regret, it is usually best to leave content, especially if it lets us know you've gotten your answer or solved the issue, and also anything that could help others in the future.

[BbytheLake]

Could use some help smoothing out my neck. Any tips? Also, who are your favorite clothing brands? I currently own a swim suit. That's it. haha Thank you

[LittleMe Jewell]

Before spending lots of money on clothes, one of the best ways to get started is to pick up some quality freebies.  That will also give you some things to judge some creators by.  Search inworld for The Free Dove and go there.  Also, look at these two websites that list lots of free and cheap items.  When you finally spend money, remember the golden rule:  Demo, demo, demo (at least for anything costing more than about L$25)

https://fabfree.wordpress.com/

https://www.scoop.it/t/second-life-freebies-und-mehr

 

Edited February 17, 2018 by LittleMe Jewell

[LittleMe Jewell]

2 hours ago, BbytheLake said:

Could use some help smoothing out my neck. Any tips?

 

I'm guessing you mean the noticable line between head and body.  This is a common issue that mostly depends on the skin chosen and the corresponding body applier. You do need to at least make sure the skin and body applier are from the same creator.  The HUD will have a button called Neck Fix which can help, but not always with all skins or all bodies. Many people (myself included) invest in a variety of chokers and wear those to cover that line.

Edited February 17, 2018 by LittleMe Jewell

[Skell Dagger]

19 minutes ago, LittleMe Jewell said:

The HUD will have a button called Neck Fix which can help, but not always with all skins or all bodies.

The neck fix is already on, which - in this case - isn't helping:

Those arrowed 'protrusions' are the body's neck fix.

@BbytheLake, As Lil said: you need to have a matching skin in the same tone and by the same designer for both mesh head and mesh body. From an earlier screenshot in this post I see that you were demoing the Tonic Curvy body, although you've not mentioned which mesh head you eventually bought. I'm not sure (being a guy and all that!) how well catered-for Tonic is when it comes to skins, but if you opt for Omega head and body appliers (together with using the Omega relay for the Tonic body and whichever brand of mesh head you're wearing) in the same tone from the same designer then you should get a closer match.

For example: let's say you've bought the Tonic body and a GA.EG head, and you like the skins at WOW Skins. If WOW don't make appliers for the Tonic body, but they do make Omega skins, you would need the following:

• an Omega head applier by WOW Skins in your favourite tone (for this example, we'll use 'sunkissed')
• an Omega body applier by WOW Skins in the same tone (sunkissed)
• the Omega relay for GA.EG heads
• the Omega relay for Tonic bodies.

Wear the relays. They may need to be clicked to install Omega, or you may just need to wear them while applying the skin appliers. Try both, to see which works. Then wear your head applier and click it, followed by your body applier.

You should not need the neck fix enabled (look for the option to disable it on your body's HUD) if you're using a matching tone, although that varies from designer to designer when it comes to skins. Some match better than others. DEMO is - as always - the watchword.

Addendum: When you're looking for skin matches, change your viewer's Windlight setting to something clear and well-lit, such as CalWL or one of the 'optimal skin' settings. You don't need to keep it that way once you're done, but that's the best way to check if your match is close.

Edited February 17, 2018 by Skell Dagger

[LittleMe Jewell]

22 minutes ago, Skell Dagger said:

The neck fix is already on, which - in this case - isn't helping:

Those arrowed 'protrusions' are the body's neck fix.

 

Ahh, Skell's eyes noticed what my not-fully-awake-ones didn't see.

 

[Love Zhaoying]

23 minutes ago, LittleMe Jewell said:

Ahh, Skell's eyes noticed what my not-fully-awake-ones didn't see.

 

How does one deal with this? I’ve noticed a lot of posts about it, and I’ll probably have that issue with my first mesh human body. *edit* Oh, I see “you need to have matching skin in the same tone by the same designer”.

Edited February 17, 2018 by Love Zhaoying

[angeoco]

7 minutes ago, Love Zhaoying said:

How does one deal with this? I’ve noticed a lot of posts about it, and I’ll probably have that issue with my first mesh human body. *edit* Oh, I see “you need to have matching skin in the same tone by the same designer”.

The size of the neck fix is often adjustable in the mesh body's HUD, so you should get a closer match than that.

55 minutes ago, Skell Dagger said:

you would need the following:

• an Omega head applier by WOW Skins in your favourite tone (for this example, we'll use 'sunkissed')
• an Omega body applier by WOW Skins in the same tone (sunkissed)

or a single full-body Omega applier, if one is available.

[Chic Aeon]

1 hour ago, Skell Dagger said:

Addendum: When you're looking for skin matches, change your viewer's Windlight setting to something clear and well-lit, such as CalWL or one of the 'optimal skin' settings. You don't need to keep it that way once you're done, but that's the best way to check if your match is close.

I think I am going to disagree here. Even with head and skin sets from the same maker that are supposed to match  -- there can be BIG problems -- not all skin designers pay close attention to matching seams ^^ unfortunately. So test, test, test for sure but I would suggest looking at skins you are actually thinking of buying in MANY Windlight )R)settings  some bright, some high contrast, etc. In Firestorm this is very easy buy just clicking through the list on the Quick Reference panel. 

Remember that setting a Windlight (R)that makes the skin look good  ---- ONLY affect YOUR view and is not how others will see you. So if that matters, take extra care. Happily there are some skin makers who do fantastic jobs of matching that area. When you find one, smile and wear it forever (well not forever --- but for awhile cause it was likely hard work finding it! ).

 

 

[LittleMe Jewell]

1 hour ago, Love Zhaoying said:

How does one deal with this? I’ve noticed a lot of posts about it, and I’ll probably have that issue with my first mesh human body. *edit* Oh, I see “you need to have matching skin in the same tone by the same designer”.

Yes, first and foremost is that the system head classic skin and body applier need to come from the same creator.  The neck fix supposedly works for the mesh body to system head,  helping to 'blend' the area, though it is not true in all cases.  When I did my last set of skin demos, the neck fix sometimes made things worse.  It all comes down to the skin creator.  As Chic mentioned, not all of them seem to pay as much attention to matching this seam line.

Thus the rule is demo, demo, demo - and use lots of windlight settings, turning yourself around so that the light hits you from all sides.  Eventually you will find something that works for you in most settings.  Also remember that you have no control over others' viewers and thus no control over how they see you.