Some basic Mesh Avatar questions

[Love Zhaoying]

I am thinking of getting my first mesh HUMAN avatar.  I have several mesh lion avatars. I am always a "neko lion", "anthro lion", or "feral lion".  So, once I select a human mesh avatar, I will be working to add all the Neko accessories I am used to: fangs, whiskers, ears, tail, suitable "mane" hair, etc.

Here are my basic questions:

1) Will I be able to attach and use my old prim attachments? 

a) Flexi or non-flexi tail (scripted or unscripted)

b) "Vampire teeth"

c) Lion ears 

d) Prim Whiskers

e) Tongue (I made my own tongue years ago, which I stick out occasionally)

2) Will I be able to wear old (prim) hair?

3) Will old animations work? Examples: normal AO animations, and "system animations" such as "mouth open".

4) Will old clothing work, or just prim clothing (not clothing "layers")?

5) I understand that I can keep my existing "system" head if I want to. If I do, I assume that there's no issue at all attaching previous things to it.

Thanks in advance for your attention to my n00bish questions!

Love,

Love

p.s. I read someone’s blog post about mesh avatars but didn’t see the answers to these questions, I think. Gosh darn it, I annoy myself! 

Edited February 16, 2018 by Love Zhaoying

[Bebe Bunny]

1) Yep, might have to adjust it depending on the shape of the body you get (some bodies add more curves like muscles and some body fat).

a)/b)/c)/d) Both will work but if you're going to be mesh I do think you can manage to make your look work with also mesh  hair and tail, I have some bento tail myself and I even saw bento lion tail somewhere in marketplace. Bento ears are also cool and they animate as well. 

e) If you plan on buying a bento head, those usually come with tongue, and animations for it to "stick out" like yours does.

2) Yes

3) Animations work fine, your hand might be idle or in a weird position, but there are hand aos available.

4) Only prim clothing, no layers. Mesh body is applier or mesh only.

5) yes you can buy the body only and keep the head, but I seen some anthro full mesh that looks really good, you should give it a try. I'm a mesh defender

[Lillith Hapmouche]

Based on your list, it strongly sounds as if a seperate mesh head and mesh body combo might work best for you, starting with a mesh body - though it would already be wise at this point to pay attention that you can get compatible skin texture appliers for both components. I don't know if you are also into making your own skin textures for your custom look, but if you do, you can either get Dev Kits for appliers for the most popular brands or settle for the Omega solution, which works as an "adapter" for compatible meshes.

In answer to the specific questions:

1) Honestly, that depends on each individual attachment. You certainly do have enough attachment spots to wear them alongside a head. But especially in the case of the teeth, the ears and the tongue, you should make sure that the head of your choice allows you to hide its original parts, so you can wear yours instead and align them.

2) Quite likely, though some adjustments might be needed to better align with a new forehead line or ear position. 

3) I'm not aware of any AO incompabilities except for the issue of non-animated Bento hands which might look "splayed" on someone else's screen. But the system face animations which you mentioned will have no effect on a mesh head. Yet those heads usually come with HUDs and in some cases extra animations to add life to your feature. 
From my personal point of view: those face animations held me back for the longest time, because I always liked to mix and match the system animations. But actually, after giving it a try, I much prefer the mesh head animations by now.

4) Prim clothes will also quite likely need adjustments to better match your body, where alpha cuts from the body HUD won't help you. Texture layers cannot be reassigned from the system body to a mesh body. "Skintight" texture clothes can be worn via a texture applier from the original merchant.
... mental note to self: beg Darling Monday to consider Omega applier releases of the old Fri.Day texture clothes...

5) Agreed.

And you know that popular saying, eh? Demo, demo, demo

[Theresa Tennyson]

One thing you might want to bear in mind is that there's a project being worked on that will allow the current "baked"/"system" skins, clothing, etc. to be used with mesh avatars (which can't be done now without the makers of those items providing "appliers.") This project looks like it may be rolled out mid-2018. For your purposes you may want to wait until you see what will be available then.

[Love Zhaoying]

1 hour ago, Theresa Tennyson said:

One thing you might want to bear in mind is that there's a project being worked on that will allow the current "baked"/"system" skins, clothing, etc. to be used with mesh avatars (which can't be done now without the makers of those items providing "appliers.") This project looks like it may be rolled out mid-2018. For your purposes you may want to wait until you see what will be available then.

Nothing like the smell of a batch of freshly baked mesh, hot out of the oven!

[LittleMe Jewell]

5 hours ago, Theresa Tennyson said:

One thing you might want to bear in mind is that there's a project being worked on that will allow the current "baked"/"system" skins, clothing, etc. to be used with mesh avatars (which can't be done now without the makers of those items providing "appliers.") This project looks like it may be rolled out mid-2018. For your purposes you may want to wait until you see what will be available then.

Wait a minute - are you saying that all those old outfits I threw away because of system layers might actually still work in the future? 

Granted, I might not really want them anyway, just due to quality, but still.

[Love Zhaoying]

22 minutes ago, LittleMe Jewell said:

Wait a minute - are you saying that all those old outfits I threw away because of system layers might actually still work in the future? 

Granted, I might not really want them anyway, just due to quality, but still.

I didn’t interpret it that way, but makes sense!

[Love Zhaoying]

5 hours ago, Theresa Tennyson said:

One thing you might want to bear in mind is that there's a project being worked on that will allow the current "baked"/"system" skins, clothing, etc. to be used with mesh avatars (which can't be done now without the makers of those items providing "appliers.") This project looks like it may be rolled out mid-2018. For your purposes you may want to wait until you see what will be available then.

Was this answer referring to #4, system clothing “layers”? Are you suggesting I put off getting an avatar, or just put off replacing my entire wardrobe?

[angeoco]

15 minutes ago, Love Zhaoying said:

Was this answer referring to #4, system clothing “layers”? Are you suggesting I put off getting an avatar, or just put off replacing my entire wardrobe?

You should get free updates for any mesh body you get, so there's no need to wait.

[Lillith Hapmouche]

5 hours ago, LittleMe Jewell said:

Wait a minute - are you saying that all those old outfits I threw away because of system layers might actually still work in the future? 

That's something I'd also love to see confirmed. Either as good or bad news. 

I would love to bring some system texture clothes back to life, worn under jackets and such. 

[Love Zhaoying]

The ability to wear a legacy tattoo layer is actually quite important to me, unless I can find my tattoo creator and get them to make a mesh layer. They created it to exactly match my RL tattoo.

 

[Ariel Vuissent]

 

2 minutes ago, Love Zhaoying said:

The ability to wear a legacy tattoo layer is actually quite important to me, unless I can find my tattoo creator and get them to make a mesh layer.

If the creator gave you the actual texture in additional to the wearable tattoo layers, you should be able to make an applier for it yourself, or hire someone to do so for you. If not, you'll need to contact that person and ask if they can/will make you an applier (omega is probably your best bet) or give you the texture so that you or someone else can do so.

[Love Zhaoying]

1 minute ago, Ariel Vuissent said:

 

If the creator gave you the actual texture in additional to the wearable tattoo layers, you should be able to make an applier for it yourself, or hire someone to do so for you. If not, you'll need to contact that person and ask if they can/will make you an applier (omega is probably your best bet) or give you the texture so that you or someone else can do so.

Last time I looked, couldn’t find original files. They did not set a fee, but I paid L$10k. Worth it, RL tattoo was about US$2500. I’ll hunt them down and ask when I get a chance.

[Chase01]

@Love Zhaoying Ariel is right, if you have the original work file or image it is be relatively simple to create an applier. The process only involves a few extra steps, but you will need that because the legacy tattoo layer is not going to show on your mesh body. If they do offer to make you an applier, as for the Omega version. That will give you the flexibility of using that tattoo on multiple bodies without having to need another unique applier.

Have you decided which bodies or heads you are interested in?

 

 

 

[Love Zhaoying]

51 minutes ago, Chase01 said:

@Love Zhaoying Ariel is right, if you have the original work file or image it is be relatively simple to create an applier. The process only involves a few extra steps, but you will need that because the legacy tattoo layer is not going to show on your mesh body. If they do offer to make you an applier, as for the Omega version. That will give you the flexibility of using that tattoo on multiple bodies without having to need another unique applier.

Have you decided which bodies or heads you are interested in?

 

 

 

No, I’ve been reading people’s posts about the different bodies / heads and seeing their pictures, of course.

[Love Zhaoying]

You know, because of the tattoo issue I could also start with a head. Even if you have to buy both, is it possible to use mesh head with system body?

[angeoco]

8 minutes ago, Love Zhaoying said:

You know, because of the tattoo issue I could also start with a head. Even if you have to buy both, is it possible to use mesh head with system body?

Yes, certainly. You can learn a lot by getting demos of the body parts that interest you and playing with them.

Edited February 18, 2018 by angeoco

[LittleMe Jewell]

If the tattoo has to be recreated by someone new, I do see more signs about doing custom work in tattoo stores than any other type of store in SL.  Given what it might cost though, you'd definitely want to go with someone trustworthy -- a well known shop - and don't pay too much until it is completed

[Love Zhaoying]

5 minutes ago, LittleMe Jewell said:

If the tattoo has to be recreated by someone new, I do see more signs about doing custom work in tattoo stores than any other type of store in SL.  Given what it might cost though, you'd definitely want to go with someone trustworthy -- a well known shop - and don't pay too much until it is completed

Luckily I have pictures of the original RL tattoo artwork, plus lots of reference photos of course. Based on the Japanese rock star Hyde of L’arc~en~Ciel.

[Chase01]

I have a tattoo like this one in the photo above. It may not be identical, but it is definitely a close match. Though from what I can remember, the wings do not span onto the arms. The entirety of it fit onto the shoulder blade area. It did include mesh appliers ...

Definitely pick up some demos and experiment with different skins and cosmetics. You can then also test your prim attachments and see how they would look all before having to spend a dime. If you're on a budget you can pick up a static mesh head from Catwa for around 900L. Alternatively, Genesis Labs released a few bento models through gacha. I've seen some of those going for around 1200L.

 

 

[Love Zhaoying]

15 minutes ago, Chase01 said:

I have a tattoo like this one in the photo above. It may not be identical, but it is definitely a close match. Though from what I can remember, the wings do not span onto the arms. The entirety of it fit onto the shoulder blade area. It did include mesh appliers ...

Definitely pick up some demos and experiment with different skins and cosmetics. You can then also test your prim attachments and see how they would look all before having to spend a dime. If you're on a budget you can pick up a static mesh head from Catwa for around 900L. Alternatively, Genesis Labs released a few bento models through gacha. I've seen some of those going for around 1200L.

 

 

I started with that one and had it extended.

[Love Zhaoying]

18 minutes ago, Chase01 said:

If you're on a budget you can pick up a static mesh head from Catwa for around 900L. Alternatively, Genesis Labs released a few bento models through gacha. I've seen some of those going for around 1200L.

I pretty much have unlimited budget.

[Bebe Bunny]

I'd tell you to try as much demos as you want and always prefer products that offer Omega compatibility because then you might be able to make your tattoo yourself if you know how to.