Skell head - opinions please?

[Maitimo]

I picked up a demo of the Catwa Skell head and although I really like it, I can't decide if it's enough improvement to splash out the bucks for it.  I love being able to edit the shape (the original is the Justin head, non-bento) but I can't decide if these differences are worth that much...

So here's the comparison; Justin on the left, Skell on the right.  I know the beards are different, the one on Justin has the Catwa overlay and the one on Skell is with the skin. The shapes are different too because the Justin shape isn't compatible with the Skell head. Skins and eyes are the same. And yeah, I think I was too close with the Skell pic, that's why it looks bigger.

The more I look at these pics, the more I like it (Skell) but the price-tag scares me...

So, good people of the forums, what do you think?

[So Whimsy]

Skell looks more natural, especially the smoother jaw and the eyes look less feminine. Nothing wrong with either set of eyes though, Justin's eyes just look like they were directly copied from a female catwa head imho.

What causes my ultimate decision however to stay with Justin are the lips. Boy, that slight smirk is sexy.

 

This is coming from someone who uses the 3500L Catwa Jessica Head (non-Bento) and has yet to find the Bento equivalent of it. All the Bento heads I tried out look like poopoo compared to the one I have. I might just have gotten way too used to it though :3

[Skell Dagger]

I was going to joke that I'd best sit this one out, but - while the difference in shape is going to be down to your personal preference - I would suggest that you check out all the extra options you get for customisation on the Bento heads. You get an upper and lower layer, on each of the face sections, which allow you to add far more to your avatar, such as makeup. (I know you often inhabit a fae-like avatar look, and there's an incredibly amount of fantasy makeup available out there.)

I have a Beginner's Guide to Catwa Bento Heads on my blog, which will get you up to speed on the basics. Have a read of it, perhaps, before you consider splurging? And, if you have any further questions about it, shoot me a PM here or a notecard inworld. I'm a CSR for Catwa, so I can answer any queries you may have, outside of making the actual decision

[Lillith Hapmouche]

For the sake of the extra features and customizing options, I'd settle for the "dedicated to Skell" head.
But try to fiddle with the shape a little further for a more defined and polished look. That smirk which Syn mentioned should be relatively easy to copy with less wide lips and higher mouth wrinkles.

However, could it be that the Skell head has somewhat lowered eyes, I mean in general?
M-Alt #2 tried several eye applier demos and in most cases, the iris was sitting too far up, halfway hidden behind the eyelids. I know that there's that "Animated Eyes & Tears" add-on which is supposed to fix the texture placement. Yet it's not annoying enough that I'm willing to shell out another L$1.500 ...
Or could that be a shape thing?

[Lewis Luminos]

I like the eyes and mouth better on the original - but that said, you could probably adjust those on the Skell head, since it's bento.  I think you have the eyes on the Skell head a bit too big. What definitely looks better to me on the Skell head though is the jaw shape; it looks much more natural, whereas the original is very "pointy". The brow shape looks better too, not sure if that can be changed on the non-bento head or not?

 

[LexxiXhan]

I like the slightly more androgynous look on the Justin pic, but as Lewis has already implied, there probably aren't many preferable things about the Justin pic that you couldn't achieve with lots of time spent editing and tweaking the Skell head - and there's no reason to make a rush decision unless the Skell head is on a limited time offer. Personally I'd do a lot more experimenting and trying out the bento features, makeup or adding mesh lashes, make a few wildly varied shapes, play with animations, find that perfect bento smirk etc.

[Maitimo]

3 hours ago, Skell Dagger said:

I was going to joke that I'd best sit this one out, but - while the difference in shape is going to be down to your personal preference - I would suggest that you check out all the extra options you get for customisation on the Bento heads. You get an upper and lower layer, on each of the face sections, which allow you to add far more to your avatar, such as makeup. (I know you often inhabit a fae-like avatar look, and there's an incredibly amount of fantasy makeup available out there.)

I have a Beginner's Guide to Catwa Bento Heads on my blog, which will get you up to speed on the basics. Have a read of it, perhaps, before you consider splurging? And, if you have any further questions about it, shoot me a PM here or a notecard inworld. I'm a CSR for Catwa, so I can answer any queries you may have, outside of making the actual decision

I was REALLY hoping you'd have some advice to offer, since it's your head. well, kinda...

The non-Bento one has the same layers as the bento one, as far as I can tell from a couple hours playing with the hud. I'm currently using brows and beard on my own, sometimes I ditch the beard and have freckles instead.  I haven't figured out how to add makeup to either one of them yet though. 

 

3 hours ago, Syn Anatine said:

Skell looks more natural, especially the smoother jaw and the eyes look less feminine. Nothing wrong with either set of eyes though, Justin's eyes just look like they were directly copied from a female catwa head imho.

What causes my ultimate decision however to stay with Justin are the lips. Boy, that slight smirk is sexy.

I like that smirk too, though I'm pretty sure I could duplicate it on the Skell head.  The eyes being feminine doesn't bother me, I'm supposed to be an elf so naturally I'd look a bit more feminine than the average human male anyway. That plus the long hair is why I've had to put "I'm not a girl, stop calling me "she!" in my profile!

3 hours ago, Lillith Hapmouche said:

However, could it be that the Skell head has somewhat lowered eyes, I mean in general?
M-Alt #2 tried several eye applier demos and in most cases, the iris was sitting too far up, halfway hidden behind the eyelids. I know that there's that "Animated Eyes & Tears" add-on which is supposed to fix the texture placement. Yet it's not annoying enough that I'm willing to shell out another L$1.500 ...
Or could that be a shape thing?

No, the eyes aren't with the head, they are independent, that's just me not adjusting them right. The whole shape around the head is completely different between the two heads so the eyes are in a totally different position, I guess I didn't raise them quite high enough. 

1 hour ago, Lewis Luminos said:

I like the eyes and mouth better on the original - but that said, you could probably adjust those on the Skell head, since it's bento.  I think you have the eyes on the Skell head a bit too big. What definitely looks better to me on the Skell head though is the jaw shape; it looks much more natural, whereas the original is very "pointy". The brow shape looks better too, not sure if that can be changed on the non-bento head or not?

Thanks. I agree about the super-pointy chin  on Justin, that does annoy me a bit.  And no, the eyebrow shape can't really be changed on the Justin head. There are 4 pre-sets built into the hud, but editing the system hairbase/brows doesn't change anything, whereas on the Skell head it does.

 

[Marianne Little]

 

6 hours ago, Syn Anatine said:

Skell looks more natural, especially the smoother jaw and the eyes look less feminine. Nothing wrong with either set of eyes though, Justin's eyes just look like they were directly copied from a female catwa head imho.

What causes my ultimate decision however to stay with Justin are the lips. Boy, that slight smirk is sexy.

 

This is coming from someone who uses the 3500L Catwa Jessica Head (non-Bento) and has yet to find the Bento equivalent of it. All the Bento heads I tried out look like poopoo compared to the one I have. I might just have gotten way too used to it though :3

Sorry to derail the thread, but I can't resist. I updated one alt from Jessica to Kathy, and I think she looks almost the same. I think the nose is much better, and also, Jessica don't have so many layers. The lipsticks also fit from a lot of different brands. I like the old mouth form on Jessica, but it had to use specially Jessica lipsticks.

[Skell Dagger]

7 hours ago, Matty Luminos said:

I was REALLY hoping you'd have some advice to offer, since it's your head. well, kinda...

As far as shaping advice goes, the only thing that I would suggest - if you're trying to replicate your non-Bento face as much as possible - is to reduce the nostril width just a tad. If you hold a ruler vertically at the inner corner of your eye you can see that on the Justin head it touches the outer edge of the nostril, but on the Skell head the outer edge of the nostril is outside that line.

To replicate the lips and that smirk, try reducing the mouth width a tad and raising the outer lip corners

Every Bento mesh head has a different 'base shape', which should always be taken into consideration when trying to replicate a face. For example: Catwa Stanley has a very strong, square jaw. While it's possible to soften that jaw with a bit of work, you'll struggle to get a rounded face or a delicate pointed chin out of it. Skell was created very much in my usual face shape, which has always included high and prominent cheekbones, and slightly higher eyes and brows than most. If you want to replicate the thinner look and more pointed chin of your Justin head then I would suggest demoing Catwa's Victor Bento head instead, as the base shape of Victor has more of that look about it.

This is Victor, with a skin by Vendetta:

7 hours ago, Matty Luminos said:

The non-Bento one has the same layers as the bento one, as far as I can tell from a couple hours playing with the hud. I'm currently using brows and beard on my own, sometimes I ditch the beard and have freckles instead.  I haven't figured out how to add makeup to either one of them yet though.

The Bento heads have more layers. Don't confuse the head's sections (hairbase, brows, eye makeup, blush, lipstick, etc.) with layers. On the non-Bento heads you do have two hairbases, but you only have one layer for each of the other sections. Catwa Bento heads contain two layers (upper and lower) for each section, which allows you to layer different things (for example: a beard and a cheek tattoo, or separate eyeshadow and eyeliner) - one on the upper and one on the lower layer.

With regard to makeup, the post on my blog will show you how to do that. I wrote it especially for guys who have just picked up a Catwa Bento head and who are trying to figure it out.

I will say, though, that if those extra layers aren't something you'd be using, and you want to replicate your Justin head as much as possible, and if you don't feel limited in any way by the Justin head, then... why not stick with it? I'm not going to try and 'sell' that Bento head to you, even though I may be a little bit biased towards it

4 hours ago, Marianne Little said:

Sorry to derail the thread, but I can't resist. I updated one alt from Jessica to Kathy, and I think she looks almost the same. I think the nose is much better, and also, Jessica don't have so many layers. The lipsticks also fit from a lot of different brands. I like the old mouth form on Jessica, but it had to use specially Jessica lipsticks.

Many of the non-Bento Catwa heads have 'sisters' in look. Jessica's Bento sisters are Catya, Lilly, and Uma. While it's possible to recreate a look fairly accurately using a different head (as you have with Kathy there) there are still visible differences, most of which are missed at a quick glance because of the same/similar skins

Edited April 9, 2018 by Skell Dagger

[Vin Soulstar]

Personally I prefer the higher cheek bones on Skell and the over all look.

Just my two cents.

[Ethan Paslong]

also have a look here

https://strawberrysingh.com/2018/04/06/catwa-skell-male-bento-mesh-head/

[Maitimo]

Well, so I tried playing with the shape sliders for a while and I am rather disappointed.  It seems that they don't work the same way on the mesh head as they do on the system head. I thought that by raising the lips outer corner it would create that smirk, but it doesn't even turn the corners up at all, it just makes the mouth slightly wider.  I couldn't make the eyes smaller either - instead of getting overall smaller, all it does is push the lower lid up to make them narrower. In fact any editing to the eyes at all, in any direction, just ruins the look altogether.

8 hours ago, Skell Dagger said:

If you want to replicate the thinner look and more pointed chin of your Justin head then I would suggest demoing Catwa's Victor Bento head instead, as the base shape of Victor has more of that look about it.

This is Victor, with a skin by Vendetta:

 

Thanks! I like that look, I'll give that one a try next. 

[Lillith Hapmouche]

Is your shape transfer? If it is, you could drop a copy on my m-alt #2 (hope that works...) with his Skell head and I can try my luck.

Eyes are greatly influenced not just by eye size and eye opening , but also by playing with the eye bags and upper eyelid fold.

PS: The "lip cleft depth" slider has a massive impact on the upper lips shape.

Edited April 9, 2018 by Lillith Hapmouche

[Orion Pastorelli]

I really like the Skell head. I plan on picking it up next week after pay day. what I really like are the lips:  the upper lip has this upward curl to it that I think is really attractive. Plus, it also has a great jaw line and cheek bones. In addition, it has a great looking profile when you look at it from the side.