Advise about male cross-dresser avatar please

[DreamBoy777]

Hi all,

I would like to create male cross dresser av and can not decide what way to choose. On one hand, if you use standard body your av will be able to wear any fitmesh outfit (there are some very nice ones), but it also would mean you have to use standard body (which is not the best) and standard head too as matching head and body colors if you go mesh head will be very hard problem (if solvable at all). May be you would be able to use some third party hands and feet with your av (not sure about it), but still this seems quite unappealing way, if you want to have nice looking av.

Another way is to have mesh body. Problem with this way is number of available outfits. Even male outfits for male mesh bodies are limited... cosdressing ones are only few. Some clothes are available for [V-Tech]Boi, but againvery limited number.

So, can anybody advise what is the best way to have crosdresser male av? What is most important for me:

1. nice look (ability to have mesh body and mesh head probably - without that terrible neck seam)

2. good choice of clothes - not only 20 or 30 of them

If such way exists, please kindly advise.

[Marianne Little]

There is only one. The infamous @Skell Dagger

His Flickr: https://www.flickr.com/photos/skelldagger/

Blog: http://www.virtualbloke.com/

I can't count how many bodies and heads he has. It is a lot.

I think most of us use more than one system, I have Maitreya, but I also use Slink hands and feet with it sometimes.

Mesh heads can be used with the default avatar. So if you hide the most of the body anyway, you can use a head plus hands and feet from Slink, and that will give you a lot to choose from. The neck seam is a much smaller problem when you use appliers from the same skin creator, not tinting the default skins that comes with the parts.

Demo bodies, heads and parts can be used with skin demos, so you get to see how it works before you buy.

Skell is using Maitreya + Vtech now, but he has tons of looks with the male body from Slink too.

But I let him talk about it when he's in the forums, I can't keep up with all his looks. ?

Edited October 2, 2018 by Marianne Little

[Skell Dagger]

Thanks for the heads-up, Marianne

One small correction: I'm not using Maitreya and V-Tech exclusively now. My 'Syd' persona is just getting a lot of shopping done because there's so much good stuff I can use on him at the moment. I'll be going back to the more masculine looks soon.

I would also like to suggest that the OP checks out @flowersforkain, who is another andro/bishōnen avatar here on the forum and who has his own blog at Veiled Dream. There are plenty of other guys out there who also blog these kinds of look.

I would guess that the first question to be asked is: are you looking to create an androgynous or bishōnen ("beautiful young man") look, or a look that's more along the lines of Eddie Izzard ("guy who sometimes wears dresses, heels, and makeup")? The phrase "cross-dresser" tends to be used for the latter in popular culture, although it actually means "a person who wears clothing and accessories intended for the opposite sex".

If you opt for the "bloke wearing dresses and heels" look, then yes, your choices are very limited. It's not a look that there is much call for in Second Life, although some creators do have a small selection of items (off the top of my head I can think of Schadenfreude, Violetility, Riot, and some of Cubura's clothing; all of which are intended for use on specific male mesh bodies). If you opt for the bishōnen look, then your options widen vastly, since most guys using that look wear Maitreya with V-Tech, and the amount of gorgeous clothing etc for Maitreya just leaves you looking for V-Tech options, which widen a great deal when you start being more canny about how you style your avatar.

V-tech rigged tops must have a flat chest, of course, but there's nothing to stop you from seeking out open Maitreya-rigged tops that don't have obvious flares at the side where breasts would be on a female avatar. An example of that, found just a couple of days ago at Neo-Japan, is this long futuristic open tunic coat by A&Y, rigged for Maitreya but having not much breast-shaping to worry about:

You can also wear any number of under-bust rigged and applier corsets using Maitreya and V-Tech. If you like the dark and gothic, also check out Hotdog, who are currently releasing skinny jackets and coats rigged for male, female, and 'flat-chested female'.

Seek out male Omega applier tops. Sn@tch has a lot of good ones (both the skeleton tank in the above shot and the ripped jeans are appliers from Sn@tch), and the darker colours of many of the female applier tops from that store can also be used on the V-Tech/Maitreya combination - together with the appropriate Omega relay HUDs - since Ivey Deschanel has always been light on the shading and often allows the underlying body to do the 3D work, rather than adding extra under-breast shadows.

For skins, look for those with V-Tech appliers included. Many go for Pink Fuel, but I've recently discovered two new V-Tech skinners: Lumae (not a new creator, but newly creating V-tech appliers) and Sun & Stars.

Accessories are everything. Load up on them. You can have a fairly small base wardrobe with a massive load of accessories, and create more looks than you can imagine from that. Shoes especially (oh god, the heels I can now happily wear!), but also jewellery, hats, and headdresses. Don't forget hair; you can use many female hairstyles on a male avatar, and likewise use male hairstyles on a female avatar.

If you opt for the Maitreya/V-Tech look, spend a lot of time in the saddlebag and hip slider sections of your shape. You might despair of ever reducing the feminine Maitreya hips down to masculine slimness, but it can be done if you balance those sliders out. Don't forget to broaden your shoulders, add a little muscle, and increase your hand size (the hand size on the default Maitreya shape is absolutely tiny, even for a female avatar).

For mesh heads, I prefer (on my bishōnen look) to wear female mesh heads that start out relatively androgynous-looking, and tweak the various head sliders to make them more masculine. I started out with Catwa's 'Catya' Bento head, but I'm currently using her 'Margeaux' Bento head.

Other considerations: the annual Femboy Hunt (which, sadly, has just finished for this year), and the quarterly Something Extra Event (which is currently ongoing until 12th October).

Edited October 2, 2018 by Skell Dagger

[DreamBoy777]

Thanks guys very helpful tips. Now things became more clear to me.

Thanks again.

[DreamBoy777]

One more question, please. If I go Maitreya V-tech way... what to do with v a g i n a? I do not want to create a shemale... just male crosdresser. Any ideas?

Edited October 2, 2018 by DreamBoy777

[LittleMe Jewell]

1 hour ago, DreamBoy777 said:

One more question, please. If I go Maitreya V-tech way... what to do with v a g i n a? I do not want to create a shemale... just male crosdresser. Any ideas?

The Vjay with Maitreya is totally dependent on the skin, which is basically painted on and can be hairless - there isn't a separate mesh object.  Thus, I would suppose that you should be able to attach male genitalia to the body as you would to any other body and its just a matter of matching skin color or having a like skin applier for said male object.   Then again, if you are using a skin made for male, it wouldn't even have the painted on vjay.

Edited October 2, 2018 by LittleMe Jewell

[DreamBoy777]

I've spent some time examining female genitalia on maitreya body  and it seems mesh, not just skin. So if I add male genitalia I will receive shemale, not male. I do not mind against shemales generally :), but not in this case. Is there any mod like v-tech boi, that corrects the area? You may think I am worrying about unimportant details, but please have in mind that creation of shemale is very simple: you choose any female body, any head... just add male genitalia. The whole point of spending time and money on things like v-tech and skins are to have undoubtedly a male in female clothes.... And what is the point all of this if it becomes apparent he is not a male the same second as he undresses?

Edited October 2, 2018 by DreamBoy777

[LittleMe Jewell]

25 minutes ago, DreamBoy777 said:

I've spent some time examining female genitalia on maitreya body  and it seems mesh, not just skin.

I just applied a variety of male demo skins and it does appear that there is a very slight labia built into the body. Knowing nothing about male 'parts' in SL, I'm still thinking that since the labia area is so small, normal male attachments would fully cover it so that when you are naked you would only see the male parts and not the small labia area under the male part (so yes, technically like a shemale, but not really visible to anyone). Granted, if you were naked without any attached male part, you would notice a slight mound in the crotch area.

Edited October 2, 2018 by LittleMe Jewell

[DreamBoy777]

I will perform some experiments.  Thanks for tips.

[DreamBoy777]

This is the result.  I've aligned male part perfectly. It looks great from any angle except from bellow. as soon as you look from bellow you clearly see female genitalia.   

 

Picture is removed.

 

Edited October 3, 2018 by DreamBoy777

[LittleMe Jewell]

8 minutes ago, DreamBoy777 said:

This is the result.  I've aligned male part perfectly. It looks great from any angle except from bellow. as soon as you look from bellow you clearly see female genitalia.   

 

Yikes - remove the picture.  The forums have to stay PG.

Maybe someone will pop along with a better solution.  

[DreamBoy777]

ok thanks anyway.

Removing picture.

[Madelaine McMasters]

Anyone  up for a wiener roast?...

Edited October 3, 2018 by Madelaine McMasters

[Madelaine McMasters]

...stabs the forum software with her trident. 

 

Edited October 3, 2018 by Madelaine McMasters

[Bree Giffen]

Can't you just use the Maitreya menu to make that part invisible? Then add the male parts on top? 

[DreamBoy777]

Problem is male part is smaller, than female part. I mean Male part width is lesser. So if I just hide female part av will end with hole in her body.

Of course there is a way to make male part much bigger and slide it deeper than it should be... May be this way one can achieve better result... at least hide female part. But then av will have very big male part, which is unnatural in this case to this type of av. 

Edited October 3, 2018 by DreamBoy777

[LittleMe Jewell]

The alpha section for that area is really large:

 

[Fionalein]

12 hours ago, DreamBoy777 said:

One more question, please. If I go Maitreya V-tech way... what to do with v a g i n a? I do not want to create a shemale... just male crosdresser. Any ideas?

hide it professionally by adding a part ^^

caboodle created this add on to turn a naked Maitraya based furry save for the general public:

http://slpoweredbyomega.com/instructions/omega-system-add-ons-caboodle-hoohoo-cover/

will work for your purpose too, get it at:

https://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Neptune/57/58/2607

Edited October 3, 2018 by Fionalein

[DreamBoy777]

Thanks Fionalein,

That is exactly what I was looking for. 

[Love Zhaoying]

1 hour ago, Fionalein said:

hide it professionally by adding a part ^^

caboodle created this add on to turn a naked Maitraya based furry save for the general public:

http://slpoweredbyomega.com/instructions/omega-system-add-ons-caboodle-hoohoo-cover/

will work for your purpose too, get it at:

https://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Neptune/57/58/2607

I love that you could potentially find this by searching for “hoohoo”!

[DreamBoy777]

One more question please: Lelutka male head does not fit v-tech (neck is absolutely different). Can I use male mesh heads with v-tech at all?

[DreamBoy777]

UPDATE: V-Tech boi does not support male mesh heads.  

[Love Zhaoying]

1 minute ago, DreamBoy777 said:

UPDATE: V-Tech boi does not support male mesh heads.  

Some people (like the famous @Skell Dagger) may tweak female heads to look more male (preserving androgyny). At least I think so. I’ll shut up now.

[Ariel Vuissent]

I think at least one head creator does an "androgynous" head, and you could probably manipulate it to skew more masculine. I also know that Pink Fuel has at least once androgynous skin for female heads, so that might be worth a look. 

As for the female parts showing, some skins offer a "PG" version that basically barbie-doll's the chest and genital areas. Looks for those, or for flesh-toned "pasties" for the genitals, if you can find them. That coupled with your "male part" might help. 

[DreamBoy777]

Thanks Ariel. I will look at them.