18-20 YO Male Avi

[simplebilly]

Hey Al, i'm Bil,

I'm returning to SL after 3 years absence. I would like to make a cool great looking and normal looking (not super muscle) 18-20 yo looking Male Av.

Please could someone give me suggestions on best options to use (Body, Skins etc) that would have a great clothing support options as well. Money is no object :)

I'm perfectionist and would love to have a NORMAL great looking avi. I have avis that are 7' tall and are super muscled.

I'm 5'11", 200lbs in RL and kinda would like to have the same look in SL  :))

When I was in SL 3 years ago I only used funny looking fantasy avis but this time I'd like to be normal myself :))

You can either contact me here or in SL, username: simplebilly

 

Thank you All, in advance!

Bill

[Callum Meriman]

Geralt body, avi-glam/stray dog/clef de peu skin, any catwa head that you like.

Edited October 8, 2018 by Callum Meriman

[Marianne Little]

If you want to be really modern, you need to make the leap for mesh.

I will say that a Slink male body is your best option. Its popularity is not as high anymore, but it is still made a lot of content for it.

You have the Signature Geralt, but that is not taking off really yet. The "big brother" Signature Gianni is more popular, many bought it and now they hesitate to switch to Geralt because they must update the wardrobe and all.

Belleza Jake is very popular, but both Gianni and Jake is muscular. You can do a lot of work with shapes, but you can't remove muscles that is built into the mesh.

A bonus for Slink and Signature is the ability for single arm tattoos and different arm tattoos, if you have a special interest in tattoos. https://strawberrysingh.com/2017/06/24/letis-tattoo-modular-tattoos-hud/

Strawberry Singh has lots of body and head videos, also for men.

You should read about Bento, that is the thing now. It is new bones added to the skeleton, so we get facial animations when using a meh head rigged for Bento. And we have finger movements, that is cool. No more clumsy hand animations.

Bento is fully operation in SL now and all the popular bodies and heads have it. It is some non-Bento heads out there, so be sure you demo and test it.

For a head, I am partial to Catwa, plainly because they have the male skin market. There are some other options, but they are so few. I am using Catwa on my male alts for that reason.

For young faces, try Clef de Peau. I think they have less muscular body options too. Many big skin brands offer different levels of muscles. The store blog: https://marcopoloh.com/

Do you have special preferences regarding the look, or is it the medium tan European male with dark or brown hair look you go for?

The man who know the male market best - and who is a forum regular is @Skell Dagger

His blog offer detailed tutorials for 2 popular mesh heads plus some reviews of bodies. Look for them in the list on the right side. http://www.virtualbloke.com/

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

 

[Marianne Little]

Oh yeah, my post was so long that I make a little post here. You will need things marked Bento for an AO, so your fingers move.

For mesh heads, the rigging is so different from the sl appearance we are used to, so you should look for a shape for that head. If you buy a head, they come with a shape that I recommend using as a start, then mod it. If you put on the head with another shape, it can look really nasty.

And DEMO. The demos are fully operational so you can see what you get. Don't don't trust sellers without demos.

Edited October 8, 2018 by Marianne Little

[Ethan Paslong]

Avi Glam/Clef de Peau skins ( body (soft version for CdP) + head!)
Slink body
any Catwa head you like

and:

demo

demo

demo

first!

don't forget a bento AO

[simplebilly]

Whoa thank you both soo much for such fast responce!!! I so appreciate it!!!

Yes I know that Mesh is a way to go and i'm willing to spend as much as it takes Just want like a cool and perfect look!

Marianne you're soo awesome with that long post!!!! Could you I contact you in  world for a couple questions about look later on tonight?

Thank you

[simplebilly]

Ethan :)) didn't see your response as I was typing previous one

Same question to you as to Marianne, could I contact you in world?

[Callum Meriman]

I have to disagree with Marianne, I play this age range myself.

Slink isn't so great for 18-20 realistic sized. The chest is very much like a barrel. It's ugly. - but by all means demo it, make a shape, look from the side. If you can deal with the barrel chest then go for it.

Gianni is for the 7' people. Forget it.

Jake will work for 18-20, but has stupid bugs like splayed fingers and very flat biceps. The biceps look like they have gone through a roller when you are in a realistic size. Again demo it. Jake's one advantage is a wide range of BDSM/Gay clothing to go with it.

Geralt is the best body for a realistic 18-20. The clothing is growing quite well although you will have to skip  most gay/bdsm items as they really are focussed to jake/gianni. But for normal clothing - Legal Insanity for a shirtless look - if you are going for shirt/pants then many Gianni clothes will fit. Demo always.

[Skell Dagger]

Mesh bodies

Of the most popularly-supported bodies your choices are as follows -

• Signature Gianni - Too muscled for what you're looking for (although some may suggest it to you). The built-in muscles on Gianni CAN be reduced, but only with some serious slider work and a lot of patience. Gianni has heavy biceps, triceps, and deltoids, as well as a low centre of gravity. It's very much a 'prizefighter' kind of body; the kind of guy who presses a lot at the gym, and - if you want to bring it out of that look - you'll need to work with the shape. However, it is the most rigged-for male body out there.
• Belleza Jake - The second most rigged-for body out there at the moment. Jake is the choice of many who don't want to go the 'gym bunny' route of Gianni, but be aware that it, too, has some muscle (and vein) built into the mesh. Be aware, too, that Jake - while having Bento hands - does not have built-in hand poses or a hand idle animation, so if you're not using a Bento AO the fingers will occasionally 'starfish' out. There are also some issues with the neck of the Jake body matching up perfectly with some mesh heads, so make sure you always demo everything together, and be advised that Jake is still in beta and hasn't yet been updated in the year and a half that it's been out.
• Slink Physique Male - The third most rigged-for body out there at the moment. This is the body to choose for a more swimmer's torso physique. It can be bulked out a little by use of the body fat slider (up to 5%) if it's too slim for you, but it can be given decent shoulders. Be aware that it's beginning to lose clothing support from some designers, who are shifting toward the 'muscle boy' end of things and only rigging for Gianni. If you buy this body, make sure you get the 'bundle' that includes hands and feet. (The hands have a built-in idle animation.)
• Signature Geralt - The fourth most rigged-for body out there at the moment. Geralt is the twinky body, and the nearest to the average 18-20 year-old guy in the street. It's slimmer than Gianni, but still has a few nice, tight muscles (although not overtly so). It's only the fourth most rigged-for body at the moment because it's still relatively new. It's gaining more and more support each month, so - while you may struggle to find a wide range of clothing for it now - you won't struggle in the future.

There are other male mesh bodies out there, but none of them have the clothing support that the above four do. If you want a reasonable wardrobe outside of about five outfits, you need to be looking at one of the above.

My suggestion: either Signature Geralt or Slink Physique Male. Demo both and see what you think.

Mesh heads

Since you say that money is no object, make sure you opt for a Bento mesh head. These can be customised using the shape sliders. The mesh head brands that you'll find most support for (by means of skins, shapes, and appliers such as facial hair etc) are Catwa (6 male Bento heads at the moment) and Lelutka (1 male Bento head at the moment).

While a mesh head is more of a personal choice that should only be arrived at after a lot of demoing, my suggestion would be a Catwa head. Possibly Dino, Shaheen, or Skell, but demo them all and see which one feels like 'you'. (Make sure to demo the heads with demos of the skins that have been suggested, so you get an overall feel for what they look like.)

Skins

Since you want to 'go young' the previous recommendations of Clef de Peau and Avi-Glam are probably your best options. You might also try demos of skins by L'Etre, Insol, Vendetta, and Not Found, as those - while being more in the mid-20s - might still work, depending on your face shape.

Shapes

If you opt for a Bento mesh head make sure that - if you buy a shape - it states on the ad that it's created for that specific head. (If you don't like its body you can change that anyway.) Many bento heads are rigged in such a way that they need specific slider settings to start out with, which you can then change and customise. So you can either purchase a shape that's created for your Bento mesh head of choice, or customise the starter shape that you'll find in the head's folder.

Also, be aware that most male Bento shapes sold these days do not have demos. Quite why that's the case is beyond me, since - despite the creators' claims that "if you use the same shape and skin you'll look just like my ad" - that's not always the case. (Been there, found that out the expensive way, and will never purchase anything from that particular creator again.)

Clothing/hair/accessories/etc

There are lots of male clothing blogs and Flickr accounts out there, but the easiest place to find male clothing is the six monthly menswear events in SL. Use the galleries on the Men's tab of the Seraphim website to view a summary of what's there (be warned: the people taking the photos usually go around before the event opens, and not every store is ready, so some of the participants are not featured on the galleries). The events are:

• The Mens Dept
• Men Only Monthly
• Hipster Mens Event
• Man Cave
• The Men Jail
• The Signature Event (only bother with this one if you opt for one of the Signature mesh bodies. This one doesn't have a gallery on Seraphim; only a teleport link)

I'm always happy to give advice here in the forum. However, the only inworld help that I give is for those who have Catwa heads, as I'm a CSR for Catwa. That takes up a lot of my time as it is, so I don't offer any styling or avatar advice outside of what's given in the Catwa group, on my blog, on my Flickr, and here in the forum. I'm busy enough as it is! Thanks for understanding

Edited October 8, 2018 by Skell Dagger
My god, it's full of star-- uh, typos O.o

[simplebilly]

Thank you sooo much for wonderful replies!!!! It's a pleasure seeing that people still care to give someone advice! Love you all