Mesh heads make me look like a monster!

[Deidre Tripsa]

Hi...all the mesh head demos I try on make me look all distorted and ugly..like a monster. And my head twists around like that scene in the Exorcist movie! Waaa????

Can anyone offer any suggestions as to why this is happening? I use the head alpha that comes with the demos, and my head does disappear like it's supposed to.

 

[Chic Aeon]

41 minutes ago, Deidre Tripsa said:

Hi...all the mesh head demos I try on make me look all distorted and ugly..like a monster. And my head twists around like that scene in the Exorcist movie! Waaa????

Can anyone offer any suggestions as to why this is happening? I use the head alpha that comes with the demos, and my head does disappear like it's supposed to.

 

Some mesh heads makers design their heads so that you need to START at least with the shape that is included with the head (or demo). From there you can change the sliders to make s shape that feels "like you". 

 

[Lindal Kidd]

As Chic says, using your own shape is a good way to make a mesh head look like some sort of trollish monstrosity.  As for the "exorcist" part...are you simply using "Add" to wear the head?  Or are you using "Attach to..." and selecting an attachment point?  If the former, the head should attach to whatever default attach point the creator chose for it, and it should look OK.  If you select your own attachment point, the position and rotation of the head may need adjusting with the Edit tools.

[Deidre Tripsa]

21 hours ago, Chic Aeon said:

Some mesh heads makers design their heads so that you need to START at least with the shape that is included with the head (or demo). From there you can change the sliders to make s shape that feels "like you". 

 

Wow...I never knew that. I did start with my Neewbie system head Elizabeth. Doesn't make sense..if I love the way the Demo head looks..why can't I look like the Demo head. 

 

[Deidre Tripsa]

21 hours ago, Lindal Kidd said:

As Chic says, using your own shape is a good way to make a mesh head look like some sort of trollish monstrosity.  As for the "exorcist" part...are you simply using "Add" to wear the head?  Or are you using "Attach to..." and selecting an attachment point?  If the former, the head should attach to whatever default attach point the creator chose for it, and it should look OK.  If you select your own attachment point, the position and rotation of the head may need adjusting with the Edit tools.

Yes..I did use add, not attach....I will try again....I am not sure how to unattach my Newbie Elizabeth head..I did wear the Demo head's alpha to make my Elizabeth head disappear...if I want to look just like the Demo head...how do I do that? I thought that was the whole purpose of choosing the head I want...besides better looking skin on my face. Thanks so much for your help...

[Chic Aeon]

11 minutes ago, Deidre Tripsa said:

Yes..I did use add, not attach....I will try again....I am not sure how to unattach my Newbie Elizabeth head..I did wear the Demo head's alpha to make my Elizabeth head disappear...if I want to look just like the Demo head...how do I do that? I thought that was the whole purpose of choosing the head I want...besides better looking skin on my face. Thanks so much for your help...

If you want to look JUST like the demo head (and many heads come with some sort of skin) then just wear the shape that comes with the head.  You can change the BODY part  of the shape  as you like. 

As to the WHY some heads look so bad without the shape provided,  it appears to be the way the heads were made, maybe the program that they were made in -- maybe they weren't originally made for SL at all.   Hard to say without asking the person selling.  It isn't a good plan --- agreed.    

 

BTW  you can get a complete head and body combo at altamura right here. You have to join teleporthub.com group (10 lindens) but it has some excellent gifts so a good group to have. You cannot change the skin on that body but it might give you some good practice.

You can also get a basic mesh body (again can't change skin) at eBody.   Most likely you will want a head AND body combo and it is good to test the heads with the bodies (not these FREE ones but demo bodies) before you commit :D. 

Good lulck!!!

 

 

[Deidre Tripsa]

2 minutes ago, Chic Aeon said:

If you want to look JUST like the demo head (and many heads come with some sort of skin) then just wear the shape that comes with the head.  You can change the BODY part  of the shape  as you like. 

As to the WHY some heads look so bad without the shape provided,  it appears to be the way the heads were made, maybe the program that they were made in -- maybe they weren't originally made for SL at all.   Hard to say without asking the person selling.  It isn't a good plan --- agreed.    

 

BTW  you can get a complete head and body combo at altamura right here. You have to join teleporthub.com group (10 lindens) but it has some excellent gifts so a good group to have. You cannot change the skin on that body but it might give you some good practice.

You can also get a basic mesh body (again can't change skin) at eBody.   Most likely you will want a head AND body combo and it is good to test the heads with the bodies (not these FREE ones but demo bodies) before you commit :D. 

Good lulck!!!

 

 

Thanks so much for the info! I really appreciate it!

[Skell Dagger]

4 hours ago, Deidre Tripsa said:

I am not sure how to unattach my Newbie Elizabeth head.

Your newbie 'Elizabeth' head can't be detached. It's part of the base system avatar that everyone wears, whether it's visible or not. If you wear a mesh body and/or mesh head over the top of it then their accompanying alpha layers will hide the system avatar regardless.

For future reference, you will be unable to take off the following items from your avatar:

• system skin
• system shape
• system eyes
• system hairbase

Without those four items your avatar won't rez properly, and you will appear inworld as a cloud or a white egg. The inventory icons for those objects look like this in the default Linden Lab viewer -

- and like this in the Firestorm viewer -

So don't be alarmed if you eventually find a mesh head that you like, and realise you're wearing 'two pairs of eyes'. One pair will be the non-removable system eyes, and the other pair will be the mesh eyes that come with your mesh head.

On 1/13/2019 at 3:39 PM, Deidre Tripsa said:

And my head twists around like that scene in the Exorcist movie! Waaa????

As an aside: when your head twisted around like The Exorcist, were you on a pose stand at the time? That freakish head-twisting will often happen when you wear an object containing animations (such as a Bento animated mesh head, or a bag that you need to wear to unpack which also contains a posing animation) while you're already on a pose stand. All you need to do to stop the twisting is hop off the pose stand and you can then get back on it again.

[Nalates Urriah]

On 1/14/2019 at 6:43 AM, Deidre Tripsa said:

Thanks so much for the info! I really appreciate it!

You can do more with SHAPE. 

I've been adjusting and building my shape ever since I came into SL. I like my shape. Also, I don't want to have to rebuild it when I get a new head and want to use the head's default shape as a starting point. Also, I have Physique and Hourglass bodies. So, once I get a head looking the way I want I don't what to have to redo the head shape just to change to an HG shape. What to do to make this easier?

Shape can be exported to an XML file, provided you have full permissions. XML files are text files and can be easily edited. I can edit out all the settings for a head and save it as a shape. I do the same for the body, edit out all the settings for the body... bodyless and headless shapes. I can upload the partial shapes and they work. When I wear a body only shape, the viewer keeps all the current settings for the head and uses the body settings. It is the same if I load a head only shape. I can then save the combined shape using the viewer's shape save.

Much easier.... See: https://jira.secondlife.com/browse/BUG-216131 - Please click WATCH.