basic advice how to change to mesh body...

[Fionalein]

25 minutes ago, Zeta Vandyke said:

Does this mean she basically cloned Maitreya's body and sells it under her own name? Not seeing how else you can wear Maitreya sized cloths on another body in a different way?

That was my suspicion as well but I tested it on an alt - mesh looks different to me 

[Claireschen Hesten]

2 hours ago, Zeta Vandyke said:

Does this mean she basically cloned Maitreya's body and sells it under her own name? Not seeing how else you can wear Maitreya sized cloths on another body in a different way?

It's not impossible it could have been cloned, though I have a formerly non human alt that uses a the previous version of the body it's not really a newbie friendly body. the mesh doesn't look exactly like that of the Maitreya. I maxed out the arm length in appearance and they still look a little short to me. It is a Maitreya compatible body exactly as claimed I got my alt to pick up all the freebies that were at the shop and hop late last year to see how well the Maitreya sizings worked on the body and between the body and the alpha HUD I had some things fit better on the Sahara than on my Maitreya body.

[Vanity Fair]

On 1/19/2019 at 6:57 AM, Sandra8675 said:

Right now I have a classic body...  

I am interested in changing only the classic body to a mesh body.

I've talked about this is little in the past.  But, can anyone recommend an FREE mesh body (with the hands and feet already attached) that is easy/ basic that a newbie can figure out with little assistance?  

I am going to post this information for people who are still looking for a good, free mesh body:

Here is a complete and up-to-date list of all the free and inexpensive options for mesh heads and bodies for FEMALE avatars:

https://ryanschultz.com/2018/09/24/second-life-steals-deals-and-freebies-free-mesh-heads-and-bodies-for-female-second-life-avatars/

And here is a list of all the free and inexpensive options for mesh heads and bodies for MALE avatars:

https://ryanschultz.com/2018/10/04/second-life-steals-deals-and-freebies-free-and-inexpensive-mesh-heads-and-bodies-for-male-second-life-avatars/

I try to keep these two posts as up-to-date as possible.

[Vanity Fair]

On 1/19/2019 at 6:57 AM, Sandra8675 said:

1.  Are there any very basic youtube videos on basic steps how to change from a CLASSIC body to a MESH body?

2.  Are there certain MESH bodies that are easier to find clothing for?

3.  Are there certain MESH bodies that have more choices of clothing?

4.  Are there certain MESH bodies that are more straight forward to add to avatar for a newbie with the least amount of 'extra' things to worry about?

5.  Are there questions I should be asking or things I should be worried about that I'm not bringing up here?

1. Strawberry Singh has a very good introductory video on how to set up a mesh body (she uses Maitreya as an example).

2. Maitreya (Lara), Slink (Physique and Hourglass), and Belleza (Freya, Isis and Venus) are the six mesh bodies that have the most clothing available. Use anything else and you will have to work harder finding clothes to fit, especially tight-fitting clothes like bikinis, etc.

 

[clone00345]

Hi everyone,

I have a question related to mesh body parts. Does anyone use Lara body with Catwa heads? The problem is when I add catwa head, the face shape is distorted. If I take Lara shape off and add the shape that comes with Catwa head then its fine, but that takes off the shapes that come with Lara body. I like wearing Lara shapes better than Catwa. 

[MoiraKathleen]

19 minutes ago, clone00345 said:

Hi everyone,

I have a question related to mesh body parts. Does anyone use Lara body with Catwa heads? The problem is when I add catwa head, the face shape is distorted. If I take Lara shape off and add the shape that comes with Catwa head then its fine, but that takes off the shapes that come with Lara body. I like wearing Lara shapes better than Catwa. 

Lara body and Catwa head is a very popular combination.  What a lot of people do is:

1) wearing your shape you normally wear with Lara, edit the shape and write down the slider values for the body, torso and legs sections.  

2) put on the shape that came with the mesh head (Catwa in your case)

3) edit that shape, putting in the numbers for the body, torso and leg sections that you wrote down from your original shape

4) make any adjustments you feel necessary to any of the head related sliders to fine tune the look of the head itself.

 

[clone00345]

Ok thanks.

[DeepBlueJoy]

For folks in search of free female mesh bodies with feet and hands attached:

• The best free mesh bodies in existence IMO, are Ebody and Altamura.  (These aren't just demos, you can keep wearing them)  Both can be made to look really good, and depending on the skin you choose (DS is my recommendation for matching).  LAQ is also an option.  You cannot use skin appliers with most free mesh bodies, but if you look around, you can find skin that has a similar undertone and which will match decently.

I find the ebody much easier to use, especially if you aren't used to mesh bodies. 

The alpha HUD of the Altamura is more extensive, however, so if you unusual or asymmetrical clothing, it may be the way to go, but there will be a learning curve. 

You will have to look out for when Altamura have free offers (you probably will have to join their group ~50L to get the 'free' body). 

The Ebody is available all the time and it is 1L.

• Heads: If you don't have a lot of money, I wouldn't get a mesh head at all. If you'd like a basic bento mesh head that can be made to look lovely for 500L - the Normie head is available on the MP -- it has omega installed, nothing extra to fuss with, install or buy. Omega make-up is everywhere and omega skin appliers work.  I am wearing a normie head btw. LAQ skin appliers.  I tried several much more expensive heads, and found I preferred this one for its very pleasing look.

Note: free mesh bodies do not usually work with appliers.  This is a nuisance if you use them a lot, but you can find work arounds, mostly mesh clothes that don't need them. 

You also cannot wear nail polish on your toes and fingers on most free bodies (they are appliers) but Slink shoes will fit either the Altamura or Ebody.

The Ebody is available in a curvy and regular version.  Regular works well with most clothing out there, even with the basic alpha system.

For a paid body, I'd recommend the Ebody, the Altamura or slink depending on your final appearance goal.  Slink bodies have a lot of stuff already made for it and slink shoes are the template from which nearly all shoes are designed.  I think all of these bodies are far superior to the Maitreya body. IMO,  Lara is mostly popular,  b/c it was the first body to figure out a usable HUD. Since people make clothing for it, it is easy to find clothing.  It is NOT the best proportioned body of the lot, even after adjustment. 

IMO, the best proportioned body award goes to Slink... but both ebody and altamura have slink beat in the HUD department. Sadly, Slink's HUDs need updating.

At this point, i would stay away from TMP (the mesh project).  Everyone I know with TMP bodies has changed to something else.  Just buying their body is a hassle.

• E-body free and Altamura free are available in world. 
• Normie head is on MP.

Altamura also has free male bodies.  They look great!

Ebody does not come with a head. Since I'm not fond of Altamura heads (very hard to edit if you don't like the original flavor), this is another reason I prefer Ebody. 

Most, but not all Altamura FREE bodies come with heads that cannot not be detached.

• One of my alts wears the free ebody with a normie head. 
• I wear a normie head with a Slink body ( and hands and feet). 
• Another alt wears an Altamura body and head (one that came with omega capability - a steep discount on special -- not free ~400L).  Omega was an extra purchase.

Look around, be patient.

Good luck!

 

 

Edited April 26, 2019 by DeepBlueJoy

[Vanity Fair]

Heads up on another great deal for a Bento female mesh head. Cleo is a L$1 group gift from Akeruka, you can join the Akeruka group for L$150 to get it. The offer is only until June 20th, so hurry down. More details here:

https://ryanschultz.com/2019/06/06/second-life-steals-deals-and-freebies-akeruka-cleo-female-bento-mesh-head-only-l151/

[Nalates Urriah]

On 1/19/2019 at 7:34 AM, Sandra8675 said:

You stated something specific I am interested in.  I do work a lot.  So, is there a specific site that is trustworthy that I can pay rl money to in order to have a mesh avatar designed?  It would be worth it for me to save the time.  I appreciate all of your advise.

There are. Look up Medhue Simoni and his Medhue Animations. He does some model building and works with others that build mesh models. So, he will at least know reputable modelers.

A main point in this thread is having a mesh body that is compatible with clothes that people are making. Notice clothes are made for BODIES, specific brands of bodies. That is because the clothes and body MUST use the same vertex-weighting to fit the avatar and work with animations. Your custom body will require custom clothes. You are not going to "save any time" in the long run.

[shaniqua Sahara]

On 4/1/2019 at 2:28 AM, Zeta Vandyke said:

Does this mean she basically cloned Maitreya's body and sells it under her own name? Not seeing how else you can wear Maitreya sized cloths on another body in a different way?

absolutely not.

it is a completely different mesh. i spent over a year, hundreds of uploads and thousands of lindens to get the mesh to the point where maitreya clothing will fit well enough. anyone can tell it is not a clone or a copybotted mesh. i am not the first or only one to make a maitreya compatible mesh, but i dare say i am the only one who actually achieved it. the HUD is the exact avatar one is wearing, so you can just examine that to realize it is a completely different mesh. also, while most every Maitreya item fits well enough, it can be noticed that many things do not fit exactly the same. another way you can tell is to wear my avatar over the maitreya avatar and you will see it has different contours. make one of the avatars partially transparent and the difference will be even more clear. another way you can tell it is not a bootleg maitreya is it has completely different alpha panels.

how it is possible for clothes made for one mesh can fit another is, it does not have to fit perfectly in every area, it only has to fit good in certain key areas such as the waist, around the wrists and shoulders, where ever the edge of the clothes meets the skin, the rest can be hidden by the alpha panels. so since the waist, wrists and shoulders of most clothes finish right around the same place, those are the important areas to make the mesh line up right. for example, it doesn't matter if the butt of my avatar is bigger or smaller then Miatreya's, as long as the waist is close enough, because the butt can be hidden. you can bet if it were a knockoff it would have been taken down by now.

anyone who knows how to use a 3d mesh program can take an open source small standard size mesh avatar(it already has the SLUVs) or get an avatar from "make human"(use maya to transfer the SLUVs) and painstakingly adjust it to be Maitreya, or slink, or whatever compatible.  it may sound easier than it is though. as i said it took me over a year and several hours of work each night.

general FYI while i am here. i have updated the avatar to fix minor glitches. i also have released 3 original bento heads.

all of my meshes are created by me. i do not contract others or buy full permission meshes and sell them as my own.

[Nalates Urriah]

On 4/1/2019 at 12:28 AM, Zeta Vandyke said:

Does this mean she basically cloned Maitreya's body and sells it under her own name? Not seeing how else you can wear Maitreya sized cloths on another body in a different way?

Shaniqua sort of explained how this is done. I'll provide more detail.

There are a couple of ways to make a body that will work with clothes for another body.

Most designers provide a Developer Kit for their body. The point of the kits is to allow clothes makers to use the same weighting as the target body, say Maitreya. It is possible to use the Dev Kit when weighting another body. One designs the body as a completely new body then uses the Dev Kit to weight it to match Maitreya. Because they are not identical the new body will require tweaking here and there just as clothes do.

One can also go the trial and error route. Before Fitted Mesh came out I spent days trying to find a way to get my weighting to work with the Classic body. Eventually deciding that was hopeless. The different technology lead to people changing shape to fit clothes. But, mesh bodies and clothes use the same tech. So, while exceedingly tedious it is possible to trial and error the weighting to match another body well enough the clothes will fit and work with animations.

Note: Weighting is the process of providing the math values for each vertex in a mesh for animation movement. Shape is using the same weighting in a similar way. The information tells the system that a specific vertex is to follow 1 to 4 bones (SL limit) each providing some percentage of the vertex's movement. Consider the knee. A vertex in the upper part of the knee needs to follow the upper leg more closely than the lower leg. Weighting tells the system how much influence the upper and lower legs apply to the vertex.

[angelikiinha]

On 6/10/2019 at 11:42 PM, Vanity Fair said:

Heads up on another great deal for a Bento female mesh head. Cleo is a L$1 group gift from Akeruka, you can join the Akeruka group for L$150 to get it. The offer is only until June 20th, so hurry down. More details here:

https://ryanschultz.com/2019/06/06/second-life-steals-deals-and-freebies-akeruka-cleo-female-bento-mesh-head-only-l151/

I'm in shock that I missed it... And worst part is that I'm in AK group already

[angelikiinha]

Just to add my bit:

Unless she or anyone else in the same situation has the Lindens to buy Maitreya (if yes, go ahead, don't think twice), I'd strongly recommend keeping an eye on the Altamura store. Free bodies are a good start - I learned a lot from free Jenny until I finally move to Lara. And they do some crazy promos like 60 to 90% off sometimes - that's how I bought Giselle and Eva (still wearing Giselle's head, so gorgeous that I feel a little sad to think in pay L$5000 on a Catwa or LAQ head) .

If the preference is for a more curvy avi, then 1L version of EBody is nice to start, too. For sure at some point the user will seek for more, like tattoos and skins, that will be the time to invest some money.

[VanillaLovelace]

On 7/31/2019 at 8:35 AM, angelikiinha said:

Free bodies are a good start - I learned a lot from free Jenny until I finally move to Lara.

Yeah, I guess this is a good approach!

When I started with SL I came very early to the point, that a mesh body for my Avatar is a must .... but regards using a mesh head I was always struggling. Last week ... finally .... after 1 year of testing different Avatar heads I decided to use a mesh head for my Avi .... (Genus Classic).

Same as Angelikiinha, I think, the best way is to experiment with the low-price Heads first to see which best fits to your Avi ...

 

Before: Using the Classic Head (only):

 

Now: Using the Genus Classic head

Edited August 9, 2019 by VanillaLovelace

[shaniqua Sahara]

On 1/19/2019 at 10:35 AM, Claireschen Hesten said:

For both of these Maitreya has the biggest availability of clothing if after demoing different bodies you think it's the body for you but not in your price range, yet. i had an alt try out the L$30 Sahara "Maitreya compatible" body from http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Fredrix/217/15/73 (adult sim) it's not very newbie friendly in terms of applying skins as you need actual skin textures to get a UUID (there's a pack for L$1 there) and has no applier/Omega support or bento there's also a very basic L$1 head available not worth buying IMHO my alt is wearing Maitreya rigged stuff obtained free from the recent winter Shop & Hop Jumper - Evani & Trouser/Boot combo - Blueberry but anything Maitreya i've tried has fitted as well as it would on the actual body

 

 

i just wanted to say i have updated the Sahara Avatar. it's now BoM ready and much improved over all.

it now cost 899 lindens though. https://marketplace.secondlife.com/p/Sahara-Fitted-Mesh-Avatar-BoM/18324869

[Barbie2Xo]

Go for Maitreya. You will find plenty of things for that brand.

Slink seems cheaper until you need to buy body+feet+hands separately, which seems weird to me.

E-Body had a free body inworld too. But none like Maitreya Lara.

Then the new Legacy body, which is great if you're not skinny, but it's not Omega friendly, which is to me very important.

[Barbie2Xo]

On 3/28/2019 at 2:50 AM, Cardamoniaque said:

About Sahara body update (march 28)

The script weight has been reduced again. Now it's 9 scripts without tatoo layers and 13 with tatoo layers (instead of 53).
A little texture glitch on the left legs has been corrected quickly.
It's close to perfection for those who don't care Bento.
Builder is friendly and reactive, taking care about suggestions improving her work.

Is it bento now? Omega friendly? Marketplace link?

[Pussycat Catnap]

EDIT: Removing my comment because I see this thread was a necropost.

Edited October 25, 2019 by Pussycat Catnap
EDIT: Removing my comment because I see this thread was a necropost.

[Claireschen Hesten]

13 hours ago, Barbie2Xo said:

Is it bento now? Omega friendly? Marketplace link?

It has been updated with BoM at a significant but cheaper than an official Maitreya body price increase though. My alt uses an older version of the body i really rate the compatibility i've had the odd Maitreya rigged items fit the body better than my own Maitreya body 

17 hours ago, shaniqua Sahara said:

i just wanted to say i have updated the Sahara Avatar. it's now BoM ready and much improved over all.

it now cost 899 lindens though. https://marketplace.secondlife.com/p/Sahara-Fitted-Mesh-Avatar-BoM/18324869

 

13 hours ago, Barbie2Xo said:

Slink seems cheaper until you need to buy body+feet+hands separately, which seems weird to me.

There's no longer a need to do that there's a package available with everything included

[Barbie2Xo]

36 minutes ago, Claireschen Hesten said:

It has been updated with BoM at a significant but cheaper than an official Maitreya body price increase though. My alt uses an older version of the body i really rate the compatibility i've had the odd Maitreya rigged items fit the body better than my own Maitreya body 

 

There's no longer a need to do that there's a package available with everything included

I'd love a Demo.

[Nalates Urriah]

3 hours ago, Barbie2Xo said:

I'd love a Demo.

There are demos at the store...

[Lureo]

I have a question about BoM Backed on Mesh. Is it for body and head or only head. I must say that skins for mesh is a real nightmare for me. Very confusing with layer, applier and other omega kit systems and omega kit reley for head and for bodies.

 

Is skin is still called skin with mesh or does it have an other name like layer or omega.

[Rhonda Huntress]

1 hour ago, Lureo said:

I have a question about BoM Backed on Mesh. Is it for body and head or only head

Let me see if I can explain this.

First, every object can only have one texture at a time.  Not that hard to get.  One face, one texture.

Your system body is the only thing the server actually bakes into a single texture.  All the system clothes, tattoos and what not get baked onto the system skin so that you only have one texture.  This is applied to the system body when complete.

What Bakes On Mesh does is take that system body's baked texture and applies it to another mesh object.  You could, in theory, wear a mesh lawn chair and have it painted with your system butt.  That's silly, but possible.  What we actually want to do is use that baked down texture on our mesh bodies and heads.  It is for body, hands, heads, the whole thing. 

 

1 hour ago, Lureo said:

Is skin is still called skin with mesh or does it have an other name like layer or omega

We typically call it applier skin when we want to make sure the difference is noted.  When you are using BoM it does get confusing because your system skin is literally being applied to your mesh body and head.

[Nalates Urriah]

9 hours ago, Lureo said:

I have a question about BoM Backed on Mesh. Is it for body and head or only head. I must say that skins for mesh is a real nightmare for me. Very confusing with layer, applier and other omega kit systems and omega kit reley for head and for bodies.

 

Is skin is still called skin with mesh or does it have an other name like layer or omega.

I'll answer another way... I agree with Rhonda.

BoM is a way to bring the efficiency of classic/system skin and clothes to mesh bodies. The problem with mesh bodies is the 'one face, one texture' which Rhonda points out above. So, skin (a texture and possibly materials) could be applied to the faces of a mesh body. To add a tattoo on the same face in the mesh body would require us to bake/composite the tat into the skin so we have just ONE texture, not two. Since the tat and skin makers are usually different people that is not easily doable. The solution for mesh bodies was to add a copy of the mesh body just above the skin. The skin and 'copy' we call 'layers', like a layer cake. The result is we see a tat on top of the skin.

So, a layer for skin, tats, underwear, and clothes had to be built into mesh bodies. That is 4 copies of the body... not render efficient. These layers are accessed via Appliers, of which Omega is a specific brand of general purpose Applier. 

With BoM the mesh bodies can use a single layer just as the Classic avatar does. The bake service takes a list of the textures to be used and composites them into a single texture for use on the Classic and mesh bodies. In the BoM world the system makes the baked composite texture UUID available for use by the mesh objects, usually a body (and head). This complexity is handled by designers and the viewer. End users just wear the stuff.

Part of the idea is to improve render efficiency and another part is to make dressing the avatar much easier. BoM greatly reduces the need for appliers, almost eliminating them. We can use the Classic/System layers with our mesh bodies, which are generally much easier to understand and use.