Maitreya body and Catwa head

[JessicaJenni]

I've been away from SL for a while and am still learning how things work now so apologies if this is a really dumb question 😊

Can someone please tell me what the point of a Maitreya body is if I need to wear the Catwa body shape with the Catwa head? It changes the Maitreya shape and height quite a bit so I don't understand what the need for it is.

TIA x 

 

 

 

 

 

[Orwar]

   The shapes are just to give you an easy starting point to shape your own appearance from - the slider values of the standard shapes that come with the head and the body are just examples. I'd advise you to create your own shape, creating a copy of either of the shapes, to create your own look. 

[Claireschen Hesten]

 If you have your own shape that you're happy with there is no need to use the shapes that come with a head or body the creator has provided them as a guide on how their body or head looks best. If your own modified shape doesn't look quite right with a head/body tweak it till you're happy. I have found while these shapes are a good starting point the height has been maxed out as tall as it will go

[Marianne Little]

The Catwa head is working best with the shape made for it. If you wear another shape, your Catwa face will look different from the ad and people will complain that the ad is misleading.

Nothing stops you from wearing another shape, but you might not like how the face looks with it. You can tweak the shape as much as you want.

But if you like the face, is not so easy to duplicate it, the face has so many sliders. You could copy every number of the face and change another shapes face. But it is much faster to change the body from the neck and down. What most do, is wearing the Catwa shape and copy the body measurements from the other shape and change the Catwa shape from the neck down.

Then they can tweak the face, making adjustments there. It is just good to have the fabric default to start with.

[Skell Dagger]

3 hours ago, JessicaJenni said:

Can someone please tell me what the point of a Maitreya body is if I need to wear the Catwa body shape with the Catwa head?

A Maitreya body is required if you want to wear Maitreya-rigged clothing. Unlike older clothing, such as layers and sculpts (and some editable mesh) rigged clothing can't be edited or moved in any way. Maitreya-rigged clothing (as with all other body-rigged clothing) will also contain no alpha layers to make bits of your system avatar invisible; it all works with the alpha cuts on the Maitreya body's HUD.

3 hours ago, JessicaJenni said:

It changes the Maitreya shape and height quite a bit so I don't understand what the need for it is.

The shape that comes with your Catwa head is modifiable. It's always recommended to use that shape as a starting point (hence why it's called "start your shape with me" in your inventory). It sets the ideal starting parameters for all of the sliders used to edit your face, because the Catwa head is rigged in such a specific way, that - if you wore your normal shape under it - it would look very odd. (Conversely, if you wear the Catwa shape and take off your Catwa head, your system look would be just as odd!)

To get around the difference: wear the Maitreya shape first of all. Right-click your avatar and go into Edit Appearance. Write down all of the slider numbers under the Body, Torso, and Legs tabs. (No need to write all the slider names; just write the tab name and then all the consecutive numbers with spaces, dashes, or commas in between, to save time). Then, wear the Catwa shape, edit your appearance again, and copy those Body, Torso, and Leg slider numbers into that shape. Hit 'Save As' and give it a name.

You now have the Maitreya body shape merged with the Catwa head shape. From here you can begin tweaking to your heart's content, customising the shape to make it more to your liking.

[Syo Emerald]

I've never used the shape that came with Maitreya. I wore my own, put on the body, adapted it here and there and thats it. When I got a mesh head, I simply copied the messurements of the shape that came with the head for my own shape and then modified those aswell.

The shapes that come with mesh body parts are suggestions, not requirements to use the parts.

[JessicaJenni]

Thanks a lot for your help guys  especially Marianne and Skell's explanation - I now understand - Yay!!