Help with gap between hair base and beard

[Sarxvo Saenz]

I have been away from SL for a few years and have noticed quite a bit has changed. I am getting into using the mesh body and mesh heads and am having some difficulty in setting it up. While trying to personalize my avatar, I have come across an issue where my beard does not meet up with my hair base. Is there a way to fix this issue? The picture below shows what I am dealing with. This is what I have set up:

Catwa Victor head with LV Designs Brennan applier

Skin applier is Lure: Ethan - Cedar

The hair is Modulus - Pete.

I have cleared the hair base in the Catwa hair/beard hud and used the main hud to tint the hair base. 

Any and all help is appreciated!!

[Chic Aeon]

My only thought is that there are alpha channels overlapping?  I see that sometimes. If both hairbase and beard have alpha channels and parts of each take up the same space on the avatar there could be an overlap.   My only suggestion would be to try another hairbase applier (you could try another beard also but personally I think the beard is much better made than the hairbase  hence my suggestion).  You can get free hairbases for testing at EMO-tions on the group gift wall (free group).  

By testing you should be able to see if the "missing" part of the appliers increases or decreases. You might also have other hairbases and don't need to pick up new ones :D.

IF this is the problem and you can't find a hairbase that doesn't overlap (all depends on how they are made) then getting some hair that covers up where that seam sets is most likely your best option.

Good luck. Hopefully some folks that are more familiar with your brands will chime in here.

[Marianne Little]

I am thinking that the hairbase is a very solid one, a hairbase that is shaven or that tones out down to the whiskers may be better. Modulus sell hairbases for their hairs. Are you using it, or the default Catwa hairbase? All Modulus hairbases has demos, so you can check if they look good before you buy.

It can be that the beard (or the hairbase) need to use more than the one slot.Try to turn the blush on and off, and make sure you try both upper and lower layer. The slots does not overlap, it is like you draw lines across the head, and any thing that applies to the face and is painted so it crosses over a line, need to use another slot.

The blush part cover the whole face like a mask, and is often used to bridge gaps.

https://gyazo.com/ba7192c34af479fa59d7cbe3922ca9a4

Maybe I explain too bad. I need coffee in my end of the world.

All who have a Catwa head, girls and guys, can get help from Skell Daggers tutorial. http://www.virtualbloke.com/archives/2830

And it is an inworld group called Catwa Head Friends you can ask for help in.

 

Edited March 6, 2019 by Marianne Little
typos and grammar

[Skell Dagger]

That's one of the default Catwa hairbases, and - because of the colour difference and its overall solidity in shading - it's not going to work very well with that facial hair (which is maybe either Mister Razzor or Volkstone?)

I'm actually going to suggest that you make another purchase, if possible. You can either pick up the Modulus hairbase, as Marianne suggested, or go to the Stealthic store and pick up one of their two hairbases. Both options will match to your particular facial hair better than the Catwa hairbase will. Not sure on the Modulus hairbase (since I never use that one) but the Stealthic one will apply white, so use this video tutorial to tint it a darker colour to match your hair. (It's for tinting eyebrows, but the principle is the same. Click the left side of the hairbase icon to tint that; it's the one on the bottom-right of that set of icons.)

The next thing you need to do is get to grips with layering. Your Victor head has two layers: upper and lower. It also has multiple areas, which are each on both of those layers, so you have things like: upper hairbase, lower hairbase, upper blush, lower blush, etc. What tends to happen with most full facial hair is that it needs to take up multiple areas of your head:

• blush (the cheeks section of the beard)
• lips (the moustache section around the mouth, plus any upper chin facial hair such as a soul patch that touches the lower lip)
• the hairbase (the sideburns section of the beard)

The reason why that gap appears is that the sideburns area of your hairbase wants the same part of your head as the sideburns area of your beard. And, by default, all appliers - when applied from their own HUD - will go on the lower layer of your head. To fix this, so you can layer them properly and get rid of that gap - you need to save the appliers to the Catwa Master HUD, and use that HUD to apply them to the upper layer of your head.

You'll need to be wearing the following HUDs:

• Catwa Master HUD M
• Your hairbase's applier HUD
• Your facial hair's applier HUD

That's going to take up a bit of screen real estate, so move them around until you can see what you're doing. Once they're all on, follow these instructions exactly:

1. Go into the Hairbase, Blush, and Lips sections of the Catwa Master HUD, and - ensuring that you have the Lower button checked at the top of each of those, click the Clear button. This should remove your hairbase and facial hair entirely.
2. Click your facial hair applier to apply it.
3. Go back to the Catwa Master HUD, and into the Hairbase section. Make sure that you still have the Lower button checked/ticked at the top of that section. Look for a save square in the Hairbase section that has the word 'empty' in it, and click the black 'Save' button under it. (You might see something appear in the save square - such as a logo or icon or a bit of shading - or the word 'empty' might just disappear.)
4. Now click your hairbase applier to apply it. You'll probably notice that cut-off sideburns line appear on your facial hair, as shown in your image, because both the hairbase and beard can't occupy that same section of the head's Lower layer at the same time.
5. Go back to the Catwa Master HUD and into the Hairbase section where you saved the bit of facial hair. This time check/tick the Upper button at the top. This will let your head know that you now want to apply the next item to the upper layer instead of the default lower layer.
6. Click the save square (not the black 'save' button) that you saved the bit of hairbase to earlier. It will apply to the upper layer, and fill in that gap.

What you'll now have is the following:

• Your beard on the Lower layer in the Blush and Lips areas
• Your hairbase on the Lower layer in the Hairbase area
• A small section of your beard's sideburns on the Upper layer in the Hairbase area

Points to note: if any of the hair looks faded, check the Blend slider in that section of the Master HUD. It should be all the way across to the left. If it's not, pull it across to the left, and the layer should render fully.

If you have any other questions, as Marianne mentioned, check out the tutorial on my blog that she's linked to. You can also join the Catwa Head Friends group inworld and ask questions there. My fellow Catwa CSRs will be happy to help you, either in group, in IM, or in person if they're available to do so.

(Apologies in advance for any typos; I'm hammering this out while scarfing down breakfast before I leg it out the door to go to work!)

[FernandoSaussure]

I think this doesn't work with Catwa Justin Head:

Edited April 11, 2020 by FernandoSaussure

[Lillith Hapmouche]

The Stealthic hairbase wasn't made to match up the ((forgot the name of the facial hair vendor)) beard. No idea if that specific beard asks you to partially apply someting to the hairbase layer, but if it does, try applying the Stealthic base to the lower layer and the beard to the upper one.

At best, switch to BOM to avoid nasty alpha bugs.

[Skell Dagger]

2 hours ago, FernandoSaussure said:

I think this doesn't work with Catwa Justin Head

The non-Bento Catwa heads (such as Justin) have two layers for the hairbase, so apply the hairbase to Layer 2 and the beard will go on its only layer. They should match up that way.

[Skell Dagger]

1 hour ago, Lillith Hapmouche said:

The Stealthic hairbase wasn't made to match up the ((forgot the name of the facial hair vendor)) beard. No idea if that specific beard asks you to partially apply someting to the hairbase layer, but if it does, try applying the Stealthic base to the lower layer and the beard to the upper one.

Normally that would be the correct advice for a Catwa Bento head, but the Catwa non-Bento heads have only one layer (with the exception of the hairbase, which has two). The cut-off at the sideburns in Fernando's image shows that the Volkstone beard is intended to go up and meet whatever sideburns are there on the hairbase, but because he's applied the hairbase to Layer 1 - the same layer that the beard wants to take - there's that sharp cut-off section on the facial hair. The very tip of the Stealthic sideburns do go slightly onto the blush layer of the head, but that shouldn't matter in this case, as the Volkstone beard should go up further than that and mask the faint cut-off.

[Lillith Hapmouche]

So that's why the HUD looked so different...

And yeah, Volkstone. That's it.

[FernandoSaussure]

1 hour ago, Skell Dagger said:

The non-Bento Catwa heads (such as Justin) have two layers for the hairbase, so apply the hairbase to Layer 2 and the beard will go on its only layer. They should match up that way.

When I apply the hair base and the bead there only 2 options to apply (in the boxe's hud, as u can see on the print screen):

So, I apply the beard just on the beard/tattoo and the sideburns don't apply together (I have to apply this on the hairbase layer), but when I do it, my hairbase leaves. If I try to apply hair base first and then the beard doesn't work. Same if I apply the beard first.

It isn't only with the stealthic hair base...also with my volstoke hairbase.

It's sad because i can only use a beard that don't has sideburns :(...

Edited April 12, 2020 by FernandoSaussure

[FernandoSaussure]

I think the only solution it's a beard that comes with a hairbase and apply it together, but I haven't found one like that yet...Or I could buy a bento head, but they are so expensive ...

Edited April 12, 2020 by FernandoSaussure

[Marianne Little]

Catwa has a BoM relay in their stores, and that works on not - Bento heads too*. https://www.facebook.com/catwahairstore/posts/catwa-bom-relay-has-just-been-released-at-gifts-section-in-main-store-use-the-te/2242214359233723/

*(I am 99,90% sure it works on not - Bento heads. But somebody correct me if it does not work on Victor head.)

It will not help you much, since you use a skin applier. But the LURE -Ethan-Cedar ad for the skin says it has classic system skins included with the appliers. So get a BoM relay and try with the classic skin.

You follow advice for BoM like this one: http://www.virtualbloke.com/archives/3358

This is a long and thorough instruction. I can use the most simple words: Wear your head and the BoM relay from Catwa. Wear the classic system skin. Take off the alpha layer for the head. This should work, I hope so.

You have an advantage since you are familiar with system skins and tattoo layers from before. You maybe have some favorite beard and hairbase layers already, that you can dust off.

Your skin and your tattoo layers will be baked on your mesh head. You can mix tattoo layers and applier layers over each other. But the skin must be a system skin, not an applier skin. You can find your old tattoo layers for hairbases and see how they work with the beard applier. Some skin, beard, tattoo makers has updated their products with BoM. But not Volkstone, at least their Marketplace ads say nothing about it.

What you need is a tattoo hairbase with long enough "sideburns" to meet the beard applier. There will not be a white gap because the hairbase is baked on the skin and does not need a layer on the head.

[Skell Dagger]

No Bakes on Mesh is necessary in order to get this hairbase and beard to meet correctly. I've just logged in - and I happen to have that Volkstone facial hair applier as well as the Stealthic hairbase, and (of course, since I'm a Catwa CSR!) the Justin head - so @FernandoSaussure please follow the below instructions:

If you would prefer the instructions in video format, then I've also done that for you. Please click this link to watch a video showing how to layer the hairbase and facial hair correctly.

Edited April 12, 2020 by Skell Dagger
Typo

[FernandoSaussure]

3 hours ago, Skell Dagger said:

No Bakes on Mesh is necessary in order to get this hairbase and beard to meet correctly. I've just logged in - and I happen to have that Volkstone facial hair applier as well as the Stealthic hairbase, and (of course, since I'm a Catwa CSR!) the Justin head - so @FernandoSaussure please follow the below instructions:

If you would prefer the instructions in video format, then I've also done that for you. Please click this link to watch a video showing how to layer the hairbase and facial hair correctly.

Man, when I finally thought it would work: it's still the same. I will explain what happened:

[FernandoSaussure]

I try every step that you did on the video. It didn't work, so I went to the Catwa Store and asked for a redelivery (maybe was a script problem or some like that). I applied my skin and tried again, this time recording on video:

 

Before this, i ask my wife to see if it was applied (maybe was my computer) and take a print screen:

 

 So, as u can see o the video, when I apply the hairbase in layer 2 it doesn't appear. So, I apply the beard and it appears, but it disappears soon after. I really don't know what is happening because apparently, in your Justin head, it worked.

Edited April 12, 2020 by FernandoSaussure

[FernandoSaussure]

It is very uncommon, in a moment of the video you can see that I try to invert, applying the hairbase on layer 1, and it overlaps the hairbase on layer 2 and gets darker than usual (there are two overlapping hairbases). But when I do that with the beard, it's like the hairbase is there, but it doesn't appear. I think I'll have to send the link to that topic to the owner of Catwa.

Edited April 12, 2020 by FernandoSaussure

[Skell Dagger]

Check the blend slider on your Main HUD for Layer 2 hairbase. Look at the faded slider underneath the boxes. The vertical line should be all the way to the left. If it already is to the left, pull it to the right and back to the left again:

[Skell Dagger]

23 minutes ago, FernandoSaussure said:

I think I'll have to send the link to that topic to the owner of Catwa.

You don't need to do that. I'm a Customer Service Representative and Manager for the Catwa store, which is why I'm giving you this personal, in-depth assistance here. What I showed you will work. There is nothing wrong with your head. I used exactly the same head, head version, hairbase applier, and facial hair applier that you are using

One thing I need you to ensure that you are doing: that facial hair contains two appliers - one for Catwa and one for Omega. Make sure you're using the Catwa one and not the Omega one. Its name is Volkstone Odin Facial Hair - Catwa Applier [GIFT].

[FernandoSaussure]

12 minutes ago, Skell Dagger said:

I'm a Customer Service Representative and Manager for the Catwa store

Man sorry, i didn't clock that haha. Ok, i tried what u said and, again: nothing...

 

[Skell Dagger]

I suggest trying that below 1000m in height. Mesh can have issues above that.

[FernandoSaussure]

3 hours ago, Skell Dagger said:

I suggest trying that below 1000m in height. Mesh can have issues above that.

Still doesn't working. The hair base only appers for a half of a second...thank you so much for the help.

Edited April 13, 2020 by FernandoSaussure