Mature black male avatar

[YussufXavier]

Hello there,

I love my old style PK "old man" Kito skin but I would like to upgrade my body to a mesh one.

My intention is to create a "realistic" (not muscular) mature black man mesh body avatar with a decent range of clothing (he mainly wears elegant suits)

I'm going crazy on that.

Which mesh body and head do you suggest me to buy?

And which skin?

Thank you in advance!

 

Edited June 2, 2019 by YussufXavier

[Maitimo]

For the body, I suggest Siganture Gianni, simply because it's got the widest range of available clothes. Some people complain that it's too muscular but that can be offset by slimming down your shape and choosing a skin with less muscle definition.

For a mesh head, Catwa Stanley is a popular one for black men.

However... there are two skin makers that do really good black male skins; Tellaq and Afro Skins. Afro do classic and Aesthetic only (very muscular) and Tellaq do classic and their own mesh bodies, which I recall is also very muscular one. Neither of them will work with Signature bodies or Catwa heads. Si 'd be inclined to get a skin from one of those two places and stick with the classic body and head.

But then again I'm a pasty-white English boy so what do I know?  

[Zeta Vandyke]

Belleza Jake also has a lot of support, and found it pretty good on realism for my guy alt. Not overly muscular, though that also depends on your skin of course.

Stray Dog has a lot of very nice dark skin tones too.

[Skell Dagger]

Your current avatar looks wonderful, Yussuf. I can see why you want to keep it; it very much has the look of Madiba about it. However, you might struggle to find a skin that will allow you to keep the age of it. There are many fantastic black skin appliers for men out there, but most of them are youthful in appearance.

I did find one on a deep dig through Marketplace, and it's specifically for the Adam head by Absolut Creation. As far as I can see the applier doesn't come with the shape, so you'll probably need to find the shape in the store and edit the sliders until it more closely resembles your system face and body. Together with an add-on applier such as this tintable Pores & Blemishes set by Izzie's you might be able to recreate your elderly look fairly closely. Izzies also has age line appliers that you can add to your face if needed, but I don't believe the Adam head allows layering of appliers, so you'd need to choose either the pores set or the lines set.

That skin, though, will ONLY work on the Adam head and body, so if you choose another body then you'll need to look at a different applier set. As already mentioned, Stray Dog have some fantastic ones, and while they tend toward more youthful male looks, many of their skins come with optional age lines such as furrows between the eyebrows. (Note that Stray Dog only create head appliers for Catwa and Lelutka heads.)

For the body I would have initially suggested Adam, since you're guaranteed a near perfect match with the head from the same brand (and also, the above-mentioned head applier comes complete with a body applier for the Adam body). However, there is nowhere near the same amount of clothing rigged for the Adam body as for others, so my suggestions would be:

• Slink Physique Male - Probably your best option. While this has lost some of its clothing support in recent months (in favour of the more muscular bodies) there is still a huge amount of great clothing already created for it, and many creators are still including it in their packs.
• Signature Geralt - Slimmer than Signature's Gianni body, but there isn't as much clothing created for it as yet.
• Belleza Jake - The second best option, as it's slimmer than the Gianni body and wouldn't require much slider work to slim it down if you wished to. There's a lot of clothing created for this body. Be aware, though, that it does have some more youthful muscle and tone built into the mesh (arm vein and light muscle, plus a deep inguinal crease above the hip, and what could only be called a 'bubble butt' that you might want to pull in a tad!)
• Signature Gianni - Probably the most created-for body at the moment (with Jake a close second) but it does have fairly heavy muscles around the upper arms. It responds well to some time spent with the sliders to bring down the musculature, though. My tips for that would be to zero all sliders for pectorals, shoulders, and torso muscles, then nudge each one back up slowly one after the other, keeping an eye on your overall shape.

All that said: if you always wear elegant suits then your choice of body probably doesn't matter much. If you're buttoned up to the neck then only your hands are visible, so you might be able to use the Adam body just for the hands and wear suits rigged for other bodies.

I would suggest picking up demos (please ALWAYS try free demos first!) of the following:

• Absolut Creation "Adam" head and body
• Absolut Creation "Bill" skin applier (look in the inworld store for a demo, as I can't find the demo on Marketplace)
• Izzie's "Pores & Blemishes" Omega (to get this to work you will also need the Omega relay for Absolut Creations body parts, which is L$199 on Marketplace and L$99 inworld at the Omega store)

Give those a try first of all and see how you get along with them. Pick up some demo suits (Deadwool are a favourite of mine, and you might also try Lapointe & Bastchild) and check how well they fit on the Adam body.

Others have recommended Catwa's "Stanley" head, but that has a very pronounced square jaw that I'm not seeing in your avatar photo here. I might also suggest her most recent "Gac" head, but - if you were going to opt for any Catwa head - you would probably get closest to your current face shape if you start with the "Daniel" head.

Edited June 3, 2019 by Skell Dagger

[Marianne Little]

I am going to come with a different reply - Why a mesh body if you cover it in clothes? Unnecessary rise in Avatar Rendering Complexity.

If you are going naked sometimes, then you need a mesh body. Even if you wear casual wear like shorts to your knees and short-sleeved shirts, you will seldom see the difference between mesh knees and the default knees. Unless you really look for it.

You get the facial expressions with a Bento head, you get the finger animation with mesh hands, you get the pretty feet in sandals with mesh feet.

Plus that your collection of suits can still be worn. If you bought suits of mesh the last years, wear them with the mesh head and hands. System layer suits with sculpted lapels and cuffs is best forgotten. 😣

All Catwa heads have a neck fit for the system body. Plus mesh body fits.

I am going to suggest the Slink body with hands and feet that can be worn separately. It's years since I bought one of my alts the Slink, I am not sure if they sell the whole pack in one, or if you have to buy the parts. The vendors in the store will show you. And I don't need to tell you to demo, do I? See how it looks on you. The Slink body is going down in popularity. But give it a try. You can have a naked shape, a suit shape and many more shapes, put in the clothes folder. Some clothes bulk up the shape, so it is hard to stay lean. Jake from Belleza gives you easy shopping (more clothes) and some muscle. The downside, as I see it when we talk about Avatar Rendering Complexity, it is one piece. And you have to alpha out all of it, except the hands and a small slice of the neck when you wear suits.

Ah, male mature skins, and black too. A tough question. I am a hopeless Stray Dog fangirl. He has some really good mature male skins - for white males. And lovely dark skins, youthful and approachable. And a few skins that are dark, with facial lines. Can look like mid forties to late fifties, and with a salt-n pepper beard/stubble and hair, you would look more mature.

But the more mature Stray Dog skins I am thinking about, are the stereotypical angry faced black male. There are ways to make them look a bit better. Eyebrows are really important. Your old eyebrow shaper/bald base is working on the mesh head. Try to rise the brows, and also try the browless version (I hope the demo has a browless skin too) with less angry brows. There are brows that don't go down in a frown all the time. Plus the corner of the lips can be turned neutral and not dour. Play with the demos.

Skells advice about the Izzie's add-ons is really good. They are genderneutral.

Some skins I am thinking about: https://www.flickr.com/photos/gac_akina/45295992222/in/dateposted/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/gac_akina/38630919592/in/dateposted/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/gac_akina/36541539031/in/dateposted/

And one of the early skins I (my alt) was wearing for 2 years: https://www.flickr.com/photos/gac_akina/32275965680/in/dateposted/