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As the title says, I'm interested in all things Catwa Heads. I've been eyeing them for awhile but never had the nerve to cough up my precious pesos ($$$) for one. In your opinion, are they worth it? I have Laq and Ak heads but Catwa seems to have that something special. Maybe I should look into them more or amp up my curiosity with Genus as well. Sigh SL problems. 🤣 

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7 hours ago, Katt Dragoone said:

As the title says, I'm interested in all things Catwa Heads. I've been eyeing them for awhile but never had the nerve to cough up my precious pesos ($$$) for one. In your opinion, are they worth it? I have Laq and Ak heads but Catwa seems to have that something special. Maybe I should look into them more or amp up my curiosity with Genus as well. Sigh SL problems. 🤣 

There is nothing special about Catwa heads, from an objective feature-based point of view. The brand is pretty much equivalent to it's major competitors, such as Lelutka and Laq. The only real deciding factor is personal taste - which head to you like the look of the best? You should make the decision based on aesthetic reasons, as everything else is pretty much even.

Oh, and the fact that the Catwa HUDs (yes, plural) were designed by someone smoking some seriously potent stuff :P

Also, there's the issue with Catwa trying to intimidate other designers with frivolous lawsuit threats last year, so you'd need to consider the ethics of supporting that kind of a creator. That may or may not matter to you, it's another personal decision.

Edited by AyelaNewLife
I did typo
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Disclaimer: I'm a CSR for Catwa (also a regular on this forum in every respect, so I'm not one of those store representatives who only posts to shill on behalf of the brand I work for. I try to help out whenever there is a Catwa question here, but - as my post count will attest! - I post a lot in general, too) but I'm not here to "sell you" on that brand. I'll just give you the basic facts. This assumes - since you were considering the cost - that you're looking for a female Bento head. Catwa also has non-Bento heads, which start at L$900, but the full Bento heads cost L$5,000.

  • Catwa currently has 27 female Bento mesh heads to choose from, everything from little pixie faces to wide-eyed Jessica Rabbit to angular Angelina Jolie styles.
  • All Catwa Bento heads have two layers (upper and lower) which allows for a lot of customisation and layering of appliers, and each layer has 8 areas: hair, mouth (for teeth and tongue appliers), lashes, brows, eye makeup, neck tattoo, blush, and lipstick).
  • Each head comes with 24 full face expressions and 16 full-face motion capture AOs (the latter are currently being updated from 30 seconds in length to 60 seconds, as all of the heads are moving from v3.2 to v4.0, at a rate of roughly two per day, in release order).
  • You can choose to hide or show the following: top left side of head, top right side of head, brain, upper teeth, lower teeth, left ear, right ear, caruncle (the pink inner corner of the eye), upper lashes, lower lashes, uvula (the dangly bit at the back of the mouth), and tongue.
  • You can tint the following (some on both layers, and some are a single tint) - skin, teeth, uvula, brows, neck tattoo, caruncle, lashes, tongue, lips, blush, ears, hairbase. The Master HUD has 10 save slots for different tints.
  • You can adjust the gloss levels in the skin, and on the upper and lower layers of the lips. The new 4.0 updates also have materials support for things like smooth skin, pores, wrinkles, etc.
  • Lashes can be applied separately (upper and lower) so you can mix and match.
  • The new gift HD lips will be included free with all the 4.0 updated heads.
  • The 4.0 head updates also include a new eye applier, which doesn't only apply the Catwa default eye texture options, but also allows you to resize and move any appliers on your Catwa eyes, as well as clear specular and materials shine that may cause issues in certain lighting.
  • Demos are - of course - free (they each feature a small strip of 'missing pixels' to discourage copybotting) and I strongly suggest that you try them before making any decision.
  • Default skins in the female HUD are by The Skinnery, and (new to the 4.0 releases) by DeeTaleZ.
  • Inworld purchases give you 5% store credit (note that Marketplace purchases do not). Any purchases made both inworld and on Marketplace can be redelivered in the store if necessary. (When a Catwa head is updated we ask that you go to the store to redeliver (there are a lot of scammers around, giving out "Bento head updates" so - for your security - Catwa doesn't send automatic updates. All updates are free and it's easy to move your entire look from an old Catwa head to an updated or new one using the gift Bento presets HUD.)
  • 24/7 support in the Catwa Head Friends group, and there is also a Discord server being set up. We have 5 CSRs (myself included) and we cover almost all timezones. If no CSR is present then the group is incredibly helpful and will often know the fix for many issues, having seen us guide people step-by-step many times.

There are numerous free gifts in the store, including (but not limited to) -

  • additional save slots HUDs with multiple pages of saves for all layers - including special ones for eyeshadow and blush so that eye makeup covering both those areas can be saved in a single HUD (also includes a lot of free makeup)
  • Bento presets save HUD, which will save the appliers, tints, and specific layers on your head (I use mine for saved outfits; save the entire facial look for one outfit on its own HUD in the outfit folder)
  • HD lip add-on (just released)
  • unrigged Omega mesh eyes
  • additional lashes HUD
  • numerous Bento animations, including five sets of 12 (60 total) animated lip 'moods'

(Please note: you will only be able to get the free gifts if you are wearing a Catwa Bento head when you click the gift bag in the store.)

Those are the facts, off the top of my head. That said, your purchase should ultimately be your choice. If you decide that you prefer Genus, or Lelutka, Akeruka, or LAQ etc over Catwa then I'm certainly not going to try and change your mind.

I hope you find a head that you're happy with. If/when you do, please share some pics in the How Does Your Avatar Look Today thread. We'd love to see you in there :)

Edited by Skell Dagger
Good lord, the typos! I clearly have too much blood in my caffeinestream right now...
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I'm with AyelaNewLife on this: there's nothing about Catwa heads per se that makes them stand out miles above the rest. They do have a lot of models to choose from, though. I was thinking of getting a Genus head too, but found the HUD rather daunting. In that sense, Catwa just released a new 4.0 HUD (for the new 4.0 heads), which is very powerful, and easy to understand. And there's a great deal available for Catwa, but the same goes for all the other major brands.

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6 minutes ago, kiramanell said:

I'm with AyelaNewLife on this: there's nothing about Catwa heads per se that makes them stand out miles above the rest. 

I re-read my post and realised it came across more negative than I intended; so I just want to add that Catwa heads are exceptional, and top-of-the-line. The fact that they share that top spot with several other brands shouldn't diminish the quality of said product.

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1 minute ago, AyelaNewLife said:

I re-read my post and realised it came across more negative than I intended; so I just want to add that Catwa heads are exceptional, and top-of-the-line. The fact that they share that top spot with several other brands shouldn't diminish the quality of said product.

 

Zactly. I have two Catwa heads myself. :) Just pointing out, like you, that they're not the only good head makers in town.

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10 hours ago, Skell Dagger said:

Disclaimer: I'm a CSR for Catwa (also a regular on this forum in every respect, so I'm not one of those store representatives who only posts to shill on behalf of the brand I work for. I try to help out whenever there is a Catwa question here, but - as my post count will attest! - I post a lot in general, too) but I'm not here to "sell you" on that brand. I'll just give you the basic facts. This assumes - since you were considering the cost - that you're looking for a female Bento head. Catwa also has non-Bento heads, which start at L$900, but the full Bento heads cost L$5,000.

  • Catwa currently has 27 female Bento mesh heads to choose from, everything from little pixie faces to wide-eyed Jessica Rabbit to angular Angelina Jolie styles.
  • All Catwa Bento heads have two layers (upper and lower) which allows for a lot of customisation and layering of appliers, and each layer has 8 areas: hair, mouth (for teeth and tongue appliers), lashes, brows, eye makeup, neck tattoo, blush, and lipstick).
  • Each head comes with 24 full face expressions and 16 full-face motion capture AOs (the latter are currently being updated from 30 seconds in length to 60 seconds, as all of the heads are moving from v3.2 to v4.0, at a rate of roughly two per day, in release order).
  • You can choose to hide or show the following: top left side of head, top right side of head, brain, upper teeth, lower teeth, left ear, right ear, caruncle (the pink inner corner of the eye), upper lashes, lower lashes, uvula (the dangly bit at the back of the mouth), and tongue.
  • You can tint the following (some on both layers, and some are a single tint) - skin, teeth, uvula, brows, neck tattoo, caruncle, lashes, tongue, lips, blush, ears, hairbase. The Master HUD has 10 save slots for different tints.
  • You can adjust the gloss levels in the skin, and on the upper and lower layers of the lips. The new 4.0 updates also have materials support for things like smooth skin, pores, wrinkles, etc.
  • Lashes can be applied separately (upper and lower) so you can mix and match.
  • The new gift HD lips will be included free with all the 4.0 updated heads.
  • The 4.0 head updates also include a new eye applier, which doesn't only apply the Catwa default eye texture options, but also allows you to resize and move any appliers on your Catwa eyes, as well as clear specular and materials shine that may cause issues in certain lighting.
  • Demos are - of course - free (they each feature a small strip of 'missing pixels' to discourage copybotting) and I strongly suggest that you try them before making any decision.
  • Default skins in the female HUD are by The Skinnery, and (new to the 4.0 releases) by DeeTaleZ.
  • Inworld purchases give you 5% store credit (note that Marketplace purchases do not). Any purchases made both inworld and on Marketplace can be redelivered in the store if necessary. (When a Catwa head is updated we ask that you go to the store to redeliver (there are a lot of scammers around, giving out "Bento head updates" so - for your security - Catwa doesn't send automatic updates. All updates are free and it's easy to move your entire look from an old Catwa head to an updated or new one using the gift Bento presets HUD.)
  • 24/7 support in the Catwa Head Friends group, and there is also a Discord server being set up. We have 5 CSRs (myself included) and we cover almost all timezones. If no CSR is present then the group is incredibly helpful and will often know the fix for many issues, having seen us guide people step-by-step many times.

There are numerous free gifts in the store, including (but not limited to) -

  • additional save slots HUDs with multiple pages of saves for all layers - including special ones for eyeshadow and blush so that eye makeup covering both those areas can be saved in a single HUD (also includes a lot of free makeup)
  • Bento presets save HUD, which will save the appliers, tints, and specific layers on your head (I use mine for saved outfits; save the entire facial look for one outfit on its own HUD in the outfit folder)
  • HD lip add-on (just released)
  • unrigged Omega mesh eyes
  • additional lashes HUD
  • numerous Bento animations, including five sets of 12 (60 total) animated lip 'moods'

(Please note: you will only be able to get the free gifts if you are wearing a Catwa Bento head when you click the gift bag in the store.)

Those are the facts, off the top of my head. That said, your purchase should ultimately be your choice. If you decide that you prefer Genus, or Lelutka, Akeruka, or LAQ etc over Catwa then I'm certainly not going to try and change your mind.

I hope you find a head that you're happy with. If/when you do, please share some pics in the How Does Your Avatar Look Today thread. We'd love to see you in there :)

VERY informative! Thank you so much. I actually learned a few things lol. 

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10 hours ago, kiramanell said:

I was thinking of getting a Genus head too, but found the HUD rather daunting.

Not just that, but the animations themselves felt jerky. I love the look of Genus (sweet, innocent etc) but so far Catwa catches my eye, especially with all the updates they are doing. 

I love hearing everyones' opinion. More to think about! Thank you for your replies everyone ❤️

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5 hours ago, Blaise Glendevon said:

Of course, the number one reason to choose Catwa is that it has been the skinmakers' brand of choice for the past few years. Lelutka and Genus are up there, as well. But EVERYBODY has at least one Catwa skin.

(Won't someone think of the poor LOGO wearers?)

Seems like, LOGO is the equivalent to GA.EG :)
But in my opinion, there are more advantages than disadvantages. Somehow i managed to get at least one nice skin for the combination Maitreya and Mia/Barbara, and that heads, combined with a heavily modified and selfmade face shape, will guarantee you at least the huge unlikeliness to stumble upon someone looking like you.

Edited by Resi Pfeffer
typo
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I am relatively new to mesh heads.  

I may have bought my mesh head last December but only started working with it over the last month due to the fact I was busy with building and learning new Photoshop techniques.  

I bought Catwa head Strawberry thinking they were all modifiable like the Maitreya Mesh Body and I thought Strawberry just had new or different teeth and that all the heads had a few little extras or something but very minor YET were fully modifiable.  I couldn't find where to find information on each head.

It was all so confusing to me like when I arrived here into a world of appliers.  Appliers were everywhere!   And, appliers for everything!  I stayed a Classic body for over a year.  I then got Maitreya mesh body and started learning how to use appliers...then last December, I just jumped into mesh heads not knowing anything much at all...just assumptions on my part.  

To make a long story short, I think I should have bought Catya head because there are so many shapes for the head.  And, I really like some of the shapes for Catya and the variety of faces you can make with Catya.

So, I came to the conclusion that the other Catwa heads are like "exotics" which there is always room for exotics for variety reasons.

However, if you want the most variety in ability to shape the face, I think Catya is the one to start with while the others are "exotics" and have their uses too.

Strawberry has a very difficult lip to work with but fortunately I have three sets of lipsticks now that fit my Strawberry head!

I choose Catwa because I thought the Genus hud was over-whelming.   The other heads by other creators I like too but it was Catwa I knew I wanted.  

I am a member of the Catwa Head Friends club and it is available 24/7 for any and all questions. 

Correction:  Edit in:  I have TWO Set of Lipsticks that work with the Strawberry head.  One is Izzie's Erin Natural and the other is by Chain Kylie Lipsticks.  MOST lipsticks do not work well on the Strawberry head as they make a unilip on the top lip, like one lip going across on the top - at least on my first shapes.  It took me a long time to find lipsticks that would work with the Strawberry head and give her a natural looking lip.  I am fairly satisfied with Strawberry for now....but so many MORE choices and make-ups that work and fit Catya....it's like night and day.   

Edit in again:  I think maybe it's best to ask about the particular head you are interested in and find what others have to say about that particular head.  :)  Just a thought.  You can also join the Catwa Head Friends group inworld for FREE and ask questions there regarding any particular head you may be interested in.

Edited by FairreLilette
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