chris102099 Posted October 4, 2019 Share Posted October 4, 2019 Hi all, I'm a college student looking to play second life again after a long hiatus. I've gotten a pretty good idea of how to make your character look good now, but the only thing I'm struggling with is the enormous budget some things require. I completely understand that this game isn't the cheapest in the world, and I'm completely able to pay that price to an extent. The body I really liked and found a great balance for quality, price, and compatibility with clothes throughout the game was the Belleza Jake body. Now, I just need a new head/face to complete my look. The problem is, mesh/bento heads that I found are insanely expensive. At least L$5000. Almost 3x the price of my entire Belleza Jake body package. As a college kid, I'm just simply not inclined to or really financially able enough to pay $20+ for a head alone. I was wondering if anyone knows of any creators that have great mesh/bento heads that are a great balance of quality and price. I am willing to sacrifice some features that the much more expensive heads possess such as extreme customizability and all of the animations they have etc as I'm not really interested in having any of that anyways. I just want to find a creator that has a nice head that isn't going to completely burn a hole in my wallet as I don't have an extremely large budget to work with. With saying this I don't expect heads to be dirt cheap; if there are nice ones that are almost "dirt cheap", feel free to let me know about them but if there aren't I do have a higher budget than that; however, I also don't want to pay $20. I'm looking for somewhat of an in-between or cheaper if possible. To give you a little bit of an idea, I plan on buying L$5000 and using that for the body, head, genitalia, and an outfit. The genitalia I'm wanting is only $899 and I'm perfectly happy with that price, so I've essentially spent around $2,000 so far, leaving $3,000 for the outfit and head.(I can probably just cheap out on the outfit as I've found great bargains for those that don't really sacrifice a ton of quality) Thank you! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gregorian Chant Posted October 4, 2019 Share Posted October 4, 2019 (edited) Akeruka is having a sale on their heads for $L1000. But you have to join their group first to get that price. The join fee is $L150 so the total cost will set you back $L1150. [ Source cited ] Since logging in is borked right now, in the meantime you can take a peek at some of the heads the store sells: https://www.flickr.com/photos/kaoz/ Edited October 4, 2019 by Gregorian Chant 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chris102099 Posted October 4, 2019 Author Share Posted October 4, 2019 Thank you so much! I'm still pretty new to all of this and I was wondering, how do I join the group? I'll definitely look into buying one of these heads. They're really nice for the price. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maitimo Posted October 4, 2019 Share Posted October 4, 2019 ExMachina Davide is a great deal, you get the head and body together, I don't recall exactly how much it is but I think around L$2000, give or take a bit. The default skins here are absolutely lovely, so if you get this you probably won't need to buy a separate skin. Standard sized clothing works pretty well with it, as does some stuff made for Belleza Jake. Lightstar has a wide range of heads at L$1000. My alt has one and I can highly recommend them, except for the default skins which are kinda awful. But they are omega-compatible (you'll have to pay 200 extra for the omega relay). 7 Deadly Skins has some cheap omega-compatible skins you could use with it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gregorian Chant Posted October 4, 2019 Share Posted October 4, 2019 (edited) 23 minutes ago, chris102099 said: Thank you so much! I'm still pretty new to all of this and I was wondering, how do I join the group? I'll definitely look into buying one of these heads. They're really nice for the price. np. Before you spend another dollar, I recommended you pick up the free demos first from various stores and test them to see which one suits you best. Most stores have a "Join Group" sign inworld where you click to join and follow the instructions in local chat. Some are free to join, and there are some you have to pay to join. Pay careful attention if a group requies a fee. Edited October 5, 2019 by Gregorian Chant 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chris102099 Posted October 5, 2019 Author Share Posted October 5, 2019 I've look around the entirety of the Akeruka store but I can't seem to find anything about joining a group. There was a little machine called SmartBots payment terminal but I'm not sure if that's it. I registered with my e-mail for that bot but I have no idea what to do. Sorry for being so complicated. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gregorian Chant Posted October 5, 2019 Share Posted October 5, 2019 1 hour ago, chris102099 said: I've look around the entirety of the Akeruka store but I can't seem to find anything about joining a group. There was a little machine called SmartBots payment terminal but I'm not sure if that's it. I registered with my e-mail for that bot but I have no idea what to do. Sorry for being so complicated. I have no idea that SmartBots is and have never noticed nor touched it. I wouldn't give away my email addy on things I don't understand. Please feel free to shoot an IM to me inworld. I'm usually on in late evenings and my time zone is SLT +3 hours. I'll try my best to help figure things out. We were all noobs once. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PrincessTali Posted October 5, 2019 Share Posted October 5, 2019 Most places if you cant find the group you can find through clicking the black area at the top of your screen (at least in firestorm you can) and it gives you the 'about' basics of where you are in addition to that you can see the group being used at that land. Most of the time (not always) it is the group to join. Alternatively you can use the search at the top right of the firestorm screen (sorry idk in anything but firestorm) and enter the name of the store to find their group. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marianne Little Posted October 5, 2019 Share Posted October 5, 2019 Thank you for this tip. One of my alts has had a very old mesh head, one of the first Catwa made. I have hold back, thinking BoM could be used for that. The Catwa mesh head had a topography that does not play well with default skin UV. The AK "Morgan" head took her old League skin really well, I think. I am almost tempted to bring more alts there. The AK heads appear to be well suited for BoM. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pussycat Catnap Posted October 5, 2019 Share Posted October 5, 2019 (edited) On budget heads I'm surprised no one mentioned Mayreal: $1795L mesh heads - fully featured, omega support. Pretty good quality for most needs. EDIT: Mayreal heads are female only so probably not what the OP wants. Edited October 5, 2019 by Pussycat Catnap Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maitimo Posted October 5, 2019 Share Posted October 5, 2019 9 hours ago, Marianne Little said: Thank you for this tip. One of my alts has had a very old mesh head, one of the first Catwa made. I have hold back, thinking BoM could be used for that. The Catwa mesh head had a topography that does not play well with default skin UV. The AK "Morgan" head took her old League skin really well, I think. I am almost tempted to bring more alts there. The AK heads appear to be well suited for BoM. My old system skin worked great with my oldest Catwa head, pre-Bento. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wulfie Reanimator Posted October 6, 2019 Share Posted October 6, 2019 (edited) The Normie head by Utilizator is bento-rigged, great quality, omega-ready, modifiable, and only 500 L$. Edited October 6, 2019 by Wulfie Reanimator Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rhonda Huntress Posted October 6, 2019 Share Posted October 6, 2019 6 hours ago, Wulfie Reanimator said: The Normie head by Utilizator is bento-rigged, great quality, omega-ready, modifiable, and only 500 L$. It's also female. Right? Or do they have a male version? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maitimo Posted October 6, 2019 Share Posted October 6, 2019 2 minutes ago, Rhonda Huntress said: It's also female. Right? Or do they have a male version? Normie is technically female; it has a female neck fit and works with female bodies. However a lot of Utilazator users tend to go the same route I have done; male skin on a female head & body with a flat-chest mod like V-Tech. Or a Kemono body, which is unisex. Even so, it's probably going to look even more femme than I do. For those who want to use a male body, they have Mars: https://marketplace.secondlife.com/p/UTILIZATOR-M4-Mars-Head/15400618 Note however that the Mars head is not Omega compatible; it can't use ordinary human skins and it will not be able to use Bakes on Mesh. Only skins made specially for it (which are all either anime or furry skins) will work. On the plus side, it is fully mod. Texture maps are included for making your own textures. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maitimo Posted October 6, 2019 Share Posted October 6, 2019 19 hours ago, Marianne Little said: Thank you for this tip. One of my alts has had a very old mesh head, one of the first Catwa made. I have hold back, thinking BoM could be used for that. The Catwa mesh head had a topography that does not play well with default skin UV. The AK "Morgan" head took her old League skin really well, I think. I am almost tempted to bring more alts there. The AK heads appear to be well suited for BoM. Since you were curious, I took a snapshot of my old system skin on the old pre-bento mesh head. Even complex areas like the eyelids and ears work perfectly. I wish I could replicate that smirk on Margeaux... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wulfie Reanimator Posted October 6, 2019 Share Posted October 6, 2019 (edited) 56 minutes ago, Rhonda Huntress said: It's also female. Right? Or do they have a male version? Ah, sorry, I missed the bit about male bodies. Though, depending on your preference (and especially mine), I would still use the Normie as it's ambiguous enough to work for a younger, effeminate guy. Edited October 6, 2019 by Wulfie Reanimator Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LordDarkShad0wz Greymyst Posted October 10, 2019 Share Posted October 10, 2019 Before discovering Akeruka 's Mesh Heads, I wore Adam for a good while. Both the body and Head. Which I still wear the body sometimes. but they were both affordable at the time when I didn't have the lindens. Then I used the skins from 7Deadly with the omega appliers to make them match up nicely. Adam Mesh Head Adam's Mesh Body Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vanity Fair Posted October 10, 2019 Share Posted October 10, 2019 I maintain an up-to-date blogpost with information on free and inexpensive mesh heads and bodies for male avatars here: 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 also have a separate blogpost for free and inexpensive mesh heads and bodies for female avatars here: https://ryanschultz.com/2018/09/24/second-life-steals-deals-and-freebies-free-mesh-heads-and-bodies-for-female-second-life-avatars/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vanity Fair Posted October 10, 2019 Share Posted October 10, 2019 (edited) If you missed out on the regular Akeruka group gifts (they usually offer group gifts every 6 months or so), you can pick up a very handsome Bento mesh head from LV Designs for only L$500. The Matt head (SL Marketplace link) may not come with all the bells and whistles of the pricier Bento mesh heads from Catwa and other vendors, but it certainly does the job at one-tenth the cost, as you can see: Edited October 10, 2019 by Vanity Fair Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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