Having trouble customizing Avatar

[StellaBXO]

I am new here if anyone would be so kind to help me get my avatar looking right it would be much appreciated! Its a little confusing!

[Pixie Kobichenko]

Hi Stella! Welcome to Second Life    

Are you looking for help in finding a mesh body?

Or are you using the standard body that you start with?

Or have you already purchased a mesh body/head and looking for assistance with fine tuning it? 

I don't know that I'd be much help, but maybe if you can give a bit more info others can  

[Alwin Alcott]

2 hours ago, StellaBXO said:

I am new here if anyone would be so kind to help me get my avatar looking right it would be much appreciated! Its a little confusing!

not to discourage you, there are hundreds of ways to adjust your avatar ... cheap and expensive
but you'r one day old .. my advice is , don't spend to much time yet on your look, but get used to SL first.
Hard to find bodyparts and clothes...looks and what more, often makes new players very disapointed because they miss the essential basic skills for using SL and it's complicated structures.
Hide a few days and get used to the tools in the viewer to build/adjust/dress up.
Don't forget many people here are in SL for 5-6---12-13 years .. what is so obvious for us/them, will be like rocketsience for starters.

[Resi Pfeffer]

3 hours ago, StellaBXO said:

I am new here if anyone would be so kind to help me get my avatar looking right it would be much appreciated! Its a little confusing!

There are 2.8 Million clothes available at the SL marketplace and more than one million avatar components and accessoires.

As Alwin said, dont rush too much.
Im sure, SL has the potential of never getting boring for a lot of users, but i have seen newbies, getting a fancy mesh look and a parcel with a ready to move in house within their first days, and well... Didnt see them again after a weeks.  You dont want that to happen, as SL is a wonderful place, for years.

If no one from the forum offers you inword help, what i doubt, then go to some inworld stores and ask friendly other users for help.
Or just keep asking us in the right subforums. There will be an answer for every question you may have.

And welcome, btw.

[Maitimo]

Best way when you are this new, is to make use of the starter avatar choices. Every time you select one from the menu, the contents appear in the main part of your inventory. You can mix-and match them; skin from one, hair from another, clothes from a third, etc. So with the dozen or so starters for each gender you can still do some basic customising.

Next step is to visit Free Dove and pick up a few freebie item. Look for ones in Classic, or Standard Sizes. Items made for specific bodies like Maitreya or Belleza will not fit.

You can also search the Marketplace for freebies by putting NOT *demo* in as your search term and selecting 0 to 0 in the price range. Search in Apparel for clothes, Avatar Accessories for hair and jewelry, Avatar Components for skins and shapes. You will stil see some demos but most will be eliminated.

[BelindaN]

7 hours ago, StellaBXO said:

I am new here if anyone would be so kind to help me get my avatar looking right it would be much appreciated! Its a little confusing!

Just hit me up in world if you can, and I'm happy to talk through my avi experiences here. SLTime plus 8 hours. UK based.

[Nalates Urriah]

On 10/23/2019 at 11:23 PM, StellaBXO said:

I am new here if anyone would be so kind to help me get my avatar looking right it would be much appreciated! Its a little confusing!

I'll point out that you are learning how to dress and style your avatar just when things are in upheaval. BoM is changing how we handle the avatar skin,tats, underwear, makeup, and clothes. So, I suggest you spend more time learning how Classic/System skins, tats, and clothes work as that is how BOM works. The Bento bodies look much better but those are in change because of Bakes On Mesh (BOM). Take your time with mesh bodies. I expect we are 2 or 3 months away from most mesh bodies changing over to BOM.

BOM is controversial, for now. Some of us changing over immediately and some saying 'wait' and others 'never, no point'. But, things are shaking that will likely press people to adopt BOM. Going that direction is probably the best direction.

 

[FairreLilette]

Click open your DESTINATION GUIDE and then select the category Newcomer Friendly.  There are some helpful beginner areas there.  

The Free Dove as Matty suggested plus Freebie Galaxy and looking up free items on MP to learn how to apply them as Alwin stated are helpful too.

There are also (under Newcomer Friendly) a building school which can help you to understand the basic SL tools...Happy Hippo Building School which is also a free sandbox where you can open items that come in boxes.

A lot of places say do not change in public though.  There are some shopping sims that have dressing rooms....though I cannot think of one off the top of my head.  

London City is a friendly place for newbies to learn also...lots of people there to help newbies.   You could ask there where to change.

Most of us rent a home or skybox even if it's tiny as it's a place to open boxes, try demos and change.  There are cheap rentals to start with at around 25 lindens a week.  Ask at London City if anyone knows of one.  You join the group of your rental so you can rez and open boxes and you'll have a place to start with to change in private.  

Edited October 28, 2019 by FairreLilette

[Waiomao]

On 10/23/2019 at 11:23 PM, StellaBXO said:

I am new here if anyone would be so kind to help me get my avatar looking right it would be much appreciated! Its a little confusing!

Hi StelloBXO! Welcome to SL! Yeah, it's confusing and you worry you're going to break something, I know! Here are some simple ideas:

First, guide your avatar to somewhere as private as possible. Mountaintop, deserted beach, etc. Look for somewhere "A" (Adult) rated if possible, because when editing your shape you'll be naked for a few minutes.

At the top left of the screen find the word Avatar. Click on that and you'll get a drop down menu. Choose Appearance. In the pop-up box are three tabs: Outfit Gallery, Outfits, and Wearing. Click on Wearing. That shows everything you're wearing right now. In the bottom left of that pop-up, you'll see Save As. Click that, and give your original look a name. Anything you like... even "original look" would work 🙂

Next, right click on a clothing item, and select "detach." It will seem to disappear, but don't worry, it's in your inventory (your virtual closet). Do this and detach all your clothing, shoes, and even your hair. Now you should have what looks like a really naked doll. Once again go to the bottom left corner of the pop up box, click Save As, and give your naked self a new name... something like "original naked."

OK, click the X in the upper right of that pop up box to close it. Things get fun now!

Right-click on your naked avatar. You'll get a variety of options that differ slightly depending on what viewer you're using. You're looking for Appearance > Edit Shape.

Your avatar will turn, then stand at attention. A new pop-up window with a selection of tabs will have all sorts of adjustments for your eyes, legs, waist, everywhere! It's a lot of fun to make things wider and thinner, taller and smaller. Each tab on this pop up window focuses on a different body area. When you're finished playing and have a body shape you like, click save as and give it a new name, like "Body Shape 2" or similar. This is saving just your new body shape. You can do this as often as you like, and make as many new body shapes as you like. Just remember to give them all unique names or it will be difficult to know which is which 🙂

Then you'll be sent back to your original clothing appearance pop-up window, the one you closed earlier. Do save as again, but now you're saving clothing appearance not shape. Call this one "New Body Naked" or something similar. Congratulations! 

If you open up your inventory you'll find all sorts of clothing that you didn't know you had, and it can be worn by right click > wear or right click > add. When you find outfits you like, open up that appearance window and save as. Then you can wear that outfit in future just by clicking on it.

Hope this helps!