Body Shopping

[thewittyone]

I'm a noob interested in upgrading my system avatar to a nicer mesh body with bento head, hands, feet, etc. Unfortunately, there's no category in SL Marketplace that allows me to browse mesh bodies. I thought "bodies" might be a sub-category under Avatar Components; there are skins and shapes there, but no bodies. I had to go outside of SL and do an online search to get an idea what body options are available. Thanks to Strawberry Singh and other bloggers who do nice comparisons of body types, but no blogger can do that type of thing often because it requires buying so many bodies. Blogs outside of SL, and to a lesser degree the SL Community Forum, help me to learn the names of mesh bodies, but then when I return to Marketplace and do a search for that body I get THOUSANDS of results, all clothing and skins and other stuff, not the actual bodies. So until LL actually puts a body category in Marketplace, can anyone recommend another resource (in or out of SL) that might help identify what bodies are out there (not just the popular ones, all options), and then where to go to get them?

t h a n k    y o u

 

[Orwar]

   You're probably best off going to the in-world stores. And instead of using the MP search engine, or the in-world search engine, it's better to open your map (Ctrl + M) and type in the brand there. If you search for 'Maitreya' for example, you'll immediately get listings from most stores who make clothes for Maitreya - if you search on the map, you'll have 2 options, 1 abandoned land and 1 Maitreya Island (which is their main store).

[AyelaNewLife]

At this point in SL's history, asking for advice will give you better results than any actual resource. Most resources are outdated to the point of being counterproductive. So question time:

• Male or female?
• Preferred body type? (Slim, thick, muscular, toned, androgynous, exaggerated etc)
• Is clothing availability important to you?
• Is ~L$9000 for a body, head and skin an appropriate budget for you?

Your answers to these questions will eliminate the vast majority of the options out there.

[Maitimo]

Many sellers of mesh bodies and heads have chosen not to put them on the MP at all, so even if there was a category for them, they wouldn't be there anyway.

Best bet is to collect a few brand names and visit their inworld stores.

[Marianne Little]

With the doubling of Marketplace comission, I think we will not see more body brands on the MP than today. Probably even less.

You have already done a lot of research yourself, that is really something few are doing. Assuming you are female, Maitreya Mainstore, Belleza Mainstore, Slink Mainstore (Slink is actually on the MP, so is Legacy). Legacy has a history of not so good support and other things...

There are some threads here on the forum, about best buy for bodies.

Money and big brand availability is what I think matter. Will you buy a lesser known body, you can save money, but run into problems with less support. Here is where the MP search return can give you a hint. Filter on Apparel to see the number of hits when you search the body names mentioned above. Same for skins, makeup and such things. Big brands also have more freebies and promo offers for them.

I assume you have heard about Omega, the applier system that gives you more flexibility when you apply skins, makeup, tattoos and such things that go on the body skin and the onion layers.

But for how well mesh clothes fits, it is absolutely best if the clothes creator has rigged the clothes to fit a "brand" body. Using another "brand" will lead to shoulders breaking through straps, pant waists not fitting correct, wrists and other places where it is important that it sit well. You can't hide it by using alpha on shoulder straps.

Some say that smaller brands like Tonic can use Maitreya rigged clothes. I can not say yes or no to that, never tried. I went for the "safe" body that has most support, that is Maitreya. Maitreya is also one body, not different versions. If you buy Slink, you have 2 versions, if you buy Belleza, you have three. This is good, more variety, but you can find out that the support is different for them. That Belleza Freya has more clothes opinons that Belleza Venus.

So now it is demo time, pick up demos and take a close look on them, use your favorite dances to see how shoulders and other joints bend, wear some clothes demos on them.

 

Edited November 27, 2019 by Marianne Little
added more info + grammar

[Pussycat Catnap]

Don't buy too fast just because something seems more popular.

Demo many brands, look at supported skins and clothes and be sure items you want are available.

Try adjusting the shape and body physics above and below your comfort zone to see how it responds. I STRONGLY suggest testing shape dials from 1 to 100 while looking at what occurs. I also recommend that for female bodies you try very high AND very low physics for ALL of breast, butt, and belly and observing the results.

Check what occurs with hand and foot sizes from 1 to 100. Same for breast, chest and shoulder width, etc.

Try some bento animations to see how fingers move.

For heads test facial expressions.

 

These are expensive purchases... DEMO extensively...

[BelindaN]

There's a whole lot of fun to be had shopping for all this. Which is why I ended up making three alts. And my desire to make another alt is burning inside me.

Go round the in world stores and demo the bodies. Check out the huds. See which shape you like. You can still work the sliders to some degree from the given shapes.  They usually have a set of default skins so you can reasonably match your system head. 

Then you need to decide whether to go mesh head, and the same approach works. Demo each head. Wear the default shape first and work from that on the sliders.

Some people stick with a system head, and find a skin applier that works.

If you get a mesh head then you might search for skins, and this is a never ending search.

After all that......you can move on to eyes and hairs and........it just goes on.

Good luck and take advantage of the collective knowledge here in the forums

 

[Nalates Urriah]

You are looking for and learning about mesh bodies just as the nature of mesh bodies is changing. Bakes On Mesh (BOM) is recently released. The feature changes how designers make mesh bodies and heads. AFAIK only Slink has rebuilt their body specifically for BOM. Others are in the process. In the meantime many are providing a work around to take advantage of BOM.

So, you have a lot of extra stuff to work out. This is made worse by lots of people not understanding BOM mixing in their answers with those people that do understand BOM. Also, we are not sure how designers will decide to handle BOM. We have seen how Slink completely remade their bodies and reduced total polygon count and script load. But, what other designers are going to do is unknown until they release their BOM versions. 

Then there is the matter of what buyers will decide is best. That is complicated by old timers understanding the way Classic avatars and clothes worked and newer people that have never known anything but the new Mesh and Applier bodies. The old timers will easily make the change to BOM and probably consider it easier than the Applier style bodies. I find avoiding appliers a great simplification in the creation of Outfits. I like BOM for a number of reasons. But, newer people will have to learn the old ways and may decide it is confusing and avoid BOM. But, no one knows and we all can only speculate how it will go.

Asking for which is best and whether to make BOM support a major criteria in you decision is still WAY debatable. I think BOM is going to be the winner in bodies. I have considerable doubt about how well makeup is going to work with mesh heads. It seems I have to give up a lot of control to go back to a single layer skin on the face (BOM). The onion-skin faces seem to provide way more control. So, I am waiting to see what head-makers do.

There are a number of threads here where people are discussing (cussing?) the different bodies and designers. So, there is lots of discussion and information here.

[thewittyone]

Thanks everybody for these wonderfully helpful responses!