Mesh male help

[JudeConnors]

Thinking of taking the plunge and going with a mesh male body. I have a couple of questions, however.

1. It seems Matrayla is the most popular female mesh body, what is the male?

2. Will I be able to use my classic head? I don't mind adding the few distinguishable features from my classic body (tats, etc) but I really like my face and don't want to mess with that too much.

3. What is the most cost-effective mesh make body to buy?

TIA

Edited December 29, 2019 by JudeConnors

[TatianaNikolay]

 The 2 most popular male mesh bodies are Belleza Jake and Signature Gianni.   

 

 

[Maitimo]

1. Signature Gianni, closely followed by Belleza Jake

2. Yes, with any mesh body you can keep your classic head. If you go Bakes on Mesh with the body, you can keep the same skin and body tattoos too.

3. Probably Jake. It's cheaper than Gianni, and is almost as well supported for clothes.

[Orwar]

   1: Signature Gianni, as mentioned. Belleza Jake a close second, and it seems Legacy is getting a lot of support as well, even if it doesn't have the backlog of stuff that the others do.

   2: Yes.

   3: Signature have sales quite frequently, usually 50% off - if you join the group or the Discord, you can try to snipe one (there was one quite recently, but I think it's over).

   But, I would advise you try both the Gianni and the Jake, and pick the one you like best, rather than which one you can get cheaper. Gianni is a lot more muscular by default (although this can be toned down by putting the torso muscles in the low double-digits, I think mine's around 18 or 19).

[JudeConnors]

28 minutes ago, Matty Luminos said:

If you go Bakes on Mesh with the body, you can keep the same skin and body tattoos too.

I'm not even close to understanding BoM yet. Got Cliff-notes?

[Orwar]

Just now, JudeConnors said:

I'm not even close to understanding BoM yet. Got Cliff-notes?

   BoM allows you to use system layers on attached meshes; i.e. wear a system skin, tattoo or clothing layer on a mesh body. This has the advantage of not needing multiple body layers (mesh bodies usually have at least 4 mesh layers; one for the skin, one for tattoos, one for underwear and one for apparel - they're just slightly larger than the next, to allow you to simulate layering textures - but if two or more layers contain alphas, things tend to go bad due to the classical SL 'no can render alpha on alpha' issue). But it comes with the disadvantage of not supporting materials (although, material layers can still be applied - but there's no way, as far as I know, to use two different normal maps on top of each other).

[JudeConnors]

Thanks for that run-down. I'll check out some tutorials on YT.

Thanks everyone for the feedback.

[Maitimo]

7 hours ago, JudeConnors said:

Thanks for that run-down. I'll check out some tutorials on YT.

Thanks everyone for the feedback.

If you're accustomed to dressing a classic system avatar, going Bakes on Mesh is just as easy. Once it's set up you dress your avatar in almost exactly the same way as you did then. The set-up process varies depending on brand of body. Signature and Slink are ready straight out of the box, just wear-and-go. For Belleza, you just need to pick up the free installer from the main store. Wear the body, wear the installer, click the installer, and it's done. Other bodies work similarly to Belleza.

Honestly I think Bakes on Mesh should be the default starting point for everyone coming to mesh bodies for the first time because it eliminates 90% of the things that are confusing and difficult about wearing mesh. Especially on heads. 

The only hard part, for guys, is finding a good quality system skin.

Edited December 30, 2019 by Matty Luminos

[Dean Haystack]

Try all the demos, and not for just a second.