Building a Male Avatar in 2020

[Slayerized Boucher]

Greetings to the community,

I am a man at the age of late 30s, I started my SL life, almost the time this "game" launched. With a lot on and off periods due to RL issues, aka work. Cant describe how much I love it and how passionate I am about it.
After almost 1,5 year of absence I came back in game.. Tried pretty hard to adjust to the BentoMesh things, all this appliers, this rather complicated things but i failed. Like epic fail to create something even remotely close to what I do think attractive as a male avatar. Dont get me wrong, I do get compliments here and there by girls, but it's not an avatar I enjoy been on, or fit in the shoes correctly.
I spended a lot, like A LOT, of hours on youtube tutorials from creators, bloggers like Berry and even simple individuals they wanted to be helpful by creating a video. From all I learned something but not enough to be comfortable on changing my tattoo or my beard for example. Hell, even putting on the facial hair had me watching a 35 min tutorial, since I know I am not a pro on computers.
Back at the old days you created an account, you'd found a blog with details on where to buy what and bam, after you put your personal touch on it you had a rather "unic" avatar. Or just build one out of your mind if you were a creative person with taste yourself. Nowadays bloggers/Flickrs dont explain basic things like body, head, shape skin.. just advertise hair, dogs and so on. And as much as you are creative you get lost in the variety (which is awesome if you spend your LLs wise).
Finishing that long post I would like to know if there is a guy or girl that I could show her or him what about I like, what's my taste, and can understand what i want and help me out a bit. Like type or better voice me and walk me thru this hell of shopping and mix matching things. The help will be appreciated, any kind of help.

My in world avatar name is:
Slayerized Boucher

Thanks in advance. For anyone who took the time on reading this, and even more to those who will decide to help me out.

P.s. English isn't my native thus the many typos.

Thank you,
Slay.

[BerryRoll]

Hello there Slay, well its looks like topicks like this appears more and more often now days.

First, could u please add ur avatar photo, tell us what exactly u like and dislike in it.

Second, put some references, what style do u like and trying to reach.

I'm sure, ppl get full picture and can advise u everything u need.

[Scylla Rhiadra]

In addition to what Berry suggested above . . .

I am by no means an expert on customizing male avatars, and I can't offer to help you one-on-one, but I would suggest that you take a look at Virtual Bloke., written by @Skell Dagger. Skell is an authority on men's clothing, style, and avatar customization -- he's also the customer service representative for a major mesh head maker -- and his blog has a wealth of excellent information and ideas. He's by far the most stylish man I think I've run across in SL. I'm sure that you'll get some great advice, and some ideas, there.

[Marianne Little]

Hello, I agree it is difficult.

The creators should really start to turn out skins made for mesh heads. I do not mean appliers. Appliers and slots on the head is time-consuming and just wrong, when there are simpler ways to do it. 

Now we are in between 2 systems - the older applier/slots/layersystem, and the new Bakes on Mesh that I REALLY hope will be the future. 

You know the first one, and how complicated it is to turn layers on and off, and pick the right combination of layers. Now we can have Bakes on Mesh. That let us wear a skin and add tattoo layers, plus clothing layers, and they are baked in the mesh body parts and show on it. No more appliers! 

Some female creators are on it, and offer us skins that fit our heads. Men need to shout out how easy it is, and ask, nay, beg creators to supply them. Finally, finally my favorite creator Stray Dog are in the process of updating to BoM. 

You do as you were used to before mesh heads. I assume you have beards, hairbases, tattoos and such on tattoo layers, so you are familiar with it. I am wearing 10 tattoo layers and a tattoo on underwear layers. (I bought that tattoo in 2010) All these I added. No more clicking on a HUD and turning layers on and off.

I assume you wear Catwa or Lelutka head. Join the group for the head you wear. You will get help in these groups. Now that Stray Dog starts with BoM, I hope other male designers will follow. I only know of them and Birth that has BoM skins so far.

You turn on BoM on your head, I think each store has instructions (Catwa and LeLutka), simply wear the skin that's marked BoM from the demo, and add the things you want. If you like the look, you buy the skin. 

 

 

Edited February 3, 2020 by Marianne Little

[Maitimo]

Session are starting to release some male skins in BoM layers too. Not all of them yet, but they have about half a dozen out so far, including some more mature-looking ones. Not my thing, but I did try a demo and they look really good.

[Orion Pastorelli]

So the "foundation" of an "up-to-date" avatar in 2020 is a Mesh Head, a Mesh Body and MATCHING head and body skins.

As @Marianne Little explained in her post, BoM is the lastest update to SL and hopefully the future of applying textures to mesh bodies. However, at the moment most stores are still using "appliers" which are HUDs. It usually takes two appliers to apply a complete skin; one for the head and one for the body.

Best practice, in my opinion, is to purchase both the head and the body appliers from the same store so that they MATCH AT THE NECK. Some stores only make head appliers, but make them so that they are compatible with body appliers from another store. When you get a DEMO, always make sure to read every note card it comes with.

As @Scylla Rhiadra suggested,  @Skell Dagger 's blog is a fantastic resource:  http://www.virtualbloke.com/

If you are comfortable with voice chat, feel free to contact me in world. Sometimes the best way to learn is to have someone talk you through it.

[Orwar]

1 minute ago, Orion Pastorelli said:

and MATCHING head and body skins.

   For which I'd suggest using a BOM-compatible body and head with a system skin. I don't know about Jake, but Signature's bodies have had BOM for a while now. As far as heads go, I have no idea. Haven't gone fully BOM myself yet. If a skin creator doesn't sell system skins by now, well, go with a brand that does, or you'll find yourself looking at a new skin soon enough anyway.

[Orion Pastorelli]

14 minutes ago, Orwar said:

   For which I'd suggest using a BOM-compatible body and head with a system skin. I don't know about Jake, but Signature's bodies have had BOM for a while now.

Yes, the Belleza Jake body has a BoM HUD.

https://marketplace.secondlife.com/p/Belleza-BoM-HUD-V10/18091815

[Dean Haystack]

Hey there Slay,

Let me start by saying I feel your pain, as in, I see plenty of people, mostly guys, come in SL, look at how complicated it is and then just walk away because there are only so many hours in the day and to master this thing will take a lot of them.
With that said, persevere and you'll get there.

You can mostly likely build the avatar you have in your head, but it will take days, likely weeks, possibly months to get there. The trick is be organised, stay focused and take your time, realize you aren't gonna get this done in 20 minutes.

I see you have some problems understanding how the layers work specially with people now talking about Bakes on Mesh.
So far the layers have worked like this: Imagine a Matryoshka Russian Doll.
You have your base layer, that is where the skin is applied.
Then you have a copy of the body ever so slightly bigger, that is where the tattoos are applied.
Then another copy of the body for the underwear.
Then yet another copy for the clothes.
This is why they call these, Onion Layer Avatars
A head will work the same way, with layers.

For your use case, you will probably only ever add tattoos and a beard, you can do this with appliers.
Appliers are HUDs that talk with your body parts and send them textures, such as tattoos or beards.
Appliers can be made for a specific brand of head/body, with these you just need to wear the applier HUD and press apply.
You can also have an Omega version applier, think of Omega as the universal applier. These universal appliers need a Relay for the brands you wanna use them with.
Say you have a 123BrandName head, you need to buy the 123BrandName Omega Relay HUD, wear it, then wear the Omega applier and press apply.

That is how appliers work in a nutshell, but before you get to that you need to build your avatar.

You need to break apart your objectives into manageable chunks, here's my recommended order of approach:

1. Head
2. Body
3. Wardrobe

Start by getting some demos, try different brands. The most popular are likely Catwa heads, you also have Lelutka and Akeruka.
Try everything you can, and try them wearing the base shape they are provided with. The shape on a Bento head will make a MASSIVE difference, and so will a skin.
Having that said, after grabbing the demos for the heads, start looking for demo skins to apply in them. There are plenty of demo skins that will work on demos heads, if they don't, skip on them.
After you have all your demos, start testing things out, you need to make your own shape or you will hardly get away from that "off the shelve, cookie cutter" look.
Remember to save your work, every so often save a version of the shape you are working on, keep these well organized and per individual head demo. If you don't like how a shape is turning out, you can go back and try again.

If this sounds like it will take weeks, it probably will, but remember, persevere, no pain no gain.

Once you are finally satisfied with the look of your head, you can start working on the body shape, in comparison with the head this should be extremely easy.
Never the less, you should also use demos of bodies to create your shape.
Some of the most popular and well supported right now are Signature Gianni, Belleza Jake and TMP Legacy.

After a few days you are probably gonna have something you like, it took you a long time but up until this point you shouldn't have spended any money.

So now it's time for the wardrobe.
First, start by asking yourself this, would you rather have 1, 100 L$ shirts or 100, 1 L$ shirts?
When you start building a wardrobe you are likely gonna find a lot of cheap stuff, but, it's cheap because... it is cheap. In principle there is nothing wrong with that and I myself have previously bought a vast collection of entry level clothes. But here's the thing, if you spend enough time on SL (and you did say you love it) you are gonna come across something that you love so much and is so well done you just have to have it, it can even be 800 L$ for a shirt in a single color (speaking from experience here) but you love it, so you'll buy it. Then everything else you have will look terrible in comparison, every time you wanna go somewhere you are gonna wear your one good shirt because we all wanna look our best all the time, everything you bought before will never get any use again.
So my advice here is, you might wanna go for quality over quantity, you might have a small wardrobe but every piece you own will be quality stuff.

As far as style goes, I can only imagine what you like, but, assuming you are anything like me, "stylish" and "fashionable" might not be the words you'd use to describe the kinda clothes you'd be looking for, I certainly am not a runway model, my prefer style of clothes tend to be crude, practical and functional.
If that is you I have some good news and some bad news.
The bad news are, there isn't a lot of still around, just to give you an idea there are probably only 2 or 3 pairs on pants on the market that are non-skinny jeans and just me saying that will probably make some people say "that many?!" Finding clothes then is a mission, and you can forget about fashion blogs.
The good news are, you won't have a load of stuff you would like to buy and spend money on! I'm telling you, month after month I hit all the popular events and when I grab a demo that's a bit of an event... no pun intended. Meanwhile for my partner I get bogged down with all the quality stuff around I can buy for her...

I hope this helped set you in the right path, remember, the custom shape and skin combo is what will give you an identity, forget accessories like piercings or face tattoos, and for anyone that disagrees, here's how far that stuff can take you on "creating a unique look."

[Orion Pastorelli]

2 minutes ago, Dean Haystack said:

Once you are finally satisfied with the look of your head, you can start working on the body shape, in comparison with the head this should be extremely easy.
Never the less, you should also use demos of bodies to create your shape.
Some of the most popular and well supported right now are Signature Gianni, Belleza Jake and TMP Legacy.

I agree with you about the Signature Gianni and the  Belleza Jake bodies, but would argue that the TMP Legacy male body is still to new to have competitive third-party support. Add the fact that it's price is 2K more than the other two, it's probably not the best choice at the moment. That said, it does seem to be gaining traction and is a very well modeled male mesh body.

[Orwar]

47 minutes ago, Dean Haystack said:

You can mostly likely build the avatar you have in your head, but it will take days, likely weeks, possibly months to get there.

   I disagree with the phrasing here, and the concept.

   If you go into Second Life thinking 'I want to make an avatar that looks exactly like Hugo Weaving', then yeah, you'll probably have a hard time getting there. If you make the concept more abstract and just think in terms of 'I want to be tall' and 'I want a pointy nose', then it's immediately a lot easier. Making an avatar look good isn't about emulating a specific look (which is subjectively attractive to begin with), but by taking care to balance the features and fine-tuning them, and to work with the materials that you have rather than working against them; if you've got a skin with a six-pack, don't make a shape with a pot belly, if you've got a shape that's petite, don't get a skin with baked shadows that emphasize your curves - it looks BAD. 

   Creating your avatar is one thing, it's something you should sit down and just push through - and ask for help or input if you need it (there are a ton of resources available on the topic). Going a few weeks and then realizing 'Hm, my nose could be a little larger' or 'I should play around with the sliders to see if I can make my eye shape look a little different', that's something that takes time and reflection, trial and error.

   Alternatively, just go buy a shape, and purchase the body, skin and head in the style card - ta-dah, you've got a platform to build off of, then start adjusting things from there.

58 minutes ago, Dean Haystack said:

TMP Legacy.

   Even bringing TMP up is a bit like advising someone complaining about a stomach ache to drink bleach. It's an objectively bad body, and it's made by a creator whose business practices are absolutely egregious. 

   There are two viable options for men's bodies at the moment, Gianni and Jake. If you can't get a look that you like between the two of them, then it's not another body you need, but to spend some time figuring out how sliders work. The tertiary alternative would be either Geralt or even Slink Physique Male - but neither of them are anywhere near as well supported. Heck, I'd recommend Aesthetic before I'd recommend Legacy. Or Piggu's Jonathan. Or a Dev body. Or just using a system avatar. Or a prim cube.

   As far as heads go, you've got a few more options. Catwa, Lelutka, GA.EG, etc. - pick whichever one you have to deform the least to get the shape that you want.

   For wardrobe, there's not really a correlation between price and quality. You can buy good shirts fairly cheap, and you can buy terrible shirts in flashy packaging for hundreds if not thousands of L$. The only consumer advice there is to try the clothes on, if you like them and feel they're worth the price tag, get it - if you dislike them or think they're too expensive, well, don't. As a male in Second Life, expect to grow sick and tired of the fashion available and the long time between releases, don't expect to have a new outfit for every day for very long. If you want to consume fashion, make a female avatar.

   

[Lillith Hapmouche]

Photos of your old avatar which you'd like to recreate would definitely be helpful.

[Lewis Luminos]

7 hours ago, Orwar said:

   For which I'd suggest using a BOM-compatible body and head with a system skin. I don't know about Jake, but Signature's bodies have had BOM for a while now. As far as heads go, I have no idea. Haven't gone fully BOM myself yet. If a skin creator doesn't sell system skins by now, well, go with a brand that does, or you'll find yourself looking at a new skin soon enough anyway.

Belleza has a free BOM relay in the mainstore; one of my alts uses Jake and he's switched over to BOM (using an older system skin from Elysium which I believe is no longer available). So you can use BOM on a Jake body but it still has the onion-skin layers and it doesn't use system alphas.

[Slayerized Boucher]

13 hours ago, BerryRoll said:

Hello there Slay, well its looks like topicks like this appears more and more often now days.

First, could u please add ur avatar photo, tell us what exactly u like and dislike in it.

Second, put some references, what style do u like and trying to reach.

I'm sure, ppl get full picture and can advise u everything u need.

 

Greetings BerryRoll,

For example this was my avatar look at 2016-17

 

On this one my 2018-19 look. Pretty worst that the first one yet I tried.

 

Now the looks I like.. dont call me out of my mind but when something is good is good. At least according to my tastes.

 

 

 I know this pics are heavily photoshopped and so on but.. good looking. Needless to say I try contacting the creators or avatar pilots yet.. no answer or hint.

 

 

13 hours ago, Scylla Rhiadra said:

In addition to what Berry suggested above . . .

I am by no means an expert on customizing male avatars, and I can't offer to help you one-on-one, but I would suggest that you take a look at Virtual Bloke., written by @Skell Dagger. Skell is an authority on men's clothing, style, and avatar customization -- he's also the customer service representative for a major mesh head maker -- and his blog has a wealth of excellent information and ideas. He's by far the most stylish man I think I've run across in SL. I'm sure that you'll get some great advice, and some ideas, there.

Scylla, It has some pretty useful tips one written manual and it is a good source of information. Other than that.. it's not exactly my taste on cloths and so on. But since I do enjoy written stuff earned a place at my fav SL help tools.

 

 

12 hours ago, Marianne Little said:

Hello, I agree it is difficult.

The creators should really start to turn out skins made for mesh heads. I do not mean appliers. Appliers and slots on the head is time-consuming and just wrong, when there are simpler ways to do it. 

Now we are in between 2 systems - the older applier/slots/layersystem, and the new Bakes on Mesh that I REALLY hope will be the future. 

You know the first one, and how complicated it is to turn layers on and off, and pick the right combination of layers. Now we can have Bakes on Mesh. That let us wear a skin and add tattoo layers, plus clothing layers, and they are baked in the mesh body parts and show on it. No more appliers! 

Some female creators are on it, and offer us skins that fit our heads. Men need to shout out how easy it is, and ask, nay, beg creators to supply them. Finally, finally my favorite creator Stray Dog are in the process of updating to BoM. 

You do as you were used to before mesh heads. I assume you have beards, hairbases, tattoos and such on tattoo layers, so you are familiar with it. I am wearing 10 tattoo layers and a tattoo on underwear layers. (I bought that tattoo in 2010) All these I added. No more clicking on a HUD and turning layers on and off.

I assume you wear Catwa or Lelutka head. Join the group for the head you wear. You will get help in these groups. Now that Stray Dog starts with BoM, I hope other male designers will follow. I only know of them and Birth that has BoM skins so far.

You turn on BoM on your head, I think each store has instructions (Catwa and LeLutka), simply wear the skin that's marked BoM from the demo, and add the things you want. If you like the look, you buy the skin. 

 

 

Marianne,

I wear a catwa non bento head cause I found bentos rather complicated to adjust, stray dog skin, and signature body. With all the respect to the rest of the creators those looked good for me back then.

The bad thing with all those tiny lil plot twists with appliers, extra Huds and on.. it's the I spend more time adjusting than playing the game. Out of focus, totally, for me at least. Hope in future things will be simpler again.

 

 

 

12 hours ago, Matty Luminos said:

Session are starting to release some male skins in BoM layers too. Not all of them yet, but they have about half a dozen out so far, including some more mature-looking ones. Not my thing, but I did try a demo and they look really good.

Matty,

Let's hope that simplicity will be the ultimate sophistication on those.

 

 

12 hours ago, Orion Pastorelli said:

So the "foundation" of an "up-to-date" avatar in 2020 is a Mesh Head, a Mesh Body and MATCHING head and body skins.

As @Marianne Little explained in her post, BoM is the lastest update to SL and hopefully the future of applying textures to mesh bodies. However, at the moment most stores are still using "appliers" which are HUDs. It usually takes two appliers to apply a complete skin; one for the head and one for the body.

Best practice, in my opinion, is to purchase both the head and the body appliers from the same store so that they MATCH AT THE NECK. Some stores only make head appliers, but make them so that they are compatible with body appliers from another store. When you get a DEMO, always make sure to read every note card it comes with.

As @Scylla Rhiadra suggested,  @Skell Dagger 's blog is a fantastic resource:  http://www.virtualbloke.com/

If you are comfortable with voice chat, feel free to contact me in world. Sometimes the best way to learn is to have someone talk you through it.

Orion thank you, I will text you and if out times online meet let's discuss more.

 

 

 

11 hours ago, Dean Haystack said:

Hey there Slay,

Let me start by saying I feel your pain, as in, I see plenty of people, mostly guys, come in SL, look at how complicated it is and then just walk away because there are only so many hours in the day and to master this thing will take a lot of them.
With that said, persevere and you'll get there.

You can mostly likely build the avatar you have in your head, but it will take days, likely weeks, possibly months to get there. The trick is be organised, stay focused and take your time, realize you aren't gonna get this done in 20 minutes.

I see you have some problems understanding how the layers work specially with people now talking about Bakes on Mesh.
So far the layers have worked like this: Imagine a Matryoshka Russian Doll.
You have your base layer, that is where the skin is applied.
Then you have a copy of the body ever so slightly bigger, that is where the tattoos are applied.
Then another copy of the body for the underwear.
Then yet another copy for the clothes.
This is why they call these, Onion Layer Avatars
A head will work the same way, with layers.

For your use case, you will probably only ever add tattoos and a beard, you can do this with appliers.
Appliers are HUDs that talk with your body parts and send them textures, such as tattoos or beards.
Appliers can be made for a specific brand of head/body, with these you just need to wear the applier HUD and press apply.
You can also have an Omega version applier, think of Omega as the universal applier. These universal appliers need a Relay for the brands you wanna use them with.
Say you have a 123BrandName head, you need to buy the 123BrandName Omega Relay HUD, wear it, then wear the Omega applier and press apply.

That is how appliers work in a nutshell, but before you get to that you need to build your avatar.

You need to break apart your objectives into manageable chunks, here's my recommended order of approach:

1. Head
2. Body
3. Wardrobe

Start by getting some demos, try different brands. The most popular are likely Catwa heads, you also have Lelutka and Akeruka.
Try everything you can, and try them wearing the base shape they are provided with. The shape on a Bento head will make a MASSIVE difference, and so will a skin.
Having that said, after grabbing the demos for the heads, start looking for demo skins to apply in them. There are plenty of demo skins that will work on demos heads, if they don't, skip on them.
After you have all your demos, start testing things out, you need to make your own shape or you will hardly get away from that "off the shelve, cookie cutter" look.
Remember to save your work, every so often save a version of the shape you are working on, keep these well organized and per individual head demo. If you don't like how a shape is turning out, you can go back and try again.

If this sounds like it will take weeks, it probably will, but remember, persevere, no pain no gain.

Once you are finally satisfied with the look of your head, you can start working on the body shape, in comparison with the head this should be extremely easy.
Never the less, you should also use demos of bodies to create your shape.
Some of the most popular and well supported right now are Signature Gianni, Belleza Jake and TMP Legacy.

After a few days you are probably gonna have something you like, it took you a long time but up until this point you shouldn't have spended any money.

So now it's time for the wardrobe.
First, start by asking yourself this, would you rather have 1, 100 L$ shirts or 100, 1 L$ shirts?
When you start building a wardrobe you are likely gonna find a lot of cheap stuff, but, it's cheap because... it is cheap. In principle there is nothing wrong with that and I myself have previously bought a vast collection of entry level clothes. But here's the thing, if you spend enough time on SL (and you did say you love it) you are gonna come across something that you love so much and is so well done you just have to have it, it can even be 800 L$ for a shirt in a single color (speaking from experience here) but you love it, so you'll buy it. Then everything else you have will look terrible in comparison, every time you wanna go somewhere you are gonna wear your one good shirt because we all wanna look our best all the time, everything you bought before will never get any use again.
So my advice here is, you might wanna go for quality over quantity, you might have a small wardrobe but every piece you own will be quality stuff.

As far as style goes, I can only imagine what you like, but, assuming you are anything like me, "stylish" and "fashionable" might not be the words you'd use to describe the kinda clothes you'd be looking for, I certainly am not a runway model, my prefer style of clothes tend to be crude, practical and functional.
If that is you I have some good news and some bad news.
The bad news are, there isn't a lot of still around, just to give you an idea there are probably only 2 or 3 pairs on pants on the market that are non-skinny jeans and just me saying that will probably make some people say "that many?!" Finding clothes then is a mission, and you can forget about fashion blogs.
The good news are, you won't have a load of stuff you would like to buy and spend money on! I'm telling you, month after month I hit all the popular events and when I grab a demo that's a bit of an event... no pun intended. Meanwhile for my partner I get bogged down with all the quality stuff around I can buy for her...

I hope this helped set you in the right path, remember, the custom shape and skin combo is what will give you an identity, forget accessories like piercings or face tattoos, and for anyone that disagrees, here's how far that stuff can take you on "creating a unique look."

 

Dean, I do understand your motos, our avatars are a constant work In progress, yes, i agree with you on that but i wanna spend more time in world doing things, exploring and socializing than buying adjusting and sticking, so I do believe we need to pause that work for long times and just enjoy the game.

As for the other moto I always say the expensive thing you pay it once and it's good, the cheap one.. you pay for it several times. For obvious reasons. So most of what you say find me to agree with your POV.

 

 

 

10 hours ago, Orwar said:

   I disagree with the phrasing here, and the concept.

   If you go into Second Life thinking 'I want to make an avatar that looks exactly like Hugo Weaving', then yeah, you'll probably have a hard time getting there. If you make the concept more abstract and just think in terms of 'I want to be tall' and 'I want a pointy nose', then it's immediately a lot easier. Making an avatar look good isn't about emulating a specific look (which is subjectively attractive to begin with), but by taking care to balance the features and fine-tuning them, and to work with the materials that you have rather than working against them; if you've got a skin with a six-pack, don't make a shape with a pot belly, if you've got a shape that's petite, don't get a skin with baked shadows that emphasize your curves - it looks BAD. 

   Creating your avatar is one thing, it's something you should sit down and just push through - and ask for help or input if you need it (there are a ton of resources available on the topic). Going a few weeks and then realizing 'Hm, my nose could be a little larger' or 'I should play around with the sliders to see if I can make my eye shape look a little different', that's something that takes time and reflection, trial and error.

   Alternatively, just go buy a shape, and purchase the body, skin and head in the style card - ta-dah, you've got a platform to build off of, then start adjusting things from there.

   Even bringing TMP up is a bit like advising someone complaining about a stomach ache to drink bleach. It's an objectively bad body, and it's made by a creator whose business practices are absolutely egregious. 

   There are two viable options for men's bodies at the moment, Gianni and Jake. If you can't get a look that you like between the two of them, then it's not another body you need, but to spend some time figuring out how sliders work. The tertiary alternative would be either Geralt or even Slink Physique Male - but neither of them are anywhere near as well supported. Heck, I'd recommend Aesthetic before I'd recommend Legacy. Or Piggu's Jonathan. Or a Dev body. Or just using a system avatar. Or a prim cube.

   As far as heads go, you've got a few more options. Catwa, Lelutka, GA.EG, etc. - pick whichever one you have to deform the least to get the shape that you want.

   For wardrobe, there's not really a correlation between price and quality. You can buy good shirts fairly cheap, and you can buy terrible shirts in flashy packaging for hundreds if not thousands of L$. The only consumer advice there is to try the clothes on, if you like them and feel they're worth the price tag, get it - if you dislike them or think they're too expensive, well, don't. As a male in Second Life, expect to grow sick and tired of the fashion available and the long time between releases, don't expect to have a new outfit for every day for very long. If you want to consume fashion, make a female avatar.

   

 

Orwar,  I laughed more than I should on that TMP body cause u have the same opinion. As for that.. it ends.. BAD .. look my pictures and be sure about that! But thank you for adding up to the subject. I agree on the minimal wardrobe too.

 

 

 

10 hours ago, Lillith Hapmouche said:

Photos of your old avatar which you'd like to recreate would definitely be helpful.

Lilith, not recreate, but bring it to 2020.. without the needing to be a meta phd computer scientist. I posted some pictures above, hope you can contribute even a lil.

 

 

 

10 hours ago, Anilyse7 said:

Make sure your avi is muscle bound and 7' 3 or you will be b& for ***** instantly.

Anilyse, interesting theory, not sure I can follow it.

 

 

 

4 hours ago, Lewis Luminos said:

Belleza has a free BOM relay in the mainstore; one of my alts uses Jake and he's switched over to BOM (using an older system skin from Elysium which I believe is no longer available). So you can use BOM on a Jake body but it still has the onion-skin layers and it doesn't use system alphas.

Lewis, Cant comment on BOM cause I am not there yet with my knowledge but sure most people from what I hear are happy with this change.

 

 

P.s. thank you all for your replays so far. It was beyond my expectations. I logged in to see if anyone answered me and so many people putting their something below my post. Really thanks.

[Skell Dagger]

I wish I'd seen this with more than just two minutes to hammer out a quick reply before I need to leg it out the door for work. All I can give you in that limited time is that the head in both your last two images is most likely (based on the jaw shape) Lelutka's "Guy" Bento head, the hair in at least the last image (and possibly the other) will be by Modulus (very recognisable styles from them). As to Bakes on Mesh skins of high quality: Stray Dog's next release should - I believe - include BOM layers, but also check out Birth for skins that are already partially updated for BOM.

That's all I have time for right now. Gotta run!

[Lillith Hapmouche]

Frankly, I have a certain feeling that you might be painting a much too complicated picture of the whole BOM business. You don't have to be an expert inside out and knowing all bells and whistles for your everday usage.

All you need to figure out is how to turn it on on your mesh components and put on a nice skin. Once you got that setup, you've mastered the hardest part. Putting baked layers on and off is like dressing your avie in the old days. You should quickly find that quite familar.

Did you actually get your body's most recent update? Looking at my m-alts, I find that Signature put a lot of effort into optimizing the body HUD for more clarity and quick access to the most used

Skell quite likely knows the answer in a heartbeat, but I'm not sure if the pre-Bento heads by Catwa work with anything but appliers. So it is very likely that you'd be better off with a new mesh head. The pictures you've chosen strongly scream "GUY!" (LeLutka's second male head), yes, indeed. Very handsome jawline, strong features... pure yum... lickworth.... he's ok.

Since you already got a matching SD body skin, perhaps you can find a new head applier at one of the male shopping events - once the creator begins to include system layers in his releases.

I'd also suggest looking at Not Found, Clef de Peau, Raonhausen, Vendetta for skins.

[Skell Dagger]

1 hour ago, Lillith Hapmouche said:

Skell quite likely knows the answer in a heartbeat, but I'm not sure if the pre-Bento heads by Catwa work with anything but appliers.

Yes, I do The Catwa pre-Bento heads will work with Bakes on Mesh (BOM). All that's needed is the free BOM relay that can be found in the gift room at the Catwa store. Add the relay HUD and click it, and the BOM 'bake' textures will be applied to your head. I haven't actually tested to see if there's a difference between BOM application on the Basic eyes versus the Omega eyes (both of which are included with the non-Bento heads). Assuming the relay works on one of those then either the underlying system eyes will show on the mesh eyes, or - with the addition of an eye alpha - applier eyes can still be used (on the Omega eyes, at least; the Basic eyes don't take appliers).

Edited February 4, 2020 by Skell Dagger

[Slayerized Boucher]

On 2/4/2020 at 10:03 AM, Skell Dagger said:

I wish I'd seen this with more than just two minutes to hammer out a quick reply before I need to leg it out the door for work. All I can give you in that limited time is that the head in both your last two images is most likely (based on the jaw shape) Lelutka's "Guy" Bento head, the hair in at least the last image (and possibly the other) will be by Modulus (very recognisable styles from them). As to Bakes on Mesh skins of high quality: Stray Dog's next release should - I believe - include BOM layers, but also check out Birth for skins that are already partially updated for BOM.

That's all I have time for right now. Gotta run!

 

10 hours ago, Skell Dagger said:

Yes, I do The Catwa pre-Bento heads will work with Bakes on Mesh (BOM). All that's needed is the free BOM relay that can be found in the gift room at the Catwa store. Add the relay HUD and click it, and the BOM 'bake' textures will be applied to your head. I haven't actually tested to see if there's a difference between BOM application on the Basic eyes versus the Omega eyes (both of which are included with the non-Bento heads). Assuming the relay works on one of those then either the underlying system eyes will show on the mesh eyes, or - with the addition of an eye alpha - applier eyes can still be used (on the Omega eyes, at least; the Basic eyes don't take appliers).

Skell thank you for that info, I will try that set up for sure. Not gonna go with BOM yet. You can call me majority and not early adaptor on the curve. I did more experiments and spend hours of my time taking on and off things. Putting applies, failing and trying again. So far I managed to put together and break apart the current build I have on my avatar kept the hair base cause for some reason every time I restart the game I have to put it on. Not sure why but will figure that out after some more trial and error. Do you believe BOM is the future or..? And for the BOM you use old skins or you can wear new ones too? Havent seen/found anyone on YouTube putting a new skin on them.

[Slayerized Boucher]

11 hours ago, Lillith Hapmouche said:

Frankly, I have a certain feeling that you might be painting a much too complicated picture of the whole BOM business. You don't have to be an expert inside out and knowing all bells and whistles for your everday usage.

All you need to figure out is how to turn it on on your mesh components and put on a nice skin. Once you got that setup, you've mastered the hardest part. Putting baked layers on and off is like dressing your avie in the old days. You should quickly find that quite familar.

Did you actually get your body's most recent update? Looking at my m-alts, I find that Signature put a lot of effort into optimizing the body HUD for more clarity and quick access to the most used

Skell quite likely knows the answer in a heartbeat, but I'm not sure if the pre-Bento heads by Catwa work with anything but appliers. So it is very likely that you'd be better off with a new mesh head. The pictures you've chosen strongly scream "GUY!" (LeLutka's second male head), yes, indeed. Very handsome jawline, strong features... pure yum... lickworth.... he's ok.

Since you already got a matching SD body skin, perhaps you can find a new head applier at one of the male shopping events - once the creator begins to include system layers in his releases.

I'd also suggest looking at Not Found, Clef de Peau, Raonhausen, Vendetta for skins.

Lilith, quite to the point as all your posts. Starting backwards, I did take a note on those stores and I shall search them once I go home. As for the SD skin, yes I have an applied and I might look for another or so if I dont change the head shape sooner.

Yes my pre bento head is nice.. in ways but.. catwa needs to work on the hud.. like badly work on the hud. It's not user friendly at all for the price they ask for it. On the other hand.. I am glad that you pointed out Lelutka cause from videos I have seen online, i cant say i understood more their hud than the one i already own. Sad but true. So yea, next head will prolly be this one.

Updates.. yes, i did update all. And honestly, signature made that hud very user friendly. I am glad they put effort there thus I wont change them anytime soon. The only bad thing, (or the thing I dont know) was that I couldnt transfer my saved alphas from old hud to new but no matter what.. progress is progress. I dont have any alts (strange I know) so all the messing up happens at poor slay.

Now.. for BOM.. as said above to Skell, not yet but soon enough I hope.

[Ajay McDowwll]

On 2/3/2020 at 12:27 PM, Orwar said:

...Or a prim cube.

I sprayed coffee out of my nose at this.  Thank you!

Well, my keyboard doesn't thank you, but my need for a morning guffaw is outweighing my peripheral hardware's offense