I'm almost ready to give up on my Aesthetic

[HeathcliffMontague]

With emphasis on almost. I've had this one for a while.

(This was a discussion in the in-world group. Some interesting responses, so worth giving it a shot in this forum as well)

I subjectively think the AES (Aesthetic) may be the best looking male avi in SL, and much, much more customisable than people give it credit for. Tweaked well, it looks better nekkid than any, and much more detailed. A muscle monster or a fit swimmer, your choice. It can take tweaking better than most smoother (look wise) avis in my experience. But it's the clothing options. Seemed promising for a while, but at this point it almost seems like even Altamura is going to have better options soon. It's getting tiring.

Something like L&B is 1000 times better than the Synthol template look (google Synthol if you have to. Safe for your computer, but perhaps not for your eyes), but the matchstick type L&B jacket arms kind of ruins a lot too. CA is a mix, at best. Need a suit? AEC it is. Really superb textures and HUD options, but that weird Synthol shape again. Found an in-world store named Lenox (next to Blueberry) which really seems to get AES jackets in terms of shape, even if they don't have close to AEC or L&B level textures. Not great on jeans, though. At least not if you don't want to be caught dead with your boots on the freaking outside of your jeans...

On the MP it's 90 % templates mixed with... well... various stuff. The latter is of course fine, you be you, but a**less chaps or thongs with huge d**k holders are not for me. Might look out of place on a track or a sailing or hiking trip.

Sorry, I'm just ranting a bit on what is hopefully a relaxed Friday for all, feel free to ignore. But if you feel like throwing out your favourite brands/stores for AES, that would be cool.

Or what you feel would be a better option, avi wise, that's cool too. It's Friday, after all.

[Cristiano Midnight]

Just curious, why do you feel it is better than something like Signature Gianni, which has widespread support. I've tried several different mesh bodies and found Gianni to be the right balance for me. Signature Geralt is a little slimmer overall, but doesn't have as widespread of support.

[Blaise Glendevon]

I don't shop men's clothes, but I do actually love the Nyramith body when the shape's properly adjusted. 

Have you tried looking through Flickr at pictures tagged with the brand's name? Maybe you'll see new clothes, or outfit combinations?

https://www.flickr.com/photos/tags/niramyth/

[HeathcliffMontague]

1 hour ago, Cristiano Midnight said:

Just curious, why do you feel it is better than something like Signature Gianni, which has widespread support. I've tried several different mesh bodies and found Gianni to be the right balance for me. Signature Geralt is a little slimmer overall, but doesn't have as widespread of support.

"Better" might not be the right word in general. Just better at what it does right. Details and tweakability. More realistic even, if done right. Have you looked closely at something like the hands, the veins etc? It's not the quality that's the problem, but the narrow choices. I basically went mesh because there were a bunch of overpriced non-mesh avis at the time,  I bought a bummer for 2000+ L and though h**ll no, no more of this. It was basically only Slink, TMP and AES back then, and AES is objectively much more developed than Slink male. Was then, and still is. And TMP is, well, TMP. Looks good enough, but we all know the baggage.

Gianni is probably more close to what I'd chosen at the time if it were available.  I still maintain that AES (with tweaking) probably is the best looking male avi, overall (with another head than the default), but I wouldn't recommend it for someome over something like Gianni for someone looking for a mesh body for the first time.

[AyelaNewLife]

I fully agree that the Aesthetic body can look great, if properly customised. Sadly, most owners are either unable or unwilling to do more than add a hair or tattoo to the out-of-the-box look, and it is precisely this legion of ashen-skinned pug-eyed clones that have given the body a bad name. As you say, at a minimum you need a new skin and new head to make the body really work.

And as for clothing availability - yeah, it's annoying. I swapped from Slink Physique to Maitreya Lara for the same reason... it was just soul destroying to constantly find gorgeous clothing that was either Maitreya exclusive, or only for the Maitreya/Freya/Hourglass combo. It is what it is, I guess.

[Talligurl]

16 hours ago, HeathcliffMontague said:

 it looks better nekkid than any, 

 

But it's the clothing options. 

So what is the problem?

[Maitimo]

On 5/8/2020 at 7:13 PM, HeathcliffMontague said:

Sorry, I'm just ranting a bit on what is hopefully a relaxed Friday for all, feel free to ignore. But if you feel like throwing out your favourite brands/stores for AES, that would be cool.

Or what you feel would be a better option, avi wise, that's cool too. It's Friday, after all.

Can't help with stores for AES unfortunately (I think the body is losing popularity and fewer creators are making original clothing for it now) but I do suggest giving Signature Gianni a try. With the right slider settings and a detailed skin, you'll be able to get a very muscular shape with it, and there's a lot of good quality clothing made for Gianni.

[Orion Pastorelli]

@HeathcliffMontague

You should look into the Belleza Jake male mesh body. In my opinion, It has better geometry than the Signature Gianni (looks way better nekkid) and has almost as much 3rd party support.

[Gage Wirefly]

I have the body on another avatar and it's too bulky quite honest. If they made a slimmer less muscular version and someone made some normal looking body skins, it would be ace. But I second the Belleza Jake body, its pretty good in my experience.

[Lillith Hapmouche]

Personally, I find Belleza failed to keep up with the rest... no direct BOM support for example, but having to grab an albeit free, yet still third party tool. The HUD seems slow to respond, its pseudo-3D turnaround view is rather impractical. It's been sitting on its current version for quite some ages now, after introducing the 4 versions setup. 
Big pro: it's the cheapest of the big standard ones by now, since Signature raised the prices to L$ 4000. 

Overall, it's quite a disappointment, since Belleza used to have such eyecandy among male skins, while I find their current output merely plain average. Female skins, that is, since they can't apparently be bothered to create more male skins or at least fix their old ones for BOM (aka adjust fingers and toes).

As for AES... I think it sadly earned its reputation because most users can't be bothered to chance from the out of the box look, making them appear like quite a clone army. 
Screenshots of adjusted looks would be most welcome. There a plenty of suitable threads to choose from now ☺️

By the way: apparently, Ex Machina is doing a daily give-away of their body and head (again).

[Kieran Dallas]

I have bought most of the men's mesh bodies. The Belleza Jake I feel is in today's market somewhat lacking. It's a nice body but could use an update and leaves me wanting more. The hud's a bit slow but no where as problematic as the hud for Legacy ( especially in a moderate traffic sim.) Legacy while it has a nice sculpt for the body and looks good. I find it's render cost to be to high to use outside of your private home, so it's impractical for daily use if you do alot of travelling around the grid or attend faires, events etc.  While SIgnature Gianni may have it's own quirks, both it and the slimmer Geralt I've had alot of success with. Signatures hud is easy to use easy to set stuff up. Handles bom very nicely and both signature bodies also have omega built in. No relay required. Which is a big plus for me. Why more bodies don't do that is still a mystery but each to there own.  

 

 Aes, is one the few bodies I don't have much experience with outside of some demos so I can't give any input on it.

 

 For terms of support , clothing , skins . Signature gianni I feel leads the pack by a signifigant margin. Followed by likely either Legacy mens , or Belleza Jake , slinks redux, then Geralt although I have seen more support for Geralt of late and less of slink. For me I like the redux system for Bakes on Mesh ( BoM) it's a throwback to early mesh days and pre mesh bodies, but sometimes old school is not a terrible thing either.