Catwa Freya head on MALE avatars

[Marianne Little]

After a heck of trial and error, I got it almost as I wanted. I have seen so many young looks, but I wanted a mature look. Do you use the Freya head and will show it?

I am satisfied, the look is good enough for me.

In another thread, we discussed buying shapes versus making your own. I can say that I have struggled so much with this head and the sliders, so spending 50 L on a shape was so worth it! https://marketplace.secondlife.com/p/NBJun-Shape-For-CATWA-Gift-Head-Freya/19525183

I have made the eye opening smaller and the mouth thinner. The body is also very nice, short and slim. All I had to do was making the arms a bit longer, and larger hands and feet. Since this is a body where the foot slider really change the feet size, it came with small feet since it's made for a shape with fixed feet.

I skipped the included stylecard since its for a young Asian male, but I can say that it is good. Kudos to this creator, he put together a fine look.

Since I'm on a budget, I used 7 Deadly s{K}ins - SPLINTER skin, that is the group gift for May. Izzie's - Face Wrinkles - All Wrinkles 65%
Izzie's - Face Wrinkles - Age Spots 65%, Izzie's - Catwa - Under Eye Lashes Concealer 08.

Make sure the Under eye lashes concealer is under the wrinkles and age spots. Izzie sell many different packs of wrinkles, I used these, but try on all the other packs with wrinkles if you will age an avatar. https://marketplace.secondlife.com/p/Izzies-Face-Wrinkles-Appliers/9778612

These Izzie fixers cost some, but I can use them on other skins, so it is an investment. Most skins in SL is young looking. This male skin is poreless ans smooth as porcelain. I also used the skin in browless and added >> Aeros Avatar Kitai << Enhancer :: brows :: low. At the Aeros store, fly up and look for the old skins, up in a tree there is a small store. On the floor is many packs with free brows on tattoo layer. I didn't need to change brows, but I like it.

 

Edited May 10, 2020 by Marianne Little
added a sentence

[Lewis Luminos]

I picked up this head to try it today and I think it's not too bad, though I don't like it as much as my usual head (Catwa Shaheen). Changed the shape to get as close to my Shaheen shape as possible though I can't get the eyes narrow enough without them distorting.

This is with my usual skin (Prodigal Neo, a very old one). I have only just noticed how shiny the end of my nose is. Pass me that powder...

Next with Birth Hades, a much more mature skin. I used to wear this with a tint over it but I couldn't be bothered for this test, so I look like a partially-warmed-up corpse here. This skin would need more shape-tweaking.

Finally with Stray Dog Uriel. I gave up on this skin originally because it made me look like I was 22. On this head it makes me look 14. But out of the three it's the one that seems to work the best.

 

[Lillith Hapmouche]

37 minutes ago, Lewis Luminos said:

Pass me that powder...

I'm quite certain that Izzie's might have a fix for that...

[Skell Dagger]

40 minutes ago, Lewis Luminos said:

Pass me that powder...

Your powder compact awaits

[Skell Dagger]

This look was one I put together for a long and detailed blog post guiding men through how to use an old classic skin gift on the Freya gift head and the L$1 Legacy 'Classic' body. Unfortunately - after spending hours on writing that post and publishing it - the very next day that skin gift was taken down by the store owner. Ah well; the principles are still the same...

This entire avatar came in at a total of L$519.

 

[Lewis Luminos]

7 minutes ago, Skell Dagger said:

Your powder compact awaits

That works brilliantly. Thank you @Skell Dagger and @Lillith Hapmouche.

[Gage Wirefly]

11 minutes ago, Skell Dagger said:

Your powder compact awaits

Well if that isn't just handy ! Thank you for posting that.

[Skell Dagger]

Just now, Gage Wirefly said:

Well if that isn't just handy ! Thank you for posting that.

Izzie has a lot of great fixes for issues like that: removing unwanted highlights and contouring/blush, fixing shadows and painted on lashes above and below the eyes, etc. Definitely worth checking out if you're using an older classic skin on a mesh avatar. I have a notecard listing them all, so when I log in later I'll send it to you.

[Gage Wirefly]

1 minute ago, Skell Dagger said:

Izzie has a lot of great fixes for issues like that: removing unwanted highlights and contouring/blush, fixing shadows and painted on lashes above and below the eyes, etc. Definitely worth checking out if you're using an older classic skin on a mesh avatar. I have a notecard listing them all, so when I log in later I'll send it to you.

I just saw on her MP that she has bunch of fixes, I am loading up now lol. Thanks again!

[Sparkle Bunny]

here's the current iteration of my alt hanging out in his log cabin. (not wearing anything more expensive than L$1)

 

he's still a work in progress but i'll probably keep him bald.

 

 

[Chic Aeon]

10 hours ago, Skell Dagger said:

This look was one I put together for a long and detailed blog post guiding men through how to use an old classic skin gift on the Freya gift head and the L$1 Legacy 'Classic' body. Unfortunately - after spending hours on writing that post and publishing it - the very next day that skin gift was taken down by the store owner. Ah well; the principles are still the same...

This entire avatar came in at a total of L$519.

 

Trying to follow along with your very nice tutorial.  I have the neck fixed but I have a RED head icon when I activate BOM on the Catwa hud.  I have the Major skin on (that was by accident as I had it on the avatar from before). 

 

Assume I missed something but need a hint. I am SO NOT GOOD at this BOM stuff (sigh). Actually when I click on the BOM icon in the corner it doesn't seem to do anything so far as toggling on and off.  I tried other skins with no difference - still red. Thanks for any help. 

 

I am using an altamura body here with Major on it using an applier.  

 

[Zzevir]

1 hour ago, Chic Aeon said:

Trying to follow along with your very nice tutorial.  I have the neck fixed but I have a RED head icon when I activate BOM on the Catwa hud.  I have the Major skin on (that was by accident as I had it on the avatar from before). 

 

Assume I missed something but need a hint. I am SO NOT GOOD at this BOM stuff (sigh). Actually when I click on the BOM icon in the corner it doesn't seem to do anything so far as toggling on and off.  I tried other skins with no difference - still red. Thanks for any help. 

 

I am using an altamura body here with Major on it using an applier.  

 

You have an alpha mask on the head that's why is red. Use just a body alpha. 

[Skell Dagger]

@Chic Aeon Zzevir is correct: you have an alpha layer hiding your head, so remove that. You will still need one for your body if you're using appliers, so - if you don't have just a body alpha - unpack the 'CATWA BOM Skin A Makeup Alpha Pack' box inside the Freya folder and inside you'll find a set of alpha layer options to be used in scenarios like this, when you only want to be part-BoM.

Missing out that alpha layer 'red' thing was an oversight on my part in writing that post, so thank you for making me realise I need to edit and add that!

Edited May 12, 2020 by Skell Dagger

[Chic Aeon]

@Skell Dagger   I can't find the break down of your makeover costs again (I think I saw that anyway) but it might be good to note the 7DS has free group skins (gals and guys) out every month (sometimes a gift card) and the cost when not during a free time is $275. So if you add all the "fixer" costs it might make sense just to do that and save a LOT of work LOL.    Most of the current skins for over a year have been BOM and also include appliers.  A new male skin just went up. They are one of the few places that have Omega and BOM together.  Some are quite nice.   So an ALTERNATIVE for folks not wanting to work quite so hard LOL.   

[Rudegerus Osterham]

18 hours ago, Skell Dagger said:

This look was one I put together for a long and detailed blog post guiding men through how to use an old classic skin gift on the Freya gift head and the L$1 Legacy 'Classic' body.

As an aside, what pose did you use for those images?

[Ted McGregor]

@Maryanne Solo Thnx for the great skin tip !!

ETA : ungh .. @Marianne Little ofc .. Sorry Maryanne and Marianne

Edited May 12, 2020 by TDD123

[Clover Jinx]

Finally got some time to play around with Freya on the alt. Just used stuff in his inventory. The skin is the bakes on mesh one that came with the Signature body.

[Zzevir]

I can't change the size of the eye lashes  Not in the shape slides anyway. 

But it's a work in progress. 

[Skell Dagger]

9 minutes ago, Zzevir said:

I can't change the size of the eye lashes  Not in the shape slides anyway. 

Shape sliders don't affect mesh eyelashes. Select these upper and lower options on the Lashes section of the Master HUD. They're the shortest lash options:

[Skell Dagger]

23 hours ago, Rudegerus Osterham said:

As an aside, what pose did you use for those images?

Oh god, I have thousands of poses - lol! I honestly can't remember exactly which ones I used for those images, but I think they were old ones from Diesel Works.

[Zzevir]

Ok next problem there is a massive gap between the neck and the body. like my fist so it's not a crack it's like a canyon 

[Rudegerus Osterham]

3 hours ago, Skell Dagger said:

Oh god, I have thousands of poses - lol! I honestly can't remember exactly which ones I used for those images, but I think they were old ones from Diesel Works.

Thanks! At least I have a place to go look for poses now.

[Skell Dagger]

1 hour ago, Zzevir said:

Ok next problem there is a massive gap between the neck and the body. like my fist so it's not a crack it's like a canyon 

Enable the male neck fit:

[Zzevir]

7 minutes ago, Skell Dagger said:

Enable the male neck fit:

I rarely say this but I love you. You are a genius. 

[Marianne Little]

That neck fit makes me think.... It would look much better if mesh bodies was sold with 2 different necks. One for male heads, one for female heads.

Both female and male bodies should have that. Too bad only one mesh head creator (Catwa) offer this. Her male fit neck has a strange cut in there under the chin. But I don't fault Catwa, she at least tries to do something about the "male body must use male head" and "female body must use female head". Like, why?

And 2 neck fits on the bodies would look better, instead of having the head's neck widen unnaturally to meet the body.

Edited May 13, 2020 by Marianne Little