New And Need BOM Avatar Help

[BadNBouji]

So I just started playing last night and I spent $50 and I look so uglyyy, and I realized I want to start over and want my avi to be completely BOM, and I need serious help. I’m SO lost and have no idea what to do or buy to go about becoming completely BOM. If someone could help me in game I’d appreciate it because watching videos has done nothing for me.

[Nalates Urriah]

SL is a mix of easy and complex. While it isn't rocket science there is a lot to learn. Like anything else in life, skipping learning the basics makes for problems.

SL also has a ton of jargon. We use many common words to mean more than their dictionary definition. This provides a whole level of confusion to the new.

So, watch the YouTube tutorials, search out the blog articles on 'New to SL...'

You can start here: http://blog.nalates.net/2017/04/10/second-life-mesh-vs-classic-bodies/ Hopefully that will get you the basic tech you need to understand.

Follow up with 

Follow that with Skell's tutorials: http://www.virtualbloke.com/tutorials

I have a ton of tutorials too. But Skell's are more about appearance. 

This forum has a Q&A section (Answers), a Knowledge Base, and a Wiki. You can get to them from the top menu here. Answers will have the answers to many common questions. Saves waiting for an answer. Both the knowledgr base and wiki get into the tech stuff but they have basic info too.

I'll point out that you can buy good looks in SL. But you can also make your own good looks for free. There is a cost either way, money or time. 

People in SL will generally be glad to help... but there is a point where one's questions are about things so basic many find it annoying and do not help. For instance asking how to fly will trigger some as it shows you likely skipped the basic training you have to pass through with coming into SL for the first time. If did skip it, you can't go back. You can however go to the Firestorm Welcome area and get the same introductory training.

 

[Lancewae Barrowstone]

Ok, BadN....  in your new look there are two key components.

1. the skin (which may come with whatever you buy, or may not,

2. the shape (which may come with a skin or NOT

When shopping for body products we often see the picture right there on the wall and we want that!   So we buy it.  But we may get fooled.  You have to make sure that picture includes both shape and skin. If you put on that new skin over your own (already being worn) shape then the results will not look as you expected.  Some products are only one or the other, and some both skin and shape.  You'll have to supply hair, of course. Easiest way to be that picture is to buy that combo (if sold fully), and then wear it and enjoy it and live with it.  But, if you want to alter it a bit, say widen the shoulders, thicken the neck, raise height, waist, neck, etc etc, then you can open your "Edit Shape" function and begin working the sliders, BUT then you may see your face is altering too, into something you didn't expect.  So, you see how these two components are linked.  This is the system body and how it works.  Knowing this you are ready to contemplate mesh, where BOM comes into the picture (relating back to how the system body works) while now using a mesh component.

So, maybe you went right to the mesh body option.  Ok, that's pretty simple until you add a mesh head to it.  To me, mesh heads are hard, you see the picture you want, BUT don't buy the head, get the DEMO.  (I've seen heads that looked horrendous, and later see a friend with that head and she made it GORGEOUS!)  Now, wear the demo and the skin and shape it comes with and begin to experiment with the Shape sliders (rclick the head and Edit Shape) and make sure the delicate balance between body and shape don't somehow get out of whack.  Now, I'm no expert here, and maybe I'm saying this wrong (and others will help me in this), but's how I've seen it.  Now, once you've assured yourself after many demos and many hours working with face sliders and skins, then you know you are ready to buy.

Keep that $50 worth of product you bought, because as you gain skills you can go back and make something of them.  You know, when we join online games we get a chance to choose avatars, shapes, hair, clothes and within minutes we are ready to get IN GAME and start the immersion.  You can do that in SL.  The freebie stores have freebie avatars and outfits.  There are lots of choices and free mesh bodies that are very good and available to you.  BUT, too, SL is way better than those games in how they limit avatar creation.  Here that short effort is stretched far into HOURs of potential awesome and individual creation!  We can get hooked on that aspect of this game. Maybe you will too.

Don't let this huge spectrum of individual creativity intimidate or dissuade you as something you hadn't expected.  Ride along with it right beside it, as you make an avatar and begin moving into the world and experiencing and learning.

~Cheers

 

 

Edited August 30, 2020 by Lancewae Barrowstone
typos

[Talligurl]

My advice to you and everyone who starts SL is don't be in a rush. i ran around with a classic avi a long time before i went mesh. checking out other people's avis and talking to the ones with avis I liked about what they used. It was a long while after I got a mesh body that I got a mesh head, and it took a while for me to go with BOM. The process led me to where I am today but I am sure it isn't over. Some new thing will come along or I will decide I want to do some thing different. The idea that you need the perfect avatar right away is flawed. When I started I didn't even know what i know now that influences the way I want to look. There is no point of spending a ton of money at the start on things you will later not even want.

[AmberWildcool]

Hi there..

 

As you see you are not alone & i am not new to this game. I am stuck at updating & am stepping back as it was really stressing and upsetting me.

 

I have learned one thing ~ going slow one step at a time is the best. You are lucky as when you make an Avatar you will have the BOM that i am not able to understand to get on mine ~ so you are already ahead. Also ask anyone what is the Best head & Body as i did the same as you & bought rubbish:)

You will get one head one body and many will help you get there as i am learning this is an amazing kind community ~ btw welcome & you will soon be beautiful

[Lancewae Barrowstone]

We can't deny some of the system avatars still for sale today, were awesome creations.  I've known some (women), who still use their very attractive system faces, just putting a new mesh body with it.  Who can blame them, they still look fantastic and almost always better than some mesh heads I've seen.  There are many well-wrought (through hard work) mesh heads being worn that rise to the next level above those system heads by their finer details worked into amazing things.  For a new player that can be accomplished later on, if you care to.  As you go around SL learn to distinguish between people wearing a mesh head, and those occasional ones you see who are wearing a very good system avatar head (with the body alpha'd out and a mesh body in its place). 

Those system avatars cost thousands in lindens back then and still are for sale at high prices, when you would expect the mesh market would have suppressed them.  They still have worth.  So, if the OP did buy a very nice system avatar (complete) and likes the face, then it's a simple matter to just add a mesh body to it. 

In practical terms, it's done by wearing a body alpha (alone with NO head alpha), that allows the system face to remain.  Bam.  You're done.