Newbie Avatar Help

[jb00gieee]

Hello everyone☺️
 

I’ve been on SL for about a month now and I’ve been trying to change my avatar little by little in order to learn more about customizing, but I’m still struggling to understand how it all works.  I feel like I need a beginners guide for dummies because as much as I have looked into the topic, I still even question a lot of the terminology (alpha, mesh, shapes, etc..).  I also want to know how I make a complete body and head customization so that it all matches.  On top of everything, I know that there are clothes made specifically for certain bodies, but I am struggling to make things fit without portions of my body showing through.  In general, to make things more complicated, I am really searching for a more plus size look to my avatar and still would like some good options for clothing in that department.  I apologize if this sounds all over the place, I just need some help.  Thank you in advance!

Edited November 8, 2020 by jb00gieee

[Cristina Lanfier]

There is the classic avatar that linden provides, the goal is to hide this avatar with alphas (these make body parts invisible) and replace those body parts with mesh (made by independant creators). If you go to your using folder in inventory and take everything off, that is the classic avatar. 

 

Now, you need to build the avatar with pieces. Maitreya is the standard for the body because there are so many clothes for it, but it is mostly made for a skinny shape. For more curvacious shapes you need a slink hourglass or a belleza freya. There are bodies made that are more pluss side than those, but you will be extremly limited by the clothes. After you get your body, you need your head, there are different good creators for heads and you must take your time browsing them. You must be careful while buying a head since you could be stuck with a static head (not editable), you always need to make sure to only test the bento heads which you can edit with the sliders in the edit aparence on the avatar. Some examples of head creators are catwa, lelutka, laq, logo and genus. Genus and catwa might be the most popular ones

 

After you have your head you go for the skin. There are skins creators that include a soft chubby version of the skins for the bodies. Glam affair and Deetalez are my favorites and they have chubby options, but there are many more. You must make sure that when you land in a skin store, before buying the body skin (appliers meaning layers) they also have skins for the mesh head you decided to buy beforehand 

 

BOM is a new sl system. Before we had mesh pieces made by independant creators, the people made skins for the classic avatars. With BOM now those skin can also be applied to the mesh bodies. I do not know if Belleza is already BOM ready, I only know of maitreya. When a mesh part is BOM, you don't need to hide the old avatar under it, the body does it and "becomes" the classic avatar accepting those old system layers. 

 

After you have your head and body, you need to make a shape. Shapes are time consuming, you can spend hours in the avatar appearance (right click on the avatar) to make the new mesh parts and head look the way you like. If you do not want to spend time, you can look for shapes in the market, making sure they say the name of the head they used and it must be the same you bought. However, you should be careful with already made up shapes in the market, since the skins can change how a head looks and you would also need to buy the skin used by the person selling the shape (if you want an already made up shape, you must buy the shape before buying the skins)

 

After that, you have a bald and naked avatar you can buy things for (hair, clothes), clothes must always say that they are fitted for the body you bought. If some pieces still show through the clothes, you just need to use the body's hud (a window with buttons that the creator includes with the body) and it has options to make parts invisible. All clothes, regardless of how well they are made to fit a certain body, will still get disorted when the avatar moves, sit, etc; especially long sleeves or long pants. 

 

Alpha: Layers you wear on the avatars to make parts invisible

Shape: Sliders in the avatar apearance menu to change avatar looks

Mesh: pieces that are made on outside programs, can be furniture, avatar clothes,  avatar bodies, heads. 

Layers: paint that is applied on the avatar, layers can be the skin, tattoes, underwear clothes, thigh fitted shirts, makeup and the hair base for the mesh hair not to look rootless. 

 

If you are on a tight budget you have to be alert on offers. The other day, logo offered a free bento head for 1 linden. There are also some free mesh bodies around (of course you need to struggle with the clothes) 

[Rowan Amore]

3 hours ago, jb00gieee said:

Hello everyone☺️
 

I’ve been on SL for about a month now and I’ve been trying to change my avatar little by little in order to learn more about customizing, but I’m still struggling to understand how it all works.  I feel like I need a beginners guide for dummies because as much as I have looked into the topic, I still even question a lot of the terminology (alpha, mesh, shapes, etc..).  I also want to know how I make a complete body and head customization so that it all matches.  On top of everything, I know that there are clothes made specifically for certain bodies, but I am struggling to make things fit without portions of my body showing through.  In general, to make things more complicated, I am really searching for a more plus size look to my avatar and still would like some good options for clothing in that department.  I apologize if this sounds all over the place, I just need some help.  Thank you in advance!

To add to what Cristina said, The Mesh Project is offering their original mesh body for 1L and Genus may still have their strong face set as gift?  Might be a good starting point just for learning all the basics before you dive into purchasing anything.  

After getting that sorted, search skin stores for something you like and demo demo demo everything.  Your face will look different than in the picture which all has to do with editing your shape which is the underlying structure of your avatar.  Regardless of whether you wear the SL system avatar or a mesh body, you always have an underneath shape.  Many skin store will include a shape that corresponds with the face skin they are selling.  Most are editable to your liking.  Head and body.  

Grabbing the free and 1L items is a perfect way to get the feel of how things work.  Learning to edit shape, how to turn on and use BOM.  What the HUD does.  All things you'll need to know before making a big purchase.

[Cristina Lanfier]

 here are different bodies. 

[Marianne Little]

Hi, and welcome! First, I want to know what you have bought, or what you are using a demo of.

You say you have read about bodies. Have you purchased a body or a demo? And what kind of clothes have you bought? If it is from the Marketplace, you can link to it here.

This is so I do not have to hit you with text you do not need, I hope to see you more clearly.

A picture of your avatar is also very helpful. You are using the "Save to my computer" option so you save it to your computer's hard drive. Click "Interface" while you have the Appearance window open, with what you are wearing. You drag your image to the bottom here, when you make a new post.

[Nalates Urriah]

Welcome to SL and the forum.

we use a lot of jargon in SL and twist the meaning of some common words for our use here. I wrote this for another person that was having trouble understanding how SL worked.