Bjor's Avatar Thread (And first topic too)...

[BjorJlen]

   Oh boy, here goes nothin'. This is my first post thread and I am nervous as hell because of it; or as Crosby of CSN&Y said during Woodstock "This is our second time playing in front of people man; we're scared *****less!" lol So please be gentle folks... 😁

   Recently I made a reply in this Avatar section entitled "Alright lads, its our turn. Show off your pics for the ladies to comment on.", where after a long bit of work, I created my first avatar. If you look at it, you can plainly see that it is not great (especially imo), yet it's functional. I actually took it for a spin last night and flew from coast to coast, checking out the sites in passing, and testing how my PC handles the graphics and rezzing of SL. It went fairly well too I am glad to say. Anyways, @Lillith Hapmouche, @Cinnamon Mistwood, and @Echelon Alcott all gave very encouraging words and advice, with Echelon actually posting some links to help me get a grasp on the different aspects of a Avatar, how to make one, and even where to go to buy the different parts of ones. Needless to say I have been reading those links a lot, and OMG as Cinnamon was right!
   "The learning curve for all the new stuff is steep" & "It is a lot to take in and it might very well feel like rocket science.". When I was done for the night, my head was hurting something fierce lol. Anywho, as was suggested, I am making this (1st) post so I can not only explain what I want my "base" avatar to be, but also to get a good education on the matter, and to get as much advice, pointers, and actual help (either directly or indirectly) in creating it. So here goes...

   First off, I would very much like to recreate my original avatar from back in the day (from 2003-2004). As I said, it was quite nice at the time, was commented on positivly by people, and yeah @Lillith Hapmouche, it was very "funky"... and cool as heck. I liked it a lot, so I want to recreate it suing today's high tec items. Unfortunately I don't have any pictures of it, nor even the PC I used during the time, so here is what I remember it looking like.
   * It had a Hulk Hogan type body (though it wasn't as "huge" muscle wise as the Hulksters was during his steroid prime), broad shoulders with a general "V" shaped frame that was very proportional and realistic (as far as SL could be back then), nicely tanned skin tone, a fine ass (so I was told by the ladies lol), and was around 6' tall generally speaking.
   * The head though was the best most unique part of it though. It had long white flowing hair that hung just past its shoulders, a medium full white beard and mustache that matched the color of its hair (of course), semi full lips, and bright violet eyes (it may have been dark violet though, I'm not sure).

   Now my first question is this; can I recreate this "look" using today's SL items, and good could it be? I ask because while it was a great looking avatar back in the day, I am not to sure if it would look as good (or even better) using today's SL stuff. After reading the links which Echelon was so kind as to offer, I have sorta narrowed the "parts" down to Signature `Gianni' & Slink `Physique' (for the mesh body) and Catwa & Lelutka (for the mesh head). But of course that only deals with the mesh's, and not the skins per say, which I really don't have much of a clue about in all honesty. Part of my issue is that there is sooo much stuff available that it makes shopping for such things a bit difficult and overwhelming for me. I want to keep this as simple as I can, yet still get what I need/want to make the avatar I used to have (if possible).
   And while I do have money to spend, and I will mind you, I really don't want to screw things up if I can avoid it (and yeah, demo's are a great idea too 🙂). Hell, I can defiantly see myself buying stuff, putting them on wrong, and coming out with 7 eyes, 3 arms, and no left leg lol; and that's just with the meshes lol. So yeah I think I am gonna need some help here, and maybe even a direct helping hand with all of this stuff. So many of you make such fantastic looking avatars (even the men lol) that if I happen to be standing next to you, I would feel bad bringing your artistic creative beauty and skill down. But that's just me, as I am a bit self conscious lol. Heck, I am still figuring out the game's controls, menus, and options lol.

   Anywho anyway, there ya go folks. My 1st thread on a subject that I feel is important to me if I am going to socialize with many of you far more experienced folks. Any and all help you could offer would be appreciated (and no, not money as I got that covered) greatly. The more the merrier in fact. Thank you very much for reading this long post, and thank you again for any future replies & assistance/advice you may have to give. You all rock, you creative artists you; I just want to be able to roll so I can sorta keep up in part is all lol (see what I did there? Rock & Roll? No...? well, ok... 😁).

Peace...

[Marianne Little]

If you want a great looking, roundish butt, Belleza Jake has it. I do not believe you will get the body you want with Slink.

But Signature Gianni is a great pick. I would take it, but demo and take a look at the butt first. It is flatter than Belleza Jake.

You can try this beard demo with the head demos: https://marketplace.secondlife.com/p/Action-Inkubator-Beard-Gus-DEMO-BENTO-RIGGED/16040111

no.match has a lot of male long hair. https://marketplace.secondlife.com/stores/174575

I am not sure about what type skin to suggest. I would say that "all" skin stores has tan version of their skins. Should it look young or have some lines?

Violet eyes, try IKON. The Babylon eyes in "Passion" is very strong violet. Intense. If that's too violet, try the Apex eyes in "Darkstar".

Edited October 24, 2021 by Marianne Little

[Lillith Hapmouche]

Short answer: Yes, you can definitely recreate your look.

Long: answer: ... coming within the next week....

You do know that hair and bread plus eyes are all seperate options?

I think Signature Gianni is a good choice for the body. SLink couldn't be any furhter away from the type of body you describe, certainly no Hulk Hogan. 
Kupra's parody of a male body recently discussed in another thread might fit the description much better, but ... nah.

As for the head, I'm a LeLutka fan. The HUD is pretty clean and easy, a lot of content is avalaible. Do pick up the demos for the newest Evo(X) heads, if you please, down to Skyler.

Like to look at more photos? Check out FlickR and themed groups or various store groups.

[Echelon Alcott]

Hey Bjor!

I'm glad to hear that the resources shared with you were helpful. Fear not, very soon you'll be as comfortable as everybody else customizing your avatar to your exact needs.

First, it is great that you narrowed down the body mesh you are interested in. So let me share my advice in this aspect. Between the two mesh bodies, I would personally select Gianni because it has a much wider support when it comes to clothing. Here is a thread [link] with the mesh body statistics from the beginning of this year (February 2021), from a sample of 12000 unique avatars, where for male mesh bodies, we can see that at the time over 40% of male avatars were using Signature Gianni, while only 3.5% were using SLink. This is important because the more popular a mesh body, the more motivated creators will be to release products for such mesh body.

Second, it is also great that you narrowed down your choice of mesh heads to Catwa and Lelutka. When we look at the statistics for male mesh heads in the March 2021 timeframe, we can see that they are both equally popular at around 40% of the market for each one of them. The approach I took when I moved my avi to mesh was to select the look I wanted first, and then see which mesh head I needed to purchase to achieve that look.

In terms of looks, I would suggest you go to head skin stores and shop around for the look that you want. A few suggestions are Clef de Peau [SLurl], Not Found [SLurl] and Stray Dog [SLurl], in no particular order. Once you select and purchase the head skin and tone, purchase the body skin from the same store in the same tone as the head skin. This will ensure that you have a nice invisible seam between your head and body.

For hair, you mentioned a long flowing hair past the shoulders. I'm not sure if the hair stores I'm familiar with (namely Modulus [SLurl], Stealthic [SLurl] and Wings [SLurl]) sell long hair like that; others might want to chime in and help you in this regard.

For eyes, you can use the eyes that come with the mesh head and pick the desired color, or you can get mesh eyes, or customize using BOM textures for your eyes.

Most importantly, demo demo demo!

Hope this helps!

[Echelon Alcott]

11 minutes ago, Marianne Little said:

If you want a great looking, roundish butt, Belleza Jake has it.

I concur with Marianne in this regard, if you want a bubble butt and stronger/more muscular legs, you'll achieve that look easier with Belleza Jake. Demo them both.

Edited October 24, 2021 by Echelon Alcott

[Lewis Luminos]

You absolutely can re-create an old look with new and up to date parts. I've been doing exactly this since 2008.  (pics below to show you what I mean).

For a body, Gianni is a good choice but as others have suggested, Jake is worth a look too. I would disregard Slink, it's support is waning and I don't think you'll get the body shape you want with it.  Catwa vs Lelutka are excellent choices for heads, and in this regard its going to come down to personal preference, which one you like best/can get the look you're after. Try demos of all of them and go into Edit Appearance to play around with the sliders. And always, always start with the shape that comes in the box with the head.

If you're fond of your old pre-mesh system skin, as I am, you can still use it by switching your head and body to Bakes on Mesh. But there are many newer and better ones to try.

If you like long hair, No Match has an excellent range for men, but don't rule out womens hair too; some of it will fit, I wear a few longer (just past the shoulders) styles from Truth, Magika and Doux. If its very long, you may find some of it buried in your back, or standing out too far at the front (though hair with "small/petite chest" sizes are helpful for that issue). 

For eyes, my favourites are Mayfly, they do literally dozens of colours including several shades of purple/violet. They come with mesh, applier and BOM options.

And as promised, here's me, with basically the same look I've had all along:

2008:

2013:

Now:

 I use Gianni body and Lelutka head, my skin is a really old one I've had for about 6 or 7 years but skins for ginger guys are hard to find and this one is so much "me" I've no need to change it.

[Echelon Alcott]

2 hours ago, Lewis Luminos said:

You absolutely can re-create an old look with new and up to date parts. I've been doing exactly this since 2008.  (pics below to show you what I mean).

For a body, Gianni is a good choice but as others have suggested, Jake is worth a look too. I would disregard Slink, it's support is waning and I don't think you'll get the body shape you want with it.  Catwa vs Lelutka are excellent choices for heads, and in this regard its going to come down to personal preference, which one you like best/can get the look you're after. Try demos of all of them and go into Edit Appearance to play around with the sliders. And always, always start with the shape that comes in the box with the head.

If you're fond of your old pre-mesh system skin, as I am, you can still use it by switching your head and body to Bakes on Mesh. But there are many newer and better ones to try.

If you like long hair, No Match has an excellent range for men, but don't rule out womens hair too; some of it will fit, I wear a few longer (just past the shoulders) styles from Truth, Magika and Doux. If its very long, you may find some of it buried in your back, or standing out too far at the front (though hair with "small/petite chest" sizes are helpful for that issue). 

For eyes, my favourites are Mayfly, they do literally dozens of colours including several shades of purple/violet. They come with mesh, applier and BOM options.

And as promised, here's me, with basically the same look I've had all along:

2008:

2013:

Now:

 I use Gianni body and Lelutka head, my skin is a really old one I've had for about 6 or 7 years but skins for ginger guys are hard to find and this one is so much "me" I've no need to change it.

Very cool seeing the progression of your avatar throughout the years, Lewis.

What is the SLurl for No Match? I've heard of this store before, but I cannot find it in search when I use the search term "no match".

[Rowan Amore]

1 hour ago, Echelon Alcott said:

Very cool seeing the progression of your avatar throughout the years, Lewis.

What is the SLurl for No Match? I've heard of this store before, but I cannot find it in search when I use the search term "no match".

https://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/VALHAL/121/143/22

It's called no.match so it confuses people and search.

[Marianne Little]

I remember your outfit from another thread. I have no idea how many outfits you want, but if you like that black or dark denim with open jackets or vests, you can start with Lapointe Bastchild. I recommend their jeans because it is really hard to mix'n match mesh clothes without parts poking out. Jeans: Includes regular length, tapered, and cuffed versions. PLUS bonus tapered set with alpha cuts & HUD so that you can turn off portions of the lower leg.

I'm not a blogger or anything else for that store, but it often comes up how hard it is to wear boots with mesh pants. https://marketplace.secondlife.com/p/LB-Mens-Denim-Jeans-Havoc-Faded-Black-Jake-Gianni-Geralt-Slink/18147146

I'm not sure if you like shopping all over SL and in different stores, but if you do not like it, you can get almost all you need in one place.

https://virtualbloke.com/

gives you tons of ideas, and more than the usual jeans and t-shirt.

Billy is another blogger that I like, he has nice tutorials too. Here is one for the Belleza body we have suggested for you: https://billybeaverhausen.com/2021/09/25/belleza-jake-3-0-mesh-body-with-lelutka-mesh-head/

But this blogger may post outfits with latex for men and sometimes a review of male "bits". So if nude and semi-nude avatars offend you, stay away from it.

[blissfulbreeze]

Bjor, I can help you inworld with your avatar. I'm EST time zone and can be on after 3pm SL time, which is 6pm my time. I may be able to get on earlier as well. Which days are good for you?

Edited October 25, 2021 by blissfulbreeze

[BjorJlen]

   Hi all, and good evening where ever you are...

   Just got off from work and having just eaten dinner I can now sit down and reply to your awesome replies (btw, on a side note, the limit to how many posts a person can make is annoying as hell! I would have written sooner with a update, but I had reached my "limit" for the day. Anyone know how many this would be exactly, and if it increases given time & posting here?). Now after reading your thoughts & suggestions, I logged on and went shopping (yay! 😁), after writing down notes of your specific suggestions on stores and whatnot. And here are my results... so far...

--------------------------------------------------

   * Mesh Body - I Currently bought 2 demo's from Signature (both Gianni & Geralt).
   * Mesh Head - I Currently bought 2 demo's from Signature (both Gianni & Geralt).

   * Body Skins - None as of yet .
   * Head Skins - With Clef de Peau [SLurl], there were no demo's that I could see at their store, so I did not buy any from there. However I currently bought 8 demo's from NotFound. In addition, I currently bought 4 demo's from StrayDogs as well.

   * Hair - I currently bought 4 demo's from no.match. I will look at your suggestion to about hair Echelon too if/when I get threw looking at the one's I have.
   * Eyes - I currently bought 1 demo from Babylon "Passions" & Apex "Darkstar" (each), Could not find any MayFly eyes. 
   * Beard/Mushtash - None as of yet .

------------------------------------------------

   Now as you can see from the list above, I have a lot of things to try out. However I do not have any Body Skins or Beard/Mushtash's as of yet. The reason why is because there are a ton of stores I think that have them. So if you would, could any of you (or all, or anyone) specifically suggest the "better" stores which I could go to and look threw what demo's they have please, like you did with the other items? I assume that might be a bit harder to do as from what I saw, there are far more body skins available then Body Meshes, but any advice and suggestions you could make would be most appreciated. But otherwise, do you think this is a good start? Anywho, now onto some thoughts and questions I have (I hope you don't mind). Please excuse me if any of them sound stupid to anyone, but I am very new at this, so yeah... I am a bit ignorant on such things in truth lol.

   1) When I went to Clef de Peau [SLurl] to look at Head Skins, I saw that they had quite a lot of them. Sadly, most of them didn't "feel" right to me, but those I did sorta like, I couldn't find any demo's of. In fact, none of them had demo's, so was I just not looking in the right place (where to click or otherwise), or just doing something wrong?
   2) @Marianne Little, I appreciated the link you showed about the Beard/Mushtash (https://marketplace.secondlife.com/p/Action-Inkubator-Beard-Gus-DEMO-BENTO-RIGGED/16040111), but I am not sure if you can get the demo's of it/them without also getting the heads; do you (or anyone) know?
   3) Do all Head Skins come with a HUD of some sort? And if so, can this HUD be minimized, or turned off so they don't clutter up my screen? HUD's in general are a completly new thing for me in SL, so I haven't much of a clue about them or their functionality.
   4) Now onto Clothes; I was wondering quite a few things about them actually, so here goes...
      A) Will all and/or any clothes I buy work with the Body Mesh & Skin that I will eventually decide on?
      B) If not, to make them work, will I be limited to buying clothes from the same store/dealer that I bought my Body Mesh & Skin from? Because while not a clothes horse so to speak, I would and do like buying different clothes, so the more options available, the better. And yeah Marianne, your comments about clothes (especially boots, though I am not a big boot man per say), helped a lot in thinking about this.
      C) Now here might be a really stupid question, so you have been warned lol. When I do try out these Mesh's and Skins, do I erase/take off everything from my avatar, or do I just try them on without doing so? I ask cause back in the day there were no Meshes per say, and to try on things (especially clothes), all I would have to do would be to click on the item in question, and it would replace what I had on or was using on its own.
   5) As you can see, when I bought the Mesh Body & Head from Gianni, I also bought the Geralt one(s) too. They both came from Signature (if I recall), but no one suggested it nor talked about it, so I was wondering what anyone's views on it were.

   So there you go; a few questions I have atm about things. Now onto my comments lol. When I checked out the Gianni Body, I did see that it didn't have a "meaty" ass so to speak, but overall I found it ok, so I guess that's not to much of a big deal. Oh and yes Lillith, I do know that eyes & beard/mushtash's have to be purchased seperatly, but I apreciate you asking just the same.  And @Lewis Luminos, thank you very much for showing off your avatar (especially in a time evolved sort of way). It was most instructive and I very much liked how it looks like now, though it wasn't bad back then either.
   And @blissfulbreeze, thank you very much too in your kind offer. The timing is cool with me too, but at the moment I'm gonna wait to get any in game help (I think lol) as I am only in the beginning shopping part of this avatar project. However when and if I decide to do this, I will defiantly keep you in mind. 😁 In either case though, I think that about wraps things on my end with this reply before it gets too long (too late lol). The stores you all suggested were cool as heck, though only one was actually packed with people (can you guess which one by chance? lol 😁), and I hope to do more shopping very, very soon in the coming day(s). So thank you all for your help and replies, and I eagerly await your next ones (including those who have not said anything yet). 😁

Peace...

[Rowan Amore]

I would suggest getting the body skin demos from the same stores as.the head demos.  I believe the head skin stores you mentioned do have matching body skins for the body demos you chose.

[Echelon Alcott]

2 hours ago, BjorJlen said:

   1) When I went to Clef de Peau [SLurl] to look at Head Skins, I saw that they had quite a lot of them. Sadly, most of them didn't "feel" right to me, but those I did sorta like, I couldn't find any demo's of. In fact, none of them had demo's, so was I just not looking in the right place (where to click or otherwise), or just doing something wrong?

Bjor, at Clef de Peau, you can purchase the demos clicking the leftmost bottle at the bottom of the posters, which is labeled "DEMO".

[Echelon Alcott]

2 hours ago, BjorJlen said:

   * Mesh Body - I Currently bought 2 demo's from Signature (both Gianni & Geralt).
   * Mesh Head - I Currently bought 2 demo's from Signature (both Gianni & Geralt).

I'd recommend NOT purchasing Geralt. This body is not popular and there is not much clothing support for it on the market.

I'd also recommend you purchasing either a Catwa or Lelutka head, not the Signature mesh heads. Support for Catwa and Lelutka heads is much more widespread compared to the Signature ones.

[Echelon Alcott]

2 hours ago, BjorJlen said:

   Now as you can see from the list above, I have a lot of things to try out. However I do not have any Body Skins or Beard/Mushtash's as of yet. The reason why is because there are a ton of stores I think that have them. So if you would, could any of you (or all, or anyone) specifically suggest the "better" stores which I could go to and look threw what demo's they have please, like you did with the other items? I assume that might be a bit harder to do as from what I saw, there are far more body skins available then Body Meshes, but any advice and suggestions you could make would be most appreciated. But otherwise, do you think this is a good start? Anywho, now onto some thoughts and questions I have (I hope you don't mind). Please excuse me if any of them sound stupid to anyone, but I am very new at this, so yeah... I am a bit ignorant on such things in truth lol.

For best results, purchase a body skin at the same store where you purchase your head skin. When you wear a body skin, make sure that it is the same tone as your head skin; this will ensure that there will be minimal seam between the head and the body. Purely as an illustrative example, below are the Signature body skins at Clef de Peau, offered in the same tones as the head skins; they offer body skins for other mesh bodies as well. Not Found and Stray Dog also have body skins that match their head skins.

[Echelon Alcott]

2 hours ago, BjorJlen said:

   3) Do all Head Skins come with a HUD of some sort? And if so, can this HUD be minimized, or turned off so they don't clutter up my screen? HUD's in general are a completly new thing for me in SL, so I haven't much of a clue about them or their functionality.

Mesh bodies and mesh heads come with HUDs to configure them. They can be minimized or completely detached when not in use. The recommendation is to detach them, as they potentially cause lag when attached.

Body skins and head skins generally come with applier HUDs. Applier HUDs are used to apply the skin to the body part. Having said that, if you configure your mesh body parts to use BOM, the applier HUDs are NOT used; instead, you wear the skin like you used to in the past. When you wear the skin, they are baked onto the mesh body part.

[Echelon Alcott]

2 hours ago, BjorJlen said:

   4) Now onto Clothes; I was wondering quite a few things about them actually, so here goes...
      A) Will all and/or any clothes I buy work with the Body Mesh & Skin that I will eventually decide on?
      B) If not, to make them work, will I be limited to buying clothes from the same store/dealer that I bought my Body Mesh & Skin from? Because while not a clothes horse so to speak, I would and do like buying different clothes, so the more options available, the better. And yeah Marianne, your comments about clothes (especially boots, though I am not a big boot man per say), helped a lot in thinking about this.
      C) Now here might be a really stupid question, so you have been warned lol. When I do try out these Mesh's and Skins, do I erase/take off everything from my avatar, or do I just try them on without doing so? I ask cause back in the day there were no Meshes per say, and to try on things (especially clothes), all I would have to do would be to click on the item in question, and it would replace what I had on or was using on its own.

Not all/any clothes you buy will work with the mesh body that you eventually decide on. When you purchase mesh clothing, the vendor will indicate the mesh bodies the item of clothing has been rigged for. In the example image below, you can see that this item of clothing is compatible with Signature Gianni, Belleza (Jake) and Legacy (Athletic). When you purchase this particular item of clothing, three different versions will be delivered to you, and you wear the item of clothing created specifically for your mesh body. This is the reason people have been recommending you to purchase a mesh body that is widely used in SL; less popular mesh bodies have far limited clothing availability to them.

The skin does not impact if an item of clothing is wearable or not.

When you try the mesh body and head, I'd suggest for you to refer to the guides that were shared with you previously. There is a difference on how to use them if you decide on BOM or applier. 

Edited October 26, 2021 by Echelon Alcott

[Echelon Alcott]

3 hours ago, BjorJlen said:

Oh and yes Lillith, I do know that eyes & beard/mushtash's have to be purchased seperatly, but I apreciate you asking just the same.  

I'm not familiar with Catwa heads (someone else might be able to chime in here), but for Lelutka heads, there is a configurable beard included. If you do decide to go with Lelutka, you might want to check if the included beards satisfy your needs.

And Bjor, a final suggestion/recommendation, demo everything together first, before purchasing anything. As you put your avi together, you might learn new things and change your mind. So demo demo demo before committing and purchasing.

Edited October 26, 2021 by Echelon Alcott

[Marianne Little]

5 hours ago, BjorJlen said:

 
 
   2) @Marianne Little, I appreciated the link you showed about the Beard/Mushtash (https://marketplace.secondlife.com/p/Action-Inkubator-Beard-Gus-DEMO-BENTO-RIGGED/16040111), but I am not sure if you can get the demo's of it/them without also getting the heads; do you (or anyone) know?
   3) Do all Head Skins come with a HUD of some sort? And if so, can this HUD be minimized, or turned off so they don't clutter up my screen? HUD's in general are a completly new thing for me in SL, so I haven't much of a clue about them or their functionality. 

As Echelon said, the LeLutka head comes with a short cropped beard. This is materials, so it looks a little bit more real than a painted on beard that comes only on a layer.

You do not need another beard unless you will have a bigger, fuller, longer one and a mustache that really are 3D.

Yes, you can use the beard demo with the heads you demo. That beard has a lot of options, so you unpack what you need for that head.

You have seen that mesh heads have animations now, so you need a beard that is rigged for that head, it follow the mouth and chin motions. Unless you will turn off all animations for the head.

A little bit about BoM. When we first got mesh heads and bodies, we were hiding all of the default avatar with an alpha layer. We knew it was there, but we never saw it. The mesh body parts could only use appliers, that is like paint on the mesh. But since we are vain, we needed more than a skin, and so the onion layers were used for tattoos, underwear and clothes. The layers was a copy of the body a tiny bit bigger. Think of it like a Russian doll. This created problems in case you wanted more than one tattoo, you had to use both tattoo layer and underwear layer. And you were left with only one layer. The alpha channels could often clash (long technical story).

When we got BoM, we got much more flexibility. Instead of the mesh bodyparts blocking the default avatar, they act now as a canvas where the default layers are projected upon. These layer are baked to one that are easier to load for SL. It is no need for onion layers anymore.

This means that skin HUDs, tattoo HUDs and other HUDs became old technology. If you have read tutorials about applier skin et cetera, it is more a thing of the past and harder to work with since you are new to HUDs. Now you use the layers you are familiar with. Wear a skin and add layers upon it. You can have 62 layers on. If you have old tattoos on clothing layers, use them too. As soon as you have activated BoM on the body and head, they work as a refined body and head, with real toes, hands and nails, a better body and a head with animations instead of the old ones. Add and take off layers, just as you do now.

Were you here when we got tattoo layers many years ago? Then you know you have to use "add" instead of "wear" when you wear more layers.

 

[Marianne Little]

You can manage to get a very nice avatar without buying additional skins. Both Lelutka heads and Signature body comes with a nice set of default skins that play well together.

Pick up a demo of the Lelutka head you want. Since my alt has Alain, you will not see any demo markings in the image.

Get a demo of the Signature Gianni. Now you are ready. Add the Alain demo, it will attach to the screen and unpack itself. Same with Gianni.

From the Alain folder, add

/ EYES / lel Evo 3.1

HD BEARD / lel EvoX Alain (add) 3.1

/ HEAD / lel EvoX ALAIN 3.1

/ HUD / BEARD lel EvoX 3.1

/ HUD / lel EvoX (m) 3.1

/ TEETH / LeLUTKA 3.1

And tattoo layer:

- FACE - lel Evo Alain 003

I picked tone 003 because it is tan, and you wanted tan. It is one darker tone too.

Now your head will look very bare. No brows, no hair, no beard.

Open the two HUDs and start to add eyebrows and tint your beard. My alt will use a more redblond colored version.

Now start to unpack these boxes:

Unpack - HAIRBASES - LeLUTKA Classic BOM

Unpack - ADDONS - LeLUTKA Classic BOM (m)

and also Unpack - PIERCINGS - lel EvoX ALAIN if you want piercings. You will have to unpack the male (m) hairbases separately. Add the hairbase you want if you have a hair that need a hairbase. This hair does, a Stealthic hair. You can buy hairbases from Stealthic too, but personally I like the Lelutka hairbases better.

Wear the [Signature] Gianni Body - Body (SL Neck) - v5.0 and hands and feet

and the [Signature] Gianni Body - HUD - v5.0

If it isn't already set to BoM, activate it under the cogwheel button on the bottom of the HUD.

Unpack the [Signature] Gianni Body - Default Skins - [BOM] (box). Wear different skins until you find a close fit. Actually, many skins you buy has a slight difference in tone on body and face, so this is really a good match in my opinion.

Now you can detach all the HUDs and be done. Treat your new mesh body as your default body. Add and take off layers.

You can open a style HUD and save this loo, but as oldies we are tired of HUDs now, take a copy of the head and body as it is now and put it in a folder. Name it so you can easy find it again. Make sure you don't edit these parts if you want to experiment with different skins and beards.

 

Edited October 26, 2021 by Marianne Little
I wrote the WRONG name for the BOM Signature skins!

[Lillith Hapmouche]

Forget that you ever picked up a head demo at Signature. Trash that demo along with the Geralt body.

Do not look back.

[BjorJlen]

   Ok update time folks...

   After trying on Demo's of a ton of stuff, I finally made my decision and went out to buy the stuff I wanted & needed, and while I have yet to get everything (as I am still researching stuff), here is a picture of what my current NEW avatar looks like, as well as a listing of all the things he is wearing. Of course as none of the free clothes I have work with the body (they turn off the body, making it invisible for some reason), I'm gonna have to go shopping for some good clothes at some point as well. And yeah, I finally figured out how to turn on BoM's, and the body has it on atm even though the head doesn't. In addition, while I only have one mesh body so far, I have several skin (tones?), hair pieces, and beards/mustaches. Sadly while I do have many eye types and colors as well, none of them are violet (either bright or dark), nor do I know how to change the color of them as of yet. So here it is...

 

   So far I think he looks ok, but what do you all think? Any comments and/or advice would be appreciated as always of course. In either case, it's late so I think I'm gonna head to bed. Have a great night, and as always...

Peace...

[Marianne Little]

Nice and tan body.

You have not worn your Lelutka eyes, but you wear additional eyes, the Mystic ones.

So they should be visible - unless they are grey too? It can be that they sit too far in the head, so they have to be edited out. It's a pain to edit, urgh. This is why I prefer the included Lelutka eyes. They sit perfect. I am old in SL and has spent so much time editing, I am done with standing on a pose stand and editing.

Maybe you can take a close-up of the face. Ctrl + 0 zooms in. Ctrl + 8 zooms out. Ctrl + 9 reset camera to default.

Does the Mystic eyes have an eye symbol in the folder too? 👁️Or do they have another box named something with "Applier Lelutka"?

If they have the default eyes with an eye symbol, wear them, take off the two eyes you wear now and add the Lelutka eyes.

Click Bakes on mesh "Red arrow" to turn your eyes to BoM and show the Mystic eyes.

Where the yellow eyes point, is the default eye textures. If you liked one of them, you could click there. But it is no purple ones. This is turning off BoM and you need an alpha layer, see what I write next.

If the Mystic eyes folder have some box named applier, try to add and click it. If it is the correct applier, you will see the eyes turn purple, but they will also look "double". You need an eye alpha, it is one in the Lelutka head pack. It is probably more than one alpha, but try to add and take off until you find the one that hides only your grey eyes.

If you use BoM for eyes, they may sit too high, too low ot a bit too close to the nose, this is what you use the arrows to move the eyes. (See where my blue arrow points.)

And your shape is not ideal, it is the Signature shape. When you wear it, the head has a very narrow nose and will not look like the face on the poster for the Skyler head. Fix that by wearing the shape from the Skyler head folder. Now your face look like it should, but you may not like the body. It should be two shapes in SL, one for the head and one for the body. But it is not, so we have to do with pen and paper. Wear your Signature shape again. I assume you know how to edit your shape? Write down the important numbers, height, body width, muscle in torso and legs, et cetera.

Wear the Skyler shape from the Skyler folder, go into Edit Appearance and change the numbers for the body until you like it. We do it this way since it is much harder to edit the face than the body. Many small sliders that has to be right to match how it looks on the image on the poster.

It's a lot of work to look good, but the result will be worth it .

We can discuss your clothes problem later, it would be good with more information where it is bought, like the store name or link to the Marketplace. One of us may get a demo of the clothes and see what the problem is.

 

 

Edited October 27, 2021 by Marianne Little
bolded some parts

[Nick0678]

2 hours ago, BjorJlen said:

So far I think he looks ok, but what do you all think?

Tweak your shape sliders a bit (fix your avatar waist etc.)

 

[BjorJlen]

   Fyi, I had a seizure early this morning, so as I called into work today (as I'm not really feelin good) I think I might have some more time to work on my avatar. I'll have to see how I feel later, though I DO appreciate the reply's and help; the more the better for my addled mind lol (so keep em' coming lol)...

Peace (and health)...