Upgrade to Catwa HDPro - From Lona head to Flona Head?

[Love Zhaoying]

I want to upgrade LoveXiaoying's Catwa head to HDPro.  Currently LoveX has a Catwa head, and I think that what I want is an HDPro head.

I am using the Lona head. Would the "Flona" head be the best (closest) replacement?

The reason I am looking into this is the greater facelight controls, etc. The current facelight causes a mask-like "always reflecting" on the skin, which I hope is lessened with the HDPro's variable facelight.

I believe that LoveX uses an Angel Rock Chikelu (Dark Chocolate 1.0) skin, hoping that works the same with the HDPro.   Maybe I am looking at this backwards, and should start with the Angel Rock products to see what new heads they support?

It took a long time to choose this look, with a lot of advice from Forumites. I want to keep the same "look" as closely as possible.

I am grateful for advice on this!

In case anyone asks: The reason I want to use the facelight is I want shiny skin.

(Let's not rehash why I want to be a beautiful black woman with shiny skin.)

Edited May 15, 2022 by Love Zhaoying
Forgot to attach photo

[Rowan Amore]

Does it have to be Catwa?  I switched from Lona to Lelutka Nuri initially.  It was a close match.  I then moved on to Briannon.  I, personally, don't use shine on my head or body aside from an occasional picture.  Many more stores are creating for dark skins as well.  You really have a lot more options for that with Lelutka.  Ives, Nonnative, Tres Beau, Leronso.  Many are also using the same body skins from Velour so it would be one body skin purchase with endless options for your head.

I was never much of a fan of Angle Rock.  When I started in SL it was about the only skin I could find created especially for POC.   I just found it to be too ashy for my taste.  I haven't looked to see what she has available recently.

[Ayashe Ninetails]

Upgrading from Lona to Flona wouldn't be too difficult, all things considered. Flona is what, HDPro's newest? It's really pretty, but I haven't personally demoed it. I wear the free Queen HDPro. I'm looking at Lona right now, and I do see some similarities with Flona (maybe you'd want to tweak the nose a bit). So you should definitely give it a demo!

The good news - upgrading from base Catwa to HDPro doesn't require much of anything at all. You'll be able to still use Catwa makeup appliers (even if they aren't HDPro), BOM is compatible between the two (you can also rock Genus and Evo classic if you really wanted to), and you'll have many skin options for darker tones, which is huge. Izzie's has a lip concealer that I use to properly fit my lipstick, if needed, since Catwa HDPro-specific lipstick is somewhat limited, but you can wear anything not EvoX and get it to work out with some fixes.

The biggest reasons to upgrade IMO are the animations and the HUD. I absolutely loathe Lel's anims and much prefer Catwa's, even though they're way more exaggerated. They're just hilarious to me and I can't give them up full-time (I have almost every anim in rotation on a cycle). The new HDPro anims are really expressive - slightly moreso than base (in the eyes, especially).

As for the HUD, the old Catwa HUD? It's an absolute nightmare and you can completely forget it ever exists. The new HDPro HUD is so much better, fully streamlined, easy to understand, and comes with quite a lot of options. The facelight is HUD-controlled - intensity, brightness, etc. I have mine off and never use it, but it's there for if/when you need it.

But the major, major benefit to staying with Catwa for me personally is the eyes. The HDPro allows you to apply two completely different eye textures to the left and right eye, which is something I do frequently and cannot accomplish with Lelutka as Lel only applies textures to both simultaneously. I have to resort to separate mesh eyes in that case. But Catwa's HUD allows for eye selection before using a third-party applier, which rocks in my specific case.

As for Angel Rock, I'm familiar with them, but I don't really like their skin tones at all. If you're dead set on them, try demoing some base Catwa skins and see if they work out. I'm not sure if they upgraded to HDPro. There are other skin stores that make great tones, too. I'm just really not into the Velour bodies whatsoever and do my best to avoid having to wear their body skins, so I'm a bit picky with my choices. The highlighting is so wrong to me. Right now, I'm currently in an older Velour face that works with an ItGirls body, thankfully.

So anyhoo, grab the demo, and grab skin demos. If you want to browse skin stores that do HDPro, one of the Catwa CSRs maintains a gallery here -  https://www.flickr.com/photos/mjbella/galleries/72157716173821608/

 

[Love Zhaoying]

43 minutes ago, Rowan Amore said:

Does it have to be Catwa? 

I want to stay with my current look and skin.

16 minutes ago, Ayashe Ninetails said:

The facelight is HUD-controlled - intensity, brightness, etc. I have mine off and never use it, but it's there for if/when you need it.

Here is the post that led me down this route (missing @Skell Dagger now!) with the facelight features:

https://community.secondlife.com/forums/topic/461213-catwa-hdpro/page/3/

16 minutes ago, Ayashe Ninetails said:

As for Angel Rock, I'm familiar with them, but I don't really like their skin tones at all. If you're dead set on them, try demoing some base Catwa skins and see if they work out. I'm not sure if they upgraded to HDPro.

I love my current skin, and want to keep it!

Edited May 15, 2022 by Love Zhaoying
Multi-quote and posting links is hard!

[Ayashe Ninetails]

1 minute ago, Love Zhaoying said:

I want to stay with my current look and skin.

Here is the post that led me down this route (missing @Skell Dagger now!) with the facelight features

 

demo and information:

 

I love my current skin, and want to keep it!

I'd totally recommend tossing on your Flona demo and trying it with your current skin, then. Check all the little problem areas - eye corners, eyelids, under the eyes, around the mouth, around the ears, etc. - if you see something that looks off, check Izzie's shop and see if she's got a corrector (chances are she will!). Then demo that on top of your demos until you're in demoception!!! If it looks good to you, play with the HUD, test the light, test the makeup, play with the features, etc. See how you feel after all that!

[Rowan Amore]

29 minutes ago, Ayashe Ninetails said:

Upgrading from Lona to Flona wouldn't be too difficult, all things considered. Flona is what, HDPro's newest? It's really pretty, but I haven't personally demoed it. I wear the free Queen HDPro. I'm looking at Lona right now, and I do see some similarities with Flona (maybe you'd want to tweak the nose a bit). So you should definitely give it a demo!

The good news - upgrading from base Catwa to HDPro doesn't require much of anything at all. You'll be able to still use Catwa makeup appliers (even if they aren't HDPro), BOM is compatible between the two (you can also rock Genus and Evo classic if you really wanted to), and you'll have many skin options for darker tones, which is huge. Izzie's has a lip concealer that I use to properly fit my lipstick, if needed, since Catwa HDPro-specific lipstick is somewhat limited, but you can wear anything not EvoX and get it to work out with some fixes.

The biggest reasons to upgrade IMO are the animations and the HUD. I absolutely loathe Lel's anims and much prefer Catwa's, even though they're way more exaggerated. They're just hilarious to me and I can't give them up full-time (I have almost every anim in rotation on a cycle). The new HDPro anims are really expressive - slightly moreso than base (in the eyes, especially).

As for the HUD, the old Catwa HUD? It's an absolute nightmare and you can completely forget it ever exists. The new HDPro HUD is so much better, fully streamlined, easy to understand, and comes with quite a lot of options. The facelight is HUD-controlled - intensity, brightness, etc. I have mine off and never use it, but it's there for if/when you need it.

But the major, major benefit to staying with Catwa for me personally is the eyes. The HDPro allows you to apply two completely different eye textures to the left and right eye, which is something I do frequently and cannot accomplish with Lelutka as Lel only applies textures to both simultaneously. I have to resort to separate mesh eyes in that case. But Catwa's HUD allows for eye selection before using a third-party applier, which rocks in my specific case.

As for Angel Rock, I'm familiar with them, but I don't really like their skin tones at all. If you're dead set on them, try demoing some base Catwa skins and see if they work out. I'm not sure if they upgraded to HDPro. There are other skin stores that make great tones, too. I'm just really not into the Velour bodies whatsoever and do my best to avoid having to wear their body skins, so I'm a bit picky with my choices. The highlighting is so wrong to me. Right now, I'm currently in an older Velour face that works with an ItGirls body, thankfully.

So anyhoo, grab the demo, and grab skin demos. If you want to browse skin stores that do HDPro, one of the Catwa CSRs maintains a gallery here -  https://www.flickr.com/photos/mjbella/galleries/72157716173821608/

 

Leronso has some nice looking skins in that gallery.  

 

[Ayashe Ninetails]

9 minutes ago, Rowan Amore said:

Leronso has some nice looking skins in that gallery.  

 

They dooooo! I also like Nuve and Tres Beau.

 

[Rowan Amore]

3 minutes ago, Ayashe Ninetails said:

They dooooo! I also like Nuve and Tres Beau.

 

My only issue with a lot of the new darker skins is the excess of highlighting.  I tried a few at the Skin Fair.  I almost bought one but the highlighting was weirdly asymmetrical.  That would be especially noticeable if the lighting in a pic is on the left while the highlighting on the skin is on the right.  

[Ayashe Ninetails]

3 minutes ago, Rowan Amore said:

My only issue with a lot of the new darker skins is the excess of highlighting.  I tried a few at the Skin Fair.  I almost bought one but the highlighting was weirdly asymmetrical.  That would be especially noticeable if the lighting in a pic is on the left while the highlighting on the skin is on the right.  

Oh absolutely. This is a constant problem. I've been so hesitant to give up my old Velour because of that. 

I wonder if Izzie's has a fix? I honestly haven't checked.

I find that old Velour and Pumec skins are pretty even.

[Jordyn McGregor]

They will have to pry my Lona head from my cold, dead pixels!!!!

[Love Zhaoying]

10 minutes ago, Jordan Whitt said:

They will have to pry my Lona head from my cold, dead pixels!!!!

I know! I'm only changing because of the facelight issue with my favorite skin. 

[Jordyn McGregor]

1 minute ago, Love Zhaoying said:

I know! I'm only changing because of the facelight issue with my favorite skin. 

Oh Love, Love, Love!  Facelights?  What year are you living in!!!  Facelights are so 2009!!!

[Ayashe Ninetails]

2 minutes ago, Love Zhaoying said:

I know! I'm only changing because of the facelight issue with my favorite skin. 

Facelights are terrible outside of photography. So there. That said, you won't regret upgrading. That new HUD ❤️

Also, other people can edit your face, if you're truly not wanting to bother with it. You'll also get a HUD-based shaping tool that works separately from the normal Appearance sliders, too!

[Rowan Amore]

51 minutes ago, Ayashe Ninetails said:

Oh absolutely. This is a constant problem. I've been so hesitant to give up my old Velour because of that. 

I wonder if Izzie's has a fix? I honestly haven't checked.

I find that old Velour and Pumec skins are pretty even.

I tried a fix from Izzie's but it goes too much in the opposite direction leaving no highlights at all.  

[Lysistrata Szapira]

7 hours ago, Ayashe Ninetails said:

 

But the major, major benefit to staying with Catwa for me personally is the eyes. The HDPro allows you to apply two completely different eye textures to the left and right eye, which is something I do frequently and cannot accomplish with Lelutka as Lel only applies textures to both simultaneously. I have to resort to separate mesh eyes in that case. But Catwa's HUD allows for eye selection before using a third-party applier, which rocks in my specific case.

 

 

This is not true. I have several eye applier HUDs for EvoX that allow me to choose a color for left, right, and both eyes. The Lelutka HUD itself also offers that ability, so it looks like you haven't checked out the 3.1 versions of the EvoX heads. 

[Lysistrata Szapira]

6 hours ago, Love Zhaoying said:

I know! I'm only changing because of the facelight issue with my favorite skin. 

Please don't use facelights when you're out at a club or shopping. There's nothing I hate worse than being out in SL public and having my SL screen blown out by someone wearing a facelight so bright it's blinding.  I usually have to derender people who do that. 

[Ayashe Ninetails]

34 minutes ago, Lysistrata Szapira said:

This is not true. I have several eye applier HUDs for EvoX that allow me to choose a color for left, right, and both eyes. The Lelutka HUD itself also offers that ability, so it looks like you haven't checked out the 3.1 versions of the EvoX heads. 

All of my heads are 3.1.

Do you have a photo of that working? I've never been able to get that to work with two different eye applier HUDs from two different stores (for example, in the photo below, Madame Noir on my right, Vain on my left). I wound up using mesh eyes to get this effect with Lilly. 

 

Edit: I just checked the Lelutka Discord channel and this question has come up a few times. The answer given was "The applier needs to be made to be able to apply textures to individual eyes." It's possible my appliers are set up differently, but I haven't had any trouble getting them to work with my Catwas, so I'm not sure.

Edited May 15, 2022 by Ayashe Ninetails

[Rowan Amore]

2 hours ago, Ayashe Ninetails said:

All of my heads are 3.1.

Do you have a photo of that working? I've never been able to get that to work with two different eye applier HUDs from two different stores (for example, in the photo below, Madame Noir on my right, Vain on my left). I wound up using mesh eyes to get this effect with Lilly. 

 

Edit: I just checked the Lelutka Discord channel and this question has come up a few times. The answer given was "The applier needs to be made to be able to apply textures to individual eyes." It's possible my appliers are set up differently, but I haven't had any trouble getting them to work with my Catwas, so I'm not sure.

Not all stores allow different colors for left or right .  I know I have a few but they're older.  I'm not logged in or I'd tell you which stores.  Can't say that I've tried them on the Lelutka eyes, though.

[PermaRuthed]

9 hours ago, Jordan Whitt said:

Oh Love, Love, Love!  Facelights?  What year are you living in!!!  Facelights are so 2009!!!

They should be left there along with velvet tracksuits.

[Ayashe Ninetails]

1 minute ago, Rowan Amore said:

Not all stores allow different colors for left or right .  I know I have a few but they're older.  I'm not logged in or I'd tell you which stores.  Can't say that I've tried them on the Lelutka eyes, though.

I dug through their Discord a bit more and found someone who asked this question and got a response that mayyyyybe explains it?

Q: Is it possible to create an eye applier that only applies to one eye? It seems in order to have different colour eyes, you must specify an uuid for each eye

A: For a Lelutka script applier you have to set a texture for each or both eyes. You can do one eye only for an Omega applier, though. After you set up the Omega HUD you can then click on a color and a menu pops up asking if you want to applier to left, right or both.

I know for sure I'm not using Omegas, so maybe that's why I'm having trouble mixing/matching from different stores. It overrides the first eye's selection once I put on the new HUD and choose a new texture for the second eye. But for some reason, I can do it fine on Catwa, so maybe it's just something in the way their appliers are set up. I have no idea. Luckily it's not too big a deal as most of the stores I favor do include mesh eyes, but it's kind of nice not having to reposition things all the time, so I just stick with the Catwa as much as possible if I need a split look like that.

[Rowan Amore]

16 hours ago, Ayashe Ninetails said:

I dug through their Discord a bit more and found someone who asked this question and got a response that mayyyyybe explains it?

Q: Is it possible to create an eye applier that only applies to one eye? It seems in order to have different colour eyes, you must specify an uuid for each eye

A: For a Lelutka script applier you have to set a texture for each or both eyes. You can do one eye only for an Omega applier, though. After you set up the Omega HUD you can then click on a color and a menu pops up asking if you want to applier to left, right or both.

I know for sure I'm not using Omegas, so maybe that's why I'm having trouble mixing/matching from different stores. It overrides the first eye's selection once I put on the new HUD and choose a new texture for the second eye. But for some reason, I can do it fine on Catwa, so maybe it's just something in the way their appliers are set up. I have no idea. Luckily it's not too big a deal as most of the stores I favor do include mesh eyes, but it's kind of nice not having to reposition things all the time, so I just stick with the Catwa as much as possible if I need a split look like that.

So I finally remembered to check my eyes today.  This set is from Avi Glam called Tender Eyes.  It has a Lelutka applier and an option for L or R eye color.

[Love Zhaoying]

On 5/15/2022 at 11:11 AM, Jordan Whitt said:

Oh Love, Love, Love!  Facelights?  What year are you living in!!!  Facelights are so 2009!!!

To be specific: I need my skin to be SHINY for this avatar.  Shiny, black beautiful skin.  If that is possible without the lights, let me know.

[Love Zhaoying]

16 hours ago, PermaRuthed said:

They should be left there along with velvet tracksuits.

I have a RL collection of vintage velvet tracksuits. Keep digging!

[Ayashe Ninetails]

19 minutes ago, Rowan Amore said:

So I finally remembered to check my eyes today.  This set is from Avi Glam called Tender Eyes.  It has a Lelutka applier and an option for L or R eye color.

Ahhhh, I do seem to remember some HUDs come with Left & Right options built in. That's handy! The majority of mine don't have that, though, and I'm mixing and matching from two different stores on top of it, so it gets a bit finicky.

 

Here's what I was trying to accomplish.

This is my Catwa HDPro with her base Catwa eyes that are built-in to the head. No separate mesh eyes at all. To accomplish this look, I do need my Catwa HUD open in addition (not shown now because lol what is screen space), and select the right eye button, click on one of the Madame Noirs, and then swap to the left eye in the Catwa HUD, and then apply the one of the Pumec options. So far, I've found I can do this same type of mix/match with any two brands I've got in my inventory (Gloom, AviGlam, Yoshi, Vain, etc.). Works perfectly.

 

Now, when I try to replicate that same process with Lel, the right eye texture just overwrites when I select the left and I wind up with two white eyes. 

 

However, I *can* get a split eye effect when using the Lelutka HUD as one of the options, but *only* after first applying the white (which applies to both, despite only left being selected):

[Love Zhaoying]

Shades of "Lisa Left Eye Lopes"!