MESH HEAD/BODY SEAM HELP :')

[entxei]

hi everyone, i'm relatively new to mesh body/head stuff since comin back to SL after a loooong hiatus.

i have the Rebirth Kyra head (it's a freebie one) and most recent up to date Maitreya Lara body ( v5.3 ). my head skin and body skin are matching; both from Boataom and meant to match perfectly. i've noticed from the back, it's a perfect match; it's just that front part of the neck.

no matter what I do, I have this grey shadow? or line at the neck seam. but i've noticed it depends on the lighting; in the photos in some lighting, it's extremely obvious and in others, it's just barely barely there. i've also noticed (in photo 1) it could depend on the angle of the lighting too. 

i have tried demos of heads from the main popular brands i can think of like Letluka and Catwa, in the same place as the lighting in the photos attached, to rule out whether its the Rebirth head. but to be honest, i really like my avatar's face shape and don't really want to change it, nor do i want to spend a lot of money on a new head.

i have also tried removing all of the gloss and turning off materials in both the head and body, this did not change it either.

is it just my graphics settings causing this? i haven't figured out how to use windlight yet (i use firestorm). i use sun and moon shadows, and high graphics.

i've tried demo-ing endless amounts of skins and different mesh heads and i'm kind of running out of ways to know how to fix this since i don't have a lot of knowledge about mesh. if anyone could give some advice it would be much appreciated :')

 

also pictured is all of the skins/alphas my avi is wearing. photo is attached as a link (flickr)

 

PHOTO HERE

 

 

 

[Dorientje Woller]

a. Fiddle a bit with the necksizes in the hud of the Maitreya body: Skin/Base Tab -> Neck Size Type 1 or Type 2

b. Windlight settings or envirronment settings to CAWL or Nam's Optimal Skin & Prims

c. if using skin with 2 layers (body & head separated), always apply the body skin first, then the head layer. While most body layers are cut off at the neck, the head layers mostly covers the neck fully, some even covering the shoulders or chest.

[Ceka Cianci]

 

ETA: I pulled the top part of my post because  I was on my phone and have a hard time reading from such a small screen.. hehehe

I'm off my phone now , so I can see your whole post much better and see you tried the materials layers..

I see you are wearing a face light.. Did you try removing that to see if that helped at all.. they can cause all kinds of things like neck lines showing up and shadows and so on.. that dark shadow  on the lower part of neck seam could be from a face light.

Edited June 9, 2023 by Ceka Cianci

[Rowan Amore]

If the head and body skin are the same shade, take off the neck blend.  That's normally worn when matching either head or body to another brand of skin.  If both are from Boataom. it  shouldn't be needed at all.

 

[entxei]

hi everyone. thank you for the advice and suggestions so far.

following everyone's comments, i've remove the facelight, removed the neck blend and tried all of the neck sizes in the Maitreya hud. i also tried re-ordering the layers to be body first, then head.

- the only thing that makes it look better is the Nams optimal windlight settings, but i'd rather have it look fixed to everyone rather than just with my personal lighting. 

i cant see many other people's necklines in my usual settings so this is really frustrating me  none of the usual fixes seem to help

[Alwin Alcott]

2 hours ago, entxei said:

but i'd rather have it look fixed to everyone rather than just with my personal lighting. 

this is impossible, as everybody has their own settings on lightning.
You can ónly make your own viewer to let you look like you want.

[Katherine Heartsong]

Per @Dorientje Woller's first point, I have always found that one of the four neck size adjustments in the Maitreya HUD has always completely eliminated any neck seam (assuming matching head/body skins) in 99% of all cases.

[entxei]

6 hours ago, Alwin Alcott said:

this is impossible, as everybody has their own settings on lightning.
You can ónly make your own viewer to let you look like you want.

yeah, i know - i meant that given all my friend's neckseams look fine on my standard shared environment settings, it's clearly a problem with mine rather than the lighting.

i found nam's optimal lighting presets make it look amaaazing, but i'm trying to fix it so it looks normal on the basic shared environment settings/lighting if tht makes sense.

[entxei]

15 minutes ago, Katherine Heartsong said:

Per @Dorientje Woller's first point, I have always found that one of the four neck size adjustments in the Maitreya HUD has always completely eliminated any neck seam (assuming matching head/body skins) in 99% of all cases.

unfortunately i tried all four options; the first two changed nothing and the last two made it worse :')

[Claireschen Hesten]

17 minutes ago, Katherine Heartsong said:

Per @Dorientje Woller's first point, I have always found that one of the four neck size adjustments in the Maitreya HUD has always completely eliminated any neck seam (assuming matching head/body skins) in 99% of all cases.

1 minute ago, entxei said:

unfortunately i tried all four options; the first two changed nothing and the last two made it worse :')

The version of the body you are wearing might make a difference. Yesterday I had one of those rare occasions where detaching one thing ended up taking everything else off with it. Not looking at which V5 I was putting on wound up adding the V5.1 of Maitreya, had an obvious neck seam which the hud couldn't fix when I noticed I put the wrong body on I went back to the latest V5.3 and the seam disappeared 

[Ceka Cianci]

I went and got the demos for the head skin the body skin and the neck blend to try and recreate the same thing..

Really the only time I see it happening with me is in really intense sunlight..

I decided to see if I could make the same thing happen with my Lelutka Lilly in the same lighting with the same skin setup..

There is a fainter  line sort of with the Lelutka head as well, but it's just not as predominant as with the rebirth head..

I think this is just one of those things that come with wearing mesh.. Even in the closest conditions with the right mixture of tone and light, some things will stand out..

I use darker tones myself so  things like this might not show up as much, where with darker tones  we see lines more when it comes to material layers and such, where with the lighter tones, their lines will stand out more when there are shadows around the lines..

 

Even with the neck blend on or off, it really didn't change anything.. I think in this situation, the intensity of light is gonna play the factor..

That's my opinion anyways.. That won't get you a cup of coffee anywhere these days..

[Rowan Amore]

Are you by any chance wearing a hidden collar?  

[Ceka Cianci]

 I think what it is,is the pinch point where the head and body meet.. just like anything on the body that stands out in  intense light.. it's gonna highlight that line..

This is the pinch point on the Lelutka Lilly.. The pinch point on rebirth is a little more pinched, so it stands out a bit more..

I put arrows where you can see on the side of the neck, it drawing more of the shadow into the pinch.. as well as an arrou showing  how much of a pinch there is in the front even on the lelutka head..

 

 

[entxei]

2 hours ago, Ceka Cianci said:

 I think what it is,is the pinch point where the head and body meet.. just like anything on the body that stands out in  intense light.. it's gonna highlight that line..

This is the pinch point on the Lelutka Lilly.. The pinch point on rebirth is a little more pinched, so it stands out a bit more..

I put arrows where you can see on the side of the neck, it drawing more of the shadow into the pinch.. as well as an arrou showing  how much of a pinch there is in the front even on the lelutka head..

 

 

wow, i really appreciate how much effort you went to research/experiment even with my head/body/skin setup, thank you so so much for that.

if it is what it is, it is what it is - i was just worried i'd messed something up somewhere and couldn't get my mesh to look like the others around me hahaha.

i really appreciate your opinion and advice, thank you!

[Ceka Cianci]

2 hours ago, entxei said:

wow, i really appreciate how much effort you went to research/experiment even with my head/body/skin setup, thank you so so much for that.

if it is what it is, it is what it is - i was just worried i'd messed something up somewhere and couldn't get my mesh to look like the others around me hahaha.

i really appreciate your opinion and advice, thank you!

You're very welcome