Introducing Senra Avatars... what do you think?

[Ayashe Ninetails]

36 minutes ago, Jaylinbridges said:

About all that works with Blake are full body suits and outfits, which include a full body alpha layer.  Fitted Mesh that fits Blake without alpha layers?  Nope can't find anything yet.  BOM shirts work of course, and BOM shorts, if you like the skin tight look.  I have tried most of the popular men avatar rigged mesh with Blake, and tried to adjust the body shape to help the fit.  None work without alpha layers.  I have a collection of about 1000 alpha layers for my BOM Slink body.  Some I had to buy on the MP.  Most clothing that no longer include the alpha layers for their outfit are losing out now.  I don't think they care though.  Who's going to spend big bucks for an avatar designed to be a throwaway?

Yeah, that's just it. CZ Slim, Anatomy, and Kario are full-featured bodies with all the fixins, and even they struggle to gain traction in the overall mens market. They all kind of settled into their own special niches - at least for now.

Kario is doing better out of the three - seeing it a lot more often these days. CZ is doing well in the alternative and slim/slender fit markets and showing up in some fantasy fits as well. Anatomy gained some fast ground in the furry and non-binary communities. None of those bodies seem overly represented, though. You can't drop into ANY store and find things for one (for that, you'd need Jake, Gianni, and/or Legacy - and sometimes even one of those has already been dropped).

I feel like mens stores are just more picky with rigs. You don't get those mile-long fit lists that you'd see in some of the larger female stores where they've got like 9 different fits included. 🤣 The only exception to that might be TwoSided - massive shoutout there as I think they might have at least one outfit for every single body and/or mod on the dang grid at this point. But again, they're also pretty niche, soooo...

Yeah, male Senra...maybe if there's a really good incentive there to do it or if someone just getting started wants something to practice on.

Oh also, last issue - it's a lot harder to find freebie and group gift menswear. I know of a few places, but it's nowhere near as extensive as what we've got for women. A newbie would likely wind up spending some serious dough (unless they get lucky with weekend sales) and time trying to fit clothing designed for other bodies to their Senra, methinks.

Alpha shenanigans will be the way for a while.

Edited August 19, 2023 by Ayashe Ninetails
Added stuffs

[Marianne Little]

@Ayashe Ninetails Men have maybe 2-5% freebies as women have. That is the impression I get every time I try to make a budget avatar. Not that I need to, it is for fun, and to post on the forum.

And skins are made for the mesh heads that use EvoX. So it does not help, even when I locate a freebie. Not Found is free to join and has a nice skin (head only) and the L'Homme kiosk in Vendetta also had a skin for EvoX. I saw a skin in another store too.

Females can find skins for the free Genus head, so they manage well without buying a EvoX head.

[Ayashe Ninetails]

36 minutes ago, Marianne Little said:

@Ayashe Ninetails Men have maybe 2-5% freebies as women have. That is the impression I get every time I try to make a budget avatar. Not that I need to, it is for fun, and to post on the forum.

And skins are made for the mesh heads that use EvoX. So it does not help, even when I locate a freebie. Not Found is free to join and has a nice skin (head only) and the L'Homme kiosk in Vendetta also had a skin for EvoX. I saw a skin in another store too.

Females can find skins for the free Genus head, so they manage well without buying a EvoX head.

Budget male avatars (general - not Senra) are entirely possible if you shop during the weekend sales. You can usually find good clothing items at Mazzaro, Duk, Elementtare, Strunsh, Butterscotch, Erauqs, Muho, Rowers, Stop, Val'More, and others for 50-75L. Shoes, skins, hair/hairbases, tattoos, piercings, and jewelry also go on sale pretty much every weekend. 

Clothing for Senra is definitely a wait and see situation. Male SLUV skins might (big might) be coming soon (tm) due to Genus' new male heads releasing on...*checks date* August 30th. Big might because those heads are on their own brand new UV map, but will also support SLUV, so it depends on what skin creators decide to do with that. If Senra is anything like regular mesh heads, though, you should be able to toss a female SLUV head skin on it just fine. You can try experimenting with that.

[Marianne Little]

1 hour ago, Ayashe Ninetails said:

Budget male avatars (general - not Senra) are entirely possible if you shop during the weekend sales. You can usually find good clothing items at Mazzaro, Duk, Elementtare, Strunsh, Butterscotch, Erauqs, Muho, Rowers, Stop, Val'More, and others for 50-75L. Shoes, skins, hair/hairbases, tattoos, piercings, and jewelry also go on sale pretty much every weekend. 

Clothing for Senra is definitely a wait and see situation. Male SLUV skins might (big might) be coming soon (tm) due to Genus' new male heads releasing on...*checks date* August 30th. Big might because those heads are on their own brand new UV map, but will also support SLUV, so it depends on what skin creators decide to do with that. If Senra is anything like regular mesh heads, though, you should be able to toss a female SLUV head skin on it just fine. You can try experimenting with that.

I think "budget" was a wrong word. I should have said almost free. (0-10 L) I do not know if I can make a free male avatar attractive and up to date for that amount. I am sure I can do that with a female one.

"Attractive" can be different for people. The free Belleza skins that was mentioned a couple pages back, is very ugly to me. 

So Genus has said it is really new stuff on the way, not just rumours? Exiting!

 

[Ayashe Ninetails]

36 minutes ago, Marianne Little said:

I think "budget" was a wrong word. I should have said almost free. (0-10 L) I do not know if I can make a free male avatar attractive and up to date for that amount. I am sure I can do that with a female one.

"Attractive" can be different for people. The free Belleza skins that was mentioned a couple pages back, is very ugly to me. 

So Genus has said it is really new stuff on the way, not just rumours? Exiting!

 

0-10L is a massive challenge for a male avatar. Even female these days considering many groups are charging for entry now.

For male clothes, peek at ... I can't remember which store has it - Mazzaro or Elementtare. They're both in the same sim, either way. One of those stores has a big freebie section. Duk also has some items. 

Gabriel, too, and maybe something here or there at Gild. If you're creative with hair (I wear female hair), you can find that for free, as well. Shoes - Versov I think, and Jeys has a pair of dress shoes in their group gifts.

And yes, Genus has confirmed all of their release dates. They can be found in Discord or on Facebook.

Female heads (including the gift) are getting the new HD UV and animation updates along with the SL standard neck. Male heads are brand new. The store is closed until Sunday, when the updates will start rolling out.

[UnilWay SpiritWeaver]

They're much better than the old library avatars.

BUT the shoulders...

They serve a purpose for a new avatar to not look horrid on rezzing in, but they're still not high enough quality to keep. And I personally feel they need to be - to get people to see SL as something modern when they log in.

I'd be all for us having a near perfect well proportioned modable library body, and then get sellers to sell kits for it rather than or more often than their own competing bodies. We won't ever see that - but I do think that route would make SL look more attractive.

This one is OK - but just barely.

 

[Kasumi Starchild]

After seeing these avatars up close and personal for quite a while at the Welcome Hub, I have to say I'm coming around to them. They are a bit derpy looking but they have a weird charm to them?

[Stephanie Misfit]

29 minutes ago, Missy Starchild said:

After seeing these avatars up close and personal for quite a while at the Welcome Hub, I have to say I'm coming around to them. They are a bit derpy looking but they have a weird charm to them?

So you are seeing quite a few people using them then?

[AmeliaJ08]

Slightly off topic but figured it might have best visibility here: did anyone get a reply from LL for Senra SDK application? I filled it in after some reassurances in the old thread from Patch Linden and had intended to get into some experimentation but it has been a while now and no reply.

 

[Dafadilia Wayfarer]

I've been working on my Senra avi a bit more as of late. I've worked on the body and face shape. I found a new skin for her that was made for the Senra Jamie avi on the marketplace. Really such a huge improvement. It included eyes in the skin pack that were also so pretty. Also had to add some elf ears of course!

Edited to add that if anyone is interested in anything she has on, please just message me here on the forum, and I'm more than happy to share that information. I won't be listing it here.

Edited August 27, 2023 by Dafadilia Wayfarer

[Emma Krokus]

4 hours ago, Dafadilia Wayfarer said:

I've been working on my Senra avi a bit more as of late. I've worked on the body and face shape. I found a new skin for her that was made for the Senra Jamie avi on the marketplace. Really such a huge improvement. It included eyes in the skin pack that were also so pretty. Also had to add some elf ears of course!

Edited to add that if anyone is interested in anything she has on, please just message me here on the forum, and I'm more than happy to share that information. I won't be listing it here.

On both of my monitors this picture is really dark, so I can't make out details. Please would you upload one with more lighting?

I would love to see your work!

[CherryChantal]

Was experimenting with the new SL Starter Avatar SENRA JAMIE. Added another Skin, shape, Hair, green Eyes and Makeup … quite happy with the result 🙂

[Ceka Cianci]

Are the Dev kits out now? I haven't been keeping up on this lately..

[Stephanie Misfit]

On 8/21/2023 at 10:52 PM, AmeliaJ08 said:

Slightly off topic but figured it might have best visibility here: did anyone get a reply from LL for Senra SDK application? I filled it in after some reassurances in the old thread from Patch Linden and had intended to get into some experimentation but it has been a while now and no reply.

 

I applied on my alt, but have heard nothing back yet.

[Persephone Emerald]

There's an update just now from Patch.

7 minutes ago, Patch Linden said:

Hi all!

We wanted to drop a quick update as we’ve heard from some of you that have applied for the SDK and asking what the status is.

As of this moment, no SDKs have been distributed. Following the beta release of the Senra Blake and Jamie avatars, we have been hard at work making some adjustments to the bodies and heads. These adjustments are significant enough to also require adjustments to the SDK, and we have not wanted to start distributing the kit for what is, soon to be outdated content so quickly after launch. 

We anticipate the updated versions of the bodies and heads to be released within a few weeks. In the meantime, we still have all submitted applications saved on file, and new applicants are continued to be welcomed. When the dev kit is ready for distribution, we will release it in batches, beginning with our earliest applicants. 

Stay tuned for more information when we have it!

-Patch and the LDPW
 

 

[Zalificent Corvinus]

22 hours ago, Persephone Emerald said:

There's an update just now from Patch.

 

So.

Who's going to volunteer to run the Book, on "Will 'Sux-Ra 0.9.02 RC' be better or worse than 'Sux-Ra 0.9.01 RC'" and what odds are they giving?

Let the speculative betting begin!

 

[Ceka Cianci]

2 hours ago, Zalificent Corvinus said:

So.

Who's going to volunteer to run the Book, on "Will 'Sux-Ra 0.9.02 RC' be better or worse than 'Sux-Ra 0.9.01 RC'" and what odds are they giving?

Let the speculative betting begin!

 

I bet I won't even  be able to tell the difference, So Imma say, it's a tie!! \o/

hehehe

[janetheslot]

I think they are a good improvement over the previous starter avatars. The Blake avatar head/face is not great IMO, but the Jamie isn't too bad. Right they both seem limited for options with clothing. Perhaps that will change. I do applaud LL for investing in making the new user experience better. Hopefully it works as intended.

[rasterscan]

On 8/27/2023 at 1:09 PM, CherryChantal said:

Was experimenting with the new SL Starter Avatar SENRA JAMIE. Added another Skin, shape, Hair, green Eyes and Makeup … quite happy with the result 🙂

The bodies are great, the feet and hands are a bit clumsy but fine for a new starter, the heads are hard work but useable as your picture indicates. Good job !

Edited September 11, 2023 by rasterscan

[rasterscan]

oops

Edited September 11, 2023 by rasterscan

[AmeliaJ08]

On 9/7/2023 at 1:14 PM, Persephone Emerald said:

There's an update just now from Patch.

 

Yikes. How does an update work? like... all the noobies that joined and are using Senra, are they about to have to learn how to copy the updated version from the library and update any outfits they had made etc? (does official viewer have find/replace function? I've no clue)

Edited September 11, 2023 by AmeliaJ08

[Persephone Emerald]

45 minutes ago, AmeliaJ08 said:

Yikes. How does an update work? like... all the noobies that joined and are using Senra, are they about to have to learn how to copy the updated version from the library and update any outfits they had made etc? (does official viewer have find/replace function? I've no clue)

I don't know either. We'll have to find out when it happens.

[Randy Pole]

I'd not say that the Senra avatars are great but they are a great start.

The process of putting one on and then changing it is a bit too clunky but I understand why LL went that way instead of a HUD to amend the avatar - you can directly reference the objects in the library.

As with any mesh body it is all in the hands of the clothing and skin designers - if they do not support it then it will only be worn for as long as it takes a new resident time to save up for a replacement.

[Silent Mistwalker]

3 hours ago, AmeliaJ08 said:

Yikes. How does an update work? like... all the noobies that joined and are using Senra, are they about to have to learn how to copy the updated version from the library and update any outfits they had made etc? (does official viewer have find/replace function? I've no clue)

Like any other update. They should have already learned how to copy the folder to Inventory as it should be one of the first things they learn about their avatar. If LL left that step out, they need to add it.

[TheFlyingSaltire]

OK, I have a Maitreya body and Lelutka head, so I don't need a Senra avatar, but  wanted to try one out. I used one for three or four days and was glad to get rid of it. I found it clumsy to use and not particularly good looking. I also found it hard to get clothes to fit properly although if I had persisted, I may have got that to work.

Quite frankly, I think that the old system avatars look better, despite their limitations and, if I was trying to do SL for free, I would use one of them instead.