From System Avatar to Mesh Avatar

[Cheryl Cristole]

Having just returned to Second Life after a twelve year absence I am looking for some help building a new avatar. In a nut shell, how do you do that and where do you begin? My old system avatar is well beyond obsolete and it feels like the learning curve for a newbie has increased by a factor of ten from the first time I went through it. Mesh bodies seem to be the norm and the sheer number of choices is mind boggling. Looking for creation guides and tutorials on youtube is also quite the challenge. Of the ones that I have watched all seem to start with a mesh avatar as the default and are merely doing further customization from one mesh look to another which is far, far away from where I and other newbs are beginning from. Does anyone know of any resources available that can give people a step by step approach, as if you just stepped onto newbie island? Many thanks in advance for pointing me in the right direction.

[Rowan Amore]

Try Second Life University videos.  They have one for the most used body, Maitreya and the most used head, Lelutka.  They have videos for other mesh heads and bodies, as well.  Demo everything!

 

[Katherine Heartsong]

In addition, many of us would be happy to step you through the basics in world, say hi anytime

Edited October 20, 2023 by Katherine Heartsong

[Chic Aeon]

Since we have NEW "system avatars" which are mesh  -- and apparently getting updated very soon as they are sending out kits for clothing making to creators.  I suggest working with those first before jumping into the fray. It will give you a good background (for free).  It is a very deep rabbit hole and small steps are a good way to go.   Watch for official announcements (hopefully) about the updated version of Senra.

 

Here is my post from when the first (semi-beta) version came out.   https://chicatphilsplace.blogspot.com/2023/08/updating-your-ll-senra-avatar-for-free.html

[Persephone Emerald]

I agree with Chic. Start with the Senra Jamie mesh avatar in the Library of your Inventory. Find the folder labeled Jamie. Copy and Paste it into your Body folder. It has skin, shapes, hair, and mesh clothes. You can also get more colors of those clothes free at the Welcome Hub.

Get comfortable using Jamie. Try your existing skins, shapes, hair and clothes with that mesh body. Copy and modify different shapes with it. Once you get used to that, try some other free and Demo mesh bodies and heads.

Maitreya Lara is the most commonly used female mesh body, so it has the most skin and mesh clothing made for it. The LucyBody Atenea is basically free, and it works with Maitreya skin and mesh clothes, so I recommend getting that one before buying a mesh body. 

The most popular mesh heads are from the Lelutka EvoX line, but several other creators make EvoX compatible heads. The EvoX heads use a different UV map than the standard avatars do though, so these might be confusing for you right now. Genus has a free mesh head that uses the standard UV map, so get that one first before buying an EvoX head. *

You'll see many references to BOM or Bakes On Mesh. This is a system that lets mesh bodies and heads use system skin, tattoos and clothing, so it's basically the same as what you're used to using. For a few years mesh bodies and heads had to use applier HUDs to change the textures on them, but appliers aren't used much now except for makeup, mesh hair and mesh clothing. (These are just called HUDs though.)

* I almost forgot this part. When you use a mesh head, you'll need to use a shape made for that line of heads. Otherwise your head may look very weird. Mesh heads generally come with a shape, so use that one or another made for those heads, then modify your shape a little bit at a time, until you like how it looks. When you have a favorite body shape, write down your slider numbers for it on a notecard, so you can copy that shape to any other shape you may want to modify.

Edited October 20, 2023 by Persephone Emerald
To add info

[Marianne Little]

The Senra avatar will give you a lot of hard work trying to find other content than the included ones. It is almost not exsisting.

What is your budget?

If it is low, yes, use Senra Jamie until Black Friday. It is just a month+ and I am sure the popular bodies, skins, hairs and heads will have a sale. You can manage with the Library stuff for Senra Jamie.

If you are like me and prefer to read tutorials (I do not like videos) the male blogger Skell Dagger has some of the best ones. https://virtualbloke.com/tutorials

I suggest you start with this, it is a long read. But it cover the questions you have. https://virtualbloke.com/archives/3711

Then read all the "Bakes On Mesh" tutorials.

The terminology and glossary is the same. The tutorials are a bit old, so "What is Omega?" is not worth reading.

When you have done your reading, pick up demos and follow Skells instructions. They work the same as the full priced heads and bodies.

Skin/makeup stores that sell things "Omega" is outdated, unless there is BOM in the packs too. Look for BOM or Bakes on Mesh in the ads. The main head store that rules Second Life now is Lelutka. Look for head skin and makeup ads marked with with Lelutka EvoX or just EvoX.

The female bodies is mainly Maitreya for the slimmer look and Reborn for curves. Legacy Female is also actual, but it has some issues, mainly that it has high complexity and a more difficult HUD. It is also more bodies, of course.

We have been spoiled with free Lelutka heads for Christmas three years, or is it four? We can not expect this generosity to continue evey year. The free heads mean that all avatars who is at least 1 years old have a Lelutka head, so all the brands make content for Lelutka. Last Christnas we got not only the heads, but a lot of other stores participated to give away gifts, several skins, eyes, jewelry.... We can not take it for granted, we are lucky that the creators are generous.

[UnilWay SpiritWeaver]

Don't pick Maitreya because it's the most popular.

Pick Maitreya because you like it most.

There are several brands now that are doing well enough to have solid support among current brands: Maitreya, Legacy, and eBody reBorn. Runner up to Belleza Gen.X for "almost" having made it but still not popular enough to be widely supported.

Demo all 4 of these - and if the one you like is Gen.X, look around in shops and see if they support it - some big brands do, some don't, likewise small brands.

 

Do the same for heads. Lelutka may be the top brand, but Catwa and Genus are still doing well. Also, unlike bodies you almost never need to worry about "will this shoe fit my ear?" (unless you're into that sort of thing). So you can go way offbrand here if you like something. Just be sure it's Bento and fits the "standard SL neck seam" (if it has no neck seam on a system avatar, it will work for the necks of the 4 mesh bodies above, but maybe NOT for some older mesh bodies.

The big divide for Mesh Heads is "does my choice of skin work on this". Many newer heads are adopting Lelutka's new evoX UV map. Others use their own map that is always "just slightly off" from the default SL body and other brands such that your lips or nostrils will be 1-pixal ----> that way. Nobody but you will notice it, but it is the ONLY thing you will ever see when you look at your avatar. So... get a skin made specifically for that head or prepare for OCD hell.

 

[Persephone Emerald]

Here's the official Starter Avatar video from Linden Lab. The info for those who already have an account starts around 4 minutes in.

 

Edited October 21, 2023 by Persephone Emerald

[Conifer Dada]

I still use a system avatar and a skin I made myself. I tried this skin on the Senra Jamie and although it's BOM (bakes on mesh) it doesn't fit well. Most of the body is OK, except the painted-on detail of the hands and feet doesn't fit the mesh fingers and toes (which I expected). With the head, my skin detail is way off, with eyebrows half way up the forehead on the Jamie and the lips looking like a clown - even after adjusting the shapes as much as possible!

[Marianne Little]

1 hour ago, Conifer Dada said:

I still use a system avatar and a skin I made myself. I tried this skin on the Senra Jamie and although it's BOM (bakes on mesh) it doesn't fit well. Most of the body is OK, except the painted-on detail of the hands and feet doesn't fit the mesh fingers and toes (which I expected). With the head, my skin detail is way off, with eyebrows half way up the forehead on the Jamie and the lips looking like a clown - even after adjusting the shapes as much as possible!

I have seen one new skin made for Jamie, it is Jean from Alaskametro. And it looks good, if that is the look a female avatar is aiming for. But that's about it, no darker skin, asian skin etc.

Alaskametro also has a shape with stylecard, so Jamie can be styled from bleh to yes.

https://marketplace.secondlife.com/p/alaskametro3-Jean-shape-NUX-avatar-Senra-Jamie/25098260

But if Jamie is going to be used only while waiting to buy another avatar, it is a waste of money to outfit her. Not that the skin is expensive in any way.

We still have no idea about the budget the OP has. So I will stop suggesting more, until I know if the budget is 50 L, 10 000 L or higher.

Edited October 21, 2023 by Marianne Little

[Persephone Emerald]

@Marianne Little,

You accidentally linked the to shape for Jamie at alaskamento. Here's the skin, which is $L 50 and looks lovely.

https://marketplace.secondlife.com/p/alaskametro3-Jean-skin-NUX-Senra-JamieSLUV-Tone-3-Bakes-on-meshBOM/25098179

The OP may not want to spend any time or money on trying to make the Jamie avatar look good, as you said. It's hard to direct our responses better without feedback.

[Jennifer Boyle]

I agree with Marianne. If your budget permits, skip Senra and start with the avatar that you'll eventually want. That way, you won't put in effort to learn Senra that will eventually be wasted. Unless there is a Senra II that is much nicer than Jamie, I cannot imagine being satisfied with Senra for long.

I wear a Maitreya Lara body exclusively. I like the way it looks, the feature set is excellent, and the HUD is well-designed. Since it is the most popular female body, there are plenty of nice clothes available for it. I would wear a Lelutka EvoX head except that I have not yet managed to make the face of one look enough like my face. Matching an existing face should not be an issue for you. In the past, Lelutka has held holiday events during which heads were given away free to all who wanted them, so you can probably save some money by waiting a few weeks for that.

In your place, I wouldn't spend time on Senra or on trying a lot of demo bodies and heads. I would be thinking that the ones that are most popular are popular for a reason, and absent some preference for a body shape that doesn't work well with Maitreya, I would get a Maitreya body and keep my system head while I waited for whatever holiday special Lelutka has. (The improvement in appearance of mesh heads over system heads is much smaller than the improvement of mesh bodies over system bodies. I have friends who are pretty who still have system heads. This is because the system head has much finer detail than the system body.)

[Marianne Little]

5 hours ago, Persephone Emerald said:

@Marianne Little,

You accidentally linked the to shape for Jamie at alaskamento. Here's the skin, which is $L 50 and looks lovely.

https://marketplace.secondlife.com/p/alaskametro3-Jean-skin-NUX-Senra-JamieSLUV-Tone-3-Bakes-on-meshBOM/25098179

The OP may not want to spend any time or money on trying to make the Jamie avatar look good, as you said. It's hard to direct our responses better without feedback.

Thanks!

I have to say a thing more:

Even if I always talk about Maitreya and Lelutka, it is many more options. If one want a curvy shape, Maitreya might not be ideal. Demo demo demo. Ask questions. The forum is here for that. Unless the budget is very big, it is expensive to buy another body because you regret buying the first one. Same with heads.

 

[Conifer Dada]

On 10/21/2023 at 4:09 PM, Persephone Emerald said:

@Marianne Little,

You accidentally linked the to shape for Jamie at alaskamento. Here's the skin, which is $L 50 and looks lovely.

https://marketplace.secondlife.com/p/alaskametro3-Jean-skin-NUX-Senra-JamieSLUV-Tone-3-Bakes-on-meshBOM/25098179

The OP may not want to spend any time or money on trying to make the Jamie avatar look good, as you said. It's hard to direct our responses better without feedback.

That looks good, although quite different from my look. It shows what can be done with Senra. That's a face-on view but the profile probably still has the duck-beak lips!

Edited October 23, 2023 by Conifer Dada

[Devilgrey]

if anything fabulously free has a freebie mesh body & head section that you can look at. https://fabfree.wordpress.com/the-fabfree-mesh-body-and-head-listing/

some of the freebie bodies work with rigged clothes for the popular mesh bodies. lucy body is another cheaper alternative that can also wear clothes from other popular bodies (i think it was Maitreya clothes, and slink shoes). lucybody even has a mesh head now too.

personally i still use a freebie head by the black sheep on one of my avatars just bc i like it. and i haven't been able to find a lel or other more expensive head that looks similar enough when i've tried demos of curiosity.

when it comes to mesh, i kinda feel like you should stick with what works for you. No need to feel pressured into buying expensive mesh that's popular if thats not what you want. especially for bento mesh heads, there's so many out there. try demos and mess with shapes/skins until you find something you like. I'd pass on any mesh body or head that has no demo tho, unless it's like only L$1.