A few questions after returning to play for an extended period of time

[Penelope Parfort]

Me siento como una newbie, como si fuera la primera vez que llegué a SL hace algunos años en aproximadamente el 2006 creo. / I feel like a newbie, as if it was the first time I came to SL some years ago in about 2006 I think.

Me gustaría solicitar ayuda con consejos sobre cómo mejorar el aspecto de mi personaje. / I would like to ask for help with advice on how to improve my character's appearance.

Desde que dejé el juego hace algunos años las cosas han cambiado mucho. Veo que han agregado cambios sobre todo a la apariencia y a los mesh. Cuando me fui era cuando recién se estaban publicando las primeras cabezas y ropas de ese tipo en The Shops, pero ahora veo que hay mucha variedad, no solo de cabezas sino también de cuerpos. / Since I left the game a few years ago, things have changed a lot. I see that they have added changes especially to the appearance and the mesh. When I left it was when they were just releasing the first heads and clothes like that in The Shops, but now I see that there is a lot of variety, not only to the head but also to the body.

Lo que quiero saber básicamente es, donde puedo ir para conseguir cabezas estilo mesh y cuerpos, cuáles son los más utilizados y también saber si al comprar un skin, ¿el skin solo serviría para el cuerpo o también para el rostro?, y en el caso de ser distintos cómo hago para reconocerlos. / What I basically want to know is, where can I go to get mesh style heads and bodies, which ones are the most used and also if I buy a skin, would the skin only work for the body or also for the face, and if they are different, how do I recognise them? / He tratado de buscar información al respecto en otros lados, pero parece estar muy dispersa y no entiendo. / I have tried to look for information about it elsewhere, but it seems to be very scattered and I don't understand. / Con respecto al rostro, otra duda es, si veo una imagen del rostro, pero no me guste todo de ella ¿podría cambiar por ejemplo el tamaño de la nariz, o de los ojos, etc? quiero saber si es posible. O si al comprar un rostro quiere decir que será tal cual la imagen. / Regarding the face, another question is, if I see an image of a face, but I don't like everything about it, could I change for example the size of the nose, or the size of the eyes, etc.? I want to know if it is possible. Or if buying a face means that it will be just like the image.

La otra pregunta que tengo es donde puedo ir para cambiar a mi personaje que sea privado, cosa de que si quisiera cambiar su aspecto físico otras personas no me estén viendo. / The other question I have is where can I go to change my character that is private, so that if I want to change her physical appearance other people cannot see me.

Edited November 9, 2023 by Penelope Parfort

[Cinnamon Mistwood]

This is a great time to be updating your avatar if you have a couple weeks to wait.  Black Friday sales will be starting soon.  Hopefully a free head will be available like other years.  There is a new version of a popular mesh body coming out... soon.

Do a quick scan down this avatar section of the forums.  Several people are in the same position you are with just starting out or starting over.  Watch tutorials to get a good start.

As far as privacy for Changing,  I am not sure.  When I was a noobie, I unpacked boxes in sandboxes and changed in the middle of the ocean where no one else was.

Edited November 9, 2023 by Cinnamon Mistwood

[Nalates Urriah]

Since 2006 there have been a lot of changes. In 2006, a morphing process changed the avatar's shape... face and body. Sometime in about 2014 that changed and an extended skeleton was added with vertex scaling used in place of the morphing tech. The classic system avatar still uses morphing to change shape. Since both techs are built into the avatar now. So there are two skeletons tightly linked. The result is we can move fingers and facial expressions along with four legs, a tail, a *****, and wings.

The head and body are replaced by mesh-prims. These are prims that use an uploaded list of vertexes uploaded by residents/designers. We just call these MESH. There are numerous designers. There are some blogs where an effort is made to figure out which designers' bodies are most popular. However accurate they are or aren't I think they are reasonably accurate. Maitreya is probably the most popular body. I doubt there is a "most popular" head. The reason that is so is heads are more of a stand-alone item. So it is more of a 'do I like the face' thing. With bodies, it is often a matter of which body has the most clothes designers making clothes for it.

Maitreya is now an OLD body and in my opinion not that well made. I hate the shoulders. But am a definite minority. Many of us are expecting an update on the Maitreya body. Might happen... or not.

Mesh clothes and bodies have to be compatible. Clothes made for Slink do not work with a Maitreya body. Clothes-body compatibility is an important thing these days.

[Ajay McDowwll]

1 hour ago, Penelope Parfort said:

 I feel like a newbie, as if it was the first time I came to SL some years ago in about 2006 I think.

I would like to ask for help with advice on how to improve my character's appearance.

Since I left the game a few years ago, things have changed a lot. I see that they have added changes especially to the appearance and the mesh. When I left it was when they were just releasing the first heads and clothes like that in The Shops, but now I see that there is a lot of variety, not only to the head but also to the body.

What I basically want to know is, where can I go to get mesh style heads and bodies, which ones are the most used and also if I buy a skin, would the skin only work for the body or also for the face, and if they are different, how do I recognise them? I have tried to look for information about it elsewhere, but it seems to be very scattered and I don't understand. Regarding the face, another question is, if I see an image of a face, but I don't like everything about it, could I change for example the size of the nose, or the size of the eyes, etc.? I want to know if it is possible. Or if buying a face means that it will be just like the image.

The other question I have is where can I go to change my character that is private, so that if I want to change her physical appearance other people cannot see me.

The most popular bodies on the grid are Maitreya and Reborn, with I believe Kupra and Legacy behind them  Which one you choose will depend on how you like to shape your body, so you'd want to get demos of all of them.  A word of warning:  Maitreya has a HUGE update coming out that will change the body somewhat, so that's something to keep in mind.

For heads, most of the major brands on the Grid now use the EvoX template.  The head that most jewelry items and the like are rigged for is the Lelutka EvoX; get demos there, and if their aesthetic isn't your thing there are other head brands, and you can still find heads mapped for SLUV, which is supported by some creators even now.

Skins are mostly sold separately, one for the head and another for the body, due to the wide variety of combinations that are now possible.  Some creators do single skins like back in the day, but they are not in the majority.

Heads that use the Bento skeleton (anything that uses the EvoX mapping will do this) can be altered using the sliders.  How far they can be altered will depend on the head itself, so again, get demos and try those out before you commit to paying for a full version.

Also, as Cinnamon pointed out, the Black Friday sales will be starting up in a couple of weeks.  Many body creators reduce their prices then, as do head creators.  You can also find skins and clothing on sale during that time, so you may want to wait a little.  Or not.  Sometimes you just want to fix everything NOW, and not wait

For privacy to set up your avatar, many of the new resident areas have changing rooms; some are even partitioned off so no one but you can see what you're doing. 

Also, this is a great glossary of the current terminology out there for avatar components. It's more geared toward the male avatar, but the words still mean the same thing for female avatars:  https://virtualbloke.com/archives/3711

Good luck   Feel free to IM me inworld if you have questions (just remind me who you are if you do, because I am old and my brain hates me lol)

[AmeliaJ08]

49 minutes ago, Nalates Urriah said:

Might happen... or not.

Is happening. Clothes being released for it already, it's coming.

To @Penelope Parfort If you like the look of Maitreya Lara 5.3 it is $2750 currently and if you own it you will receive the new Lara X body as soon as it releases (days or weeks away). This is probably a good discount on what the Lara X body will cost on release.

Of course there's plenty of alternatives, the other safe choices are Legacy (various versions) and Reborn. Any of these big three will ensure basically everything on offer has a size that fits you (with a few exceptions).

 

 

 

Edited November 9, 2023 by AmeliaJ08

[Penelope Parfort]

Gracias por sus respuestas, las consideraré todas y creo que voy a esperar al Black Friday para aprovechar. / Thank you for your answers, I will consider them all and I think I will wait for Black Friday as many of you adviced.

[Marianne Little]

42 minutes ago, Penelope Parfort said:

Gracias por sus respuestas, las consideraré todas y creo que voy a esperar al Black Friday para aprovechar. / Thank you for your answers, I will consider them all and I think I will wait for Black Friday as many of you adviced.

Use your time to try on demos. You can also watch videos about how to put together your mesh avatar.

https://www.youtube.com/@secondlife/videos

This is good information, not just about avatar, but SL in general. Destinations, spotlight, Linden homes....

Scroll down until you come to mesh bodies and heads. The first videos came out 1 year ago.

Demos work the same way as the full priced things, you can add on demo skins, demo eyes, demo hair and clothes. Put on and take off things and learn how it works.

You will see what body you like best. Make sure you find that body size in stores you like. Not all bodies are well supported.