Tattoo Layers

[Baiphen Quintessa]

So. My sister asked me how she's supposed to layer if the skin she wants to wear is a tattoo layer and not a skin layer. She found a shape that she love, love, loved but when she adds the tattoo skin, she has a really noticeable neck line. It's supposed to be compatible with the LeLutka head she has and she's using a Maitreya body. I had thought that you add the body, you add the head, you add the skin and then you can put on the tattoo layers. Is it different if it's skin and not makeup? She normally uses WoW skins and the one she fell in love with is (I think) Wren's Nest. Am I wrong in the layering order or is there actually another step when wearing a tattoo skin.

 

Edited March 24 by Baiphen Quintessa

[Ze Helix]

The tattoo skin she is wearing, is it for the body or the face? Either way both of those need to match the other. The order you put on the head, body and system skin you want to wear doesn't matter at all with how tattoo layers stack. Face skins often come with a neck layer that is blended so you may want to wear the body tattoo first and then put on the face. You can also find neck blends from a lot of shops that either match the face skin tone or the body skin tone. But when wearing a face and a body that are already matching tones the extra blending isn't usually needed.

[MillyWH]

I want to be clear-- she found a body skin that she loves that is a tattoo layer?

 

Wren's Nest (as far as I know) doesn't make skins only shapes and some tattoos. A tattoo shouldn't change the tone of the skin. I'm not that familiar with WOW skins but I think they do a lot of all in one skins (so the skin and face are 1 either tattoo layer or a body layer) and if she is trying to wear a WOW head with a different body skin then that might not match and she'd need to get compatible head and body tattoos. A lot of places make their own faces but use Velour skins (and some use The Skinnery skins) but those usually include notecards that explain where to get the skins.

 

[Orwar]

1 hour ago, Baiphen Quintessa said:

So. My sister asked me how she's supposed to layer if the skin she wants to wear is a tattoo layer and not a skin layer.

   She will still need to wear any different skin as a skin layer - it's one of the components of an avatar that are required at all times. But, skins still can be designed to use tattoo layers; if using such a skin, the only thing to really keep in mind is that you'll want to always (almost) wear it at the very bottom of your list of tattoos. Other than that there's no real difference whether it's on a skin layer or a tattoo layer.

   A very common thing is that the body's skin is on the skin layer, and then the facial skin is on a tattoo layer (and, with EvoX UVs, the ears on a universal layer) - or vice versa. So often you'll need to wear both a skin and a tattoo.

1 hour ago, Baiphen Quintessa said:

She found a shape that she love, love, loved but when she adds the tattoo skin, she has a really noticeable neck line.

   A lot of skins have that, there's a seam in the mesh but also seams between the UV maps along the same line; therefor it's very common that those seams become visible. It can be alleviated with neck blenders though, you can find them in stores such as Izzie's.

[Baiphen Quintessa]

OMG! You guys are so nice. My sister was being super polite and told me it isn't the Wren's Nest that was giving her issues it was the Skinnery, DUH. I told her she can start asking her own questions next time.  Anyway. She wears a total body skin from WoW normally, but she fell in love with this one from the Skinnery. And if I understand you all correctly, it doesn't really matter what skin she wears, but she should put it on first, then the tattoo skin and then any makeup? When she showed me it looked like only her face changed but not the rest of the body with it, and it is a whole body skin. (At least she said it is, maybe she's wrong and it's only for her head and that's why it isn't working? Is there a way you can tell if it's total body or just head?)  She started from scratch by going back to the system avie and putting the layers on new. And she didn't have any makeup layers on because I made sure she had cleared them as soon as she put on the head.

She ended up throwing a tantrum and swearing off tattoo layers, which is gonna suck for her since half of her makeup is tattoo. 

 

[Persephone Emerald]

It sounds like she needs to watch a YouTube video about how to go from a system or starter avatar to a mesh one. Maybe her body isn't set to BOM?  I doubt tattoo layers are the problem, especially since you said you saw her face change (the tattoo layer), but not the body. 

Which version of the Maitreya body is she wearing? Maybe that makes a difference about how it would be set to BOM and how well the head will fit with the neck?

[Baiphen Quintessa]

17 minutes ago, Persephone Emerald said:

It sounds like she needs to watch a YouTube video about how to go from a system or starter avatar to a mesh one. Maybe her body isn't set to BOM?  I doubt tattoo layers are the problem, especially since you said you saw her face change (the tattoo layer), but not the body. 

Which version of the Maitreya body is she wearing? Maybe that makes a difference about how it would be set to BOM and how well the head will fit with the neck?

LOLOLOL...I'm her YouTube video. And she's in the Lara 5.3 and a LeLutka Sewa, Siri,  (it starts with an "s"). When she's wearing just her WoW skin the line isn't really there. I mean, if you're looking close you can see it. But she decided she wanted to play with tattoo layers and since she was getting pretty good with the makeup ones she bit the bullet and bought this one from the Skinnery. And when it didn't seem to work she turned to me and I haven't really messed with tattoo layers except the occasional lipstick. 

Is it possible it's only a head skin? I mean, do they do that? 

[Ze Helix]

Yes, Skinnery's current skins are sold as face only. They sell their matching body skins separately in the Skinnery main store. It's nice that you're helping her out and we are glad to help too.  Most skin creators these days will sell their faces and bodies separately. 

[Persephone Emerald]

As Ze said, yes, many skins are now sold with the body and head as separate pieces. Usually the body skin is on the system Skin layer and the head skin is on a tattoo layer. Sometimes body skins can be on a tattoo layer too.  Rarely you might even see the head skin on the system Skin layer and the body skin on a tattoo layer. 

If your sister is happy with using just a system Skin for both her body and head, Wow Skins and 7 Deadly Skins still sell these. 7DS skins seem to be made for Maitreya Lara bodies by default. I image that Wow skins are too, though I don't use those myself.

If she wants to try tattoo layer face skins, she may be able to find skin tones that blend well with her system skin. I think neck blends might be an extra step she won't want to deal with, so maybe she can try face skins that blend into the body skin without having to use a neck blend tattoo layer.

The current Maitreya body Extras HUD comes with system body skins in many Velour tones (including 4 fantasy tones). If she finds face skins on sale in Velour tones, they may match some of these body skins she already owns (maybe not unpacked yet).

Nuve face skins also blend into body skins without needing to use a neck blend. If she wants to try their skins, joining their group for I think $L 350, includes a whole bunch of group gift face and body skins, and even a few older full body skins.

[Anna Nova]

I sympathise.  Thank God we don't wear skins in RL...

[Cristiano Midnight]

Evox skins often times have a built in neck fade, but it is important they are sorted in the right order. The head skin goes above the body skin otherwise you get a seam. Not all evox skins seem to support that fade though directly in the skin. I have a leLAPEAU skin from Lelutka and a body skin from Birth. They are not even 100% the exact same tone, but with the fade, there is no seam. Both of my skins are tattoo layer. The ordering is always important.

[Baiphen Quintessa]

You guys are so brilliant! I can't thank you enough for all of this info. I honestly thought that if it said "skin" it was total body. I have quite a few in my inventory that I haven't played with because of the tattoo thing. I honestly can't stand them, but now that I understand better how they work I might give them a try. I'm just glad that almost all of them were freebies and group gifts so I didn't drop the cash for something I'm not going to use. (I do that with furniture and shoes) 

My sister doesn't really spend a lot of time inworld because she's working full time so she asks me and and I can usually help her. I can't stress enough how often I told her that the Forums are your friends. Especially if you Google the question first. If Google can't take her to the answer she has me ask all of you. I think it's because I brag about you so often that she figures it's easier for me to ask. 

Thank you again!!!! You guys have me out bunches. I'm sending you air hugs!!!

(And you're so right Anna Nova, I'm really thankful we don't have to deal with this stuff in RL either)

[Anna Salyx]

16 hours ago, Baiphen Quintessa said:

 

She ended up throwing a tantrum and swearing off tattoo layers, which is gonna suck for her since half of her makeup is tattoo. 

 

it can take a moment or two to wrap your head around the quirks and intricacies of BOM layers (primarily tattoo level).  But once you have that epiphany moment it becomes so easy to manage.  I currently sport 29 tattoo laters which include the head skin (body skin is actual skin layer), ears, freckles, moles, creases, eyebrows, makeup... along with a hefty amount of actual tattoos (I make most of my own so I can be sure how they layer out).  The real key and trick to getting everything to look right is is putting them on in a specific order, and building the whole look up like a fancy layer cake.   The outfit panel can help in reordering layers so, if you add something later and it messes the look up, you can easily adjust the stack instead of having to take everything off and back on again.

 

[Baiphen Quintessa]

22 minutes ago, Anna Salyx said:

it can take a moment or two to wrap your head around the quirks and intricacies of BOM layers (primarily tattoo level).  But once you have that epiphany moment it becomes so easy to manage.  I currently sport 29 tattoo laters which include the head skin (body skin is actual skin layer), ears, freckles, moles, creases, eyebrows, makeup... along with a hefty amount of actual tattoos (I make most of my own so I can be sure how they layer out).  The real key and trick to getting everything to look right is is putting them on in a specific order, and building the whole look up like a fancy layer cake.   The outfit panel can help in reordering layers so, if you add something later and it messes the look up, you can easily adjust the stack instead of having to take everything off and back on again.

 

Wow. 29? I start to panic after two. But, in my defense, I was sporting a LAQ head at the time and I went from no line to a really obvious line. (I honestly don't remember what I was trying to put on.) Now, I can't even remember how to make the LAQ heads work so they're languishing in my Inventory and pouting because the never see daylight. Well, SL daylight. And even as recent as the new Billie head I ended up taking the tattoo layers off. Not only did I have a very obvious neck line but there was a line on my head that looked like she was wearing a mask, it went around the entire front of her face from forehead to chin and cheek to cheek (HA! I love that song). I think I read that you have to be careful with the older makeup with the new heads because they might not be compatible. Or my cold is making me hallucinate things. 

[Anna Salyx]

46 minutes ago, Baiphen Quintessa said:

Wow. 29? I start to panic after two.

I will admit my count might on the higher side of average, but we are given 60 BOM layers to work with and I have no qualms about using them. Back in the applier days I used to combine all the custom tattoos I made into one texture for applying, but in the BOM world I just don't bother doing all that extra effort to do that anymore. lol

[Persephone Emerald]

I prefer applier makeup, so at least I can't accidentally knock that off if I wear another tattoo layer. - Bonus points that Lelutka applier makeup works the same on either the Evolution or EvoX head setting. - I do sometimes wear full skins that are not EvoX.

[Rowan Amore]

1 hour ago, Baiphen Quintessa said:

And even as recent as the new Billie head I ended up taking the tattoo layers off. Not only did I have a very obvious neck line but there was a line on my head that looked like she was wearing a mask, it went around the entire front of her face from forehead to chin and cheek to cheek (HA! I love that song). I think I read that you have to be careful with the older makeup with the new heads because they might not be compatible. Or my cold is making me hallucinate things. 

You were.probably trying to put a NON-EvoX face skin on the Lelutka head while it was in EvoX mode.  

Almost any face skin you buy made within the last couple of years will be EvoX.  Body skins are mostly sold per body type and shade of skin.  Quite a few head skin shops sell.their skins in shades compatible with Velour body skins IF they don't offer their own body skins.  

[Rowan Amore]

33 minutes ago, Persephone Emerald said:

I prefer applier makeup, so at least I can't accidentally knock that off if I wear another tattoo layer. - Bonus points that Lelutka applier makeup works the same on either the Evolution or EvoX head setting. - I do sometimes wear full skins that are not EvoX.

Only problem.with applier makeup, especially eye makeup and brows, is it might glitch with hair.  The only applier makeup I use is lipstick.so I can adjust opacity.

[Baiphen Quintessa]

2 hours ago, Rowan Amore said:

You were.probably trying to put a NON-EvoX face skin on the Lelutka head while it was in EvoX mode.  

Almost any face skin you buy made within the last couple of years will be EvoX.  Body skins are mostly sold per body type and shade of skin.  Quite a few head skin shops sell.their skins in shades compatible with Velour body skins IF they don't offer their own body skins.  

I'm not sure what I did different, I was chatting with my sister as I was trying to put the head on and I'm pretty sure I had used the same skin that I normally use. I really shouldn't try to put a new head on when I've had a few cocktails and am in heavy chat mode. I just remember the shock of seeing it when I was waiting for something to load. I retreated and stripped down to system avie and made sure I put things on in the correct order. I don't think I have too many of the Velour skins, I've picked up the freebies when the LeLutka 12 days of Christmas drops, but I've never actually been in the store and actually looked. I should do that since everyone seems to talk about them so much.