Skell Dagger

'Best' is subjective. The body shape that I prefer is unlikely to be one that you prefer. You are probably not going to find a premade shape that will satisfy you completely for both body and head, so what you need to do is learn to edit. Like everyone else in SL, you have the ability to edit your shape (provided that it's a modifiable one, which most of them are these days). Simply right-click on your avatar or your name tag, and - depending on which viewer you're using - click the following: Edit My Shape (Official SL viewer) Edit Shape (Firestorm viewer in default menu mode) Appearance > Edit Shape (Firestorm viewer in pie menu mode) From there you can change anything you want to, so find the shape that you own which has the face you want to keep, then look objectively at it to decide what you don't like about the body. Legs too short? You can lengthen those. Shoulders too narrow? You can broaden them. And so forth. Make a couple of small changes, then use the Save As option to save the edited shape as a new copy. Give it a new name (or append 'edited' or something like that to the end of its original name) and keep working on it. Make sure you do either this, or make a copy of your original shape before you start working on it. If you amend and save your original shape without using Save As you will overwrite it and not be able to reverse your changes. You will be limited by what the Signature body lets you do. The base Signature mesh has muscular biceps, triceps, and deltoids. These can be slimmed down if you don't want to look as if you spend hours in the gym every day, but you will need to work at it. Editing is really not that difficult, because you have a decent base shape already to work with. It's easier to tweak something that's already done than it is to create something from scratch, so give it a go and see what happens.

Can't help with putting anything together, OP, but want to wish you luck. I've been listening to the trance set tonight that you linked to and it's pretty damn good. Love it

Thank you They're such great skins; really inspirational when it comes to different looks. Speaking of which, here's another one! Credits Skin applier: The Plastik & Trap - Atharne (Yuriko) Hair: Exile - Blown Away* (greystone, from the Blacks HUD) Shirt: Gild - One-Shoulder T-Shirts (black) Pants appliers: Sn@tch - Lowrise Jeans (Omega) Boots: Cubura - Men Boots (Adam, Slink, Signature, TMP) Bracers: Noble Creations - Centurion Bracers (black) Chains: Cerberus Xing - Deepforge Chains (silver) Piercing: Cerberus Xing - Spiked Drill (silver) Eye appliers: Conviction - Living Dead Doll Makeup Necklace: Mandala - Tefutefu Set (black) Ears: L'Etre - Horn Mesh Ears Nail appliers: Alme - Chrome Trends (basic) Brow appliers: Avi-Glam - Logo Eyebrows (Omega) Head: Catwa - Daniel (Bento) Body: Slink - Physique Male Poses: Niqotin (no longer available) * review copy

Working on screenshots for the next Flickr post:

My vision is 20:20, so I don''t have any trouble with the HUD. The most annoying thing - given how many skin appliers I own - is colour-matching (how I wish Aeros would make them applier-compatible!) but once that's done, most of the things you need in order to actually use it are on the main part of the HUD. Although the animations are tucked away, but well worth the... reward once you find 'em The HUD can be resized, though. If you attach the Add-On HUD it includes a resizer. I made a Sid James-type cackle when I read that. I see what you did there! In response, I'll point you toward (part of) my blog's review policy: Looking back on it, it was rather amusing, but at the time it was an annoyance and an imposition on my time inworld. I'm happy to help out occasionally when someone is having trouble with something I'm familiar with and can help them to fix, but not to that extent! ETA: It's also easier to give more detailed advice on the forum. We can include links and images, for one thing.

I'm happy to provide advice here on the forum, but I won't contact people inworld with it. The last time I did that the person concerned expected me to be their personal shopper, teleporting them to every store and showing them exactly what to buy. I have neither the time nor the inclination to do that. That said, if you join the Teleport Hub group (paste that link into chat inworld and click to join; there's a fee of L$10) you can then head to Altamura and pick up their free male Bento mesh body and head (offer ends on 30th April 2018). You'll find it to the right of the entry lobby, on the other side of the lobby wall. The body and head only come in one skintone and that can't be changed (it's not Omega-compatible), however it should work with Altamura's own skin appliers, a free one of which can be found on the adjoining wall as the L'Homme Magazine Readers group gift (group link here: free to join). It also comes with a generous alpha HUD that should let you wear most mesh clothing on it, and the head comes with a decent basic animation HUD. It's a great free starter for guys in SL. If you're not interested in that offer and would prefer to spend money on a fully-featured body and head, I would recommend either Slink Physique or Belleza Jake for the body (since you're not into the muscle man appearance I won't recommend Signature Gianni; while the biceps of that can be slimmed down, it involves a lot of shape work). My personal mesh head preferences are for Catwa and Lelutka, but the decision of which mesh head to buy is a far more personal one and should be dictated by your own taste, so pick up demos from lots of places to try them out. The Mesh Body Addicts site is a good place to begin looking. As to your other request, my personal preference is for Aeros genitalia. There are others available, of course, but that does everything I want it to (and then some).

Yes, and there's a very large Second Life community on Flickr. Styling your avatar and taking interesting photos of it will give you a good introduction to the SL fashion community in general. If you go the styling route, a lot of people will appreciate a credits list of what you're wearing, which you can type under the Flickr image. You can also add your photos to the Flickr groups of stores whose items you're wearing, as well as the many SL fashion and avatar groups that are there. We have two big 'show off your avatar style' threads here on the forum, if you want to join in with those:

We had a similar question in the Your Avatar section recently. Some of the advice in that thread may be of use to you:

More colour from me. I must be feverish

Three hours of work, from the initial skin application to uploading the final pics. I am so happy with how this look came out. The forum will resize the pic down, so click here to view the original on Flickr (plus - if you keep clicking to the right - there are four more individual shots after it; I just couldn't choose!) Credits More of those amazing skins from The Plastik and Trap. This one took a long time to style (hey, my inventory content is mostly black, damn it!) but the end result is SO worth the hours I spent on it. The hair was a limited-time prize for the Peatonville Asylum game, and the fire is animated. And yes, that face decor really is called 'fajazzle'. Gave me a good giggle, that Skin: The Plastik & Trap - Atharne (Yumi) Hair: Exile - Twisted Firestarter* (no longer available) Shoulders: Codex - Ulysses Shoulder Wear Pauldrons: ieQED - Snake Pauldrons Bracers: The Forge - Daerwen Armour (gold) Rings: RealEvil - Striker Rings & Claws Face decor: The Forge - Fajazzle (gold) Belt: The Forge - Boadicea's Belt (gold) Piercings: RealEvil - Savage Face Piercings Chains: RealEvil - Keal Nose Chains Ears: L'Etre - Horn Mesh Ears Pants appliers: Sn@tch - Carnal Leather Pants (Omega) Nail appliers: Dark Cat - Nails Slink Royal Head: Catwa - Daniel (Bento) Body: Slink - Physique Male Poses: (pda) & Niqotin (both no longer available) *review copy

I'm not an 'agent', but here: Pro bono, too, so I've saved you some money! (By the way, it's never a good sign when your editor's notes have to be approximately eight times longer than the text they're working on.)

Thank you I seem to be in teal more than usual lately - heh! (It's one of the rare colours that I'll wear - alongside red - but with this new skin fatpack I've just bought I'll be wearing a bit more colour for a while, I suspect.)

Some rare colour from me:

I spent an insane amount of money today. There are 20 skins in the new collaborative release from The Plastik & Trap, and I couldn't make my mind up between 10 of them. I was going to buy those 10, at L$1600 a pop, when I realised the entire fatpack of 20 was only another L$1000 more. So... Credits Skin applier: The Plastik & Trap - Atharne (Izanami) Hair: Stealthic - Genesis (ombre HUD) Pants appliers: Sn@tch - Blaster Foil Pants (Omega) Boots: Rule:83 - M.I.A. Peacock Mesh Boots Rings: RealEvil - Striker Rings & Claws Lash appliers: Shiny Stuffs - Wild Side Lashes (Catwa) Eye appliers: Go & See - Night Eyes (Catwa) Brow appliers: Odeco - Catwa/Omega Mens Eyebrow Shaved Head: Catwa - Daniel (Bento) Body: Slink - Physique Male Poses: (pda) (no longer available)

I would hazard a guess that it's to do with exactly what you have in your profile. If it contains swearing, or picks to sex clubs etc, it will probably be rated Adult, if not then it will likely be General. I don't usually use the websearch option (I prefer Firestorm's classic search) so I just looked myself up. Apparently I'm G-rated. This amuses me no end

I don't have this issue, but then I usually wear Slink hands and those come with a built-in idle animation. The animation pack is purchaseable separately for about L$350 (and there's a demo stand at the Slink store). On the hands themselves, it's just a simple /15 idle on (or off) command and they gently go through natural idle motions. I've not found a male Bento AO yet that doesn't have me standing with my feet about a metre apart like I'm braced for impact, and one of the things that bugs me about some of the bodies that have built-in hand poses and an option to cycle through them is that I don't want my avatar to be randomly making peace signs when I'm walking around, so the idle animation is perfect for me. When I'm wearing other bodies, I use a hand poser HUD to ensure that I don't get splayed fingers. One is included with the Slink Bento hands (and you might find one at Vista, too) and there's also one by FateWear on Marketplace.

Huh, well there you go. I figured that, since you can't edit anything someone else is wearing, there would be no way to edit their avatar itself. I stand corrected!

As far as I know, no. We can't edit anything on someone else, even if we have edit rights from them. Handy though it would be for fashion purposes, the potential for griefing would be too much.

There is a trick to it. I can still get it to work, but you need to grab your avatar at the right point. First of all, edit something else you're wearing (I usually go for the hair, or an accessory), then - while still in edit mode - click your ankle. You'll know you've got the right point when the selection highlight disappears and crosshairs centre on your body. Here's a quick gif: https://gyazo.com/bc236f6ce69ce63657a469883dc66271 ETA: Although I've never been able to get the rotation to work, so I just spend ages spinning my avatar around into roughly the right position (frustrating as hell when it doesn't turn for ages, and then turns a full quarter-circle), then I move it along the axes.

Ahhh. *nods sagely* Not being edumacated in the Ways of Boobage, I thought you meant the sideways-sag

I was explaining why Clover talked about "getting really real" by having sliders that go left and right, so that - when a woman is lying on her side - her boobs could sag sideways (toward the floor). Us guys have that option already with some of our genitalia. The more popular brands can be adjusted sideways for realistic 'across the upper thigh' looks when Doing a Burt-Reynolds-in-Cosmo-type pose

It does, so if you're reclining on your side...

Razor's Enforcer Boots:

Awesome group gifts from Clef de Peau. Something for the ladies there, too, if you're a group member. Credits A group gift (one of several at the mainstore location) from Clef de Peau, plus Vango, RealEvil, and Letis Tattoo for Men Only Monthly. Note: Applier pants will need to be set to mask if you're wearing the long tee. T-shirt: Clef de Peau - Long Tee (skull black) - group gift Hair: Vango - Victor (grayscale) Rings: RealEvil - Striker Rings & Claws (Signature & Slink) Tattoo: Letis Tattoo - Sapphire Wolf* (Slink & Signature ONLY) Boots: Razor - Enforcer Boots Mesh ears: L'Etre - Horn mesh Ears Skin applier: Amias - Eben (ivory) Eye appliers: Avi-Glam - Vivid Eyes** (frost) Makeup applier: Zibska - Noir Pack 9 Pants appliers: Sn@tch - Carnal Leather Pants * Because this requires separate tattoo layers for each arm, it will only work on the Slink and Signature bodies. ** review copy