Skell Dagger

Welcome to SL. Nice to see someone come in having done their homework! You've been given some great recommendations so far, so I'll mainly second them and add a few extras. Going by the style of look you've said you want to achieve, I'd definitely recommend Signature Gianni as the body to go for. It's one of the most popular, well-supported bodies when it comes to fitted mesh clothing, as well as for skin appliers, so you'll find a lot of items created especially for it. You'll get various recommendations for Bento mesh heads. My personal preference is for Catwa, which have just updated to v3.0 with motion capture animations that are fantastic to look at. Again, given your preferred look, I'd suggest demoing Catwa's Daniel and Stanley heads, and trying them with as many demo shapes and skin appliers as you can. (Be aware that any demo shape that's sold as being created for a specific mesh head will have a very distorted body, to prevent people from just using the demo instead of paying for the full version.) I've just written a beginner's guide to Catwa's Bento mesh heads, just for male avatars (focusing on things like tinting facial hair, and explaining how the layering system works), so if you opt for Catwa then that will help you out. I can't recommend Stray Dog's skins highly enough. Gac Akina has created a huge range of skins in varying ethnicities, and his work is fantastic. To the list that you already have I'll also add Nivaro and Aeros as other places to pick up skin demos. I'll also add Avi-Glam to your list of eyes to try out (my current favourite eye store), and DAPPA and Isuka to the list of tattoo appliers. Additionally, if you're interested in facial hair, try Volkstone, Beusame, CDC Creations, and Body Mod. There are four monthly events in SL that cater exclusively for male avatars: The Mens Dept (TMD), Men Only Monthly (MOM), Man Cave, and Hipster Mens Event. Each of those links will take you to the events' pages on the Seraphim blog. Once each new round opens, the blog will have a new post containing a gallery of all items available, plus teleport links to get you there. And once a year (usually around the middle of the year, May to June-ish) there's Menswear Fashion Week. All of these are great places to pick up new items, and the monthly events are where you'll often get new release skins at discount prices, so they're worth a look.

Playing with filters again. Loved how this one turned out.

I saw that post the other day and it was what reminded me that the Realms are still around and a way to get spending money in SL without any RL cash outlay. If the OP is still around, here's a direct link to Klytyna's post in that thread:

So... would anyone else like to take the OP at his word that he doesn't have any money to invest in SL, and actually offer some useful tips for him to put together a decent-looking male avatar for zero expense (or for the bit of L$ that he can earn inworld with the likes of Linden Realms)? Anyone else feel like actually being helpful?

...is what the OP said. When you're broker than broke there are no coffee shop coffees and no restaurant meals. I've been broker than broke, but at the time the internet was my lifeline, so it was the one luxury I spent my money on: a cheap-as-hell lousy connection with one of the worst ISPs here in the UK (that I only went with because, well, they were cheap-as-hell). I could just about afford to pay my bills and I had a spare couple of quid per week. A restaurant meal would have meant at least a month of saving that weekly couple of quid, and even then it would only have bought me a pub lunch. Some people literally are scrambling to find a couple of quid here and there, but there's no reason why they can't enjoy SL for free. I originally asked the OP how broke he was, and whether he could manage to put just one single $5 amount into SL to get himself started, but I made no assumption that he actually could forego a coffee or his weekly newspapers or a restaurant meal, because many people can't even afford those things. Doesn't matter which country you live in (example: the UK is one of the 10 largest economies in the world and yet in the last year over 1 million people had to use food banks). Sometimes broke truly is broke.

Fade out again... Credits Jeans: Legal Insanity - Dirk Jeans (Slink Bootcut) Shirt: Gabriel - Strap Open Shirt (black) Boots: Gabriel - Studs Belt Boots (black) Sunglasses: Haysuriza - Glasses Michel2 (urban night) Bracelet: Lapointe & Bastchild - Swear Braided Woven Bracelet Tattoo applier: Isuka - Struggle Skin applier: Stray Dog - Shawn (buttermilk/tone 04) Hair: DOUX - Cooper (b&w) Pose prop: WetCat - Guitar Solo Street Musician Head: Catwa - Daniel Body: Slink - Physique Male Hands: Slink - Dynamic Male

Trying out the September group gift skin applier from 7 Deadly S{K}ins, with an additional facial hair applier by CDC Creations. (I seem to be so damn butch lately )

Assuming (because of your name) that you're a guy: How broke is broke? I'm not asking to see your financial statement, but can you afford $5? Or maybe $10? It's much more difficult to put together a great male avatar absolutely free than it is a female avatar, but it's not impossible. However, a small amount of L$ is going to make your avatar look a lot better, so if you can afford even $5 that will help immensely, because it'll be enough to get you a decent avatar skin, which is half the battle won. If you honestly can't even afford to put $5 into SL, then go to the Linden Realms inworld (via the Portal Park) and chase crystals for a couple of hours each day. It doesn't pay out like it used to, but it'll still be enough to get you the cash to manage a decent avatar. (You won't be able to get a mesh head or body without saving that cash for a long time, but you don't need a mesh head and body when you're just starting out.) Some tips: Group gifts are your friends. Join a store's group, wear its tag, and click group gifts in the store to receive them absolutely free. Some groups are free to join, others cost a little cash. A couple of free to join groups that have good freebies are: Gizza Creations VIP (clothing), and Gabriel (shoes and accessories). (Copy those links, paste them into open chat, click them, and then click the 'Join' button in the window that pops up. Then go to their stores and find the group gifts section.) If you can save up enough L$ to make L$225, join the 7 Deadly S{K}ins group. Inside the store you'll find a monthly group gift, plus loads of Midnight Mania boards (free to everyone) and Mini Mania boards (group-only) as well as a vendor with lots of cheap, group-only skin and shape combinations. Midnight Mania boards will give the prize to everyone who clicked if the target number of unique avatar clicks (usually fairly high) is met, whereas Mini Mania boards have a much lower click target, but only give the prize to one of the people who clicked. ETA: There's a new discount section upstairs at 7 Deadly S{K}ins, with system skins starting from just L$10. Head to The Free Dove store, and check out the male clothing section and the skins section. Right now, the clothing selection is limited, but there's one decent pack of free male skins by Dulce Secrets available. Blogs and websites to check out: Fashion & Freebies for Men Carson Caiben for FabFree Seraphim Weekly Hunt Survival Guide (look at the gallery for the current week, and if there's anything you like the look of, click to visit the store and hunt for the hidden item) Aggregate feed for SL freebies (also contains a lot of female items, so you'll need to dig through this one) In short: if you want a great-looking male avatar in SL, you'll have to do some work for it, no matter how you go about it. If you want to do it for free, then it'll take even more work, but it's not impossible.

Finally a Birth skin that works well with my shape and Catwa head

@Elora Lunasea Flawless.

I've had the same experience, Elora. I think I tried a shape created for Catwa's Stanley head on the Daniel head, and it gave an amazing long, lean effect; almost mean and evil. I loved it. Now off to check out that pic of yours

It depends on the head. Some of them (because of the way they're rigged) require that you use a specific starter shape and work from there. If you try to put those heads on over your usual shape, your face will probably look absolutely terrible. Conversely, take off the head and just wear the starter shape with a system skin and you'll see why the head doesn't work on your normal shape; the starter face shapes are really odd-looking without the mesh head over the top of them and show that what constitute 'normal' slider settings for a system avatar won't be enough for those mesh heads. The premade shapes that you see in stores and on MP are created for specific heads (but can sometimes be worn with interesting effect on other mesh heads, especially within the same brand) and serve as a good starting point for those who are not confident in their shape-making skills.

I do like them, actually. I find them a lot easier, especially with all the free extra HUDs that Catwa has out in the store for saving all the layers once you've got them set just right, for easy re-application. Once you understand that things will default to the lower layer when applied by an external HUD, and that you need to save to the Catwa HUD anything you want to put on the upper layer, it gets a lot easier. So to wear a beard over a cheek tattoo you would apply the beard (which will apply to lower blush) and save it to the blush layer on the Catwa HUD (or to the separate beard HUD that's included with the head). You then apply the tattoo (which will also apply to lower blush and therefore take off the beard). Then you just check the 'upper' blush option and click the saved beard on the Catwa HUD to apply it over the tattoo. You actually have more customisation with the upper and lower layers, not less. You've probably already seen it, but this Catwa Crash Course video by Strawberry Singh is excellent for explaining the upper and lower layers. (She's also done a Lelutka Crash Course video, which I plan to watch before I get the Lelutka demo.)

You are going to have so much fun with them. The animations are amazing. I can't wait for the update to my Shaheen head (which should be in the next day or so; Catwa has been working like a crazy thing to get all of these updates done in less than a week) because they're going to look different again on him. Isn't that a fantastic moment? I kind of had it with Skell last night, when I was taking the pic that ended up at the top of this page. I was already comfortable with how he looked, but Skell has - for the past few years - had two sides: his fashionisto side (the one that changes all the time) and his everyday side (which is his sort of fashionisto-downtime look). It was the second side I was having trouble fixing into place, but that pic at the top of this page is pretty much Everyday Skell, and the subtle facial animations (because I clicked off the more fun ones for everyday use) just make him feel even more real. If that last word didn't make sense, consider the point that I've often made here: that I have a habit of interchanging 'me' and 'Skell' when it comes to referring to my avatar. After ten years he feels - to me - like a person in his own right, so when I say that he feels 'real', he resembles what I think Skell himself would look like IRL if he were piloting his own avatar. (Er, I still don't think that makes any sense, and I've gone waaaay too meta here if I think too hard about it, but hey...)

Seriously, though, I spent a ridiculous amount of time last night playing with those animations. They're utterly superb, and at times hilarious! I especially love how Catwa created new, more masculine animations for the male heads (only Daniel has been updated so far, but I think Stanley and Shaheen will be done over the next day or two), but some of the best bits from the female heads are still included. I'd really hoped that the little sniff from the crying animation was going to be kept in, and it was. (Which, uh, yeah, means that Daros will be able to get away with even more than he already does, if he tries that one on me! )

@Marianne Little Agreed on the point of the eyebrows. I won't buy skin appliers that don't come with a browless option, because so many designers opt for thick, bushy eyebrows that end up dominating the entire face, and I prefer Skell's brows to be finer and more well-groomed. I'll wait a few days before I demo the Lelutka head. With a new product like this (even though Lelutka are no strangers to Bento mesh heads) I usually give it a week or so for any bugs to be ironed out. But, like you mention, I've had days when appliers just don't work, and it's down to SL shenanigans rather than an issue with the head or applier. Regarding the following: The Average Man is whom the majority of SL designers seem to create for, which is why the male fashion market is saturated with jeans, hoodies, sneakers, baseball caps, and that One Nice Suit that your Uncle Bob wears to weddings and funerals. (Yes, I know there's other stuff, but that list comprises the overwhelming majority of what's available for men.) I spend a lot of time at male fashion events. I know that - as someone who has several male alts - you do, too, but I often linger for hours (unless the event is busy, in which case I teleport out to give someone else a chance to get in) and I know which items I see men linger and cluster in front of the most. Certain groups go for certain styles, but in the main the stuff that I see everywhere in SL is not what I see those guys making a beeline for.... presumably because it is everywhere and they already have ten other versions of it. When designers think that Most Men want things to be nice and simple, and that Most Men can't be bothered to fiddle with complex HUDs, that's when all men end up with less choice. SL is a woman's market anyway when it comes to fashion, but that Most Men attitude limits things even more for us guys. (And yes, INB4 some smartarse tags this with #NotAllMen. )

Motion capture animation update for Catwa's Daniel head, at last! I've been taking pics while Skell flirts with me

Catwa's Daniel head has updated to v3.0 with mocap animations. How you doin?

I checked out those blog posts and the one on the Lulutka blog, because this really perked my ears up. But then I got to this: My question is... why? Why don't the guys get the same individual makeup zones as the ladies apparently do? We just get eyeliner and maybe shadow... and nothing else? Eh... Don't get me wrong; of course I'll demo it. But I just wish all creators would consider that men want as much choice as women do, not less choice.

Why do I never see this kind of post until I don't have time to answer it fully? I've got to leave for work in about ten minutes, but this post on my blog* will hopefully help you to understand the basics of the SL avatar. Your avi may be an 'oldbie' in terms of how long ago you registered, @Fabuluz, but I see from your profile that your actual time inworld is approximately four months, so you're really a 'newbie' when it comes to this stuff. You'll probably get a lot more help while I'm slogging away at the salary-paying coalface, but once I'm home again and with a mug of tea in-hand, I'll see what else I can add to it. In the meantime.. just step back and breathe. You'll be okay. *I hate self-promoting anything other than credits for fashion, but hey; that's why I'm writing this bloody series: so I can help other people with it.

What many femboys are doing these days is wearing the female Maitreya Lara body with the V-Tech Boi Flat Chest Mod. As to heads, I would suggest demoing one of Catwa's three male Bento heads and playing with the sliders to achieve the look you want. (Alternatively, there are many shapes already created for specific Bento mesh heads, both inworld and on Marketplace.) You can also demo some of her female heads, since I know a few people have successfully used those for femboy avatars. (Other mesh heads are available, but I personally recommend Catwa's.) The annual Femboy Hunt (website here - may contain NSFW images) takes place in March, so keep an eye out for that next year, and The Androgyne Initiative group (website here) is a good one to join to keep updated on new andro and femboy clothing and skins, etc. There are also several SL androgyny groups on Flickr where people post fashion pics and ads. I don't have time right now to dig up a list of links to the ones I know of, but if you're interested in those just let me know.

Dark and gothic tonight...

Take this night, wrap it around me like a sheet... (Full version here). Credits Codex, Cult, and Anxiety for Man Cave, plus Bliensen + MaiTai, Hello Dave, KiB Designs for The Darkness Monthly Event. Kilt & Boots: Cult - Kilt Set w/HUD Shoulders: Codex - Ulysses Shoulder Wear Crown: Bliensen + MaiTai - Dornen Crown Horns: KiB Designs - Dark Angel Male Horns (grey) Armour: The Forge - Daerwen Armour (black) Piercings: Cerberus Xing - Deepforge Chains (silver) Hair: Exile - Old Flames* (grayscale) Body tattoos: White Widow - Lights Out (black) Face tattoo & lipstick: Arte - Elf Makeup Skin: Swallow - Gothic (ivory) Eyes: Avi-Glam - Elysian Eyes (charcoal) Nail appliers: Hello Dave - Ruin 7 Backdrop: Anxiety - Rule #1 Head: Catwa - Daniel Body: Slink - Physique Male Hands: Slink - Dynamic Male *review copy

The Catwa Head Friends group is for support with the head only (as in: "how do I do X or Y with my Catwa head?") For all things pertaining to redeliveries you need to contact Catwa Clip herself. Please ensure that you read her profile and picks first for how to contact her. Make sure you've not accidentally muted or blocked Catwa Clip. If you purchased instore and are trying to use the vendor's redelivery webpage (and you can't redeliver anything from any store at that webpage, then it's probably an issue with the vendor system, and they're probably aware of it and trying to fix it.) If it's a Marketplace purchase, make sure that you're logged into Marketplace on the avatar that you made the original purchase with, and not an alt. If the head is an older one* that was gifted to you from Marketplace by someone else, you will again need to contact Catwa Clip and give her enough information that she can ascertain you were the recipient of a gifted head. To do this, right-click any non-mesh item, such as a notecard, in your Catwa head folder, look at the Properties option, and note down the date that you received the item. Mention this in your notecard to her, to help her find the original transaction more easily. Also, mention the name of the avatar who gifted you the head. *The whole redelivery confusion over gifted heads is, I believe, one of the reasons why Catwa doesn't offer gifting options in her store. To gift a Catwa head you must buy a gift voucher and give it to the recipient so they can buy the head for themselves. ETA: I'm not sure why you posted this in Missed Connections. Don't be surprised if your post is moved to a more appropriate sub-forum by the moderators.