Skell Dagger

Exile for Equal10, plus a recent BoM update from ADORED. Full credits here.

Duplicate thread. Have helped with the 'unpacking boxes' part of this query in the other thread:

Please only post once in the forum. Multiple new threads asking the same question mean that your answers will be spread all over the place, and people might take the time to help you out in one thread without realising someone has already helped you in your other thread. To answer this: Read this:

Just in case what? I think we know what. My takeaway from what Bagnu has said in the quoted post above is "I'm going to take and post those images anyway and share them with my friends". We had a very similar question in September 2019, and the veiled response there was also "I'm going to do it anyway".

Ask them. Simple as that. "I'm into erotic Second Life photography and I have a publicly accessible Flickr account. Do you mind if I take photos of us together and post them there?" Offer to show them any images that they agree to let you take. Some kinds of erotic photography - exposed genitalia, penetration, etc - can be considered more intrusive and personal than others. Some people might be fine with that, while others might be horrified, so be upfront about exactly what the photos will show. ALWAYS ask them.

The drag part is rather crucial when it comes to which body you're going to choose. Belleza Jake is by far the male mesh body that has the most femme clothing rigged specifically for it. You can get deformers to reduce certain aspects of the body if it's a little too muscular for you. Check out the likes of Boys to the Bone for gender-bending clothing. There are also a few stores that sell heels and suchlike for male bodies (again, Jake tends to be the one they're most often rigged to). By contrast, if you go the Maitreya Lara & V-Tech Boi Chest route, you'll have much more choice for clothing (for when he's not in drag, given that we're discussing the need for both male and female clothing on a single mesh body), with the exception of your torso. You'll need either V-Tech rigged tops, or Maitreya-rigged open or off-shoulder jackets that don't have much moulding around the breasts, together with applier or BoM tops (or tattoos) if you don't want to be bare-chested. There's a growing market for the V-Tech crowd when it comes to skins and the like, but much of the clothing created for it tends toward the cute pastel femboi kind. For something a little edgier or more masc, give the likes of Grima and Krankhaus a look. Additionally: be aware that if you take the Maitreya route for the body, you will not be able to get a male mesh head to fit at the neck (unless you try the Omega neck fix by Omega Solutions, which may help). So, when searching for a mesh head, check out any female ones (or unisex ones that contain both male and female neck fits). Most bishōnen in SL use female heads and edit them using the shape sliders to give them a more masculine look. Start out by demoing female heads that have a similar vibe (e.g. for Catwa instead of Dino, try Hanako. Not sure if Lelutka have a female Asian head).

Hi Cole If you're looking for truly free or dirt cheap mesh heads and bodies for men (understandable in this day and age, when finances are tight for so many of us) then pickings are slim. The vast majority of mesh clothing is made for the popular male mesh bodies (Signature Gianni, Belleza Jake, Meshbody Legacy, etc) and the vast majority of skins are made for a combination of one of those bodies, plus either Lelutka or Catwa heads. However, you have one big thing in your favour as a returnee after all this time: Bakes on Mesh (BoM). Bakes on Mesh is a relatively new avatar customisation method introduced by Linden Lab that allows system layers (the skins and clothing you'll remember from the last time you were inworld) to be 'baked' onto the much higher quality mesh heads and bodies that are around now. So in that sense, the skins and their compatibility with different brands of head and body are less of a worry. In addition, you'll often find that a great deal of mesh clothing can fit on other brands of mesh body (especially things that are not close-fitting, such as jackets and pants) so - with the use of the body's alpha HUD, or included alpha layers - you can mask out any parts of your body that poke through the clothing. I don't usually like to promote my blog in the forum (weird, I know, but I feel that blog recommendations are best left to readers who have genuinely found them useful) but in this case I do have some posts that might be helpful with regard to the specifics of putting together a male avatar as cheaply as possible. I've been running a series on my blog called Bloke on a Budget, where I explain (sometimes in hand-holding detail) how to navigate the minefield of putting together a male avatar in SL when you don't have more than a few Linden pennies to rub together. To get you started, try this post where I show four different looks for between L$1 and L$2 in total (including the mesh head and body). Granted, the freebie heads and bodies can often not be of quite the same highly-customisable super-high quality than the full priced ones, but if you spend the time to work at it then you can achieve some good results. The outfit really does help a lot. Here's a composite image of the four looks (apologies that it has text on it; I just grabbed it from the featured image) - In that post I used one of the free head/body combinations from Altamura for the formal look (note that the skin on that particular one cannot be changed) and the free Bento Male Avatar by Onupup for the remaining three casual looks. I also explain how to set up the Onupup body to make use of Bakes on Mesh, so that you can use system skins. In this older Bloke on a Budget post I'm using the unisex 'Freya' gift head by Catwa (which is no longer available) and the L$1 'Classic' body by Meshbody (which is still available). While the Catwa gift can no longer be obtained, that post might be worth sitting down to read anyway, because in it I take you through how to use various 'BoM fixes' to sort out problems that can be caused by using old system skins on any mesh head and body. (Unfortunately, most of these BoM fixes do cost a bit of cash.) I'll be continuing this series shortly, once I get time to do the photoshoots for another post. Hopefully that will help you at least get started.

Catwa CSR here Technically, it's not possible to keep one eye permanently closed (with the eyelid itself in the 'shut' position) with the HUD included with your Bento head. While you could pause the 'wink' expression that's on the included Animation HUD, that would leave the rest of your face frozen in the whole animation (although it's worth a try; I've not checked every single one of the animations in every possible frozen position!) Some options you can consider: Buying the Catwa Animation Add-on Pack D for female heads. This includes a wink animation for Catwa Bento heads. Note that this only closes the LEFT eye, so hopefully that's the one that's missing! You can use the installer as a standalone HUD to play the animation. Once it's playing, click the pause button on the HUD and the animation will pause with the left eye shut. I just ran a quick check, and as long as you have no other animations playing (Catwa Full Face AO or any other Bento AO with face option) then your eye will be closed and the rest of your face will not animate Commissioning an animator to create an animation that will close just one eye (in the event that it's your right eye that you want to be closed). You might also be able to achieve this yourself with open source animations tools. Try putting a request in the Wanted section of the forum Wearing unrigged eyes that come in left and right options and only wearing the one that you want to show. What the empty socket of the other eye will look like depends on what your skin creator has done with that part of the texture Searching for mesh eyelids that you can modify. I know that L'Etre has a set and I'm fairly certain they're modifiable, so you could position one of them correctly and edit the other one somewhere inside your head. However, for this you would need to hide your eyelashes otherwise they'll poke through the mesh eyelid. You can hide them on the 2nd tab (Hide/Show) of your Catwa Master HUD Wearing two eyes and texturing one normally with the other being a 'blind' eye that's damaged but not completely missing. You will need appliers that go on separate eyes for this (or you can buy the Catwa Eyes & Tears product, or any other third party mesh eyes that allow you to route textures to each eye separately). The one that I use for a roleplay character I have is this Blind Eye applier by Bus. As an added bonus it comes with separate mesh options, so if you find a separate mesh 'good eye' then you can combine the two. Just use your head's included rigged eyes as a guide to help you position them (you can remove the rigged eyes afterwards). Here's a video showing how to do that This is what that 'blind' eye looks like on my roleplay character, together with his 'good' eye: Depending on what backstory you have for your character, you could also add a scar across the eye to indicate that it was damaged in the past.

General rule of thumb is to use the same skintone from the same skin creator on both body and head. Example: Birth T1 on the head and Birth T1 on the body. ALWAYS try a demo. No demo = no sale. If a skin creator only makes skins for the head then you'll find a notice somewhere - either on the skin ads themselves or close to them in the store - letting you know which other store's body skins they match to. With regard to the default skins in heads and bodies (the ones that come in their own HUDs, in case you don't want to buy a full head-to-toe third party skin), that entirely depends on the head/body brand, but of the main ones: Lelutka Origins heads (not the new Evolution range) - Glam Affair for female heads, and Stray Dog for male heads Catwa Bento & non-Bento heads - The Skinnery and DeeTaleZ (the latter is Bento heads only) for female and unisex heads and Clef de Peau (Gen 1 - only available at Catwa store), Signature body (Bento heads only), and two Aesthetic tones (Bento heads with a Niramyth neck fit) for male heads. Maitreya body - Glam Affair Belleza bodies - Belleza's own head skins. They have no male head appliers in store, but the Jake body includes a Catwa head applier that matches the body's tones Legacy - N/A. Legacy body default skintones don't match any existing store's skins, but they include neck blends that you can use to try and get a seamless neck with any other skin An additional note, with regard to the image that you quoted: That is not a 'neck blend', as was posited earlier in the thread. It's a collaborative project between the designers listed (and more, if others join in) to standardise the actual mesh (vertices etc) used on the necks of their heads and bodies to eliminate neck seams. The idea is that - if you see a head or body being advertised as 'universal neck' or 'seamless neck' (it's unclear at the moment as to which name will be settled upon) - then you'll know it will match seamlessly* with any other head/body of the same. *Caveat: Female heads/bodies should match 100%. Unfortunately, male heads/bodies are a little more tricky, so 98-99% will be the match for the guys. (Don't ask me why; I'm not a rigger, but from discussions I've had, apparently that's the case.)

"If nothing ever changed there would be no butterflies." — Unknown "Has a bee ever landed on you, and instead of getting scared you appreciated the possibility that you got confused for a flower?" — Unknown "There is no trouble so great or grave that cannot be much diminished by a nice cup of tea." — Bernard-Paul Heroux "Life becomes easier when you learn to accept an apology you never got." — Robert Brault "Giving up on your goal because of one setback is like slashing your other three tyres because you got one flat." — Unknown "You have survived every single bad day so far." — Unknown "Failure is a bruise. Not a tattoo." — Jon Sinclair "It isn't the mountains ahead to climb that wear you out; it's the pebble in your shoe." — Muhammad Ali "Only put off until tomorrow what you are willing to die having left undone." — Pablo Picasso "If you don't like where you are, move. You are not a tree." — Unknown "Blowing out someone else's candle won't make yours shine brighter." — Unknown "It always ends in chickens." — Skell Dagger

And here is how I actually looked today... for about an hour and a half.

Sure, although it's not how my avatar looks today. The phrase 'Mister Frilly Britches' was coined by Xerxes Kingstop in another thread, discussing the availability of male mesh clothing, In particular, the pants in the Flickr image linked-to at the end of this post were the ones being discussed, so they are the 'frilly britches' in question. I liked the phrase so much that I decided to use it as my byline here in the forum: The image where I'm wearing said 'frilly britches' shows me wearing a wide open shirt and bare-chested, and I have promised (after this thread) never to post any shirtless pics on this forum again. (Interestingly, that thread has had a negative effect on all of my SL photography, because I've not even taken a single shirtless image since then.) So you can click here to view the image directly on my Flickr.

This actually makes me pretty sad. For one, Slink always gave me my preferred body shape, as I love that lean swimmer's torso and broad shoulders. In addition, Siddean has been at the forefront of many new things in SL, and was the first 'big name creator' to take the huge risk of releasing a single-layer BoM-only mesh body. I admire her immensely for forging her own path and sticking to it, but also for being willing to listen to and consider input from her customers (case in point: her addition of the extra materials layer for the Redux bodies, which people asked her for). Clothing is still being rigged for Slink, but - as I mentioned in my blog - you need to know where to look first of all, and then you need to visit mainstores. Many guys only shop the big menswear events these days, and Slink support there is a rare beast indeed. So advance knowledge of the stores still consistently rigging for Slink in their new releases (since there's still plenty of older Slink-rigged stuff out there) is rather crucial. I've been considering a research project on that for the blog, as a matter of fact. However, one thing that's surprising me a bit is that I'm starting to see a new development: some male clothing designers are beginning to drop Gianni in favour of Legacy, and are rigging only for Jake and Legacy. It's only a very small subset of slightly niche menswear designers that I'm seeing this from at the moment, but it's interesting, not least for the fact that the Legacy mesh dev kit hasn't been easy to get hold of, what with the current requirement to link an Adobe account in order to obtain the kit.

Quick suggestions: Body = Belleza Jake. Not as muscled as Gianni, but with more clothing available for it than Gianni's slimmer brother Geralt. Be aware that Jake does have some muscle definition built into the mesh that you can't get rid of (prominent inguinal crease, plus some veining on the inner arms) and check, check, and check again the neck in multiple lighting options against whichever head you're demoing. See my Windlight comparison Gyazo set for reasons why Jake can be problematic. (If you want to try Gianni instead then I can offer advice on slimming down the arms and shoulders on that body. Just let me know.) Another possibility - just to get him started - is to maybe get the L$1 Legacy Classic male body gift. It can wear any TMP clothing, has BoM capability, fits well against at least Catwa heads (I've not checked against either Lelutka type) and I've managed to wear several different other body rigs of clothing on it with reasonable success. Head: Catwa or Lelutka Origins (although of late most male skins are being made for Lelutka Evolution heads). If you go with Lelutka Evo then be prepared to spend a lot of time on the shaping of it. Skyler is probably your best bet from the current Evo line, but you'll need to work hard to reduce that very heavy chin. Evolution is also mostly BoM, although both Lelutka Origins and Catwa are BoM capable, too. Skins = entirely dependant on what kind of face he's after. I would suggest Stray Dog, Clef de Peau (they have 'soft' body skin versions), and Vendetta to begin with. If going full BoM check out this blog for other possibilities. ETA: One additional thought for a skin. You mention that he's an older gent, so try Session as well if he wants a more mature look. And thank you to both you and Rowan for the kind words about the blog

Why does that matter? You're supposed to be commenting on the pictures, not on the people behind the avatars. And for those guys who won't post here for fear of being accused of objectifying women - how about... not objectifying women? How about finding something in the image to comment about that is not even remotely sexual? Comment on her outfit. Look beyond anything sexual in it. What else is in the image, besides the bikini/lingerie/boobs/butt? Comment about the image composition Comment about the atmosphere or mood that the image evokes. Ignore any moods that begin at your crotch Comment about her avatar's eyes, hair, elegant hands, pose, accessories, makeup, etc Just find something nice/interesting/striking/atmospheric in the image and comment on that. It could be the bright colour of a hat that really stands out against a grey background (even if her bikini top is actually two postage stamps and a bit of string and all you can really see is her boobs) or it could be that she's clearly taken the time to frame the composition perfectly and is using a fantastic deeply-shadowed Windlight setting (even if she could possibly be naked and you're trying to squint at the deep shadows at her crotch to find out if she's got panties on or not). Crucially: the thing that you comment on should be something that she has had agency in. She put together that outfit. She matched that nail polish colour to the exact tone of her eyeshadow. She framed the image perfectly. She chose the Windlight setting and fiddled with the environment sliders to get those shadows just right. You're commenting on what she has done with that image, so don't say "Oh, you took that at XYZ place. It's great for exploring." If you can do that, you won't "get blasted for objectifying women". I commented on ten images (one of them was a female poster's male alt; which for me might evoke the same feelings that looking at female avatars would for a straight dude) at the top of page 2 of this thread. I didn't get blasted once. In fact - reading the responses by women to my remarks - I saw varying degrees of delight, which in turn made it pretty clear that non-sexual compliments such as mine are probably a rarity for them in SL (and most likely IRL too). Women deserve more compliments that make them delighted like that.

This is what happens when someone asks the same question in multiple forum sections @Lindal Kidd - I fixed the OP's issue (which was just that the applier is Omega and they weren't wearing the Omega relay HUD for Catwa) last night, in this other thread that they opened for exactly the same topic on the Your Avatar forum:

Everyone is focusing on the system skin being used, but on the offchance that it's not an old system skin I also want to note this (emphasis mine) - Do the toes look like the ones below? If so, then you've added (and enabled) the BoM Add-On Parts for socks/stockings. What this does is to place a 'toe cap' on the feet so that if you wear BoM/system socks or stockings they look realistic and stretched across your toes, rather than having a 'toe sock' effect. Look for the highlighted items in your body's folder: You can either just detach them both (if worn) and your toes will look normal again, or you can click the toe-caps normal part of the add-on HUD - - until it's no longer highlighted white: If you don't ever plan on wearing BoM socks or stockings then I'd just recommend detaching the add-on parts.

Catwa CSR here If your makeup is saying "attempting to apply" in local chat then that means it's an Omega applier. (And, indeed, checking the ad image on Marketplace, it does state that it's an Omega applier.) Omega is a cross-brand applier system that works on any mesh head or body part, as long as you have the corresponding 'Omega relay HUD' for that head or body brand. You will need to be wearing the Omega Relay for Catwa in order for the makeup to show on your head. You can either buy it here on Marketplace, or a bit cheaper inworld at the Omega store. For more info about Omega and how it works, have a read of this post.

Void... New BoM brow and eye makeup releases from Core.

Catwa CSR here You won't be able to activate the facial expressions on the Justin head using a different animation HUD, because it's not a Bento head. Justin is frames-animated, and it only responds to its own animation HUD.

I would first suggest a full clean reinstall of your Firestorm viewer. It may be that your settings have corrupted due to a crash. If that doesn't fix it, then log in using the stock Linden Lab viewer and check there. If the problem persists then it's time to contact LL, either via support ticket, or - if you're a premium member - you also have the live chat option.

Toujours... Zibska for Wanderlust Weekend. Full credits here.