Skell Dagger

In which one of TMP's most vocal critics decides to at least give this new body a try. As honest a review about the demoing experience as I can manage, but ultimately, when you finally get the damn thing on? Yeah, it's gorgeous, I was flush with L$, so I bought it. Review (and eating of words) here.

You have survived every single bad day so far.

Catwa's Bento heads have always been L$5,000, so I'm not sure where you get the idea from that their price had "gone up recently". The non-Bento Frames Animated and static heads are L$900 each, and then there are various add-ons you can also buy for the Frames Animated heads, so perhaps the combination of those is the lower price you're thinking of? Bento heads are an entirely different and far more complex product and they were L$5,000 from the start, with Catya and Daniel, which were released in 2016 and 2017 respectively. The only time that any of Catwa's Bento heads have been cheaper was when three of them (Lilly, Uma, and Dude) were half price (L$2,500) for 24 hours on the day each of them was released. See the image behind the spoiler tag for pricing of the non-Bento heads, which are close to what you say that you paid:

It's not broken. As has been mentioned by others, you're wearing the wrong shape for it. Inside the head's folder you'll find a shape that is partly titled "Start your shape with me". That shape sets the ideal starting face sliders for the head, from which you can then customise. If you've worn this head before and it looked fine, then most likely you're now wearing a shape intended for another head (possibly one of the anime heads mentioned at the start of your post). Bento heads are affected by the underlying shape, and each one is created differently. A shape that looks perfect beneath one brand of head can easily look awful under another brand of head. If you want to keep your old body shape, note down the slider numbers for the Body, Torso, and Legs tabs on that shape, then transfer those numbers across to the same tabs on the Catwa starter shape. After that you can then tweak the shape to make it more unique to you.

As Matty said, only the Clef de Peau Gen 1 body skins that are available in the Catwa store will match to the default head appliers in the Catwa HUDs. To find these, go into the male heads section of the store and take an immediate left into the room where the male bodies and skins are. Do not go to the Clef de Peau mainstore, as they are now on their 3rd generation of body skins, and those don't match the Catwa heads. Only the ones sold at Catwa will match the default head appliers. In addition, the folder for your Jake body also contains a Catwa head applier HUD that matches to all of the Jake body tones. This head applier is called 'Daniel' but it will work on any Catwa head, not just the Daniel head.

I don't think there's much you can do, except sizing your hands down to the teeny-tiny size that seems to be so prevalent these days (which, yes, will make them non-proportionate), or wearing tops with sleeves that don't partially cover the hands. It could be that the ends of those sleeves aren't rigged correctly (normally I would say that's unlikely, if tops from several designers do the same thing, but you mentioned that you tried only one other designer) so teeny-tiny hand syndrome it may be. I was shocked when I first got the Maitreya body at how small the hands actually were on the default shape, and I've noticed since then that many women in Second Life keep their hands absolutely tiny. With any tops that go onto the base of the hand like that - as opposed to stopping at the wrist - you run that risk. I have tops that are rigged correctly there and don't clip through the hands, and tops that don't (this is on all male bodies that I own, as well as the Maitreya body). I'd suggest shopping around and trying demos from multiple creators until you find one who rigs correctly in that area.

Yesterday I hinted that I'd made a purchase I'd never expected to (and Kaia even - obliquely - asked WTF I'd done). Well, I gave the Legacy body a chance and it paid off. Brief first impressions review under the image, here on Flickr. Yes, even after all my b!tchin' about TMP in the past. Them's some crunchy, tasty words, people. But hey; new team behind it, from what I've seen they do seem to be listening to feedback, are already investigating one minor issue, and they've ameliorated many of my old gripes about TMP's business practices. The older I've got, the more I've learned that - just sometimes - it pays off to give people a second chance to prove themselves. Oh, and these new Birth skins sealed the deal for me, so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ (as the cool kids say). This body is bloody gorgeous.

Thanks, Orwar. I'll definitely be getting those

Maybe a slight improvement?

I made a purchase this evening that I never expected to make. In the meantime, while I ponder a blog post about it, have this shot of a gorgeous skin by Birth that I've had for ages and still utterly adore.

Another gorgeous skin from Stray Dog. Gac Akina has really stepped up his game lately when it comes to the shading and highlighting on his skins.

Omega only works on third party mesh avatars, not on classic/system avatars. To explain it further: appliers such as skins, clothing, eyes etc are usually created specifically for certain mesh body parts. For example, if you own a Catwa mesh head and a Maitreya mesh body you would need a Catwa head compatible skin applier to work with the head and a Maitreya compatible skin applier to work with the body (applier skins are usually split into separate heads and bodies). However, Omega is a cross-brand applier system which allows you to wear that skin/makeup/clothing/eyes/etc on any brand of mesh body part, as long as you have the corresponding Omega relay or installer for that brand. (They come in two options; more on that in a moment.) While Omega is a brand in Second Life, it's one whose logo is used by anyone creating Omega-compatible products. An Omega skin could be made by any skin creator, etc. In our hypothetical example, above, to get an Omega skin to work on your Catwa head and Maitreya body you would need to be wearing the Omega relay HUDs for both Catwa and Maitreya when clicking the skin applier HUDs on your screen. Omega HUDs come in two forms: installer and relay. Which one you end up with depends on how that specific mesh body part is set up for Omega: Installers are simple: you add the Omega Installer, click it, and Omega is installed into that body part. You can then remove the Omega installer and forget about it (unless you redeliver your mesh body part, or make a copy of it; you'll then need to reinstall Omega again.) Relays have to be worn every time you want to apply an Omega-compatible item to your mesh avatar.

Lookin' sharp, Frank. Great start for your return to SL

You've actually chosen the second most rigged-for body out there, in the form of Jake. Right now Gianni is still king, with Jake a close second. There's a surprising amount of good quality casual chic clothing out there, but not a lot of it makes its way to the main menswear events, which - as you've discovered - have been all over the urban streetwear clothing like a bad case of hives for something like the past two years. It's something that I've been rather voluble in b!tching about, to be honest. Every single male event has been overrun by sweatpants, sweatshirts, sweatshorts, hoodies, sneakers, sportswear, tank tops, and tattoos. My own tastes tend a little more toward the historical (as does Orwar's) and the avant garde, but off the top of my head (and without being logged in to check my inventory) I've come up with a fairly decent list to get you started. I've just considered clothing and hair, but if you want advice on skins, eyes, facial hair, etc then post here again. You've already found the best place for suits, in Deadwool. As with all stores in SL, with many of these links (I've offered both Flickr and Marketplace where both exist) you'll have to dig through the extensive female items to find the male ones. And with a couple of them you'll need to dig through the more 'out there' stuff to find the casual gems (Riot being one of those, with some fantastic bootcut jeans, among other things). And, of course, there are many many more stores in SL. This is just a small sampling that I came up with. I've been blogging male SL fashion for 11 years, so if there's something more specific that you're looking for then post back here and I'll see if I can dig out some additional places for you. Lastly, if you need any help with your Catwa head, shoot me a PM here or an IM inworld. I'm a CSR for Catwa, so I can offer advice on any issues or queries that you have. For clothing Kitt Ragu for ::K:: https://www.flickr.com/photos/kitt-styleoflife/ https://marketplace.secondlife.com/stores/121590 Ascend Fashion https://www.flickr.com/photos/ascendsl/ https://marketplace.secondlife.com/stores/188393 Lapointe & Bastchild https://www.flickr.com/photos/paullapointe/ https://marketplace.secondlife.com/stores/6435 Tori Torricelli https://www.flickr.com/photos/toritorricelli/ https://marketplace.secondlife.com/stores/5152 Mossu https://www.flickr.com/photos/kanoya/ https://marketplace.secondlife.com/stores/166038 Riot https://www.flickr.com/photos/riotsl/ https://marketplace.secondlife.com/stores/184172 Dig through this one; you'll find some good basics among the more out-there stuff. Nice group gift of a thermal at the mainstore.) Gild https://www.flickr.com/photos/garrete/ David Heather https://www.flickr.com/photos/giannibroda/ https://marketplace.secondlife.com/stores/123471 (not much there; check out the mainstore) Not So Bad https://marketplace.secondlife.com/stores/14443 Fashionnatic https://www.flickr.com/photos/fashionnaticsl/ https://marketplace.secondlife.com/stores/124075 Invictus https://marketplace.secondlife.com/stores/128534 For something a little more historical and unusual (keep an eye out for the coats) Contraption https://www.flickr.com/photos/waltonwainwright/ HotDog https://www.flickr.com/photos/haydenaragon/ For hair VoltHair https://www.flickr.com/photos/glamsoglamour/ https://marketplace.secondlife.com/stores/201039 Stealthic https://www.flickr.com/photos/stealthic/ https://marketplace.secondlife.com/stores/178476 Vango https://www.flickr.com/photos/vangosl/ https://marketplace.secondlife.com/stores/195063 No Match https://www.flickr.com/photos/129183655@N02/ https://marketplace.secondlife.com/stores/174575 Doux https://www.flickr.com/photos/130578934@N04/ https://marketplace.secondlife.com/stores/168100

Thank you. I do, too, but it's been fun trying different images to see what works well.

Not how I look today, but I've been having fun with this AI Portraits tool online that a friend of mine linked to on FB. If you try it out, be warned that - because of the thousands of portraits that are in the database - your image will very likely come out white and European. Try several images, as some seem to work better than others. This one's my favourite out of all the ones I tried:

I'll take one Pomposity Pranger and one Superiority Soaker, please. Both are sorely needed elsewhere on this forum...

There are thousands and thousands of eye appliers out there. If you post an image of the system eyes that you have, maybe we could track down some appliers that look similar. It depends on which head Rhiannon has. Catwa recently made some slight changes to the rigging of her Bento heads' eyes, although the Catwa head alpha does cover the entire head - eyes included - so Rhiannon will need to find an alpha that shows the system eyes in order to test the theory. But if she doesn't wear the Catwa head applier then her system head will definitely show, blended in with her mesh head.

Playing around to see what interesting effects I could get with Windlight and projected lighting. This Torley preset ([TOR] SPECIAL - Threshold) looked amazing with the pink and teal projected lighting from one of the Weekend Ruiner photobooths. These two images are completely un-edited, except for cropping and resizing:

The quickest way is to right-click your avatar and select Appearance > Reset > Skeleton. If you want to stop the animations as well select Appearance > Reset > Skeleton & Animations.

Matty, take a look at Dura's unisex styles. They now include a styling HUD to allow you to wear the long sections of hair either front or back, and their textures are gorgeous.

It's complicated, and that's fine...

Riding the vaporwave trend, with more colour than I think anyone has ever seen me in! Bless Syd, for being more willing to step out of the black now and then (And ohhhh... those pants!)

Just a bit rogueish...