Skell Dagger

I just logged in to take some sample photos for this thread, and I realised what may be the issue here. That slider won't move until you select either the whole of the skin, or the lower (left) or upper (right) layer of the lips icon, as per the arrowed image below: And here are the two images that I took, to show examples of how lip shine can even happen on a male skin with no lipstick etc added. On the left, the shine is at 100% and on the right it's completely off. While the facial hair covers much of it, note the 'white line' on the top of the upper lip, as well as the shine in the centre of the lower lip.

In addition, the last two images there all feature very strong lighting (less in the GA.EG ad than in the female skin triptych) close to the face. I noticed it also in your earlier image of your avatar: the brightness on areas such as the chin, tip of the nose, and above/between the brows is a clear giveaway that lighting is being used, either in the form of a facelight or projected lighting in front of the avatar. When a bright photography Windlight (such as CalWL, any of the Nam's Optimal ones, or NB Alpine Skinlight) is being used, the lighting effect is compounded even more. A couple of examples below. On both images the lip shine setting on the Catwa Master HUD is pushed to 100%, but on the left image the lips appear matte while on the right image they're very glossy. Why? Because the projected lighting is off to the avatar's right. In the left image the avatar is turned away from the light, whereas in the right image the avatar is turned toward the light, hence the reflection: Wear a facelight, however, and that light will always be directly in front of your face. It's also worth bearing in mind that many appliers - including some skins - make use of materials. So if you're using Advanced Lighting settings there's a strong chance that any lighting in the area - be it a worn light such as a facelight - or an environmental light will cause shine on areas of the face, even if you have your head's shine settings switched off. Gabriel have an old group freebie like that, but I'd suggest trying RealEvil for something of similar (indeed better) quality to the one in that 7DS ad.

If the Shine slider won't move then there are several possible causes. If you literally can't drag the slider up and down at all, there may be another HUD that's overlapping the Catwa Master HUD and preventing you from moving it. Toggle CTRL + ALT + T and anything transparent will show up as red. Sometimes when HUDs minimise they just go mostly invisible, so you could have something overlapping the Catwa HUD. If that's all okay, go to the Catwa store and get a redelivery of your head using the terminal at the landing point. Try using the redelivered HUD (no need to add a fresh copy of your head just yet. If that works, you're all set. (BTW, no need for the slider to remove all shine; you can just click either the skin or lips icon and click the 'x' beneath the slider.) If a redelivered HUD doesn't work, check that you've not de-scripted your head. Do other appliers work on it? If they do, try a complete reset of your head. Assuming it's a Catwa Bento head, that's the 2nd tab of the Master HUD. Look on the far right for the red 'RESET' button. Click any of the icons beneath it, then click 'reset'. The top icon is to reset just the skin, the middle icon is to reset the appliers, and the 'all' icon will reset the head back to out-of-the-box default skin. If the reset won't do anything, then try the fresh re-delivered copy of your head.

If the juxtaposition of your tattoo and that word is intentional, then... well...

And she would also need to check the main HUD for her mesh head, to ensure that there is no gloss/shine setting on either lips or skin.

The main issue with the Aesthetic body is that - out of the box - everything is set to 100%, which means that it's maxed out pretty much like that Tom of Finland image that Ethan posted. This makes the average third-party (ie: non-Aesthetic) head too small if it's not sized up considerably. I've also seen some rather comical looks on men who are bulked to the max on Aesthetic, but who have tiny stick-thin ankles that could never realistically support the weight of their body and little 'pin' heads that are far too small for their shoulders, reminding me of the closing scene in Beetlejuice. By contrast, guys who bother to take the time to actually work with the underlying body shape (such as Drake has) can make something great out of it, but the vast majority of guys I see wearing it just leave it as-is, hence the comments you'll see made about it. Within the gay community I tend to see good things done with Aesthetic. Outside of it not so much, as a rule. Yes, there is, but you have to know where to look for it. Added to that: if you want it to be original and high-quality, and - especially - non-template stuff, then you really need to look for it. I've been blogging male fashion in SL since 2008, and I shop an indecently large amount of time that I'm in SL. Ethan isn't far wrong when he says that the majority of menswear at events is sneakers, tattoos, sweatpants, sweatshirts, etc. It is, if you shop exclusively for a male avatar. It's something that I've bitched about for a long time in SL.

Just one (pretty simple, for me) pic, and sorry that you had to wait a week. I'm still under the weather and not feeling up to doing much inworld right now. Credits Birth for Seduction, plus Insol for Kustom 9. Makeup: Birth - Guyliner (Catwa) Facial hair: Insol - Roberto Bristle (fatpack - Catwa) Coat: Kitt Ragu for ::K:: - Sephiroth Coat (Geralt, Gianni, Jake, Slink) Hair: Volthair - Thomas (B&W) Ears: L'Etre - Ringed Mesh Ears Skin applier: Birth - Dakota (Tone 01 - Catwa) Eye appliers: Avi-Glam - Elysian Eyes (fjord - Omega, own brand, system) Brow appliers: Identity Body Shop - Thick Eyebrows (Catwa, Omega, system) Head: Catwa - Skell* (Bento) *review copy

While you won't be able to replicate your system face exactly it might be possible to replicate it close enough that it will pass your own critical inspection. Just how close you'll be able to get depends on a number of factors, not least of which is what your system head actually looks like. If you have specific features that cannot be replicated by a mesh head, then you may get close but not quite close enough for your liking. Only you can decide whether that's worth the work, but it is worth a try. To begin with, you need to ensure that you look for a head that's marketed as a 'Bento' head. Bento heads allow you to use your system shape sliders to manipulate settings on the head. Depending on which brands you try, you can use approximately 30 sliders (give or take a few) to change the shape. Some heads are more responsive to the sliders, too. A setting that's very sensitive on, say, a Catwa head might not be as sensitive on a Lelutka head. Secondly, you need to begin with a head that has a similar base shape to your system head. For example: if you have a very pointed system jaw, you may struggle to get the same jawline from a mesh head that starts out with a strong square jaw. Don't forget that - just as with system skins - the right skin applier (and any accompanying additional appliers, such as makeup, freckles, age lines, etc) can alter a mesh head, to the point where 'almost-but-not-quite' becomes 'well damn that's close enough for me!' There are many brands of Bento mesh head out there, from the big names such as Catwa and Lelutka, to smaller ones that are quickly rising (such as Genus) to the much lesser-known (and catered-for) ones that will necessitate the use of Omega cross-brand appliers because people don't create appliers for that particular make of head. For most Bento mesh heads you will need to start out with the included 'starter shape' which you then edit. This is because of the way that Bento heads are rigged. There are some heads (such as Utilizator's Normie head) that you can put on over your system shape, so that might be a good one to begin with. When it comes to editing, a good tip is to get on a posestand and cam close to your avatar (don't scrollwheel; instead hold down CTRL and keep tapping the zero key until you're cammed close. CTRL and 9 will reset your view) and take a closeup face-on snapshot, followed by a closeup profile snapshot. Rez a prim and bring it up to the same level as your head. Texture the front of it with your face-on snapshot, and the side of it with your profile snapshot. You can use these as guides to help you while you play with the sliders. The best advice is to demo demo demo. Try lots of head demos, together with lots of skin demos. @BelindaN's thread on this forum is a great example that shows how someone moves from a system head to a mesh head with the encouragement and help of others, learning about mesh along the way (and ending up as a very dedicated shopper!) - Incidentally, I was the biggest b!tch going about mesh heads, way back. I can point you to blog posts that I made wherein I railed against the infernal things endlessly. I was never going to wear one all the time until I could find one I could make exactly like the system head that I'd spent 9 years wearing, everyone wearing them looked the same, etc etc. I was a crushing and bloody annoying bore about it. Then Bento came along. I tried a few demos, but still none of them stuck with me. I could wear them for 5 minutes, but then Skell would be screaming "GET IT OFF ME!" But finally, in January of 2017, I found a head that I could wear for more than five minutes. I didn't take it off - until I bought another, and then another - and I now work as a CSR for that first head's brand Looking back now, I've come up with an analogy that works for me: I look at moving from a system head to a mesh head as akin to growing older in real life. My reflection in the bathroom mirror these days isn't the same as it was back when I was 20. I've matured, and - while my general features are still recogniseable - I don't look the same. In turn, Skell has just evolved and grown older in Second Life. I now use mesh heads of all brands and shapes as fashion accessories, and change my look all the time. I hope you find the right 'you' in the world of mesh heads, but even if you don't then I hope you have fun trying. Don't worry about being excluded from places that don't want you because you're not 'meshed-up' enough. Find the people who want what's inside, not what's outside.

The last photo that includes my system head that's on my Flickr:

On a more serious note: If you wear or rez something and suddenly get a yellow popup in your viewer, PAY ATTENTION TO IT. It will be asking if you want to grant it permission to debit your account. There are very few legitimate reasons why this may happen, such as a vendor that you're rezzing that might need to take L$ from your account to refund a shopper in your store, or a shopping HUD that you're adding to browse through and buy from in the comfort of your SL home. If the yellow popup happens after you've rezzed or worn a "Bento mesh head update" or a "free mesh body" that somebody has given you - BE DOUBLY CAREFUL, especially if it arrived out of the blue without your requesting any kind of update or delivery. Check the profile of the avatar who gave it to you. Chances are they will be a one-day-old newb and you're being scammed. Simply delete the item and move on.

Resurfacing from a nasty bout of RL illness.

1. When typing a response to your partner's naughty IM, check and double-check the name at the top of the IM box before you click 'send', to ensure that a group chat containing several hundred people hasn't just popped up ahead of your IM session and is about to be very entertained. (Experience: never happened to me, but I'm a mod in a very busy group and oh boy does that cause some giggles when it happens.) 2. Edit your home (assuming it's editable) and select 'locked' under the options. You'll thank me later when you accidentally try to delete it after unpacking something. (Experience: accidentally took my entire store into inventory during a busy hunt, leaving me standing on a single rug, surrounded by ad boards floating in mid-air while I frantically tried to re-rez the store before arriving hunt visitors plummeted to the ground.) 3. If you need to contact a creator, always read their profile first to find out their preferred method of contact. Following on from that, always be polite and patient when requesting help from a creator and/or their support personnel. (Experience: moderating a large group, and being a store owner myself. Start off on the right foot and don't piss off the people you're asking for help.) 4. When wearing anything from your inventory, always choose 'add' and not 'wear'. (Experience: losing my pants in a busy store when my hand slipped on the mouse...)

You'll be waiting for a while, I'm afraid. I'm currently as sick as the proverbial canine and it's doubtful that I'll be able to log in for a few more days. (I can barely type, tbh.)

With that kind of budget my recommendation would be to invest it in clothing, mesh hair, and possibly a new skin, rather than going 'full mesh' - at least while you decide if you want your return to SL to be a more permanent one. You're going to be severely limited with regard to any cheap/free mesh body parts that you can get, as per: If you opt for one of the available freebie bodies then those are very feature-limited. You cannot change skins on them or add anything such as facial hair or tattoos. Yes, a couple of them come with very generous alpha HUDs that allow you to mask off certain parts of the body so you can wear many items of mesh clothing, and yes most of them are Bento (allowing you to use the classic shape sliders to change the facial characteristics) but the lack of skin customisability is a big turn-off if - for example - your skin colour is important to you. (Also, be aware that the creator of one of those freebie bodies monitors mentions of his brand and will always pop into forum threads to promote it. Another freebie body brand has fanboys who will sometimes pop up to rave about it in threads like this. None of that sits well with me, I'm afraid, which is why I'm not mentioning brand names for the freebies directly in this thread.) If you opt for the currently-cheap L$500 discounted TMP (The Mesh Project) body and L$500 head you'll be buying into a completely proprietary system that is not compatible with standard skin appliers for other mesh body parts in SL. TMP is not Bento, so you'll be wearing the same face as anyone else wearing it. It hasn't been updated in years and there is little to no support for it. There are skin etc installers that you can buy for TMP, and you might find some that are quite cheap now, since it's so old that practically nobody is creating for it anymore. Also, the entire TMP 'style mode' HUD system relies on external servers to work, so if (or more like 'when') those are turned off, all TMP users will be unable to change any of the colours/textures on any TMP-branded products that they own. If you opt to get just a cheaper head - such as the L$900 non-Bento ones - you'll then have to find a skin that that contains both an applier for that head and a system skin for your body. While there are still quite a few stores for female avatars that offer these, the number offering them for male avatars is dwindling. (As ever: the guys get much less choice in SL!) They do exist, but you'll need to shop around, and - again - many of the options are limited. It's also much more difficult to get a good skin match between a mesh head and a system body, hence the option that many ladies take of using a choker to cover seams, which... well let's just say that's not an option that many guys choose to go for! In short: I'd invest that cash in some new mesh clothing and hair instead. If you want to 'mesh up' at least one part of yourself while you decide if you want to stay in SL then I would recommend getting the Slink Dynamic Male hands for L$875 (although that amount of money could equally buy you a decent mesh suit plus dress shoes from L&B, or a full mesh shirt-and-jeans outfit from Cold Ash, so weigh up your priorities here). As with a mesh head, though, you would need to find a skin store that offers system skins and Slink hand/feet appliers. If you can hang fire until after Christmas, your best bet would be to join the 7 Deadly Skins group (the group join fee is currently over L$1,000 because of the daily Advent calendar gifts, but it'll reduce to something more reasonable after Christmas is over). They have regular group gifts and some Midnight Mania boards that will get you some decent skins, and they're one of the few stores that still offer male system skins as well as Slink hand/feet appliers alongside their mesh head and body appliers. Also, I'm recommending the Slink hands because - if you do decide to remain in SL - the Slink body will give you the 'lean and athletic' appearance that you seek and you would only need to buy the body for an additional L$1,250 (and maybe the feet) if you already have the hands. (Although, if you can catch a Signature sale, their Geralt body is a little more athletic than Slink, and it comes with hands and feet included.)

Oh god, that's fantastic. No more squinting at the screen in the evenings! (I used f.lux for a long time and loved it, but it caused me several graphical issues when exiting Firestorm, as well as switching off Windows Aero and reverting to Windows Classic when I had certain programs open, so I uninstalled it.)

Hi Eidolon, and welcome back to SL I'll start at the beginning with a few questions. No need to answer them publicly if you'd rather not, but it'll give you food for thought. 1. You mentioned finding some "complete avatars" within your price range , but what IS your price range? People here are suggesting everything from feature-limited freebie bodies to the full Bento mesh works, but without an idea of what you're happy to spend we can't really recommend anything specific. Take the following as rough guidelines: A non-Bento mesh head (can only be stretched in four directions, but will take different skins, with basic single-layer options for hairbases and facial hair etc) will run you to about L$900. You can get heads that are static (no animations) plus 'frames animated' heads that you purchase add-on animation packs for. A Bento mesh head (can be customised using the classic shape sliders, will take different skins like the non-Bento head but usually has more layers for adding extra stuff such as scars, tattoos, freckles, etc) will run you to about L$5000. Bento mesh heads usually contain motion capture animations as standard and many of them have additional animation packs that can be purchased. The cheapest popular mesh body package that can be customised with skins, tattoos, etc and has Bento enabled hands is the Slink Physique Male full body/hands/feet set at £2,250. The next one after that is Belleza's Jake body, at just shy of L$3,000, followed by Signature's Gianni and Geralt bodies, at L$3,500 each. Signature do sometimes have sales (in fact you just missed a 30% off sale for Black Friday weekend, and earlier this year they did a half price sale) so it may be worth hanging on until the next one. Incidentally, I would be wary of "complete avatar" listings on Marketplace. Sometimes people think they're getting a mesh body and head, when they're actually just getting system stuff. If in doubt, check with someone who's experienced with mesh bodies and heads. 2. What kind of build do you want your body to have? If you opt for a mesh body you'll need to take into consideration the starting 'build' that it has. Signature Gianni is stocky and fairly muscular (the guy who's a regular at his local gym, but not quite into the whole steroid thing), whereas Signature Geralt, Slink Physique, and Belleza Jake are a bit more 'man in the street'. Be aware of the following regarding the Bento hands of male mesh bodies: Slink Physique's hands have a built-in idle AO, so you won't need a Bento AO to animate them Signature's bodies have Bento hands that have optional static poses (or you can cycle through all of the poses, which can look a bit odd if you're suddenly switching from clenched fists to Vulcan salutes) Belleza's Jake body has no Bento poses or idle AO, so if you opt for that one you'll need a Bento AO to stop the fingers from splaying out from time to time 3. You state that your style is typical "jeans and hoodie" so you'll be glad to know that about 95% of menswear in SL caters exactly to your wishes (more's the pity for the rest of us who want something else, mind you!) The vast majority of current and new male fashion these days is fitted to mesh bodies (and the bodies I've named here are the main ones that are fittted to). You can still find clothing rigged for Standard Sizing and also general Fitmesh clothing - both of which tend to work better on system avatars - but always try a demo regardless of what you like the look of. If you stick with a system body for now you'll need to make sure that your mesh clothing comes with alpha layers to hide bits of your body that might poke through, and a lot of mesh clothing these days assumes that the wearer has a mesh body instead and can use its built-in alpha HUD. If you opt for a mesh head, don't worry about finding hair that's fitted specifically for that head. Most modifiable hairstyles will work on any mesh head, and Bento-rigged hair will usually fit well enough that a hairbase applier (same as the old hairbase tattoos) will cover any minor bits of scalp that poke through. Lastly, for shopping, you always have Marketplace, but you can also check out the six main menswear events in SL. The links below will take you to the Seraphim website pages for each menswear event. At the Seraphim page, click the 'view gallery' link for the most recent entry and you'll see all the items on sale at the event. Links to get there are also included in the posts. The main menswear events are as follows: The Mens Department (TMD) Men Only Monthly Man Cave Hipster Mens Event (not just limited to 'hipster' gear) The Men Jail There is also the Signature Event, which (obviously) caters only to those with either of the two Signature bodies. Unfortunately, Seraphim doesn't have a gallery for that one.

Like this:

Use the head size shape slider, or decrease your body's shoulder width a little. Either will get you looking more balanced. Keep pulling your camera back to eyeball your head-to-shoulder ratio from a distance as you work. Stand up in real life with your arms by your sides. Note where your fingertips are (depending on your own arm length they'll be either a third of the way or halfway down your thighs). As long as your avatar could realistically reach down to pee (not that we need to here, but hey) you'll be fine If you want a visual guide, try going to Proportion Park inworld.

Well if you told me you were drowning I would not lend a hand... Credits behind the spoiler.

It's so familiar... can't put my finger on it, though...

Someone once said, right here in these forums: Wonder what happened to that person?

Would this possibly work for you? https://marketplace.secondlife.com/p/OS-Omega-Neck-Fix-Demo/9437064 Worth trying the demo, perhaps.

Dear Epiphany gacha creators: There is "Rare" and then there is "What's the percentage chance of me actually getting this damn thing? 0.000001%?" I kid you not. One of the best things I've seen in SL in a long time, and I broke my self-imposed gacha-pull limitation for it. No option to buy the full set, not even for the L$4050 that I've spent trying to get it, with no sign of it. Right now I'm standing at 54 pulls without getting that rare as yet. In fact, I'm pretty certain that this creator is using some kind of SuperUltraRare version of the script (if that exists). I have three of the 'silly' rare items, but none of the 'serious' one. I'm done. This just reminded me of why I put that self-imposed rule into place originally. Well done, creator: I now associate your store name with frustration.

To make your head the same colour as your body, you need to follow the instructions that I gave in my reply, which were: In other words: you need to find a Catwa-compatible skin applier for your head, plus a Signature-compatible skin applier for your body. They preferably need to be from the same skin designer, and in the same skintone: If you like the skin on your Signature body, then there are only a couple of skin designers who have made Catwa-compatible head appliers that will match it: some skins from Hermony, and three of the earlier skins (Cesar, Damian, and Viktor) by Vendetta. If you like the skins on your Catwa head, then those will only match to the Gen1 Clef de Peau body appliers that can be found in the Clef de Peau vendor at the Catwa Store. (Clef de Peau have since changed their body appliers twice, and the ones you will find in their mainstore don't match to the default skins in the Catwa Master HUD.) However, you don't have to stick with those skins. There are hundreds of other skin designers in Second Life, and most of them offer Catwa-compatible head appliers and Signature-compatible body appliers. Here is a long list of just some of the head applier stores on the Catwa website, but if that's a bit too long for you, then from my own personal skin collection we have: Aeros, Amias, Avenge, Avi-Glam, Birth, Clef de Peau, Essences, Go & See, Insol, L'Etre, Le Forme, Not Found, 7 Deadly Skins, Session, Stray Dog, Swallow, Tableau Vivant, The Plastik, Vendetta, VYC. (And probably a few more that I've not yet filed.) Shape = a series of numbers that set the underlying structure of your avatar (eg: your height, your musculature, the shape of your eyes, nose, chin, etc) Skin = a texture that you wear on your avatar that makes you look a certain way (this can include shading that - combined with the shape - will add further definition, such as muscles or high cheekbones) Skin applier = a texture that is applied to a mesh body and/or head that makes it look a certain way (this can include shading that - combined with the shape - will add further definition, such as muscles or high cheekbones) Skin and skin applier are often used interchangeably by many people when offering avatar customisation advice. Skin applier will only ever refer to what goes onto a mesh body and/or head, whereas some people may also call that a skin, just for brevity. Yes, the Signature body can be refined from that menu. The menu you're referring to (height, robustness, fat, etc) is the shape settings, so those modifications made there are how you set your shape. And, as mentioned above, you can make further modifications by wearing a skin applier that has shading to give more (or less) musculature. Think of the body as the canvas, and the skin applier as the paint you put on it. You can make a painting look 3D by using certain shading techniques, and many skin designers in SL do this for their skins. Here is another example, this time showing skin appliers with no additional makeup, facial hair etc. They're all shown on the same head with the same underlying shape. All of these skins are from different stores, and - if you look closely at them - you can see how they have different lips, different cheekbone shading, different brows, etc. All of that offers a different starting point, and - when you edit the underlying shape sliders (and add further appliers, such as facial hair, etc) the skins will have different effects on your face. These skins are all shown on the Catwa Victor head: Look at the cheekbone shading on the skins by Amias, Swallow, L'Etre, and Birth. The underlying shape that I'm wearing is exactly the same, but those skins make my cheekbones look higher and my cheeks more sunken than the skins by Clef de Peau and Go & See. Then look at the lip width on the Go & See skin, and compare it to the lip width on the Amias skin next to it. I haven't changed my lip width slider at all between the two images, but the Go & See one - because of the way the skin has been painted - makes my mouth look smaller. Lastly, look at the upper nose shading on the Stray Dog skin and compare it to the same area on the Vendetta skin next to it. The Vendetta skin looks older, more serious, even a bit 'frowny' because of that shading, but nothing about the underlying shape has been changed; it's all in the skin shading. Hopefully those images will give you examples of how skins can change the look of an avatar. When you add that in combination with the shape slider options you'll get a multitude of personalisation options that mean no two avatars will ever look exactly the same... unless they buy a pre-made shape from a store and wear exactly the same applier combination as someone else who bought the same pre-made shape.

And - just as they were in the past - Day 1 kicks off with the following: Female gift = two different Omega face and body appliers in two tones Male gift = one system skin set with Omega face appliers, Slink hand and feet appliers, and... body appliers sold separately Yep. I remember unpacking all of these last year, and I think the ratio was something like 95% of the female gifts were appliers, while about 90% of the male gifts were system skins (and a couple were TMP face-only installers). I do recall that one or two tones of the body appliers were available in a couple of the other packs within the Advent gifts, but even I gave up trying to sort them out in the end. I guess at least the current group gift for men offers all-in-one face and body appliers (in three of the darker tones) but that would still require some finagling that many guys will be annoyed to have to do: click to apply the all-in-one face and body, then click to apply the Advent gift face-only applier. Not to mention that the skin tones aren't the same for some, and are labelled in a confusing way. Eh, I guess I'm complaining about a freebie, but why do the guys so often get shafted with old stuff during store Advents?