Skell Dagger

I completely missed this post, or I would have chipped in sooner. To Fiona's list I'll add Krankhaus and Grima (as well as correcting the spelling of Violetility). Also, don't discount a lot of the female clothiers for pants and footwear - all of which can be worn on the Maitreya body. For my Bishonen looks I rely a lot on appliers for tops, and I look for jackets rigged for Maitreya that don't have obvious boob-shaping (a prime example of which would be the Flash Cyber Coat by A&Y that was out at Neo Japan). Callum mentioned Hotdog, who are rigging for both male and female and also putting 'flat female' fits into some of their coat and jacket packs. Also, take a look at Riot and Cubura, both of whom rig for V-Tech. Granted much of their stuff is more along the pretty femboi lines, but check for darker colours and you'll probably find stuff that you like. (Riot has an amazing Frank-N-Furter costume at Epiphany gacha at the moment; the [rare] heels alone are worth playing for.) Sn@tch is worth checking out for appliers and accessories (big sale on right now, so you can pick up stuff cheaply) and Ivey tends to let the 3D shape of mesh bodies do the work, so she goes minimal on the shading. I've used many of her black-coloured female appliers on a male avatar, and what little shading there is just looks like under-pectoral shading.

I thought that naughtiness was suppose to be punished...?

Just picked this up from Blogotex. This is going to be interesting

You're welcome

Entirely dependant on what's needed for the shot. It doesn't have to be cylinders, either. You can use spheres as well (these are better for worn projectors closer to the body). With projected lighting you have various parameters you can set, which will determine how sharp- or soft-edged the lighting is (perfect for actual spotlight effects). I've done a quick little video here showing some of them. And, of course, moving the prims themselves around will add to the effect, depending on distance - and rotation, with regard to cylinders etc. Rotation, especially, is great for lighting from angles. Basically, the closer the light is, the sharper and brighter it is. That's why I prefer distant lights, for a softer effect, although sometimes sharp and bright is what you want. My usual lighting setup is about 6-10m away from me, unless I really need to focus on the light itself as part of the image (eg: if I'm standing next to a pink neon sign I'll make sure I have a close pink light on that side of my face). I like to play with Windlight a lot, and do a lot of post-processing, which means that I'm very aware of how my preferred filters will affect the lighting on the original image. While I can tweak that before I start applying the filters, I try to get it as good as I can while inworld. For added fun, try adding textures to the projector. A nice bokeh image can create really interesting effects. I may remove one or two of them, but this is what I usually use when I'm on my photo platform (I'd be standing where the box is at the back) and then I adjust the position of the projectors according to the Windlight I'm using: (Sorry for taking up so much of this thread with a lighting tutorial!)

I just went up to my photo platform to whip up (ooer!) a quick demo. This is how I set out a simple lighting rig. It's just two cylinders with the projector on the inner faces: white light to Skell's right (and slightly behind him) and orange light to his left (and slightly in front). View Transparent is obviously enabled, so you can see the invisible lighting: And this is what it looks like on his face: Obviously, the Windlight being used would have an effect on the end result (I'm using Fallout - 12PM, which is a Firestorm preset). That's just a quick 5-minute demo. Normally I'd spend more time getting the colours just right, etc.

Next time I attend a gacha event to try and win one single rare item, would someone please poke me sharply in the ribs if I start playing individually in the hopes of getting it, instead of just forking out L$2,500 for the fatpack that will contain everything anyway? I just spent L$1,100 without success before I even noticed that I could have simply bought the fatpack.

Welcome! I'll admit that, more often than not, I'm a lazy git and I let Windlight do the heavy lifting with regard to lighting for my shoots. But when I do take the time to set up more complex and detailed lighting I always get better results.

If I may...? Your scene composition here is of your avatar standing in what seems to be a back alley, lit only by a flaming barrel on one side and a sliver of colder light (possibly from reflected moonlight or a white neon sign off-camera) on the other side. Therefore your lighting should reflect that. It appears to me that you're wearing a general facelight that's in front of your face and casting a complete and full light. It does look a bit more golden, as it should do if a fire is casting light, but there's also that colder white light coming from the left of the shot. I would remove the facelight, place a white light projector close to the wall, angled out toward your avatar and catching your turned-away side a little, and then a warmer projector amid the flames that's angled to your left side. (Also, I know that moonlight would come from above, but the lighting on that left side wall is brighter at the bottom than at the top, so the position of the projector should reflect that.) If this leaves the central part of your face in too much shadow, then add a very very faint warmer light projector more directly in front of you, but it should only be enough to ensure that your face comes out of the darkness a little. If you can't rez at the location you can still set up the projectors and wear them. I have a set that I made and wear, which is almost identical to the hellishly expensive ones you can buy on Marketplace. They do the job perfectly well for my needs One thing I'll strongly suggest (only if you have the cash, obviously) is to find the L$300 to join the Weekend Ruiner group and pick up the big 'absolutely everything' box that's currently in group notices. Inside it you'll find hundreds of backdrops and other things that are perfect for photoshoots, many of which have projected lighting that will either inspire new ideas or encourage you to try new things with Windlight and your own projectors.

There is no real difference in terms of what they do. Omega widens your choices, and it can also be used on different mesh body parts (with the correct relays) so it means that - if you change your head or body to a different brand at a future date - the Omega items would still work, whereas specifically-branded items would not. For example: if you buy a Lelutka head and a Belleza body you could buy a head applier for Lelutka and a body applier for Belleza. But if - a few months later - you decide to switch to a Catwa head and a Maitreya body (and wanted to keep the same skin) you would need to re-buy the appliers: this time a Catwa one for your head and a Maitreya one for your body. However, if the skin designer offers (and you had initially purchased) Omega head and body appliers then you would only need to pay the much smaller amount for the two new Catwa and Maitreya Omega relay HUDs, rather than for entirely new skin appliers. Since I use multiple bodies (and I change skins frequently) I usually prefer Omega appliers for the body and I usually purchase branded appliers for the head. But that's mainly because I have an eye for which head brand I plan to use that skin with. Sometimes I'll go for the Omega option all around, if I think I can use that skin on more than one head brand.

I feel for anyone who was halfway through putting a look together when they crashed. They're going to look all kinds of odd when they manage to get back in I'm also going to suggest that - when things calm down - those of you who have crashed multiple times might want to clean-reinstall your viewer. Crashes can cause all sorts of cache and settings corruptions, and multiple crashes stand even more chance of doing so.

Yeah, SL just carked it again. I was at N21 and trying to buy a demo hair. Three attempts, followed by *ting!*

The reason why others don't see your body and you still do is that it's actually detached itself during the teleport, but your viewer hasn't registered that fact. The same thing can sometimes happen with worn HUDs, which is why they seem to stop responding. Mesh bodies disappearing usually happens because you have too many items attached to one point on your avatar. Wear your body, then look in your inventory to see which point it's currently attached to. More often than not it will be either Centre or Left/Right Hand. Detach it and re-attach it to another point instead. That should fix the problem.

Clover twerking at the Cartel Halloween party https://i.gyazo.com/1018ab886e50cc86add494e57b27ef81.mp4

Dancing at some shady-lookin' venue or other...

Think I might go out tonight

Around here, 'dear' is little-old-lady-talk. My Nan used to 'dear' me a lot when she was alive, and it was always spoken with a loving intent. However, yes, I've encountered it being used by people in Second Life in a far more condescending manner. I have, on occasion, been known to 'honey' or 'sweetie' people, depending on the amount of nose-downlooking I wish to aim in their general direction, purely because they're being silly (and usually entitled) little twunts.

So you just want people to follow you because you've bribed them with gifts, rather than because they're interested in what you have to say and want to get to know you? Having 10 bribed followers doesn't make you interesting, fun to hang out with, or a good friend. Why not look around the forum or inworld, find places and people that way, interact with them, and make new friends that way?

This can sometimes happen when you have more than one mesh item attached to the same point. Try attaching the body to a different point on your avatar.

I've been blogging male fashion in SL for ten years. I know what the market is like for both men and women, and men get exceedingly short shrift, as per the part of my post that states: "the guys get shafted when it comes to good quality free and cheap mesh stuff". I have tried the other free male Altamura avatars that you mention. As a CSR for a major mesh head brand I am very familiar with working with Bento shapes, and I have spent several hours trying to mould the Altamura freebies into something that I'm happy with. They just simply are not for me. The heads are not as responsive as I'd like (and I say that as an impartial observer) and the bodies do have some heavy limitations which I mentioned in my post. The original poster clearly stated that he wanted skins that were Omega, so - when the Altamura freebie was mentioned - I knew it wouldn't work for him, since it doesn't support Omega. Anyone who knows me will know that I don't promote only the brand that I work for; instead I will always recommend that people go for what works for them, not what I say they should use). The HUD is absolutely enormous (takes up a lot of screen real estate and cannot be minimised) and contains hundreds of tiny cuts which - while fantastic for getting clothing to fit - are sometimes so tiny that it's difficult for someone with 20:20 vision to click on them, let alone anyone with a vision impairment. You are skipping over the part in my post where I clearly stated the following: I gave my own personal, objective opinion on that body, which I found to be underwhelming. I did not knock the store or the creator in any way; I simply didn't think that particular body was something that I would recommend - unless it was to someone who didn't care about having only one pre-chosen skin to wear (depending on which version they picked up). I have promoted a previous Altamura freebie (the TeleportHub 'Aaron' body/head combination) on my Flickr, so I'm hardly trying to bash the brand as much as you appear to think that I am here. And I certainly did not post what I did as a 'dig' at a so-called 'rival brand' than the one I work for. I strive always to be impartial whenever I'm reviewing anything, no matter what it is. The comparison between male and female is a valid one. This particular male body comes with one unchangeable skintone (yes, dark available at one place and light available at another) whereas the free female body that I mentioned comes with multiple skin options and three different heel heights that fit shoes made for one of the two most popular mesh body brands. You seem to be saying that - because there are more female avatars than male avatars in Second Life - it's perfectly okay and understandable that free male items have much more severely limited options. As someone who has been in the male fashion industry for as long as I have and as someone who has campaigned for more choice and options in male fashion, my question is: Why is that okay? Lastly, you're posting on an alt whose profile states that it's reserved exclusively for building. Out of your 6 posts on this forum so far, 5 are defending/promoting/talking exclusively about Altamura avatars. And the 6th post is in regard to outdated mesh body reviews on the Mesh Body Addicts site, so I'd lay money on you having visited there and seen that the entries for Altamura are not current. So please forgive me if I'm eyeing your response with a modicum of cynicism here. In short: while I strive to be impartial when giving advice on this forum about male avatar creation using mesh heads and bodies (to the point of recommending - if I think that's what the poster needs - a rival mesh head brand than the one I work for) you appear only to be interested in one brand. Care to post using your main avatar next time, so that we know who stands behind those promotions and defensiveness regarding said brand?

If you use Flickr just for your own amusement and you're happy to upload your images there you can simply hotlink them here on the forum. Unlike many other image hosts, Flickr are absolutely fine with you doing that. As an added bonus, you don't run into the 4MB maximum size issue that you have when uploading to the forum. I've made a quick video (viewable here) showing you how to get the correct size link for the forum and paste it into a forum post so that it shows up. I always go for the size option closest to 1600px wide for posting here. You really don't need to pick anything bigger than that. With regard to this, your image is probably in PNG format. Below is an image of the exact same SL screenshot (taken at 5000px wide) in both PNG and JPG formats. Note the difference in file size after it was saved as a JPG: Open your image in whichever image editor that you use (if you don't have one, Photoscape, Paint.Net, and Gimp are all free; Photoscape is easier if you just want to crop, resize and maybe add some filters, but it does a hell of a lot more than that if you need it to - I used it for the annotated screenshots here) and re-save it in JPEG format. Keep the JPEG quality setting as high as you can (in Photoscape mine is set to 95% for quick re-saving) and you'll see the file size go down without any appreciable artefacts appearing on most images. Below is an example of an SL screenshot taken at 5000px wide. Original file size is highlighted in red, and the expected file size after saving at 95% JPEG compression is highlighted in green.

The OP posted a screenshot of the group's profile, which included the name of the founder at the top. That screenshot has since been removed by a moderator.

The Second Life forums are not America. Klytyna is British. (So, for that matter, am I. Should I get the sandbags ready and dig myself a shelter, ready for the Fall of the United Kingdom?)

Premium perks: Would there be any chance of a new premium tier perk being the ability to pay for more group slots over and above the 60 that premium members already get? Many of us committed shoppers would gladly pay a bit more to get 80 or 100 group slots. Group chat: I'm a CSR and moderator for a very large and busy store group. Many times, when chat lag kicks in, important answers get eaten by the chat lag gremlins. I'm not sure if it's even possible, but is there any way to fast track or prioritise moderator chat ahead of general member chat, so that our replies don't go missing? (This can be especially critical when scammers target group members and we need to warn people.) Notecards: Will there ever be any ability for simple formatting in notecards? Being able to use bold, italics, underline, and clickable links would be useful, especially for those of us who write tutorial or explanatory notecards. @Grumpity Linden

Ah, but the week after that involved nicking Dad's (second) best suit, stuffing it with whatever you could find, sticking an old hat on the top, and dragging it around the neighbours' houses to ask for a Penny for the Guy. (Or am I just old? Okay, I'm old. But I rather like that we celebrate the only man to enter Parliament with honest intentions )