Skell Dagger

It's great how we're all different and we all have different tastes, though, isn't it? I can go to Cold Ash, Ascend, ::K::, and Kalback and find great shirts, fitted pants, and business casual. I can go to Stealthic, Vango, and VoltHair and find great hair that's not laggy or female hair sized up for guys. What I'm looking for is the kind of thing in the pictures I posted, and what you're looking for is entirely different. What you're looking for does exist out there, albeit in small doses. What I'm looking for doesn't exist at all. Not in non-clothing-layer-n-flexiprims anyway...

Or how about the Balmain F/W 2018 collection? Not a sweatpant in sight.

Hey, designers! Need some inspiration? I've got some right here for you, from Rebels Market. How about starting with some of these? Plenty more where that came from...

And from a blog post that I wrote today:

Flaked out on the couch in the tower attic while I redecorate.

Welcome back to SL, and welcome to the wonderful (and initially confusing!) world of mesh bodies and heads To answer question 1: Since you are wearing both a mesh head and a mesh body you only need one alpha to cover your entire system avatar. Use the 'full body' one in the Catwa head folder. To answer question 2: It's not advised to tint either your head or your body to match the other. You won't be able to get a seamless match and you'll probably be left having to wear something like a choker to cover up the neck seam. To get around that you need to know how appliers work, and how they are usually sold, as well as how mesh body parts work. In the Catwa support group we often use a 'house' analogy: Your system avatar is the foundation at the base of the house. Above that you don't see anything (that's the alpha layer) until you start building the walls. Mesh body parts are the bricks that you build those walls from. And appliers are the paint (or wallpaper) that you put on the walls. If you've ever wallpapered a room, you'll know that you're supposed to check the batch numbers of each roll of wallpaper to ensure that they're the same. Tiny differences in dyes between batches might result in a very obvious mis-match if you try to paper a room with wallpaper from more than one batch. The same principle sits behind mesh head and body appliers. For that you're not checking batch numbers, but you are ensuring that you have a head applier and a body applier from the same skin designer*, in the same skintone. *Occasionally, this can be bypassed. Some skin designers create only head appliers, and their head appliers match to either default mesh body appliers (the ones in the body's own HUD) or to another designer's body appliers. Many stores now have one standard set of body appliers (for each of the main bodies) and their new releases comprise just new head appliers. Some stores sell all of their body appliers in one HUD, and others sell them per skintone. A small handful will give both head and body appliers in one pack. One or two even give away their body appliers completely free. Catwa's default female head appliers (the ones in the Catwa Master HUD) match to body appliers from The Skinnery. And the default skins in the Maitreya body HUD match to head appliers from Glam Affair. So - if you're looking for a cost-saving option initially - you can try some Maitreya body applier demos from The Skinnery, or some Catwa head applier demos from Glam Affair. That way you won't need to buy both a head and a body applier. However, if you want to try other skin designers' work, you will need either of the following: A Catwa head applier and a Maitreya body applier in the same skintone from the same designer OR An Omega head applier and Omega body applier (again: same skintone, same designer), together with the Omega Relay HUDs for both Catwa and Maitreya (which Angeoco gave the links to, upthread). Omega is a cross-brand applier system that works on every mesh body part, as long as you have the corresponding relay for that body part. Some of the relays (like the Catwa one) need to be worn every time you want to apply an Omega applier, and others only need to be worn once and clicked to install Omega into the body part. If you decide to opt for a Catwa head (since I see that you're just demoing right now) and you have any questions, search for and join the Catwa Head Friends group inworld and you can ask your question there.

Applier hair acts in the same way that system tattoo hairbases work: it puts a hair texture onto your mesh head. Hair appliers are added by wearing the applier HUD, which appears on your screen, and then clicking that HUD to apply the hair. For your Catwa Justin head you will need either a hair applier that states it is for Catwa heads, or an Omega hair applier (which you must use in conjunction with the Omega Relay HUD for Catwa; the relay HUD must be worn at the same time as the Omega hair applier). A visual example of the difference that Fionalein is explaining, between applier hair and mesh hair:

If you have not paid a considerable sum of money to purchase a Bento mesh head (most of the major brands charge several thousand L$ for a Bento mesh head, although non-Bento are usually much cheaper) then you are wearing your basic system avatar's head. It's difficult to see from your screenshots, since they're small and not close-ups of your face, but it's usually fairly easy to tell whether someone is wearing a mesh head or not if you can see certain parts of the head, such as the sides of the nostrils, or the dome of the skull. I'm not logged in right now (I'm replying while scarfing down breakfast before I head out to work!) but I have a bishonen avatar who uses Maitreya with V-Tech, and it's very difficult to get skins not specifically created for that combination to work across the board. Add in a system head and you've narrowed the field of possibilities down even further. Pink Fuel sells two full sets of skins that will work, but I'm not sure if they will work for a system head as well, since I don't 'go bishonen' often enough to check out all of their options. One of the skins matches to the Glam Affair skin defaults in your Maitreya body (and for this you would need to demo some system Glam Affair skins to find one in the same tone - if those tones were even used for their system skins - to wear on your system head (if that is indeed what you're wearing). Since I wear a Catwa Bento head on my bishonen avatar, I opted for a Lelutka Catwa skin applier. The other skin that Pink Fuel sells matches to a brand that I can't remember right now. As to the shape being for Lelutka Chloe head, then you're lucky that it looks good on a system avatar. Bento mesh heads can be reshaped using the system body's sliders, but almost all of them have a 'starting shape' and specific rigging, so a shape made for a Lelutka brand Bento head - if worn under a Catwa brand Bento head - will look terrible. Most Bento head-specific shapes don't look that great on a system head. Apologies for any typos. Like I said: scarfing down breakfast before... oh crap, is that the time?! *legs it*

A stillness in the rain... Credits Hair: [BAD HAIR DAY] - Blair (black and white) Collar: Zibska - Andris (gacha rare) Pants appliers: Sn@tch - Mahalo Embroidered Pants (Omega) Lipstick: PSYCHO:Byts - Marina Lipsticks (AK, Omega, Catwa, Genesis, Lelutka, Slink, system) Skin applier: The Plastik - Atharne (Takara) Nail appliers: Dark Passions - Koffin Nails ~ Let's Dance (Maitreya, Omega, Slink) Poses: Wrong

Any gents (or ladies here with a mAlt) fancy the opportunity of a guest spot on Virtual Bloke? I'm looking to feature occasional posts by others (because god knows I'm a lazy little &*^£! and can't seem to post more than once a month myself...) so if you're interested drop me a PM here on the forum. Initial stipulations: Be prepared to write at least a couple of hundred words about the look you're featuring, detailing the items in it (i.e. no "here's a pic and here's the credits list"). Humour and foul language are more than welcome. Examples of typical posts are Of course I swallow, and Intense Male avatars only, please. Virtual Bloke is about fashion for guys. I want the focus on your male avatar and the fashion he's wearing, so no pics of you posing with your female partner or friend, no matter how gorgeous she is Be prepared with more than one image, each showing different views and/or close-ups of your look (750px wide JPGs saved at high-quality settings) I'm not looking for 'Mr Normal' styles (jeans-n-hoodie, or tuxedo, or chinos-n-button-down). You probably know my kind of aesthetic by now - if not, glance through the last three or four pages of my Flickr - so if you can bring something a little more unusual to the table I'm definitely interested Since I run my own site on a paid server and domain I'll post on your behalf, but will introduce your post with linkbacks to your blog/Flickr/website and anything else you want me to include about you I don't SEO my site, so don't worry about all that stuff. I'm not expecting all the correct meta tags, headers, etc. Obligatory random fashion-y pic so that this isn't just a "write my blog content for me, dammit!" plea

I'll be your fire when the lights go out... Credits Mister Razzor for The Men Jail, plus Stray Dog for Uber. Facial hair applier: Mister Razzor - Facial Hair James (Catwa) Shirt: Ascend - Jorge Shirt (plains) Hair: VoltHair - Bruno (black) Cigarette: Nikotin - Classic Cigarette NextGen (classic paper add-on) Brow appliers: Identity Body Shop - Thick Brows (Catwa, Omega, system) Eye appliers: Avi-Glam - Elysian Eyes (fjord) (Omega, own-brand, system) Ears: L'Etre - Stretched Mesh Ears Necklace: RealEvil - Bones Necklace M3 Eyeshadow applier: Clef de Peau - Urban Makeup (Omega) Skin applier: Stray Dog - Ragnar (tone 04) Head: Catwa - Skell* (Bento) Body: Slink - Physique Male Pose: Wrong *review copy

The title of this post had me thinking it was about something else entirely. Now I'm disappointed

I prefer boys, but you do you, mate

It's a great body, Orwar, Sadly, though, it's missing the side-torso alpha cuts that Gianni has (my only quibble with Geralt) but - once the clothing support increases - I'll be wearing it far more often than I wear Gianni (and a damn sight more often than I wear Jake). I have a comparison post here, regarding Gianni and Geralt, using their default shapes.

Well they have to kit out those male alts somehow, and if they can do that and gift their male SL partners cheaply, then it's a smart move on Signature's end of things. And it's good publicity for their new, slimmer Geralt body, which - hopefully - will pick up even more clothing support after the sale. Side note: Every time a guy dips a toe into Catwa chat to ask for advice on which male mesh body he should buy, before I've even had a chance to finish typing "what kind of build do you want your new body to have?" so I can offer him options based on his own personal preferences, half a dozen women have all chimed in with "GIANNI!" It drives me sodding crazy, because once my question is out in chat, the guy usually comes back with something like "Slim and not too muscular." Not everyone wants to look like they visit the gym every day, and I wish that those women who think the Gym-Buff-Gianni look is the only look a guy should have would bloody well realise that. Yes, I have many feelings about this. Give a guy the options he needs, ladies; don't just tell him what you think he needs to look like.

I'm afraid I don't sell them, no. They're my own personal shapes for each Bento head that I own, so they're very specific to me. Besides which, I'm hardly in proportion anyway, since Skell has giraffe-length legs and a very long torso @Kristen Beornssen the main thing I would recommend - from a quick look over the shape you've create thus far - is to make the feet bigger. They're far too small for his legs - especially his thighs - and they make him look overbalanced. Yes, they'll mostly be covered by shoes, but if he ever goes barefoot to the beach - as in that picture - he's going to look out of proportion. I'd also shorten his neck just a little. Long necks - because they tend to be common on female shapes in SL - are one thing I often see women giving to male avatars. (It could just be the skin itself and therefore not fixable by shape adjustments, but his chin is way above his Adam's apple there.) I would also maybe bring the love handles in just a smidge, because he's very 'straight-up-and-down' in the torso area at the moment. Since he's not wearing a muscular skin, there's a disconnect (to my eyes) between the shape of worked obliques (that thicker look around the love handles) and the lack of visual reference to toned muscles on the torso... if that makes sense? As has already been mentioned: shapes are a personal preference, and my advice above is no exception to that. What you've got so far is proportioned well, but if you have any doubts, take him to Proportion Park, which is run by two of my fellow Catwa CSRs, and is a fantastic resource for anyone checking out shape proportions.

A little tip from my SL Fashion Photography post, to give you finer control over that: (Click the set of double lines at the top of that small menu popout, and that will ‘snap it off’ so you can keep it on your screen [until you relog or close it] and not have to go hunting for it each time.) That setting will slow down your animations (on your viewer only). It’s perfect for capturing that hint of a smile right before you break into an ear-splitting grin, or the moment when your eyelids flutter perfectly shut just before you pull a silly face. By watching each of your Bento mesh head’s animations at normal speed you can identify the moments you want to capture, then run them again in slow-motion, with your cursor poised over the ‘refresh’ button of your screenshot window. This vastly increases the number of possible face animations (in the form of those individual little moments) that you can make use of for your images. (The Developer menu is enabled via the Advanced menu, and—if using Firestorm—via the Advanced tab of your preferences.)

Always at home, since I rarely try on just one demo, and I usually try it with several other things to ensure I can get multiple uses and looks out of it. (Example: if it won't work on one mesh head or body, I'll switch to a different one, and doing that in a store would only add to the burden on others' viewers, as Bitsy mentioned.) A demo session can last several hours for me, and often I'll build an entire look around a demo until I'm happy with it, before I then go back and purchase the full item.

I suspect that there will be a fix for the neck issues, since - from what I recall - an updated neck was given to Catwa some time ago for her to calculate the Bento head neck fixes/sheaths in her Master HUDs. But I still remain surprised that Jake is now the second most rigged-for body out there, despite its flaws and the fact that it's still only a beta body. I have most of the male mesh bodies, and Jake is the one I avoid using the most, purely for those flaws. Like you, I have strong hopes for Geralt. The almost-instant support for it (the very next TMD after its release had two clothing items already rigged for it, which was fantastic), but - as I mentioned in my Gianni/Geralt comparison blog post, and as you mentioned above - there are some issues with alpha cuts, specifically: Geralt has removed the lower side-torso cuts that made Gianni so popular when it came to open-fronted shirts and jackets etc. Without those, I'm left with the same screaming frustration that I have with my Slink body. I can either alpha out the entire front strip of a section that needs removing (so the alpha shows in the open front of the shirt/jacket), or I can 'poke through' and ignore it, or I can just... wear another body and hope the clothing has different rigs for that body. Comparison of the Gianni alpha cuts (left) and the Geralt cuts (right) - As to the Lelutka head, I love it for androgynous looks, but dear god those ears... ETA: One other thing needs addressing with regard to Gianni/Geralt, and that is that creators need to stop using just the Signature logo on their ads and start stating which Signature body the clothing is rigged for.

Looking at that photo, your hair needs to be moved back and down. You've also sized it up a little too much. Click-to-resize hair can be a pain because of the way it works. Hair is always fitted around a central root prim that sits inside your head. (Quite often, in Catwa support chat, we hear questions from people who have removed their head for some reason or another - or cammed inside it - and they're confused as to why they have a BOX INSIDE THEIR HEAD. Yep, that's the root prim for their hair.) When scripted hair is resized it will either expand or contract (depending on whether it's being sized up or down) around that root prim. However, the root prim itself will sometimes resize as well, which moves it. And the next resize then expands/contracts around the root prim's new position, while the root prim expands... and moves again, etc. Usually, in these cases, the hair moves both up and forward. If you're not paying attention to what's happening at the front of your face it's possible to over-size because you're seeing the hair at the nape of your neck still digging in... while your bangs (or fringe) are hanging like a curtain about two inches away from your nose If you look at your image, you can see the back of the hair is cutting over the back of the ear that we can see. Hair in this style tends to have an obvious 'gap' where the ear should go, and that gap is usually a decent enough guideline to help you with placement of the hair while resizing. It's hard to tell whether that's the case here without a side-view image, but based on the possibility of that my suggestions would be: Move the hair back just enough that the ear is fully exposed and in that 'gap. Move the hair down just enough that you no longer see that 'support beam' effect in the front (but keep an eye on the top of your scalp to ensure that you're not moving it down too much) Begin to size down your hair in small increments. If the sizing script offers percentages, click 5% once and see how it looks. Use no more than another single 5% increment before you switch to 2% or 1% (whichever the script offers) Keep adjusting the position of the hair as you size down To get rid of that 'bald' look, use one of the applier hairbases from your Catwa head's HUD. From the shape of your jawline I'm going to hazard a guess that you might be wearing either the Victor or Skell bento heads, so you'll have - in your folder - a Hair & Beard HUD. Put that on and find a black hairbase in there. Click to apply it and it will add a feathery hairbase to your head that softens the bald look.

Thank you OK, I just want to clarify: are you wearing a mesh body, or using a system (aka 'classic') body? I'm asking mainly because in your initial post you say you're having a hard time with mesh bodies. And, since you mention "skin bleed through, like an alpha problem" I'm going to guess that (if you are wearing a mesh body) your full-body alpha layer came off and therefore your system avatar was showing through the mesh body. You should always 'add' items to your avatar, and not 'wear' them. Never just 'wear' a whole folder in order to add it to what your avatar is already wearing - even if it only has one item of mesh clothing and one alpha layer in it. If you're wearing a mesh body and head you only need one full alpha layer to cover up the entirety of your system body. Quite possibly you were already wearing the limit of alpha layers (it's easy to do without thinking: one for head, one for body, one for hair - which is entirely unnecessary with a mesh head; use the head's alpha HUD settings) etc. Then, if you 'wear' one more alpha, one that you're already wearing will be removed. If the removed one is the body alpha, that'll be why your skin went 'wonky' and patchy. In short, if you're wearing a mesh body and a mesh head, you need only to wear: one full-body alpha only, to hide your system avatar the mesh body the mesh head the HUDs for the mesh body and head You will also need to be wearing the following system items (without which your avatar won't rez properly) - a system skin system hair system eyes shape The icons for those look like this in the Linden Lab ('standard SL') viewer: Once you have those on, save the whole thing as a 'naked' outfit. You can then add mesh clothing items individually, and use the alpha tab on your mesh body's HUD to hide any bits of your mesh body that might poke through the clothing. (Incidentally, the reason why I asked if your skin was turning red when you applied alpha layers was because I wondered if you'd accidentally updated to the 'Bakes on Mesh' project viewer, as that is what will happen if you apply alpha layers while using that beta viewer.)

Nothing is un-fixable, so with a bit of work you can be back to your old self again. The hair sizing problem seems to be resolved, but I'm still concerned about the alpha issue you're reporting. In order for us to help you, you need to be more specific. I'm focusing especially on the following issues that you're reporting: "something went haywire with my alpha mask. my whole alpha system went wonky" "Every time I touch alphas from my inventory, my avatar skin goes wonky" "If I try to use the fabia mesh hair alpha, my skin glitches out" When you say your alpha system is 'wonky' and 'glitches out' what EXACTLY happens? My suspicion is that maybe parts of (or all of) your skin turn red or look strange in some other way when you apply alpha layers from your inventory. Is that correct? Are you using the official Linden Lab viewer, and have you updated it in recent weeks?

Feathery.... Credits Wings: Lassitude & Ennui - Seraphim Wings (gacha: storm - tinted) Veil: Musa! - Eyeball Face Veil (dark - tinted) Necklace: Musa! - Eyeball Necklace (dark - tinted) Piercing: Cerberus Xing - Chained Deceit (silver - tinted) Hair: Exile - Strawberry Wine* (grayscale) Skin: The Plastik - Atharne (kohaku) Lipstick: Lisa Walker Makeup Artist - Studio Fix II Lipstick 03 (Catwa) Pants appliers: Sn@tch - Blaster Foil Leggings Head: Catwa - Skell* (Bento) Body: Slink - Physique male Pose: Wrong *review copy

Agreed on beginning with the system avatar. Look for items bearing either the following 'classic avatars' logo on the ad - - or the 'standard sizing' logo, for mesh items that include sizes that don't require a mesh body - There are thousands of really nice outfits and separates on Marketplace and at freebie places (such as The Free Dove) inworld. One example is the Sea Hole Outlet on MP, where everything is just L$1. Everything from system clothing to mesh clothing, to footwear for non-mesh feet is there. For skins, someone has already suggested the 7 Deadly Skins lucky boards inworld (click them when the first letter of your username appears on the board to win the skin that's inside, but you need to be fast in order to beat others whose names also start with that letter). Several more of them have now been set so that anyone can use them, not just group members. Keep an eye on freebie blogs such as FabFree, which constantly blog cheap and free items. They have an 'under 30 days' list of items you can only get if your avatar is less than 30 days old, so definitely check that out. (The free under-30-days skins at Pink Fuel are a must!) And take your time. Learn how the basics of the system avatar work before you dip a toe into the pond of mesh bodies and heads. And be aware that the cheap and free mesh bodies are always feature-limited; usually in the form of not being able to change the skin. They're a good start to learning how to work with mesh body add-ons, but you're limited in how you can customise them.

Allow me to paint a scene for you: A pub full of people enjoying a drink or two. General chit-chat going on, people having a laugh and socialising. Suddenly a man runs into the pub, crying out "Some idiot closed the local children's play area! The brewery MUST save the play area!" He runs from table to table, shoving a tablet under the pubgoers' noses, playing them videos of kiddies playing happily in the play area. More people start running into the pub, yelling "THE BREWERY NEEDS TO SAVE THE PLAY AREA!" "The kiddies will have nowhere to play!" "This cannot be allowed to happen!" They begin thrusting printouts of blog posts about the play area closure under the noses of the pubgoers. One by one, the pubgoers make suggestions: "Mate, we're just having a quiet drink. We can't do anything. If you want the brewery to save the play area... perhaps you should contact the brewery instead?" "Why don't you pool resources and create a new play area elsewhere? I'm sure it could be done." More people rush in. "SAVE THE PLAY AREA!" More pubgoers chip in with useful suggestions, mainly along the lines of how the protestors can save or restore or rebuild the play area. One guy (c'mon, there's always one!) makes a wisecrack, but most of the advice is nothing but helpful. Another protestor runs in. "I can't believe how UNCARING everyone in this pub is! Also, I'm NOT underage!" One pubgoer pipes up, "Yeah, I hate this pub." Pints and beer bottles start to fly...