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Vanity Fair

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  1. Vanity Fair
    Okay, I went and bought the new Alaskmetro skin (L$50) and shape (L$10) for Senra Jamie, and I used that as my starting point. I noticed that, even then, using the default Alaskmetro shape and the Alaskametro skin, when my avatar blinks, the eyebrows do deform every so slightly (but it is noticeable to me), so I gave up, made a copy of the Jamie head, and went and deleted the blinking script on a copy of my test avatar's Senra Jamie mesh head, and wore the nonblinking version instead. This stops the blinking, but (surprisingly) keeps the subtle eye movements (the eye movement animations are included in the Contents tab), and I think it's quite acceptable! I used the Alaskametro shape as my starting point, with some tweaks, and I think this is my best look yet for Jamie! I've just decided that the built-in blinking on both the Blake and Jamie heads just bugs the hell out of me (there's something about the way the skin above the eyes moves that just looks WRONG to me, even on this skin), so I *BANISH* it! Begone! 😜 And this also means that just about any older SLUV skin would then work with these heads—as long as you don't mind the not blinking thing... 😉 I mean, for only L$60 total, I would call this a pretty damn good look that would blend in seamlessly with any club packed with pricer brand-name mesh heads and bodies!
  2. Vanity Fair
    No problem! I just did a quick check, and YES, it works! You just have to rez the Senra head, right click on it and select edit, then go to the Contents tab and delete the script. Then be sure to rename the head so you can find it again easily, take it back into your inventory, wear it, and it works just fine, WITHOUT blinking! And yet, the eyes still move around like before, which is nice.
  3. Vanity Fair
    Thanks! Follow-up question: Because the head is separate, wouldn’t you just have to do this for the head, and not the body?
  4. Vanity Fair
    Okay, I need someone to explain like I’m five (ELI5), step by step, how to strip out the blink script from a Senra head. I would do it for the Blake head in an instant, just to get an old Belleza male skin which I loved and used a lot back in the day, to work on that head. Please and thank you! 🙏
  5. Vanity Fair
    Do you have a link to this "free fix on the MP" for the fingernails and toenails? Thanks. I've seen a lot of good-looking skins applied to Senra Jamie bodies/heads in this thread, but what I want to know is, do the eyebrows glitch when they blink? Every SLUV-based skin I tried had this problem. You can read my latest blogpost for details, and a video which demonstrates the problem. (Blog address is in my signature line.)
  6. Vanity Fair
    Yep, I can't remember where i saw it (perhaps Virtual Secrets, the National Enquirer of SL?), someone said that the LeLutka Avalon is the new Catwa Catya, LOL! Seriously, it has been fascinating to watch LeLutka slowly replace Catwa as THE mesh head brand on the grid. Giving away free mesh heads these past three Christmases has been a savvy marketing move.
  7. Vanity Fair
    I have Maitreya Lara for my main avatar (Vanity), although I did purchase on impulse an Inithium Khara body during one of their recent one-hour flash sales for L$1,000 (mainly because it was on sale, and I am a freebie fashionista a.k.a. a cheap ***** who couldn't resist a bargain LOL!). I love the Khara body, but there still aren't a lot of designers creating for it yet, so I will likely just keep it in storage and wait patiently. If it flops, I'm only out a thousand Linden dollars, no big deal. I had originally bought the Kalhene Analexa for a few female alts, but then the creator dropped that body entirely, so I updated some of them to Maitreya Lara during last year's 50%-off Black Friday sales. Also, I discovered that the Analexa bodies were not as Maitreya Lara-compatible as the LucyBody Atenea, which you can get for free and only requires a L$250 HUD to make them Bakes on Mesh compatible. Almost all of my female alts use Atenea now. Kalhene chose to gamble on Erika, and while I see more designers creating for Erika, it's still a bit of a gamble (the recent L$50 Erika Zero was a smart move, though). Some thoughts from my freebie fashionista/cheap ***** perspective: 1. Maitreya is very smart to give LaraX to existing Lara 5.3 users has a giveaway upgrade. Whether or not you use it is up to you, but I would be very surprised if content creators are going to rig for both Lara 5.3 and LaraX bodies. Once LaraX is launched, you can expect that clothing for Lara 5.3 will start to dwindle, just as it's now harder to find new clothing for Belleza Freya since GenX launched. HOWEVER, the LucyBody Atenea is still nearly free (only L$250 for a Maitreya Lara-compatible body with the Bakes on Mesh HUD LucyBody sells), and still relatively popular according to Lucia Nightfire's statistics, so that might keep some designers creating clothing for Lara 5.3. Maybe. 2. Keep in mind that, from here onward, there's going to be a growing number of people whose first mesh head and body are Senra. Whatever company makes it easy/easier for Senra Jamie mesh head and body users to upgrade to *their* brand is going to reap the rewards. I'm not sure yet what this would look like, but we'll know it when we see it. The emphasis needs to be on an EASY upgrade, something with lots of help for newer users. 3. Never underestimate the power of good-quality freebies! The Genus Strong gift head is the number one head on Lucia's list, followed closely by the three free LeLutka female heads which LeLutka has given out as free gifts in 3 successive years. All LeLutka would have to do is include some Senra-compatible body skin to sweeten the deal this coming Christmas. Just sayin'... 4. The SL mesh head and body wars are entering a new phase. Because clothing designers are NOT going to rig for more than 5 or 6 bodies, TOPS, there will be both winners and losers in this marketplace. Marketing and good PR is going to be key in this new round of battles. No sense having a great mesh body if nobody knows about it and next-to-nobody designs for it!! So I'm just gonna stock up on popcorn and grab a front-row seat to this particular three-ring circus! 🍿
  8. Vanity Fair
    I bought and tried the Izzie's eyebrow concealer and, unfortunately, it did not cover all the eyebrow area on the male Belleza Ewan skin I tried it on. It did, however, work with the female IC Skins Bella Snow skin I tried it on. At this point, it is very clear to me that entire eyebrow/eyelid area area on the Blake AND the Jamie mesh heads is VERY different from the SLUV used on most older male skins, and it is unlikely that they will work with the Blake and Jamie heads, unless you do workarounds like the eyebrow concealer and use the included brows, which sit a lot higher on the forehead! I consider this a MAJOR problem with the Blake and Jamie heads, and frankly, I'd rather just use one of the free LeLutka heads I picked up at previous Christmases than try to find an old SLUV skin that will work with it. It's extremely disappointing. Hopefully, some designers will create new skins specifically for Blake and Jamie, which work with the peculiarities of these heads. I have added two pictures showing the Bella Snow skin (where the eyebrows do move when the avatar blinks), with the same head and skin, using the Izzie's eyebrow concealer and the Jamie brows. You can see just how much higher up the Jamie brows sit! I set the eyebrow height to its LOWEST level, and they are still sky-high!
  9. Vanity Fair
    I have been spending my Sunday afternoon trying on various old skins from my oldest female avatar, Ledba Loon (get it? lead balloon? Thank you, I'll see myself out...), and I found one old skin from IC Skins, which used to specialize in "photorealistic" skins for classic, system avatars. Most of them were horrible, but this Bella Swan skin is a keeper! I'm quite happy with this look. Unfortunately, I cannot find IC skins on the SL Marketplace, so unless you bought this years ago, you're out of luck.
  10. Vanity Fair
    Oh, thank you! I will have to try this.
  11. Vanity Fair
    Yes, that's the word I was looking for, "flat". I don't like the included skins for Blake at all. I spent the afternoon trying on free/dollarbie skins from Belleza, BROX, and Sweet's on the Senra Blake mesh body, and the biggest problem I have discovered is that the eyebrows move on them when the avatar blinks (I fiddled with the eye and eyebrow sliders, and nothing fixed this). There's something about the way the Senra body is designed that is just different enough from the SLUV to cause a problem. I wrote up yet another blogpost about my skin testing for Blake this afternoon, including a short video so that you can see the problem with the eyebrows yourself. I'm starting to think that this is a serious emough problem that it might not allow users to use any older skins with Blake. My blog address is in my signature line.
  12. Vanity Fair
    Okay, I have been spending the evening trying out old SLUV skins on Senra Blake, and one thing I can tell you is that the old Belleza male skins are the BOMB! There are only two problems: one, the fingertips will be a different colour (see image one), so you will need to use something like Sweet's free tintable Quick Nail Cover Fix on the SL Marketplace (see image two). The final three images are the final look for my avatar. *chef's kiss* Oh, and the second problem? When he blinks, the eyebrows get deeper LOL! Something you can't tell from a still photo...
  13. Vanity Fair
    Okay, now that I know that some creators are specifically making clothing to fit Ruth 2.0, I will add a column to my spreadsheet! Thank you, @Sean Heavy! UPDATE: Done! You can now see version 1.1 of my comparison chart on my blog (please see my signature for the address). Thank you to everyone who made suggestions.
  14. Vanity Fair
    I also just realized that I had turned signatures OFF, so I couldn't see ANYBODY'S signature lines! D'oh! No wonder I was so confused. Fixed now, thank you, @Rowan Amore and @Love Zhaoying ❤️!!!
  15. Vanity Fair
    You're welcome! I also like the Atenea body and use it for my female alts. I mean, L$250 for a Maitreya Lara-compatible mesh body is a real bargain! I can't remember when I finally figured out that Atenea's hands also work with Maitreya Lara-rigged rings and (most, but not all) fingernails, but I was very impressed! The latest version has a special button now for Maitreya Lara-rigged high-heeled shoes, too (it has Slink-compatible feet otherwise, so boots and strappy shoes might be a problem with this body). I was thinking of adding the Ruth bodies (e.g. Sweet's, which I also like) to my spreadsheet somewhow, but I don't know much about mesh clothing specifically for them, and how well Maitreya apparel fits it. I haven't really tested them out very much, so I am curious to learn more from others' opinions about the Sweet's and other, similar Ruth 2.0 bodies.
  16. Vanity Fair
    Awww, thank you so much! I'm just so happy that my freebie fashionista passion for Second Life has an audience. If I had a killer Jeopardy category, it would be this topic, LOLOL!
  17. Vanity Fair
    Until I figure out how to set up a proper signature for the community forums (sorry!), google "ryan schultz blog" and you should be able to find it.
  18. Vanity Fair
    Okay, I have decided to take a first stab at creating a comparison chart for what I think are the six best options for a free or inexpensive (defined as costing L$250 or less) female mesh body (including, of course, the new beta Senra Jamie). "Best" is obviously subjective; I have deliberately left off those bodies which don't support Bakes on Mesh (e.g. the freebie Altamura bodies) and/or have poor to non-existent designer support (e.g. Ultra Vixen). I'm open to complaints, suggestions, edits, howls of aggrieved outrage at neglecting YOUR favourite body, etc., etc. I'm also thinking of creating similar charts for free/inexpensive male mesh bodies, female mesh heads, and male mesh heads. You know where to find my blog. I won't put a link here because I'll land up getting banned from the forums (again), but I did want to spark some discussion of the pros and cons of the various free and inexpensive options, especially in the context of the Senra launch. Thanks! Have at it!
  19. Vanity Fair
    My understanding is that all the previously available classic/system/non-mesh avatars are still available, but I haven't created a new SL account in a while, so I don't know whether they are an option for new sign-ups, or if they force you to pick a Senra body to start off with. As long as people have a choice, I don't mind.
  20. Vanity Fair
    Agreed about the arms on the Jamie body. Even with the body fat and upper-body muscle sliders set all the way to 100, the arms are still too thin in proportion to the rest of the body. I'm hoping that LL address this, since they are calling these bodies "beta," but I suspect that it might be too difficult to change at this late(r) stage. (And frankly, I have the same problem with name-brand mesh bodies like Kupra...) The other thing I dislike is that, on both the Blake and Jamie bodies, the armpits are cut too high. Again, this is a common problem for name-brand mesh bodies( *COUGH*Maitreya*COUGH*). Once someone points it out to you, you begin to see it everywhere!
  21. Vanity Fair
    The only slider on the Blake body that didn't work for me was the crotch bulge. I would argue that that is VERY important to some people 😜
  22. Vanity Fair
    @rasterscan, are you just hanging out at the new welcome hub, just to spot Senra avatars? I had the same idea, and I did that on August 1st, but the mentors there told me that I was too early, nobody had shown up yet LOL!
  23. Vanity Fair
    And I am willing to bet that any number of mesh head brands are already thinking about this. There could potentially be a big market for third-party stuff that works with the Senra bodies, as an interim step to replacing the whole body from head to toe. Give the users a migration path, toss some freebies or cheapies their way (as LeLutka has done so well these past three years!), and you could easily take some market share away from front-runners like the still-ubiquitous Maitreya Lara. Also, there's definitely going to be a big market for skins for the Senra heads and bodies, especially for Blake, since the provided Blake skins have a smooth, unblemished, "pretty" look that I don't think most users will be satisfied with. I'm itching to try these bodies with some of the free male skins from Sweet's on the SL Marketplace, for example. And why on earth were there no facial hair options for Blake? That seems like an odd omission. Question: has anybody tried the Senra Jamie mesh body with one of the better-known freebie heads available on the grid, like the Genus Strong or the Rebirth Kira? I may play around with it a bit myself this evening, just to test things out.
  24. Vanity Fair
    Actually, BOTH pictures I posted were of the Blake mesh body in the pink dress: same Blake head, same Blake body. It was just different body shapes, and different AOs. Although, now that you mention it, the head skins on both the Jamie *and* Blake heads do look very similar (although the body skins are obviously different). Likewise, BOTH pictures were of the same Jamie body in the navy blue suit—again, different body shapes and different AOs. I just wanted to show how the bodies responded to the sliders, and that it was pretty easy to express different kinds of gender identities and body types. I'm still not happy about the toothpick arms on the Jamie body, though; they don't respond as well to the body sliders as the legs do.
  25. Vanity Fair
    Yes, I remember. I actually have a couple of pair which I have used with the alpha'ed-out feet of a male mesh body for a drag queen avatar. They were ancient high-heeled sandals by YDEA, and I believe I picked them up at the excellent freebie store at Ajuda SL Brasil years ago (they are gone now). Here's a few sickening lewks for you feauring those shoes:
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