Orwar

Couldn't find my smiley thing, but apparently Gimp now has a brush of the Gimp logo, so I went with that instead ...

There are plenty of pose makers around, but personally I prefer making my own - poses never really fit perfectly, due to the difference in avatar shapes, and once you've used a pose I find I don't like re-using it again ... So it saves L$ in the long run, too. Plus, you could potentially try selling them.

Browses the thread and ponders whether to hide his long hair and beard ...

Quality. Doesn't matter what something is, if it's well made I'll happily cough up for it. Rather pay L$500 for a good top, than buy 10 bad tops for L$100 that I'll wear once and then never want to see again.

𝔪𝔦𝔪𝔦 𝔫𝔲𝔪𝔦𝔫𝔲𝔪 𝔫𝔦𝔲𝔦𝔲𝔪 𝔪𝔦𝔫𝔦𝔪𝔦 𝔪𝔲𝔫𝔦𝔲𝔪 𝔫𝔦𝔪𝔦𝔲𝔪 𝔲𝔦𝔫𝔦 𝔪𝔲𝔫𝔦𝔪𝔦𝔫𝔲𝔪 𝔦𝔪𝔪𝔦𝔫𝔲𝔦 𝔲𝔦𝔲𝔦 𝔪𝔦𝔫𝔦𝔪𝔲𝔪 𝔲𝔬𝔩𝔲𝔫𝔱.

I do! I just sort of trailed off after a bit - I'm easily distracted.

BOM use system layers, the 'mesh body tattoos' you refer to are appliers. Before mesh bodies (in its current sense in SL) was a thing, the system avatars used 'system layers' for skins, tattoos and apparel (often in conjunction with prims, sculpties or mesh details). Mesh bodies could not use these, but had to have those layers 'applied' to them, usually on 4 different layers ('onion skins') of the mesh; the applier basically just informed the mesh which texture to put on any given layer. With the introduction of BOM (Bakes on mesh), it was made possible to use the system layers on mesh bodies again. This allows for multiple textures to be put on any given surface of the body, and layered on top of each other - in essence removing the need for multiple meshes for the bodies (reducing their poly count and texture area) and removed some of the issues of alpha glitching (i.e. when two textures with alphas are rendered on top of each other, the front layer will cut through the one behind it).

Found it. It's been another 500 pages since, but still the issue remains ... Just a head's up for those who think that their 'freedom of speech' kind of entitled, mindless blurting is above the forum's rules and the forum moderator's instructions; this thread, which is supposed to be about sharing our avatars' appearance and fashion, of our passion for photography and playing around with the incredible tools available in Second Life to produce photos through which we can express ourselves - it's gotten to a point where some of us are wanting to simply start a new thread to get away from it, some of us are straight up considering to call for a 'vanity strike', others still just quietly leave or minimize their attendance. I considered starting pinging the Lindens the other day, but because I remembered what Dakota had written back then, I didn't want to jeopardize the thread ending up closed, but since some people, who do little to contribute on the topic itself and a whole lot to bash people who just want a space to share their pictures, I'm thinking it might be for the better to summon the attention of she-whose-name-kind-of-frightens-me (just kidding @Dakota Linden, luff you!) and ask for her arbitration on the matter. But because it has been 10 months and some 12,500 posts since, here's a recap of what I perceive to be derailing this thread: Multiple re-posts through several people quoting a post containing one or more images. People trying to 'analyse' (*cough*project*cough*) ideas, politics, or other stuff from people's pictures. Starting to bicker when people ask you to stop quoting them, or 'defending' people who get told that their re-posting isn't appreciated. There were no 'rules' for the thread posted in the original post, the purpose of the thread is in its entirety described in the name of the thread; 'How does your avatar look today?', and it allows us glimpses into the Second Lives of others, doing things we might not have thought to do ourselves, wearing things we might not have thought to wear ourselves, it inspires us to explore and try new things, whether it's someone sailing or visiting a cool-looking sim - and asking 'what is that place' or 'where did you find that amazing shirt' isn't what's disruptive (although strictly speaking, one could just as well send a PM to ask, unless one thinks the answer might be of interest to others), but it's when a small clique of people re-post almost every picture of another clique to praise them, and meet any opposition to this behavior with outright hostility and name-calling. I'm not going to respond again here to bicker and argue with those who disagree, but I will encourage and support anyone who's just in it for the pictures to find a different venue to share and view those pictures if this place can't be that place, whether it's through @Saravendi's new thread where she has explicitly stated those rules, or whether we'll have to take it off the forums altogether and find alternatives. Even when I write these posts I do tend to try to include a selfie if just to somehow kind of sort of stay on topic . . . But alas, it's Tuesday, and the Safe Hub isn't the most pleasant place to try taking a picture or try to pick out an outfit at . . . Also I just got the '-200' error when trying to upload an earlier shot. So. Here's a gif I made yesterday instead. . . . It needs a bit of work. But. Hai!

I used to have a classmate who almost always sat in the back of the classroom. But one day, someone took his seat, and he had to sit right up by the teacher! Yes, content is important, that goes without saying .. Or so I thought, anyway.

The waiter approached one of the guests, and asked; - "How did the gentleman find the beef?" - "Ah, I just moved on this here potato and, hello, there it was!" On topic: Meh. Long-distance ex wanted visual pixel bumps and got me to sign up. I found SL had a lot more to offer than that though, so whilst the relationship didn't last, I stuck around.

Noticed there was an update for my favourite facial animation HUD, so I went to grab it and found there were a few new animations to play with!

And when the animations in furniture is made to accommodate giants . . . "I think I'm supposed to be kissing your lips, but uh, I guess this works, too."

𝒲𝒽𝒶𝓉’𝓈 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝓂𝒶𝓉𝓉𝑒𝓇 𝓀𝒾𝒹, 𝒹𝑜𝓃’𝓉 𝓎𝑜𝓊 𝓁𝒾𝓀𝑒 𝒸𝓁𝑜𝓌𝓃𝓈?

It's 3 in the morning, I'm standing around an empty event sim that a friend is working on. Got distracted by playing around with the WL and caught this. This isn't about a personal dispute, it's about this thread being derailed and made unwelcoming because people spam it with reposts - something which moderators in the past has posted in this thread to say should be avoided, and pointed out that doing so may lead to the thread being locked. I for one think it would be a darned shame if this thread got locked after how much has gone into it, because of a few people who has no respect for the rules and no respect for the people around them.

Check with the creator's store. Some, but not all, offer free UV maps to allow people to make tattoos and makeup and the like - others require you to purchase a 'developer's kit' (although these mostly appear to be for people who want rigging information for mesh apparel and such). It's not impossible, but I suspect you may have to start from scratch using just an UV map.

Making avatar skins is 'as easy' as downloading the UV maps for the appropriate head and body type, and draw the skin on there, then uploading it into SL and putting the textures in a skin. For free software, I'd suggest Gimp. The hard part is . . . Well, skins being hard to paint, and getting it to look good around the seams in the UV maps. I'd suggest looking around YouTube for some tutorials on how UV maps in general work and the tricks for working with them, and then just trying things out as you go.

How I 'feel' about it? I don't. Besides, with the proportions of most of those avatars, I don't know whether I'd really call them 'human'. I usually just call them 'potatoes', 'T-rexes', 'balloon animals' or 'giraffes'. In fact, I spend much of my time when event-going or shopping just looking and giggling at people's avatars. How I interact with people is very much up to whether they communicate intelligently, rather than how they appear. The only time it really matters to me how someone's avatar looks is when I'm doing a model search.

This thread has already been threatened with closure for people taking it off-topic and excessive re-posting, and a lot of people have stopped posting here because of that sort of thing. I guess we just can't have nice things around here. Standing around my photo platform working on a backdrop for a planned shoot later. Behind me one can get a glimpse of my favourite tool to bereave people of their souls and/or apparel - an Othello game board.

Absolutely. Bicameral writing, of course. We're in the 21st century, not the 11th. All caps should be a capital crime. Winks. If it's 'quicker' to write without any caps at all, I'm sorry to inform you that you would not find employment as a typist (/secretary); pressing shift should be done with your left pinky, and it should never have to leave the position to do so. The left hand should hover over the WASD-position at most times, but occasionally skip 'one over' when you extend the reach of your left hand, for example to hit the 't'-key, unless your hands are large enough that you can reach it from the default position. The one thing I don't generally do when typing messages in Second Life, that I would if writing a text for an email or such, is that I don't spell check or re-read at all times to ensure I didn't make any mistakes; if I notice such once I've sent the message, it's easy enough to clarify what you maent. Meant* See?

Tihi. Basically it's just to signal that your head is BOM activated but that an alpha hides the system skin, I think. I believe so, yes! As the 'system' head is hidden, the mesh must contain an alpha - I 'think' that this is included in the part where it goes 'I'm where you render the head texture for the system skin'. But I'm no expert! BOM actually has some really great benefits to it, such as the ability to layer tattoos and avoiding alpha glitches. Appliers are limited to the 'onion' principle, which makes avatars a lot more complex than necessary. Appliers work fine, too, but BOM really is an improvement!

It's a bit like stating 'I breathe and I like to eat pizza'.

Wags his eyebrows seductively.

Or stick a prim cone and two spheres under there. 'Ta-dah!'

Various of the results on that search page should work; but only if you use BOM (i.e. system skins etc). If you want to read more on BOM, you can start here: https://sl-maitreya.blogspot.com/p/what-is-bom-bakes-on-mesh.html

BOM allows you to use system layers on mesh bodies/heads. If you aren't using BOM, you can use appliers instead. Hm, no specific ones off the top of my head. When my alt wears trousers she usually has none on, although she did get a pack of BOM underwear from a friend that I've used on occasion. If you want something to protect your privates whilst wearing a skirt or such, a C-string may work otherwise? It's up to what you want them to do really.