Orwar

Rigging is a separate process from meshing. You create the mesh first, and then you rig it to fit a body - in some cases, bodies may require the mesh itself to be manipulated to fit it properly, which is more work. There's also so many bodies, that it can't be expected that all creators cater to all of them, especially since rigging for just one of those bodies will cater to the majority of the market, with every other body just holding a small percentage of the market. There are occasional polls from various creators and blogs, and whilst it's been a while since I looked at one, Maitreya was by far the most popular body, whilst some of the Belleza and other brand bodies were down in single-digit percentages.

I just had a quick glance at your Flickr (peeking through my fingers whilst covering my eyes!), and one thing that I would suggest is that you don't use that coded text for your display name. I don't know how much it would impact your views or faves (probably not much), but when I tried searching for your Flickr feed through Flickr, there were no hits - so I had to find it in your profile, hidden away in your picks. And it might just be me, but it's a bit of a pet peeve of mine, when people use such writing at all (whether in SL or outside of it). It just feels like an unnecessary way of making you more difficult to find. Just my two cents, though.

I've never really paid attention to physics. There was a period where I'd accidentally attached one that I got free from some store I used to frequent. When my then-partner noticed how bouncy my butt was ... Well, she made me take it off. I did try giving Neph one, but I never got around to make anything out of it. Might give @Alyona Su's a try if I remember to do so at some point!

Neph's baby doggos, Erebus and Charon. They so cute when they smell blood.

I haven't really kept up with this thread, I've peeked in a few times to offer my perspective, but it feels as if there has been too much bickering. More variety in apparel would probably be greatly appreciated by the existing members, and make it more likely that there is something that appeals to potential newcomers. It's not an issue of there being a too small amount of apparel, but if you've looked at the events for men's clothing it's been much of the same, to the point that you often find the same mesh models recycled with different textures from one booth to the next; we don't need more suits, we don't need more shorts, we don't need more tank tops or T-shirts - and that creators drop out of the events because their stuff doesn't sell well enough that it's worth the effort, well, that's because the market for those things has already been so excessively saturated. I already have enough suits that I could wear a different one every day of the week, and I'm not interested in having any more T-shirts, tank tops or board shorts. But I think that perhaps the most pressing issue is evident within this very thread; the attitude against men in SL, the prejudice about how we only want 'one thing', and how we only have 'one intention', and how we 'don't deserve' any 'special treatment'. When you come into SL, you're hit with a pretty steep learning curve, and an often superficial community. If you're in luck, someone will grab you by the arm and show you where to get decked out with some clothes, a body or a head. If you're not so lucky, you may just be blatantly ignored because you look like a potato, or even worse, scolded for it. I didn't always care about my avatar's appearance, I don't know whether that had anything to do with being a man or not; I didn't come here for fashion, but for socialisation and to explore my own creativity, and to see whether I might find any interesting roleplay to partake in. I was very slow to jump on the mesh train, because I didn't at all get the point of it. When I finally did, and sat down to actually put some effort into my avatar's appearance, I immediately noticed a very significant change in how others, especially women, acted towards me. Again, when I picked up interest in photography I noticed the next stage of this; I mentioned 'photographer' on my profile, and briefly had a 'photographer' tag over my head, that I eventually got rid of because of how, wherever I went, there were women coming at me. I wasn't even a half-decent photographer yet, but the superficial fantasies of a majority of women in Second Life, and the difference in attitude I was met with, was very telling to me.

I put a steel-capped boot under the desk, kicking it over in a rain of stray documents sailing through the air, before walking off wondering what kind of masochist would ever work in such a stressful environment, when one can work with one's hands instead. As for the dream girl, no thanks. I'm quite content with my current situation. Aw, Scylla I'm still your worst nightmare though, right? ❤️

Welcome back. I wouldn't advise club venues as a go-to place for socialising; there are nice such venues, but a lot of people going there are just looking to hook-up, or are just AFK whilst listening to the music stream. It's better, I find, to pursuit your personal interests, whatever they may be, and meet people who share those along the way.

I don't have any experience with it myself, but as Talli said, there are specific child avatar bodies and heads on the Marketplace (occasionally seen some on the front page and checkout page ads, not sure which search words to suggest). But if you just want to make a teen avatar, then using a 'regular' body and playing with the sliders can work.

That looks very nice, congratulations!

The level of innuendos of this thread ... Love it. 😈

If a pocket can't fit a cheese wedge or a milk carton, it's not a proper pocket. Sagenods.

100% cotton twill, in mine.

... ... Opens my mouth as if to say something, but immediately closes it again. The whole point of a kilt, is to not suffocate the gonads. Why would I wear something under it?!

Yeah, I've noticed the same thing many times. I also noticed yesterday that a picture that came up in my feed, that looked very nice in the miniature, had a very high fave count, especially considering its views (I think it was a ratio of 1 fave in 3 views, and that it was in 270 groups or something) - so I opened it up to see it in full size, and immediately think that 'Hm, there's something off here'. It was a cut-out SL pic, laid on top of an upscaled, low resolution background, with lighting issues along the model's edges, and even some parts of the ground from the original shot not cut out. If I could get away with than and have 200+ faves ...

.. What is this 'underwear'?

... There's a circumcision joke somewhere in there.

In this case it isn't an issue of there being a difference in the environment values, but rather just the fact that your head and body are two separate mesh entities that are being lit individually within Second Life. It appears the light source is coming pretty much from above, which unfortunately makes the effect very much more visible. As Claireschen mentioned, you can either use a neck sleeve which will smooth this out, or cover the seam with a necklace, choker, collar, scarf, or any such accessories - but depending on the windlight setting, this is going to be more or less noticable.

So tempted to lean in and whisper you another speech on breaking free. Just look at this sexy squirrel!

Crushed under raw sewage, ew. R E E K S

Never heard about this trick before. I think I'll wait for some skin/tattoo creators to start chugging out system versions of their products to go with BoM still, though!

It's an issue of alpha conflicts, most probably. Both layers are basically covering your entire body with a large alpha layer, and on that alpha is the tattoo itself - so when you put a tattoo on the underwear layer, its alpha will cover the tattoo, and cause an alpha collision, making you render only the top layer. Switching the layers off and on may temporarily 'fix' this, but it may break any moment again (just like hair alphas causing clipping with tattoos or tops with alpha layers, and right-clicking the hair to render properly temporarily). This is one of the many things that BoM should fix, and whilst Maitreya hasn't yet released their BoM update (haven't heard of any release date as of yet), there is a free Maitreya BoM HUD that you can get and begin playing around with - you will however need to have the tattoos, and your skin, as system layers to use it.

Aww, that made me feel all mellow inside. Mutual hatred! ❤️ That calls for a song!

SLUV is the UV map used by the 'standard' Second Life avatar; some mesh bodies use the same UV which makes the skin textures cross-compatible with different bodies through Omega appliers. In the case of your head, it seems that it indeed uses the SLUV, and that it is Omega compatible. What you need then is a skin which is applied through an Omega - I'm also not sure whether your head already has the Omega receiver, or if you will need an Omega installer/relay to apply Omega skins.

Yes, I suspect that you're referring to 'system skins', those are unfortunately not applicable through Omega. Do hang onto them, though; a lot of mesh head and bodies are now being brought to BoM compatibility (the ability to apply system skins directly on a mesh, which previously wasn't possible - technical stuffs!).

For the skin to be applied through Omega, it needs to be an Omega applier. This is a specific (but quite common) form of applier which many (but far from all) skin creators offer. Make sure that the skin is marked with the Omega logo or that the product info clearly states that it comes as an Omega applier (a HUD which you wear and click on to apply the texture on your skin).