angeoco

You can change your foot shape in the EBody HUD, which is supplied with the body. Those shoes look like they need the highest of the three heel heights.

I tried my demo EBody, and found that Slink-fit shoes fit perfectly.

I just checked my own Valentina and it seems to come with a facial poses HUD which lets you open and close the eyelids.

The full-body alpha hides your system eyes, so you need to get mesh eyes as well. Alternatively, you can wear an alpha which does not hide the system eyes, but they might not be well aligned with the head. The Valentina free body/head seemingly does not accept appliers, so you can only use whatever skin and makeup is supplied with it. The non-free bodies all accept appliers, for skin/makeup/tattoos/clothes. Demo bodies usually accept appliers too. One thing that I think has not been mentioned yet is that in order to use Omega appliers with a mesh body, you will probably need to buy an Omega relay ("system kit") for the body, costing 50 L$ (if you join the group and buy it inworld) or 99 L$.

All reputable mesh bodies have demo versions available, either at the inworld shops or the Marketplace. And as LexxiXhan mentioned, some have free bodies that are missing some features but still quite usable, like Altamura and EBody. You can find reviews of most popular bodies and heads, and links to their shops, at the Mesh Body Addicts website. The current market leader for female mesh bodies (and therefore the one with most clothes designed to fit it out of the box) is Maitreya Lara, with the Belleza and Slink bodies next, and others like Tonic, EBody, Altamura a bit behind. With mesh heads, each model has its own distinctive appearance which can only be adjusted within limits, so your choice is really a matter of taste, however Catwa and Lelutka would be the most popular designers.

You can convert artwork into appliers quite easily. Omega has a free creator's kit, as do most of the mesh-body designers.

An applier is the mesh-body equivalent of system clothes/tattoos/makeup/skins (the painted-on stuff) which cannot be used on a mesh body. Appliers are available for specific mesh bodies, or as Omega appliers which can be used on nearly all mesh bodies. You don't have to buy clothes that are designed specifically for your mesh body, but it does make life a lot easier. Standard-sized mesh clothes (S/M/L etc.) can often be worn with mesh bodies, but you might have to make changes to your shape. The important thing is to always demo anything before you buy it. You don't need to spend a fortune on clothes. There are lots of quality freebies and bargains available. You could start with a visit to the Free Dove, a whole warehouse full of freebies, follow freebie blogs like FabFree, and look for free stuff on the Marketplace.

Yes, certainly. You can learn a lot by getting demos of the body parts that interest you and playing with them.

The size of the neck fix is often adjustable in the mesh body's HUD, so you should get a closer match than that. or a single full-body Omega applier, if one is available.

You should get free updates for any mesh body you get, so there's no need to wait.

If you're considering buying mesh hands and feet then it might be worth your while looking at a full mesh body instead, which is an extremely popular option for people who care about their avatar's appearance. As well as making the hands and feet better, the full body also adds smoothness and detail to the rest of the body, below the neck (usually, though sometimes including the head). After that many people also consider a mesh head, which does the same for the head, but that it is something for a later stage.

Yes, with mesh eyes and an alpha to hide your system eyes.

Here's a reminder of what can be done with these beautiful Altamura freebies. Head: Giselle Body: Jenny free (with the head alpha'd out) Ballgown: from the Altamura group gifts board Altamura say that Maitreya-fit clothes also often fit Jenny well, and Slink shoes fit. And a close-up of Giselle, with stock skin, animations, eye makeup (the lipstick is Omega, eyes by Liquid, the shape my own): Now all I need is somewhere glamorous to go!

Giselle is a very nice head, fully-functional and Omega-friendly, and well worth trying. I noticed Altamura were selling it for 3499 L$ recently, though they seem to have dropped it in favour of the Giselle full-body now.

Maitreya Lara (Maitreya for short) is a particular model of female mesh body, which happens to be the current market leader, and so a lot of mesh clothes are designed to fit that body with no adjustment needed (in theory if not always in practice). However, Maitreya-fit clothes can sometimes fit other bodies well - Tonic Fine has been mentioned in these forums. Also, many standard-sized clothes (S/M/L etc.) can fit mesh bodies well, perhaps with some adjustment of the body's shape. You never know for sure in advance, which is why demoing is vital. You will also see applier clothes (painted-on things like underwear) available as a "Maitreya applier" which can only be applied to a Maitreya body. Omega appliers on the other hand are compatible with nearly all mesh bodies, so are usually a better choice.

Bento is nothing to do with skins; it refers to the extra bones which LL added to the system avatar a while back, which can be used for better animations, like in the face and hands, and for extra avatar limbs like tails and wings. So if you buy a mesh body or head, make sure it is Bento-enabled, as all the leading ones now are.

The solution was posted here a while back: It worked for me.

That looks like a rendering problem which can be fixed in your graphics preferences. Find "Hardware Skinning" in your graphics settings and enable it.

If you could give us an idea of the look you want, and what problems you are having, people here might be able to help.

You could hang around the 7 Deadly Skins shop (I think it costs about 50 L$ to join their group); they have lots of lucky boards, group gifts, etc. Most of their skin packages do not contain system skins, but some do. I also see that the Stix shop has a wall of group gifts of what seems to be system+Omega skins. And if you go to the Omega shop and join the Omega Obsession group, you can get the Maitreya relay for half-price (I think).

Are you saying the skin on your Maitreya body does not match the skin on your system head? You will never get a perfect match between the two skins unless they both came from the same designer. You need to get a skin package that includes both a system skin and either a Maitreya or Omega applier. If you get an Omega applier you will also need to have the Omega relay for Maitreya.

(sorry, I misunderstood the question)

The problem with layering mesh clothes affects system bodies just as much as mesh bodies. To layer two mesh garments, what I often do is wear one of them in a standard fixed size (S/M/L etc.) and the other in a fitmesh size, and then adjust my shape so that the fitmesh garment expands/shrinks in the right places, until there is no more interference between the two. Of course there is also the option of wearing an applier top, which eliminates that problem.

It seems obvious to me that making a box is the safest and most efficient way to make a backup. Instead of having maybe 20 unused items cluttering your inventory you will only have one, and since they are locked away there is no risk of confusing the "backup" items with the live ones. However, we all do whatever suits us best.

I assume you have already selected your house. I imagine it would have been set as your home location, so to get there either log in to your home location, or press Ctrl-Shift-H while already logged-in.