takemasaa

I had no idea my question would spark such a conversation! Thank you all for the feedback on Legacy vs Reborn vs Maitreya! I like my avatar to be somewhat close to my real life body type, but everyone does things differently here in SL. There are definitely unrealistic body types that people choose for their avatars, but that's just their choice for self expression. There's also people who choose realistic, but "ideal" body types based on their standards of beauty. Most of the popular bodies I've seen lean more naturally curvy but can be modified to a different size for better or for worse (i.e. the tiny hands/feet problem). There are lots of options, though I'd say for clothing there is an imbalance between the popular bodies and all the other bodies, which end up having a lack of support and falling into a hardly touched niche. I think I'll stick with Maitreya based on the feedback in this thread. I thought Legacy and Reborn were the same because a lot of creators just put "legacy reborn" as a size on their advertising photos, and I never bothered checking out the bodies individually lol - a lot of the ad photos didn't look super curvy either so I wondered if it was just an improved version of Maitreya as they seem to be so popular. I even had a friend highly recommend I make the switch at some point because they thought Legacy was better. But for my needs of having no big butt and a smaller chest and little noodle arms/legs, Maitreya has the most options by far in terms of clothing. Just not worth the upgrade since it appears Maitreya isn't dying out, just some creators aren't making for it anymore for whatever reason.

I've been using Maitreya for a long, long time - from back when it was still the best mesh body option. I'm starting to notice less and less creators making clothing for Maitreya and switching over to Legacy Reborn. I'll be honest, I'm out of the loop as I have not gone clothes shopping in quite a while. I went to an event and saw probably 50% of the clothing vendors only offering one size for Legacy Reborn. Kinda surprised me. I like very thin looking avatars. Maitreya has always leaned towards a curvier build, but I made it work as best as I could, although my arms stick out like noodles and I've just accepted it. I know nothing about Legacy Reborn's body type possibilities. For those that made the switch - was it worth it? Is Legacy Reborn going to take over completely? I have so many clothes for Maitreya I dread rebuilding a wardrobe, but perhaps if this is the future of SL bodies it's a necessary thing I have to do T__T Just wanna hear from others before I consider investing into the body

It's the Sweet's male 1L$ body. I think it has problems with a lot of heads, and in my partner's case his avatar is furry so I guess it's just incompatible with Paws heads + BOM? A lot of reviews report the same issue with many different heads, but honestly it was just a filler body while I decided on a better one for him anyways. Belleza Jake is cheaper than I thought it would be as I've often heard of that body and figured it was pricey due to popularity. The DNA ones would theoretically be great but if the head isn't detachable it wouldn't suit his avi choice. Thank you for the recommendations!

I'm looking for a budget male body for my partner. I got him a freebie one, and while it's alright, it has a weird problem with BoM on the neck, creating a giant line of demarcation that you really can't look away from. By budget I don't mean extremely cheap, just perhaps a bit cheaper than the really popular, super amazing high quality bodies? He doesn't play often and I'm not sure I want to invest in an expensive body for him if cheaper ones are on the market (but are still decent or good quality). Help much appreciated! Thank you!!

I found some gigantic chickens and instead of admiring the land I randomly stumbled upon, I had to take a picture with them. They were highly aggressive and knocked me around at least 10 times in the process of taking a picture, but it was worth it.

Your expectation is pretty accurate for alot of us. I've had a furry avatar in the past and used it often but now primarily play an anime avatar, and as an "outsider" to the norm, I have the impression that many human avatars are often unfriendly. I've played as a stereotypical human too and even struggled then... but it's worse with anime/furry for me. I have had people completely dismiss me due to my avatar. I have been mistreated by others for not fitting into a group of "normal" human avatars. That's not to say everyone is like that, definitely not, but so many are. Other misfits from the mainstream, like furries, tinies/dinkies, other anime avatars, kid avis, etc, are all friendly, perhaps because they understand not fitting in with everyone else and instead having to create their own communities.

The Blender School hadn't popped up for me in my searches somehow, so thanks! I'll check it out. I do love in-world classes. I'll also look for some lesser known mesh bodies or ones that are easier to get... Never heard of that one you listed. Seems like Maitreya is pretty strict about the person already having a shop of ~10 mesh items, and Legacy requires a mesh made with their classic body (hell, I don't even know how to get that one), so I'm out of luck with the big name bodies T_T

It's all a bit overwhelming and I've looked everywhere for guides, but there's a billion guides and I don't even know where to begin. Creating the mesh object and textures isn't the issue for me... I'm good on that front. It's more stuff like, how the heck do I rig properly? (I did rig something, but something went wrong in the process as it isn't being detected as rigged in the uploader on SL). Where do I get dev kits without having a shop already established? What is the post-rigging process? Every guide says to go get Avastar and I'd be willing to make the purchase if I knew for certain this is something I could digest, but as a starting point, man this is rough. I'm not sure what is my misunderstanding since I've been going without much guidance at all due to just how overwhelming it is to find information.. Those who learned mesh for SL all started somewhere, so I'm just wondering where people started, how they got started.. I don't expect to learn over night, and it's definitely a complicated thing to learn, but I'm at a loss for where I can even make baby steps in learning how to do all of this, especially rigging, getting model dev kits and then using those model dev kits, post-rigging fixes, etc.

Yes, unfortunately a lot of the j-fashion items here are on the trendier side.. school uniform/seifuku, general kawaii (aka pastel colors everywhere), anime-inspired stuff, etc etc. They're cute styles but I love elegant, dolly looks or just very over the top stuff. But there are definitely still creators who make high quality lolita inspired items. I would also suggest if you're willing to go through the hassle of putting outdated clothes on a mesh body (Given you're using one -- if not, you got it easy) looking into some older stuff on the Marketboard. I browse gachas or old listings for hours when bored and occasionally stumble across lolita clothing meant for old system bodies (but not so old that they're pure prim and flexi) that fit okay on my maitreya body, given it doesn't have clothing layers and is actually full mesh. Lolita doesn't show enough skin to matter, luckily, so unless the mesh body is just outrageously different in size from a regular system body, they tend to work. It actually seems like there was more available 6+ years ago than there is now, sadly, but the consequence of that is that they can look outdated.

I wear EGL in real life, and the suggestions above are all pretty good. The creator "Violent Seduction" has some lolita pieces, there are also some lolita esque items in gachas, can't pinpoint any brands tho. Other j-fashion items, like nanchatte or general kawaii items, are more common. Bare Rose has some pieces that fit the j-fashion or lolita aesthetic. I don't like the shoes that come with their outfits, but otherwise they're decent for a very niche, overly exaggerated side of j-fashion.

SL is a simulation of RL at best, so will it ever be the same? No, certainly not. But does it provide its own form of the beauty found in nature? Absolutely. I love going to nature sims and walking around because it allows me, someone who is unable to access nature easily, to feel at peace and admire the hard work someone has put into landscaping a sim. I find it very soothing just to walk around little patches of forest that I stumble across and to look at all the little details of it. I think it's particularly beneficial to those who cannot go outside into nature easily. It may not be the same, but it can still be fulfilling.

I love and adore flexi hair, but also considering how out of fashion it is, I refuse to wear it unless I have my purposely outdated inspired-by-the-2000's avatar on (the tackier the better, I say). I would assume avoiding clipping is impossible, the physics are just inherently awful... I'm not sure they can fix that. Since the body isn't considered an object with collision, the flexi prims just go all over the place. Happens with clothes too. The closest thing to the flowy movement without clipping, like others have suggested here, is mesh + flexi combos. I've purchased a few of those, but most of them still have that very outdated look. I do wish more current hair creators were more willing to include flexi elements, but I can see why they don't. I'm surprised some creators are still including it despite the flaws with it. They're a pain when long since it the clipping is so awful, and with the physics system I'm not sure many improvements can be made at all. I'd have to assume if it were fixed, more creators might make flexi hairs, but that seems like a pipe dream.

Thank you all for your input! I honestly started out with rentals, but ended up purchasing premium for land because I often heard it was better. Before I go making any investment now that my financial situation has worsened a little, even if it's as low as 8-15 dollars a month, I wanted to know if that assumption was correct or not. And while buying land has its benefits, it looks like renting right now is a pretty good option for me financially. That sounds excellent, definitely looking for the double prim ones. If it's adult that's actually preferred as I don't like to put certain pieces of furniture designed for very specific purposes up on display in Mature or General areas. Will take a look!

I guess it depends where the rental is -- really good locations are more expensive, but ugly locations or skyboxes are cheap. For example, to own a 2048 sqm land with 703 prims, it's 13.00 for the land fee... with the free 1024sqm, that's still about 7 dollars on top of the 8-ish dollars for a subscription. So, total per month, something like 15-16 dollars.. Now, let's say there's a smaller piece of land in a bad location but with a 703 prim allowance (since I'm prioritizing prims here over size), since renting is odd and the land can be sectioned differently (from my understanding), and it's 500 L$ per week, that's 2000 L$ a month, the equivalence of almost 10 dollars. So, ultimately it is cheaper to rent bad/undesirable land. The cut-off would be about 800-900 L$ per week to rent before it became the same price. However, I am concerned about the logistics of renting vs. buying in the long run, so that's more where my question comes from.

So, I know the actual, technical difference between buying & owning land (with premium) and renting land, as I have done both over the years I've bothered with having a house. I would like to own a land with more prim allowance than just 351... which is all I could afford with the free premium allowance, considering premium already costs almost 9 dollars (I am constantly on a budget... unfortunately.. and paying a 13$ sub for another game too, so purchases have to be 'worth it' so to speak). If I had more money to spend each month I'd just pay the extra for a larger prim allowance, but I'm a little limited at the moment. When looking at rentals, some go up to 700-something prims for around 10-15 dollars a month, just in L$ and not real money. Of course these cheaper lands are likely in unattractive locations or in skyboxes, but the prim allowance is double for almost the same price and that makes it a very attractive offer since I could decorate to my heart's content and not have to worry about prims (no gigantic detailed house for me, I like it small and cozy, but I also like lots of items and decor, and hate being limited looking for low prim stuff). Ownership of land has its benefits, you have full control over everything and ultimate privacy & security (no landlord can complain or rip your land away from you, can put up borders so randoms don't waltz in) -- plus payment is automatic until cancelled... but is that enough of a benefit to make it more worth it, or is renting not really a big deal for those of us who are on a budget and prefer higher prim allowance over ultimate land control or a good location? Is renting only good temporarily? My experience in owning/renting land is not as extensive as many people, even though I have done both for at least a few months at a time, so advice and experiences would be very appreciated!

Pretty close to roadside in Bennafield, very quiet and peaceful area with nice surroundings.. selling for only 2000 L$. A very nice little piece of land for home or business! Check it out here: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Bennafield/13/226/52

How much LI allowance does the land have, and how big is the land you're renting?

So I've seen this hair in multiple places, usually used in J-fash/kawaii styles or by Japanese users way back in the day before mesh was a big thing. First time I saw it I fell in love. Couldn't find the creator... but I finally found out who made it: *DP*yumyum. This creator is still around and makes modern mesh hairs! I even found some other hairs by them they made a long time ago which are super cute too. Great news... so I pop into their in-world store. ...No old hairs to be found. Nada. Zero. None!!! You can't believe how devastated I was. And I know what you're thinking... "Why would you want an old, out-dated, flexi prim hair in the year 2020?" Maybe... just maybe... I secretly enjoy out-dated flexi hair.. How embarrassing. Anyways, does anyone have ANY idea where I could get my grubby little hands on *DP*yumyum's old work? Especially this hair... If it's not on the MP, and it's not in the in-world store, I'm guessing it's gone forever (aside from the old players who have it in their inventory, but surely it's no-trans). But maybe someone knows another source for it? Pics attached of the specific hair I so desperately crave..

After tons of tinkering my shape, I think I'm finally happy with how my avatar's face looks!

Primarily, hair. It's difficult to find hair in styles I like - some of the styles I find that I like are prim and outdated - and so much modern mesh hair is extremely westernized which just isn't my style even if it's beautiful on other avatars. I'd be willing to pay up to 800 L$ for the perfect hair. And I like to switch my hairstyle up often, so having tons of hairstyles to choose from is pretty important to me. On occasion I'll pay tons for clothes I really like, but I don't really like to do that too often.

I spent a few hours yesterday re-doing my avatar after coming back here to SL and found a cozy little location.

Me and my little chatterbox fingers!! >.< Figured I'd give some advice if OP is genuinely interested in exploring SL photography (and commissions) haha. Removed the pic from my quote not to fill the thread too much I think it looks quite nice - not sure if it's compression or the camera you're using, but the quality isn't top-notch (this isn't really in your control unless it's a filter choice, which is totally understandble. If not, it might be compression, might be the camera's settings, lens, or the camera itself). Luckily SL will render photos in highest quality especially when saved in a very high file size. The focus on the flowers is very pretty and the colors go well together. What I am noticing is that it doesn't appear there's been any editing done on it such as color adjustment. Little things like that can help a picture really shine and bring out some beautiful details. Some fiddling with photoshop can improve pictures like that - but it's a very good start as a base! But as I said, SL and portrait photography are whole new skill-sets to learn, and beginners can rarely make money right away. Go out there and take some nice pictures if your PC allows for it! Maybe try out an editing program to play around with small adjustments, filters, etc (Photoshop costs money, and I'm not going to suggest pirating - but there's several free websites and programs that allow for tiny adjustments.) Practice and experience will get you where you want to be. It certainly has a learning curve and does require a little talent but I think anyone can learn SL, or RL photography if they try their best.

Just to give my two cents with the experience I have.. Photography commissions absolutely exist within SL, but from what I've seen, the most popular style is an artistic style for profile pics/avatar shots, which is drawn or painted over in an editing or art program. This not only requires experience in the program of choice, but also with color theory and digital art/painting, using proper windlights, camera angles, etc. There's definitely other styles out there, which could be done almost entirely inside SL with a little bit of photoshop, but still requires skill with editing and windlight choice. Green-screening can be a huge pain (It certainly has been for me, even with anti-aliasing) but the alternative is paying for back drops. There are also commissions revolving around events, such as weddings, but these also require experience - and most people will only hire someone who is experienced for this (or a photographer who comes bundled in a wedding package provided by a wedding planner. Getting hired by a marriage company is pretty difficult for photography due to portfolio and experience requirements.) I worked in-game for a photography studio as a sales rep for a very long time, and the hiring requirements for photographers were super high. I even spent some time working on artistic portraits. I worked IRL with a real professional photography studio for about a year doing the editing myself while assisting my boss who took the photos for clients, so I have a bit of experience in both. People are pretty unlikely to pay for mediocre work... which isn't a bad thing - almost all beginners are fairly mediocre at first. SL photography is very different from RL photography, although things like editing in PS, good lighting, and color theory remain the same. Also... food and nature photography is absolutely beautiful and requires its own set of skills - but portrait photography is much, much different and would require learning a new skill set (going off what you already have, of course) What I suggest is doing some free, or cheap, work to build a portfolio and practice. Practicing is vital here and few people will even consider a photographer or editor without a portfolio (Just as people here are unlikely to hire a manager with no experience, or unlikely to hire a freebie newb avatar for an escort club.) You could even just try taking photos of your own avatar or your friends and work on them and experiment, that's what I did. Keep in mind that most photographers who do commissions in SL have spent years doing this, building up giant portfolios and increasing their skill level significantly over time. It's unrealistic to think that as a beginner, one could jump into the commission business unless it's a "SL photography prodigy" situation. And keep in mind it should be done because it's fun or interesting to you, not just to make some money off commissions - it'll ultimately make you miserable... I've been there in other situations.

SOLD A very cute little spot on the roadside for only 1000L$! 1024m, 351 prims Check it out: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Sweet Morass/229/88/73

Messaged you in-world!