Orion Pastorelli

This frustrates me. I have never cared for the geometry of the Signature Gianni; I think its just plain bad. Thus, I have always low-key resented its success. But... its hard to counter the "no update" argument against the Belleza Jake. In addition, It looks like @Skell Dagger is no longer recommending it as well. If they don't update soon, to the new "universal neck," I will have to stop recommending it to people as well. Which is a shame, because I have always found the Belleza Jake to have the best "over all" look; plus it scaled really well between slender and muscular shapes.

Do you have to have Full Permissions to export to XML or can you do it with a No Transfer shape?

Do you mean static texture body oil that is uses the system body / BoM tattoo layer? Or do you mean dynamic Materials that use specular & normal maps?

@TeeCay I know I am a bit late to this party, but just in case you haven't purchased a head yet... Skell Dagger just posted some very relevant info in another thread concerning a new Universal Neck standard. You should check it out:

@Skell Dagger Wow, I had no idea the "Universal Neck" was a thing. I guess I should really start reading the note cards that come with the heads. Thank you so much for talking about this! Question though, is the "Universal Neck" just a new standard for male bodies and heads? Or is there a corresponding "Universal Neck" for female bodies and heads as well?

I cannot speak for the female bodies, but for male bodies, they are currently the best looking on SL, from multiple points of view. They don't have any of the weird geometry issues that the Signature Gianni has, like the terminally flat ass OR the man-boobs when you make the chest to big OR the blocky quads when you make the legs to muscular. Nor do they have the neck issues that continue to plague the Belleza Jake (my current personal all-round favorite male body). Both the regular Legacy male body and Legacy Athletic male body look great nude, even better than the Belleza Jake, but without the neck issues. The only draw-backs are (1) "The Shops" *****ty reputation, (2) their relative lack of Third-Party Support compared to the other big two male bodies and (3) that they are over priced (normally 5K). Thus, this sale is the perfect time to pick them up. I purchased both for my main account and will probably pick up the Athletic for my super-secret sex alt.

@HeathcliffMontague You should look into the Belleza Jake male mesh body. In my opinion, It has better geometry than the Signature Gianni (looks way better nekkid) and has almost as much 3rd party support.

I once payed 300 L for a shape because I wanted the style card that came with it. I really liked the skin in the ad, but no one in the groups seemed recognizes it. The seller would not reply to my IMs. I was mildly annoyed, but I loved that skin and ended up using it for like 3 years.

Either is fine, the only real difference is the shading around the nostrils.

" Creating" a BoM skin is no different from creating an applier skin, you just have to make sure the end results looks good on the target mesh body or head you are designing for. I guess the only real recommendation is offer your body skins on system skins and your head skins on tattoo layers to make it easier to mix and match and thus reducing the sheer number if individual items you would need in your inventory to accommodate all the possible combos.

So the skin in the picture you provided is uniformly smooth, symmetrical and flawless. It almost does not match the body skin, which is detailed and sinewy. I would say check out Tableau Vivant. They have smooth faces which can be paired with their athletic body applier. I would use the "brow-less" version of their head appliers. You will need to look for Third-Party white eyebrows. I think the "Eliah" head skin for Catwa heads is a good candidate. It's shown here on the Stanley head, but it also works well on the Daniel head: Also check out Aii for the makeup: maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Mai%20Tai/148/77/2067

So I had a similar issue with the hands of the Belleza Jake body and found only two solutions. First, get a "fully" BENTO AO. By fully I mean make sure at least all the standing animations also animate the fingers of the hands. This will update the hands every time the animation changes and should prevent them from getting stuck. Second, is get a BENTO hand animator to use along side your regular non-BENTO AO. I use the following one with great results: https://marketplace.secondlife.com/p/AnimAlive-BENTO-HANDS-animator-for-AO-dance-or-furniture-just-wear-UNISEX-ANIMATIONS-not-poses/13378769 If you implement either of these work-arounds, then you will no longer need to rely on the Belleza Jake Body HUD to reset the hands.

@elixdude NOT FOUND male body appliers come with like 8 options which include chubby and hairy chubby:

I have had similar experiences with mesh ears and have gone through several brands; including Mandala and Swallow. I recommend the L'Etre ears because they address the two points you bring up. First, because of the way they are textured, darker and shadowed at the base, they are by far the easiest ears to color match in my experience. Second, while I don't remember the exact numbers off the top of my head, their complexity score was within reason.

@GoSpeed Racer Another solution is to use 3rd Party Mesh ears. Most mesh heads give you the option to "Turn Off" the default ear so you can use others in their place. These 3rd party ears are usually better looking and their position can be adjusted to accommodate almost any rigged hair. L'Etre has a great selection that are textured in such a way that makes them easy to color match.

Unfortunately, no. 😒 I tried asking in Discord, but never got a reply.

While I don't disagree with any of the points you explicitly made in your post, I do have a question about a possible implied point. Are you saying that we should ONLY recommend stores that offer BOM versions of their skins? If so, then I would have to politely disagree. As you stated in your post, we are in "period of change." At this point in time, I would argue BOM is just an alternate way of applying textures to Mesh Bodies; just another tool in our bag of tricks. Perhaps in a year or so, when BOM has become more ubiquitous, I will probably agree. NOT FOUND is a great store that has been killing it lately with its wide variety of male skins. It deserves to be recommended, regardless of its BOM status.

I don't know if this has been mentioned already, but firestorm has an option that temporarily derenders anyone who is not your Friends List. I use this when ever I go to a crowded shopping event. Its called, "Show friends only". Its under the "World" menu at the very bottom.

my two cents... First, LeLutka is coming out with a third head that might be worth waiting for. The recently teased the following picture on their Discord Server : https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/670329693345546272/671461520927883292/skyler.png Second, also check out a skin store called, "NOT FOUND," they have been doing great work lately. Mostly Catwa Appliers. https://www.flickr.com/photos/juliiocoast/

From what you are telling me in this post, I think the Belleza Jake is your best fit. I have personally done attractive, slim shapes with it and it has a lot of 3rd party support.

GRAVES is one of my favorite stores from back in the day. Its more of a fetish and cyberpunk store, but I am willing to bet their textures still look great on mesh bodies with BoM. https://marketplace.secondlife.com/stores/20249

I agree with you about the Signature Gianni and the Belleza Jake bodies, but would argue that the TMP Legacy male body is still to new to have competitive third-party support. Add the fact that it's price is 2K more than the other two, it's probably not the best choice at the moment. That said, it does seem to be gaining traction and is a very well modeled male mesh body.

Yes, the Belleza Jake body has a BoM HUD. https://marketplace.secondlife.com/p/Belleza-BoM-HUD-V10/18091815

So the "foundation" of an "up-to-date" avatar in 2020 is a Mesh Head, a Mesh Body and MATCHING head and body skins. As @Marianne Little explained in her post, BoM is the lastest update to SL and hopefully the future of applying textures to mesh bodies. However, at the moment most stores are still using "appliers" which are HUDs. It usually takes two appliers to apply a complete skin; one for the head and one for the body. Best practice, in my opinion, is to purchase both the head and the body appliers from the same store so that they MATCH AT THE NECK. Some stores only make head appliers, but make them so that they are compatible with body appliers from another store. When you get a DEMO, always make sure to read every note card it comes with. As @Scylla Rhiadra suggested, @Skell Dagger 's blog is a fantastic resource: http://www.virtualbloke.com/ If you are comfortable with voice chat, feel free to contact me in world. Sometimes the best way to learn is to have someone talk you through it.

ok wow, that's weird, I have never heard about this before. My only advice would be to seek out in-world support groups. If you are using the Firestorm viewer, join and ask in the the Firestorm viewers support group. Also look and see if there is a Genus head support group. I know that Catwa has one called, "Catwa Head Friends." I assume there might be one for Genus as well.