Trinity Blakewell

Rowne - Free Group A bunch of great basics including. boots, dresses, separates, and accessories.

I haven't gotten around to Scandalize in recent months (hasn't been a priority because most of it is not my style). But I will eventually. Personally, I have a bunch more on my list, and finding new ones every day (but it will get more difficult after most of the better-known brands are posted here). As far as overwhelm in places like Scandalize, IMO it's usually best to start with the most recent items (which you can typically tell by the range of bodies covered - older items will have Slink, Freya, etc and newer ones will have EBody Reborn, possibly Kupra, Erika, etc.). Really old items may lack texture detail, use of materials, etc.

ADE Free Group - Hair. Gifts are currently upstairs

Gloom Group Join: $L50 EvoX Skins (usually Velour compatible and usually unisex), Eyes (EvoX/BOM) Paix Free Group EvoX Makeup

If you've been around for a while, you likely know this one, but for the newbies, here goes: Coco - Free Group. See the four lower walls in front - they're all group gifts. Coco is one of the most generous stores regarding group gifts in SL. Mostly Legacy and Maitreya.

I have been collecting a list of groups that offer a good number of group gifts, and keep gifts available for a while. These groups range from free to about $L250 to join. Bear in mind that the body types supported may depend on the age of the gift. Recent gifts typically have Maitreya, Legacy, and sometimes EBody Reborn, Kupra and Erika. Older gifts may have Maitreya but will likely have Hourglass, Freya, etc instead of the newer bodies. Seniha - Free Group - Seniha Originals Sintiklia - Hair and Makeup - Free Group Carol's Store - Group: $L10. Some items include Kupra, Erika, GenX

Saturday Sale 10th Anniversary Event, September 3 to October 1, 2023. You must join the -Saturday Sale Shoppers- group (free). Very large event with all but a few vendors offering free gifts. A sampling of the more notable gifts for female Avis: The Annex, BOM (Bakes on Mesh) Tights Lots of free shoes: Vanilla Bae, Essence, KC Couture, Libra, Kathleen's,, Buxom, Eamoni Tops from Vagrant, Just Because, Apple Blossom, Deluge, Bombshell, Leroy Dresses from Seniha, Psycho Barbie, Four23, Decoy Top and Shorts from Over Top and Skirt from Zoom Jumpsuit from Rosary Koonz - EvoX skin fatpack (Velour shades), plus makeup for EvoX and Genus

Since there are more new users coming into this forum area, I thought it would be a great place to add an informational thread about freebies for your avatar. So here's a few suggested guidelines,. and my first post follows. If it's a limited time event, include the dates (year too. as someone may go back and read old posts). If it's an event, let people know whether or not they will need to join a group. Give people some idea of the quantity of free gifts at the event, and the type of free gifts. If you're posting about a store's group gifts, let others know if the group is free to join or has a cost. Post about stores with a selection of group gifts; don't use this thread to promote a single release, unless it's something really significant like a free head or body.

For the last couple of years, Lelutka has given out free heads (mail and female) for Christmas. It is a major multi-store event with primarily skin and makeup vendors also giving out freebees. You typically have to join all the groups but they tend to be all free, or free for a limited time.

Some of the home decor freebies from The Saturday Sale 10th Anniversary Event. It's huge, give yourself time to go through it all especially if you are also interested in stuff for your avi.

Regarding the neck, are you still seeing issues? I'm not.

That is really, really nice. I rarely buy skins at full price (almost never). But I went and tried that one on, and subsequently bought it in Cake (it appears that you could wear that shade with Velour Rose Kiss body skins, as long as you used Velour's neck blend).

In my admittedly small amount of experience, the new heads are fitting well with Legacy. I always use the Velour neck blends when using Velour skins, but even before I put the neck blend on, things looked good.

Alexandrite just released one as well. This picture is a bit distorted because I took a screen capture from their attached picture in their SL notice. Considering that Tres Beau, Revoul and Alexandrite have all released skins already, I think it's likely the prominent skin designers were pre-seeded with the developer kits.

Just thought of another difference between the two head brands...Lelutka eyes are typically slanted upward at the outside and downward at the inside. No amount of tweaking the eye shape or the brow shape significantly changes that. Babyface has straighter eyes.

Getting back to discussion of the heads themselves... This is just my first impression with the Babyface update and YMMV. I will be testing the original head next. While there are a number of things I like about Lelutka heads, there are some things that over time I've become frustrated about. And considering that everything I've used over the last few years, with the exception of the AK Pride Head, has been Lelutka, I can really see some significant differences now between Genus and Lelutka. The biggest issue I have with Lelutka heads is that they are really small out of the box,, unless your avi is also very petite. My avi is the equivalent of about 6 ft to 6ft 2 in, and I find that to get close to normal human proportions I have to stretch and enlarge the Lelutka heads a lot. On the other hand, right out of the box, the new Babyface was almost normal proportions. Certainly much closer than Lelutka. The other big issue I have with the Lelutka heads is the hollowness under the cheekbones. I have about 7 Lelutka EvoX heads and I'm pretty sure all of them have this issue to varying degrees. I've tried adjusting all the possibly relevant sliders to get a softer face shape (jowls, face shape, cheekbones, jaw height, etc) and still have those doggone hollows. Babyface doesn't have them. My first new Babyface shape below: The main negative I see right now with the included skins....I really don't like those brows. They're really heavy. I think...because it's got a HW sign on it...one of the new Tres Beau skins for Genus 4K may be on sale next weekend. It's full price right now. If that's the case, I will be snatching that up in several shades. However...including some default skins in Velour tones...that's a big win in my opinion. I don't know why they didn't include Rose Kiss since that is one of the most popular shades, and I'm sure that some folks would have liked to see a wider range of Velour tones. And some folks would rather have seen other brands' tones. I've been inspired to start making shapes again. I discovered that Ipanema (the shinny Velour skin) is available for Erika. I've not tried out the Erika Zero/Zero+ body yet even though I have them in my inventory, so I bought a couple of shades there today. I don't like Ipanema as much as the other two skin types, but I remember there is a add on that can make it a little more matte...so I'll be checking to see if it works on different bodies. Since I'll automatically get the LauraX upgrade, I'll buy at least a couple of shades in that body type as well (it will only be available in the Picasso line, I think). I'll likely do shapes for Legacy, LauraX, Erika, and maybe Jamie body with both EvoX and Genus 4K heads.

They must have featured this at an event (like Fameshed, possibly). I had the desk, chair and clutter already in my inventory.

I am not (currently) a blogger. I have been in the past, but I do not currently have the time to run a dedicated blog. My reason for posting in this thread is to share with the community of SL folks, without having the overhead of a blog.

that looks great as far as the face! The arms, the arms. I have decided it would be pretty easy to create an alien shape with Jamie - you know one with the big head and the skinny, skinny arms and legs.

I think LL may have over-estimated the interest in the Sakuras just like they overestimated the interest in Fantasy and Chalets. I wonder if they have learned a bit of a lesson there and that was why they started smaller with the Ranch homes. I have rolled a couple of really nice stilts on land recently - the kind were the back yard is partially in the water, and it's open water, so you can literally launch a boat from your land. The first was very, very laggy and I could not find a source, so I abandoned after a few days. The second was much less laggy.

So...if one created a BOM face skin based on the system map, would that work?

Out of this whole release, the one thing I will give an enthusiastic thumbs-up to is the web creation tool. It is so much like many other games/platforms where you create an avatar or character. I am sure this gateway into SL for new users will improve their experience. It's just too bad that the end product doesn't look any better.

I really, really wanted this to be better than it is, but...I am not impressed at all. I took one of the included body shapes and started tweaking it just a little. Look at the glitches in the provided skinny jeans! My biggest disappointments: Those skinny, skinny little arms, they seem to be much skinnier that most mesh bodies. The way this mesh body is rigged, no clothing I've tried for any other body seems to fit or even be close to it. The body seems to pull forward more than Maitreya and Legacy, and so we get abdomen sticking out on tops and the avi's bottoms won't go anywhere near filling up pants. Some people have mentioned that classic SL-map face skins like those made for Genus would work but the nose on those skins is too wide. Flat feet. I know I'm just being picky here, but it would have been nice to have the option for heels. Just try and find BOM makeup for the classic SL-map...good luck. I don't like a lot of the clothing included at this point....IMO some of the "Adam and Eve" era default Avis had better clothing textures. The jeans above are an exception as far as texturing, but you can see there are issues with fit.

If I wanted to make mesh clothing in Blender, do you recommend Bento Buddy or Aviator? What are the advantages and disadvantages of each product?

I was just over at Arte for their $L50 Hello Tuesday sale item (a set of blue eyes called "Husky Eyes") and noticed that their group gifts include some nice brown eyes, along with the novelty Kitten Eyes. Group is free to join.