Ajay McDowwll

When I have a complex outfit, I'll throw together a PNG file of a list of things I want to remember, like move lipstick slider to X, use Y applier, etc., smack it on a prim, then attach it as a hud. It's helpful for those outfits... and I cannot imagine doing it on a daily basis because it would drive me utterly insane.

Don't you hate it when your alt's looking better than you are? Same head, same shape, but the pose and the skin/ coloring/ makeup are doing it for me with the redhead, not so much with myself LOL Also, we look like we're both either smiling, or ate something that's starting to disagree with us...

Yet another picture I can't name, because decisions are hard.

The most popular bodies on the grid are Maitreya and Reborn, with I believe Kupra and Legacy behind them Which one you choose will depend on how you like to shape your body, so you'd want to get demos of all of them. A word of warning: Maitreya has a HUGE update coming out that will change the body somewhat, so that's something to keep in mind. For heads, most of the major brands on the Grid now use the EvoX template. The head that most jewelry items and the like are rigged for is the Lelutka EvoX; get demos there, and if their aesthetic isn't your thing there are other head brands, and you can still find heads mapped for SLUV, which is supported by some creators even now. Skins are mostly sold separately, one for the head and another for the body, due to the wide variety of combinations that are now possible. Some creators do single skins like back in the day, but they are not in the majority. Heads that use the Bento skeleton (anything that uses the EvoX mapping will do this) can be altered using the sliders. How far they can be altered will depend on the head itself, so again, get demos and try those out before you commit to paying for a full version. Also, as Cinnamon pointed out, the Black Friday sales will be starting up in a couple of weeks. Many body creators reduce their prices then, as do head creators. You can also find skins and clothing on sale during that time, so you may want to wait a little. Or not. Sometimes you just want to fix everything NOW, and not wait For privacy to set up your avatar, many of the new resident areas have changing rooms; some are even partitioned off so no one but you can see what you're doing. Also, this is a great glossary of the current terminology out there for avatar components. It's more geared toward the male avatar, but the words still mean the same thing for female avatars: https://virtualbloke.com/archives/3711 Good luck Feel free to IM me inworld if you have questions (just remind me who you are if you do, because I am old and my brain hates me lol)

I love, love, love the Fairyspell. I found the version with pre-defined walls a bit claustrophobic, and I love flinging my own walls up instead The door just past the pantry in the kitchen picture leads to a bathroom/ utility room combo I apparently didn't get a picture of lol -- more later I guess, when I'm home and can take the pics

This is a kind of redo of a picture I took at Fantasy Faire this year, but I've upped my lighting skills a little least?

It's the Great Elm Cottage from Scarlet Creative

I love this house. I don't ever want to leave when I log out

Yes, I have those and they're lovely I'll wear them for special functions, but for me that's still really long. In RL I was once upon a time a musician (violin and piano) so for me, short is "does not extend beyond the tip of the finger" and the only nails I've found in SL that meet that criteria are the nails already on the body, like in this picture.

I looked at them when I was trying to find more options for Legacy before their nail applier support existed (which is now small, but helpful). I prefer a very natural nail length 99% of the time, and Puki's version of short is... not. I wish someone would release a shorter set of add-on nails, but until then we do what we can with the nails in the body as it stands. Regarding shape, that's something I tweak endlessly; it entertains me Before I got Legacy, I liked to experiment with pushing Lara to see how much I could emulate a very curvy appearance without triggering some of its innate issues (the breast enlargement issue is a major one), and with fine slider adjustments you can do a lot with it. Not as much as with bodies with different rigging, but it's malleable to a certain value thereof. I didn't keep that shape, but it was fun to see what I could do. Reborn is another challenge I enjoy. It's not at all impossible to get it more slender overall with sliders alone, and with deformers it can be shaped very similarly Lara and Legacy; the difference is only minutely distinguishable under a tunic, dress, or gown. Hopefully the LaraX release will make all of us as happy as we're hoping to be in terms of shape, rigging, etc. I can't wait to get my hands on it and play

I've been in a virtual world that gives you a free home/ region area, but their revenue stream is spread out differently from SL's. Like for their online store, I believe 40% of the purchase price of any item goes to the corporation, and the creator gets 60%; in SL's Marketplace, the Lab gets 10% of the purchase price and creators keep the remaining 90%. As a creator, albeit of the rather "small potatoes" variant, I am in no hurry to give the Lab a bigger cut of my revenue (sorry guys! You're awesome but I like my lindens). Most of my stuff is super cheap anyway, and I want to keep all I can

I'd directly tell them anything they could scan, then point them toward scanner huds so they could grab the information themselves in the future. Regarding skin, makeup, tattoo layers, shape, and eyes, I'd give them the names of the creators I use. Not specific items, however; these are the things that can really individualize an avatar even for people wearing the same head and body, so folks are better off making their own choices rather than trying to clone someone else. My shape is my own work; not handing it out, not selling it. One Ajay on the Grid is sufficient. But I will give slider number suggestions if asked, as well as the MP link to the proportion tool I like to use.

My shape works with "The Big Three" (Legacy, Lara, and Reborn), probably because it doesn't go to any extremes. It's overall slender with some curve through the hips and thighs, which plays well with Legacy and Maitreya can emulate it well enough for my purposes. My Reborn shape is also slender overall which is achieved via deformers in some areas; without them there's no way to get the backside down to a size in line with my general silhouette. I will say my Reborn still has a bit more "junk in the trunk", but a) my avatar leans in that direction, and b) the only clothes I use it for are skirts or outfits which obfuscate that area, so any additional curviness isn't an issue. Kupra is an absolutely no for me. It's not my aesthetic, and it won't work for how I generally look. So if something were rigged only for Kupra, I'd wave goodbye and walk away. I do have Khara, but thus far I haven't been able to shape that body how I want so I'm withholding judgment there, and only playing around with the body if I'm really really bored. Plus my preferred skin creator hasn't released anything for Khara, which puts a bit of a damper on my desire to make it work. GenX is a lovely body, and the hands are beautiful when animated properly; unfortunately, that starfishing issue isn't resolved even now. That's also one reason I moved my male alt to Legacy. I love the look of Jake for him, but those hands were a no, and the same applies for the GenX bodies. Juggling multiple bodies really isn't an issue for me. I don't even really see it as juggling because I have outfits saved of my base avatar in Legacy, Maitreya, and Reborn (in order of their frequency of use), and I just pick the correct base for the outfit I'm wanting to put together. If the clothes are rigged for Legacy, I use that regardless of what other riggings are in the folder. If they're not rigged for Legacy but there's a Maitreya rig, I'll use that one. And if they're not rigged for Legacy or Maitreya, I'll use my Reborn. There's not as much thought in that decision-making process as it seems with it written out; it's pretty automatic. Re: Legacy over Lara, it's a matter of individual preference. I like the look of Legacy best for myself, and the body skin my preferred creator made for it is, I think, her best work to date including more recent releases. It's one thing that pushed me over in that direction, to be honest. Lara has its own advantages such as reliability, ease of use, amazing nail applier support, a tremendous back catalogue of clothing, and a HUD that doesn't result in random bursts of profanity from yours truly. It's all about what you prioritize. That last bit is why I'm super psyched for LaraX. If I can save on complexity and scripting (which are admittedly nightmarish with Legacy) but have more of the body shape I love, I'm here for it.

-Do you use voice in Second Life? Yes, although I prefer to use Discord as voice in SL generally makes me crash within 30 minutes at the outside. The official viewer works better for voice for my purposes, if by "better" we mean "disconnects instead of Bugsplats." -If so, how and when do you use it? (Use it all the time, or is there conditions to where and when you use it?) I use it with some riding groups (hard to steer your horse and type at the same time), drives (ditto, only with cars) and with good friends, especially when we're working on avatar issues. If someone insists upon voice or "verification", it tells me two things: a) they're probably trying to create a sense of forced intimacy by using voice where I generally wouldn't (powertripping is a sure way for me to say buh-bye), and b) they clearly haven't read my entire profile which contains a link to my husband's and my "Love Made in SL" episode with both my RL voice and face. There is literally no need to verify if I'm female because it's on the Lab's official YouTube channel for the world to see. -Do you think you have a good voice? I'm told I do; I find it cringeworthy, but different strokes, etc.

I think we'll see more shifts in which brands creators will rig for with the move many creators have made to selling clothing by body type. As to which ones are supported, I'd say that will vary by creator, sometimes in surprising ways. Like Salt & Pepper dropped Legacy but continues to carry other bodies that work better for their sales; conversely, Just Because is still rigging for Legacy because that works for their sales, etc. (I know we're talking about Maitreya, but it's a specific difference in support I'm trying to highlight and this is the example at the forefront of what passes for my brain). For me, it's no biggie if a creator stops rigging for my preferred body. Over a pretty decent span of time I've acquired Legacy (my current default; subject to change when LaraX is released), Maitreya, Reborn, GenX Classic and more, so I just wear the appropriate body for the outfit. But that's me and my slight "problem" where I like playing with all the bodies as they're released Not everyone is as into yelling at wildly divergent huds as I am.

Played with getting one of my alts up to speed. I'd updated her to EvoX a few weeks/months ago (honestly, it's all a blur), but her look wasn't working for me because she's always been my doppelganger, just with different hair color and eye color. So... we went back to that, and she's feeling much more like herself. I'm terribly one-note with my alts. I've got one more to work on; perhaps I'll go a different direction with her. Maybe blonde. I've never been blonde. Bless her heart, she looks about as intelligent as a turnip here, but she's cute

One thing good about Linden Lab? I've never met a Linden or a Mole I didn't like! One good thing about Second Life? Just one??? LOL -- admittedly, I totally gripe here and there, but there's nothing that would pull me away from SL at this point in my life. Second Life is amazing, from the incredible environments some people build, to being able to build inworld (because Blender makes me cranky), to the people you meet along the way (many of whom are still in my life since 2007). I adore this place.

Dangit Orwar, you owe me a keyboard LOL

I both DJ and host at different venues on the grid. Others have covered tipping the DJ and live artist, so I'm going to focus on the hosting perspective for this response. For hosting, the hosts are often required to create the event listing at secondlife.com (which costs money if they're not listing a repeating event as a Premium Plus member). They're required to be at the venue generally 15 minutes ahead of time, minimum, send out inworld event announcements (generally once per hour), greet everyone entering the club, remind folks where the DJ/ live artist's tipjar is located, mention the venue tipjar and its location, offer group invites/ add people to the group manually, and keep conversation flowing in local. When hosts are reminding folks to tip the DJ or live artist, we're required to do this by the venue. How many times we point out the tipjars is also regulated by the venue. This is why at one of my hosting gigs I remind folks 3x/ hour to tip the live artist and 1x/ hour to tip the club, whereas at another venue I remind once an hour for the DJ and once every two hours for the club. I'm far more comfortable with the latter frequency; if it weren't for the live artist component in the former, I'd push back pretty heavily with venue ownership. If we don't do this, we don't get work. I am aware that there are clubs on the grid where hosts are forbidden to request tips for anyone or anything, on the basis that people know what tipjars are and they know how to shove money into them. I wish more venues followed this model. Refusing to tip on the basis of a host saying something about "linden love" (a phrase I've uttered maybe once in my hosting career -- I'll usually say about anything but those words, because they give me a nasty shiver up my spine) or any reminder they issue about tipping is absolutely your right, and it's also refusing to tip someone because they're literally doing their job. A better move in my eyes would be to mention to the venue owner that a few less reminders to tip may go further than an endless barrage. You might be surprised how many hosts agree with that assessment. As for hosts who don't even greet, who are basically AFKing their host shift, churning out boilerplate gestures if they have text to local at all, and are only chatting with friends? They're not doing their jobs. I usually tip hosts pretty generously as well as DJs and live artists; my standard is 200 lindens. I will go up to 500 lindens for DJs and as high as 500-1000 lindens for live artists, depending on how tight my SL budget is at any given moment. Personally, most of my tips are in turn tipped out to others. All that said, if a host is "working" and the most that I see are desultory greetings (if that), and never see text to local from them again? Nope. No tip. Your mere existence does not entitle you to my precious lindens. To draw that out further, no one is entitled to your lindens other than you. Period. However, if the person is providing a service that enhances an event, SL is a tipping economy and tipping is absolutely appropriate. Most of us who host are quite aware there are some people who will never tip us. I am friends with some of these people! For me, it's not a big deal. I'm aware of the bias, and I'm still going to do my job, send announcements, follow club procedures, and chat with anyone who feels like chatting back regardless of whether or not they wish to tip me.

I played with my Classic 001 update and had a good time messing with looks. The attached picture has a different skin than I ended up using for the default, but I'm a slacker and didn't get a picture of my final skin, only this one while I was demoing eyebrows. Also, please excuse the photo quality -- it's a Gyazo that I saved to disc, and saving it did the screencap no favors. I remembered why I liked Genus so much while I was playing with the shape: the inner and outer corners of the eyes don't need to be adjusted so much as other heads, and also the head is just so malleable. It's super responsive to sliders, and it's easy to get a ton of different looks from those adjustments alone. Add in different skins with a huge variety of brows/ makeup/ mouths etc., and the versatility is pretty awesome. Additionally, the mouth doesn't default to a somewhat frowny state, which my current head tries to do. It took some serious poking to make myself look less like I had a case of terminal RBF, whereas with Genus, that's not a problem at all. You can have a more serious-to-dour look, if you prefer, but you can just as easily move to a more pleasant/ neutral expression. Plus I saw no neckline on the Genus-to-Legacy joint on my body. Score!!! The eyes, however, have issues. There's a sclera overlay that I just hate (this overlay is still visible in the picture I attached). The lightest/ least bloodshot option was still too bloodshot for me, and I ended up having to clear it out. It would be cool if it were less "Wake and Bake", but as it is, they could have left it off as far as I'm concerned. Then, when you clear out the sclera, there's still a visible line where the overlay was, which seriously bugs. The animations are also not something I'm interested in. They don't suit my tastes, and after running through a few trying them on, I had the very dickens of a time getting them to turn off. I'm not inexperienced with mesh heads and have demos and full versions from a pretty absurd variety of lines, so for this to kerflummox me was frustrating. All of that aside, I'm super stoked for people who use any Genus creation as their primary head, and I'm going to have fun playing with the Strong Gift head also when its update is released. However, it won't be replacing my Avalon. I swapped to HDPro because I was tired of the Genus neckline, and then moved to EvoX Avalon just this spring because I was tired of not getting to play with all the toys. Now, even though I recognize the avatar on my screen when I'm in Genus, it's simply not me... at least not at this moment in time.

Really, I should not be left unsupervised. I was working in my inventory last night trying to make some outfits out of clothing I already owned (novel concept for me!) but ended up flinging lindens at the creators of the dangly earrings and the facial... thingie? I'm hopeless.

I've been tweaking the face more in the light of day. This could take up hours, which will keep me out of the shopping events. I'm a fan.

I was playing with making my avatar trying to show that there's someone home behind the eyes. This one is subtle (other than the tear materials, which... eh, I wanted to try them out), but I like it. Next time I'll haul out the Axis hud and tweak things a touch

Okay, she's coming along. I was surfing MP earlier, put Senra into search, and found the same Alaskametro skins Stephanie had. I picked up the shape and Tone 1 of the skin, plus the eyebrows and eyeshadow recommended in the style card. Instead of Truth Trinket for hair, I went with Truth Cashmere and I added a Genus eyeliner from Izzie's I'd had lurking in my inventory from days of yore. I also threw on some eyes I had from Avi-Glam. She's just wearing the Senra crop top, and (not that you can see them) the baggy jeans and sneakers. I think my biggest issue is I need more contour around the jaw and chin. The chin is too prominent for my personal tastes and the depth won't decrease adequately to even out the proportions on the face; there's also a rigging situation where hair that sits at a normal height on other heads ends up sitting farther into the skull on the Senra, which gives them a super low forehead (threehead? twohead?). The lips additionally have a rather prominent contour which can be addressed with skin, but which will also show up to disadvantage in heavily shadowed lighting. I'm not sure if those issues are going to be addressed, or if they even should. They're areas of concern for me specifically (as in if I came into a virtual world with this as my default avatar they would hurt me to my soul like the OMG NO CHIN the default avatars in another virtual world possess), and as soon as I had the cash I would be flinging it at creators to improve my appearance. All my caveats aside, however, dang this is a sight better than the former starters! Even with what's available now (including the glorious skin and kind pricing by Alaskametro<3) a new person has a much better opportunity to make a reasonable avatar without dumping a load of cash into SL right at the start. Yay!!!