Marianne Little

I replaced Slink Physique with Slink Hourglass for one alt, simply because I could not find what I wanted for the thin Slink body in new events.

I can not write what "fun parts" are, but there is search terms on the Marketplace, and you must have adult content turned on. It is under "Avatar Accessories -> Female genitalia". I have no idea if she want some of that, or if you two want some of that, but it is options that is expensive, some cost over 1000 L. Some of them list that they are developed for all possible versions of bodies: > TMP > S Hourglass > S Physique > M Lara > B Freya > B Isis > B Venus > E Curvy > T Fine And some of them list: Highly customizable *Maitreya Only* Or : "The ... was designed and rigged for the Maitreya mesh avatar. This product most likely won't work on other avatars, but you can always try the Demo. As of June 2018 there is now a Slink version too (see Related Items)." And also reviews like: " Purchased full product inworld. reviewing here. Fits perfectly (Maitreya), omega appliers work great.. no seams. Thank you! " and "I really like this, i just wish it came in the freya size as well. " for the same product. So research is great before you start to shop. The Marketplace is also good to go and use search word like "Isis" if she want that and see what she get in return. GA. EG does not have Belleza body appliers, but they have Omega, so that should work on Belleza bodies too.

Are you using a mesh head?

I don't know about the head layout, I never used GA.EG. But if she will use a head skin from GA.EG, then she can buy Maitreya body appliers in the store.

It's GA.EG and it's Omega ready, so she should find makeups for it easy enough.

+1. She must get all the demos of course, and then decide for herself. But go to an event like Collabor 88 or Fameshed, and look at the vendors. 99,99% has a Maitreya version, and then some others. Some have 4-5 other bodies, some has one option for every body made. Others are Maitreya only. Belleza look nice, and I know some prefer it bc of breast shapes. It's up to her. Some use Slink or Slink hourglass. There are several others like Tonic. But she might want to buy a dress, and then it's made for Maitreya, but not her body if she buy another brand. If she wants piercings, then it's really hard to find rigged piercings and fun parts for other bodies than Maitreya. Maitreya is the safe buy for the consumer who does not want to search for stuff, just walk into an event and shop.

That would explain the difference better for newbies. I think "wear" is one of the top reasons for why new residents have problems and give up SL - because they can't even get clothes to stay on.

I could log in just now. 😉

So here is walking you through buying and fitting a Stealthic hair. It is always a bit difficult with the hairbase and layers. Image 1 show the Stealthic store, buy any and all demos by clicking on the posters. Notice the hairbases is sold in their own pack - no demos for those. You can buy them after trying on the hairs and if you find some you like, come back for the hairbases. Image 2 is the bald head. There is a neck tattoo here that is worn on lower hairbase layer. This means that I have to add the hair-hairbase on upper layer. This is not so important to you if you don't have a neck tattoo. Image 3: Open your inventory and wear Stealthic - hair name (Unrigged) DEMO, Stealthic - Styling HUD and Stealthic - the colors you want HUD. Click on the different colors, and don't forget it is an Ombre HUD too. This one if often overlooked, but it has a variety of colors. Notice that the hairline is jagged, we fix that next. The Styling HUD is one of the reasons I like Stealthic. You can click on it and change the way your hair sweep to the sides. There is also a tinting HUD, but I don't talk about it now. Unless you find no colors at all that suit you, you don't need it. I am just going to assume you find a color you like. Image 4: Click on the hair and a blue menu pop up in the upper corner. I find that stretching xyz is often the easiest way. Click first stretch xyz and then +5%. This was enough to give it the perfect edge. Zoom around the head, and see if it looks good. You can fiddle with stretching a lot, but minor imperfections will be blended in the hairbase. Image 5: Unpack the hairbase and add it so it appears on screen and click one of the two. You will get a blue pop-up menu that ask if you want the hairbase on upper or lower layer. I choose upper. The hairbase is totally white. Image 6: Attach and open your Catwa Hud master on the page that has tinting. Now you must remember if you are using the upper or lower hairbase. It is the icon with a small head in profile on the bottom row. The upper hairbase is to the right. Click on it. Now comes the tricky part: Tint the hairbase to match. In my case, I must make it match both the beard and the hair, but it is always a slight difference in real life, so no need to fret over it. Tint it until you are satisfied. You can save your tint to one of small save slots. Now you can buy the full priced hair in the color you will use. Detach all the demos and delete the demo folder. Repeat the steps for resizing and styling your new hair. Your hairbase is already done, make sure you save the hairbase applier, so you can use it again if you will change.

And "buy" the demo hair first, so you are sure it is what you want. That's what demos are for, buy them - most are free, a few cost 1L, but it is better to spend 1L than waste 250L on a hair that you don't like/don't work for you. All serious hair stores have demos, both stores inworld and on the Marketplace.

What Ethan and Skell said about appliers. I have saved a picture of the screen with Omega appliers. If you bought a tattoo with several appliers in it, and one of them says "Belleza body applier" you must add it so it appears on screen and click it. If it only has Omega appliers, you must get the "Omega system installer Belleza" marked with red arrow. Over is an image of Omega appliers on a Belleza body. Tattoo on the tattoo layer and tanktop on undershirt and underpants layer. To activate any appliers, you must add the applier so it appears on the screen, but also click on the icon on the screen. Did you do it?

I think you will like these videos: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC_IaGpu4N7yHvxWMGSm_0xA/videos?disable_polymer=1 Scroll down to the "Taking high resolution "up close" portraits for Second Life". I think this will cover the start for you. Since you don't have Photoshop, shooting against a "green screen" is probably out. If you want to make cartoons, a white background like that would work. It is so much to say about Windlight... I don't know where to start. But I think these videos are good. Remember you must learn to walk before you run. In your case, learn to wear and change mesh bodies and heads. That can be hard enough. Practice on headshots, and find out what your computer can handle of graphic settings. Then try to browse locations for your images in a setting like sci-fi, or gardens, or cities.

A lot of it is the graphic settings you can use. If you can set it it high under Preferences, and tick advanced light and shadows from sun, moon and projectors, and use a high anti-aliasing, you can get very nice images that don't need much touch up. And upload them to your computer as big as you can get them, and in PNG, not JPEG. I used to take lots of images, but my flickr is mostly inactive now. But this is how I could set up a light projector even as long back as in 2012: And this is a raw SL image, no editing, also 2012: I was quite happy with it, and things are even better now, with mesh. I am using Pixlr just now. I also used PixMonkey but now they want me to create an account, and I suppose I will do it. I don't know medibang, but the best images you can start with will give you the best result after editing. It is some really good photos with expensive graphic cards used in the best SL images. My graphic card on these pictures over her was nothing impressive, just cheap. And it is the subforum Art, Music and Photography a bit down on this page.... and Youtube tutorials. I have always used Firestorm Viewer, also for photos. Because they have so many Windlight presets already uploaded and ready to use. Windlight is how we talk about the light, the sky, the water, how to control how it looks. An example of how I manipulated windlight for different looks:

Aw, don't do that. I have some computer issues and can only use the forums, not log into SL these days, been going on a while but maybe this weekend...next week. So I can not see you inworld. Can you take a snapshot, you can draw with a brush over the bits and nipples in a program like Paint. Or use a free program like Pixlr editor. Maybe someone can help better when they look at you. It is always best to see it, not talk about it. It looks like you have a mesh avatar, your head is very pretty. But what kind of body do you have? And if you tell us exactly what you are trying to wear, that. (Brand name, model name) like Blueberry - sweater gift - ❤️ may help. Has dressing your avatar worked before, or are you brand new and this is your first attempts?

Maybe in the adult forum, you can talk about the saucy stuff there. Edit: Did they take away the adult underforum? Or did I just imagine we had one? 😳 In that case, see if the store has a group, it often has a group joiner or you can use the search function and use the stores name. Asking in a group often helps, they have what you bought and know how to set it up.

Maybe you can post a picture (PG with bits and nipples not showing)? ...and links to what you are wearing... maybe someone can test the demo on their body and see if it works for them.

Noooo, that one is new to me. But a quick google got me this blogpost. https://everydaynume.wordpress.com/2019/02/07/bring-it-on/ Looks super cool. I am not so Kawaii, but I can admire the look.

I was looking at the Flickr for Mudskin. https://www.flickr.com/photos/sophamccallen/with/31152533007/ I am not using them myself. I am using LeLutka head with DeeTalez skin. I *think* this is not a Gacha skin. It can be a bit hard to see it because the descriptions does not always say "Gacha". It is also Mudskin. But the head is Catwa Catya. Unless you have a lot of money to play with and can afford buying lots of heads... look carefully and demo. The demo heads are functional and you can see the expressions. (The included default Catwa skins are so ugly btw, don't let it scare you)

True, it says clearly under: "GENUS SKIN APPLIER". You will have to learn about Gacha... that is another thing. This skin creator made skins with different makeups/looks and put them in a Gacha machine where you pay money and get a random skin. The skins shown is "rare" without makeups. People can play the machine many times and not get it, instead get lots of duplicates of the skin with whiskers or whatever. People sell the commons for 100 or 200 L and the rares cost more. With a clever filtring I was able to find one of the rares (Shota) for 450 L and that is not bad at all. I saw on Mudskins flickr that they do a LOT of Gacha and as long as you know the rules it is fine. Play the machine and hope you are lucky and get the rare, or find a reseller.

I think you will have more help in one of the subforums for creating. We who post here are mostly consumers, not creators.

Yes. Try to write in Hatton as location. This lands you in an open water sim. Turn on the map and walk to a corner with no other avatars. Open your inventory and type in xyz or another strange letter combination. Take a cup coffee and wait until your inventory has finished loading. Try to add the things now. Tell us if it helps.

I have a different experience than @Scylla Rhiadra. I spent so much time on improving the system avatar. I always "had" to wear bangles on my wrists. And prim nails. Since we could edit all things (if they were mod) I was moving belts up and down, changing the width, stretching one side, if it was lots of parts... a lot of work. And when it fit perfect, I moved, and it clipped into the tummy or tush. If I had a more challenging pose that standing up. I edited attachments and parts like hair so they should not pinch or poke through. I looked like a mess standing up. but it looked better in the pose. Hours to edit lashes. I had lashes where every hair was a prim and I had to edit them all in place. But it was better than alpha clipping. Close eyes, and the lashes didn't move. Moving lashes is some of the best. And face AOs. I was always searching the better look, I remember buying a fatpack of skins and using them 1 week. And always the editing to remove "insuficcient wiping" or angles in the butt, elbows and such. I don't need so many attachments now. The body looks good without them. And since the clothes is rigged and move with the body, no need to edit them in place. If the rigging is not so good, the demo will show it. I am buying skins maybe 2 times a year when I am bored. I have found a look I like. The downside is stiff hair and gowns... I miss it. And that I can't edit hair away from ears, for example. I don't miss editing clothes at all.

The basic heads before Bento are cheaper... One of my alts still have a Pre-Bento head and use it. It is more fun taking her out dancing, bacause I can use all the dance options in the club, and when I compare her face to the strained grins on the others I think the old head still looks better.... even if her animations are old Tech, she is using only 2 of them, and the most subtle smiles.

You can say that each "generation" of heads are a bit different. In the videos over, they show the HUD and also where to click in it to make the ears invisible. It is on the same page as tinting, and it is a button with an ears image. The ears are on by default in the Basic generation.

You can turn off the ears and wear other ears. On all heads from Catwa, you can wear a browless skin and buy the eyebrows you like. Personally, I do not like the included skins from Catwa at all. But Justin is a nice head and looks very good with other skins. Video review of Justin: Edited to add: You can fit all mesh eyes to the basic heads, but it demands some editing skills. The basic heads is not made for the new rigged eyes. One of my alts has a basic head with IKON eyes and L'Etre ears.