Marianne Little

You use the official viewer? Then, you must make sure you are in "Advanced" mode first. Look at the bottom of your screen, after "Log in". If it says" Basic" you must change that to "Advanced" and relog. Because, if you are in basic, you can not change your avatar, only switch between starter avatars.

Just adding that many forget their eyes. The default eyes that come with your avatar is a flat, solid color. Look for eyes that look like they reflect the light, and who have "depth" in them. If you want to wear a tattoo, don't necessary use the biggest you find. Only sleeves is often good. Look at the vendor, it should include both fresh and faded. I recommend Aitui, GoK (Garden of Ku) and Para Designs. The Marketplace is good to browse for offers and promo's. Be critical. Compare many products with each other. Look at the reviews. (You find the Marketplace under "Shopping" at the top of this page) Hunts and freebies can be a good addition to your wardrobe. I have 5 avatars, and I buy a lot for them. But I always keep an eye on good freebies. http://fabfree.wordpress.com/ and http://slfreestyle.blogspot.com/ have at least one male blogger each. Prune out and delete stuff of lesser quality. It's better to have a few good quality outfits than a lot of garbage.

I have suggested shops in the past, and no mentors slapped my fingers. :matte-motes-big-grin-wink: So here's my summer fashion advice: Artilleri for cargo pants in khaki or sand Artilleri hawaii shirt HoC (House of Curio) sneakers, aviator sunglasses and watch. This shop is seriously good and cheap. The aviator sunglasses cost 40L if I remember right, and look like they cost 400L If you hate cargo pants, try some jeans from Zaara or Aoharu. Zaara has male stuff, just walk to the left inside the main room. If you hate shirts with prints, try some short sleeves with loose tie from SF Design. You already got good advice for shape and AO. An AO really helps, I really dislike the default walks and stands. So I suggest Oracul. Their full AOs cost 300L, but if you are smart, you buy separate stands and a walk from different AOs, and combine them in your own, personal AO. That way you will get an AO for app.100L. Depends how many stands you buy, and if you buy running, flying sitting animations too. Avoid the most "paging" stands. Buy clothes with prim parts, like sleeves and collars. Painted on never look as good. And learn how to edit and adjust stuff to fit you. You can wear the most expensive stuff, but if it fits bad, you will not look as good as you could. If you look like you know what you do, you will attract people. If you wear hair that's brushed back from the forehead, use a hairbase. Exile has a full pack of free hairbases. Never wear boots that poke out of your pant cuffs. Either wear boots with tucked in jeans, or wear low shoes. It sounds like you will do the horisontal pixel tango. A good looking male attachment that'match your skin is necessary. And don't make it so big that it pokes out of your partner. That sort of ruin the illusion.

Yep, but I was over with my male alt and tried a demo. I could not see a version without chest hair. While I really like some chest hair, this was not what I want my male 'toon to wear. I like him to look like Marianne's brother, uncle or father so often he's in dark blonde or light brown hair. And the chest hair here is a solid black with white hairs in. Offer options, designers... because I'm picky. No matter what gender I shop for.

The only really new in SL is windlight and shadows. And before designers can upload mesh, it's hard to say how detailed it will be. My guess is that the tiny details still has to be painted on in photoshop, and also smaller shadows. Highlight is what the new shadows render best, so if you paint on too strong highlights, that part will be totally white. Shadows is really, really hard for computers. I tried it on and off on several different viewers. It is really demanding. That will be another problem, will people use shadows 24/7, or only turn them on when they will take vanity pictures? We will want clothes that look good both with and without shadows. IMHO, small details tend to be "washed out" in shadows. The atmospheric light tend to hide or wash out beautiful details. It is also hard to use antialiasing and I have had problems taking really big pictures, lines appear over the picture. A large part of the SL users don't have gamer computers and can afford to upgrade. I am sure many like me has to deal with the best "off the shelf" computer they can afford. Mesh is really the big question. But I think good texturing in PS will still be important. You will need to paint the cloth structure. Maybe change to more subtle shading, as SL shadows is more developed, maybe some viewers will be better to use for more simple computers. Now, you should sell the best possible textured clothes... with shading and conturing. I am a very impulsive buyer, if I see something I want, I will use it now and it has to look good now. And ATM, shadows is still something I struggle with. And Mesh is still not available.

I can't take credit for it, I read it several times before. So LL is clearly not interested. The lack of tasks to perform when you start SL and that new avatars have no goals, no rewards...

Just have fun and look around. The best tip I can give you, if you are on a private estate and have one or two borders aganist the water, is to sacrifice a bit of land and make the edge against the water more natural, avoid the flat square look. And 1-2 simborder islands, Real Waves already mentioned.

You can skim through Heart Botanicals/Lilith Heart at the Marketplace first, then take a look at her sims. Some of her newest trees use very few prims and look really well. But don't buy her XXL trees, they are really big and fit best on a whole sim! Her Birch Saplings was more than big enough to fill the role as full grown trees for me.

Are you looking for tropical island, northen forest, south european, mediteranian, or perhaps something not from Earth - landscape?

Good advice... But if you get your stuff returned as an coalesced object, you can run into serious issues when you try to rez it, if it's some Linden plants in it. Disclaimer: This was the issue, I don't know if it's solved now. I haven't had land in nearly a year now, so I am not up to date. http://community.secondlife.com/t5/Building/coalesced-objects-with-Linden-tress-help/td-p/448020

We're not worthy! :matte-motes-big-grin:

KIDD for all sort of grass. I second Lilith Heart and Botanical. If number of prims matter to you, you should be aware that some big trees can easy use up 20-30 prims, while newer versions can be big and look good for 3-4 prims. You will need a good graphic card to see these plants at their best. Organica too. And Forest Feast, they have a huge range of flowers "English garden style". Lots of 1 prim flowers. For sim border islands and waves, Real Waves by Antreas Alter. Naiman Broome has a lot of nice stuff, but when I was comparing those two, his stuff had more prims and was more expensive.

I agree that appearance matters. Sometimes I overhear noobish looking avatars (often men) hitting on female avatars who's clearly spent a lot of time and §L on their look. The same men turn nasty and often accuse them of beeing "Superficial" when they get a cold shoulder. Pot, meet kettle... Also, avatars who moan and complain that they will not spend money on a "stupid game". Often, they beg for money too. So, it's ok for others to spend money on you? For me, an avatar who's well put together send out a signal, that the typist has something common with me. They have taken enough interest in SL to look for items to customize their avatar, they have learnt how to unpack, wear and edit stuff, bothered to get an AO... It is not about spending money, but you have to invest time to learn and search. It is true that male avatars have a much harder time to look good on a budget. I wish LL would have some tasks that was rewarded with a few §L. Let us say a new player could rez a cube - awarded with 5 §L. Resize it and texture it with a texture from the Library - awarded with new 5 §L. And so on. That way they would learn how to use build tools. The tutorials could give the player a total of, uh 50 §L? It would give them something to use, even if some would run and tip a stripper 50§L, lol.

Hatton is even better, since she uses Phoenix. Phoenix viewer will build that "client bridge" and need to be in build enabled land for this to work. Hatton is all water, and has buid enabled and 5 minutes autoreturn. Even if she logs in and TP to Hatton within the first seconds, she will miss that client bridge build, and also start to load the first sim around her. Better to go to "Start location" and <type region name> and then Hatton before she logs in. Or even better, make sure she logs out from Hatton before she clears all and restart her computer.

Hi, I am not sure if I get what you are saying... "Painted on lashes"? Do you mean the eyelashes you can change in edit appearance, or painted eyelashes over/under the eyes, on the skin itself? It was a somewhat harsh reply, but I am sure the designer behind Curio skins get so many requests, that it would be impossible to cater to all needs. The skin tone can vary so much depending upon what windlight setting the customers use, the video card and many other things. You use a viewer that support tattoo layers, yes? If so, you don't have to look for skins with freckles. LFauna sell freckles on full face and body for a mere 100L. You can find cheaper freckles too, but then it's often just on the face. So all you have to look for is a skin tone and makeup that suits you. This is great for males who want freckles too. You could try Mynerva skins, they have very cute faces and remind me of Curio skins.

Is it 4 HUDs I can see? Does she need to have these on all the time? Sometimes it is necessary to cut down on scripted items. Phoenix users can click on themself and pick "S.count" from the pie menu. How heavy scripted is she? I know nothing about Open Collar, but I think I have read that it can be heavy scripted. I am sorry if I am wrong, maybe you can ask in some BDSM groups inworld. There may be newer versions. The Hug/kiss HUD, isn't those options built into the Sub AO? The first thing I would do, is to try and see if the Open collar HUD can hold AO stands, walks and hug/kiss animation. I hope someone who's used Open Collar themself will answer if it's possible. I would also search the boots, hair and jewelery. That can be scripted too.

I didn't know that either. Very, very good to filter out all the 0L demos! :matte-motes-big-grin-wink:

I should mention that Zaara has a sale earlier in this thread! You have 50% off on ALL items upto the 13th of June 2011, 12 am SLT. Her ethnic inspired jewelery is big, bold, sometimes colorful, sometimes sometimes natural shades of shell, wood and metal. Link to earrings, from Zaara Kohimes own blog. http://zaarakohime.blogspot.com/2009/08/zaara-accessories-statement-earrings.html The Tarika Claws is my favourite. Traditonal: http://zaarakohime.blogspot.com/2009/05/zaara-jewelry-nizam-collection.html The Raga Oyster rings is another favourite, I think I have all these rings: http://zaarakohime.blogspot.com/2010/03/zaara-accessories-statement-rings.html

And this coat from Mr Poet! It can be worn in so many ways, but here is one style with it: http://slookbook.wordpress.com/2011/02/20/instinct/ The coat is sold in differnt colors and patterns, and you get different versions of it, and a sweater and a huge scarf is also included for less than you would pay for a single coat. http://pasch-design.blogspot.com/2011/02/outfit-2011-002.html The quality is just fantastic, but it will sit best on an avatar who doesn't have a huge triangular torso with shoulders set to 100. Manual editing can be challenging for those who is used to just click and use a resizer script. But so much better to edit "old style", and no scripts to lag you down.

SF design, absolutely. This trench coat isn't leather, but a really nice one. One bad review out of 200, that sounds like one with an axe to grind, or a really bad graphic card. https://d3qcduphvv2yxi.cloudfront.net/assets/1225089/lightbox/286060292b766bae2a6ab5c80f5e9bbc.jpg?1277207344 DE design has good textures, a turtle neck like this under the coat? https://d27fcql9yjk2c0.cloudfront.net/assets/2807668/lightbox/DE%20Rune%20Mariner%20Sweaters%20700%20Ad%20copy.jpg?1294667496 You can also check out Fir & MNA, Alphamale and Ducknipple. Ducknipple has some well textured pants for men. Zaara has some really, really great jeans for men. The male stuff is "tucked away" but it is there, in a side room. It's a 50% sale upto the 13th of June 2011, 12 am SLT. The jeans and boxers are a must for every male in SL. The texture and prims are just great. No, I don't know Zaara Kohime, I just own lots of her stuff and my male alt has those clothes.

I think this riding outfit is beautiful. https://d44ytnim3cfy5.cloudfront.net/assets/2366779/lightbox/MdC~victorian%20riding%20JPG.jpg?1287612038 Maybe not 100% correct though. It is transferable, and sometimes it's nice to buy it as a gift.

I agree with you, I prefer my avatar to be slightly "better than real". I have found that I like what I see most when my avatar is 8 - 8 1/2 head. 8 heads just look better IMHO, but all over 8 1/2 head start to look "0ff". But for realistic proportions, this kit can be useful: http://www.sluniverse.com/php/vb/tutorials/54131-creating-well-proportioned-shape.html#post1276966 I tested this, and it was as I thought, Marianne is just over 8 heads.

Yes, that's it. Donna Flora also has a pair of earrings free or 1L on the marketplace. I try to buy jewelery every time League or Miel is in Fifty L Fridays. Great stuff!

The "Butterfly" set. This is Donna Flora too. Earrings and necklace.

The Camera controls irritates me every time I use V2. 99% of my time in SL is related to taking pictures, where I use Camera control often. It can't be resized. As soon as I click on something else, it disappears. It should stay where I place and size it! It should even remember this and turn up by default when I log in next time, IMHO.