MegaRose

My willingness to pay for a last name is going to be entirely dependent on what our choices are. You have my money if I can name a bunch of alts "(name) the Hedgehog" or something equally funny.

I went and bought this because a. cheap and b. people here are saying it doesn't warp when you use a regular shape on it. So I was curious, and I tried a bunch of different shapes with it. Here's some comparisons between the classic head and the Chloe head: And wow, it really doesn't change much. That's good and bad at the same time, really. It's hard to make a bad shape for Chloe but I also can't make a weird one. She's still absolutely worth the price.

Yeah I've already ruined myself, after making that post I went in to a hunt and one of the stores in the hunt had a stack of freebies. The cycle begins anew.

I've spent a lot of time lately just sorting through my inventory. I've unpacked, tagged, and sorted a bunch of the stuff I picked up around Christmas, but definitely not all of it. But in the process a bunch of outfits happened. I went to the TMP store to grab some free clothes, which was super tedious so I kind of gave up. The HUD shopping system wigs out when I'm trying to rapidly unlock every color for every mesh item really quickly. But I got some basics in some pinks and purples because I can match them to a lot of things. And I put them on my TMP body girl. I felt like doing a different kind of portrait. Maybe this will end up on a shirt or something. I also picked up the 300L Altamura Valentina body. It took me hours of fiddling with the huds and Omega relay to get her all made up. The shape is made from scratch, I might put it up for free on MP but I haven't yet. She doesn't have an outfit yet, and I'm gonna try and not just make her wear black and purple like all my other avatars seem to do. While unpacking stuff I realized that while I own the 1L Ebody bodies, I've never used them. So I tossed some stuff together real quick, just to see how it would look. Her head and shape are the same as my TMP/Akeruka girl, who is modeling all that pink and purple TMP stuff above. I like how no matter what I do to her body and hair, that face always looks so bored and scornful. I think it's funny that she hates me. This is another goth girl who just kind of sprung out of me trying on clothes. Someday I'll have to write out full character bios for each of my goth humans and say that they're all roommates in some kind of weird goth sorority. This one has the same shape and a similar skintone to the pink-haired cherry themed girl in my last post, so I've decided they're sisters. And my favorite from this batch is furry: While doing the Peace on Earth hunt in December I found a store that had a HUGE pile of freebies. Literally a pile, heaped up in the corner of their store. Each one was a functional demo for one of their products. It's a store for kid clothes so SOMETIMES that kind of thing fits on my Kemono with the really small shape I use for my 'me' avatar (the purple and pink glasses furry) so I picked them all up. A lot of things didn't fit, because the Kemono is much slimmer than a child avatar would be. Everything was also rigged slightly too far forward for the torso. Baggy things fit, but even many of those left me with a chunk of neck sticking out of the back where the Kemono's alpha cuts weren't precise enough. Somehow, against all odds, one of the items that fit perfectly was goth pants. They look so good that I'm considering buying more. Her name is Alia. Easter is my favorite holiday so I miiiight get set back a little on my inventory sorting if there are enough free hunts for me to dig through. I've been thinking about putting more money into SL for land (maybe premium but only if I can be sure I want to commit) but I've told myself not to until my inventory is under control. We'll see!

That sounds like exactly what I'd want, actually. I'd pay premium for that.

I've never owned (or rented) land or had premium, but I've been considering. I think what would push me to it would be if they offered regions of Linden Stores the way there are Linden Homes. It would be a good baby step between being a wandering vagrant with a Marketplace page and being a big store owner. But I'm not well versed on the logistics of that kind of thing, traffic-wise and land impact-wise.

Thanks to everyone who has clarified some of the breedable logistics for me. I have a long history of getting waaaay too involved in virtual pets so the prospect of having some in second life has been both a positive and a negative appeal for me. I've been considering buying land, but I'm not committed yet and knowing that at least kittycats won't die if I rez them and leave for a while is a relief.

I've considered getting into breedables, I even have some unopened KittyCatS from the SLB14 event gifts, but there's always ONE thing that stops me. Either I'm researching in the wrong places, or nobody actually wants to tell you what happens when you don't feed your cats. Do they just stop breeding, or is there a death state? What would death even look like in an SL breedable? They can't force delete an object from your inventory, can they? I don't want to get invested in something if it's gonna trap me.

That looks like a teenager to me, except for the hands. They're huge, and the veins suggest age. A skin with softer hand details might be all you need. If anything, the face looks too young to me.

Speaking of TMP and the shops and the clothes all being free... If I want to get every free item in every color, it looks like I have to 'unlock' each mesh item, which gets it delivered, then I have to buy each color (still free so okay), then apply the colors with the style mode hud. So if the texture appliers are based in an outside server, and that server goes down, then in order to ensure I have every color I'd need to duplicate each mesh clothing item as many times as there are color options, then use style mode to apply those colors. Which is tedious, but also since the items are no modify I can't add the color to the names. It's probably not worth it, I might do this for whatever things are my favorites but not everything. I can't resist free stuff though!

What do you call it when you can stretch a mesh item on one axis? I like to fit hairs onto some very non-standard head types, so if I can't stretch, squish, and rearrange individual locks to fit, I can't use it. I have normal human avatars that can use those hairs, but it's always disappointing when I can't find an unrigged, modifiable hair for a look I want.

Back with a few more. I did this girl a bit ago, mostly I just threw stuff together and then tweaked a new shape. So then I realized I had done a lot of really standard, basic human girls wearing clothes for human girls. Dressup is still fun but it's not as weird as a lot of my older avatars. So I decided to do some weirdos next. This one is still a bit of a work in progress. I got the skin from a gacha, and it was the one I wanted so I got pretty lucky on the first try. I gave her my slink feet and my AK Kumiko head, with a very long, lanky custom shape. Her face is really alien too, with big eyes and pointy cheekbones. My intention was to show off as much of her sparkly skin as possible, and decorate her with a bunch of bright pink, skimpy clothing. I spent way too long looking for good clothes in my huge inventory (and her shape made it even harder to get a good fit) so I just settled for this. I'll probably have her try a bunch of stuff on over time until I find something good. This one is also kind of a work in progress. The chipmunk avatar is from Titans and was on sale for 35L, so I snagged it. It's pretty nice that the only color on sale is the one I would've bought anyways. I fitted some prim hair to her, and stuck an accessory through it. I wanted to use some big chunky jewelry I have to make her some 'clothes,' but it took a million years and didn't come out right. So here's a drawing of what I was going for: I like the idea of a bunch of chains draped across her waist, but it's not gonna happen, not with necklaces designed to drape over shoulders. The curve is wrong. I could forego the chain and attach a bunch of the matching earrings to her waist, and in fact I did...but forgot to anchor them somewhere other than the ear. So when she moved her head, the roses moved out and floated in space. So I figured I could work on her again some other time. And finally, I've decided on how to represent 'me' in SL, although not through an avatar: In-world I've been using the display name 'Abbalynn Orbweaver.' It just sort of came from nowhere and sounded good, so I'm sticking with it. So I've been thinking of all the avatars I make and use as Abbalynn's creations, while Abbalynn herself is an unseen creator spirit. Orbweavers are the type of spider that makes the traditional round spiderwebs (as opposed to trapdoors or funnels or many other kinds of webs, or lack of webs), so I've given her extra arms and eyes (but not eight, that's a lot to draw). Her legs glow as kind of an illogical extreme representation of the kind of brightly colored leggings I like to use in some of my outfits. Her hair is just more or less how my hair is, but longer (my hair IRL goes down to mid-thigh). And I kindasorta designed her so that if I wanted to, I could build her out of my Kemono mesh body. Possibly. But she's not necessarily becoming an in-world avatar. So that's what I've been up to. I'll DEFINITELY want to re-dress my alien girl soon.

Post the drawing, maybe there's already items out there you could use. Or do you want to build an entire 3d model from scratch?

I've only ever put $5 USD into SL, and I have an obnoxiously huge inventory of free stuff, much of which is actually pretty nice. The only big important expensive mesh items I own were gifts. If you're willing to forego Omega compatibility you can do the free TMP or eBody meshes and pick up tons of free mesh clothes almost anywhere. I've also been fortunate enough to slip into some really good shop groups during free membership periods. So factoring out gifts and factoring in group fees, you can do a lot with like...$500L. Like, I own multiple mesh heads that were Akeruka or Altamura group gifts. Being cheap pays off!

The bridge of the nose should stop where the eyebrows are. Since your model doesn't have eyebrows yet it's hard to say where that'd be. The shape of that head actually reminds me a bit of the Danny Phantom style, now that I look at it more.

Without any eyes in place it doesn't really look 'anime' yet, there are plenty of western styles that use head shapes like that. Is there any particular anime style you're going for? Also if you're new to SL, if you haven't looked at Utilizator's blog and products you definitely should, both to see how they construct the moving parts of the face and to help make your style distinct from theirs. As for your model, it's hard to say from a front angle, but it kinda looks like the bridge of your head's nose goes all the way up to the forehead. That's the only thing I can comment on as being unusual.

I'm getting the 'cannot find in database' error for two SPECIFIC items, a skin and a pair of eyes, both system. I've tried the known solutions for fixing this (clearing inventory cache, reinstalling the viewer, etc.) and no luck. No other items are 'missing' so far, at least. What I find curious is that I've tried unpacking multiple instances of these items (including a redelivered version of the box) and they continue to be broken for me. Every other item in the folder they came in (applier versions, some wings and hair) works just fine. I just tested the appliers and they work fine, so this isn't a case of the textures the items being broken somehow. It's just the skin and eyes. Would it be possible for anyone to test these items for me? I got them for free, so it should be easy to pick up. At the Redeux event, join the Redeux VIP group (free) and find the Stargazer Creations booth. The skin and eyes are part of their free gift. If they work properly for other people, then I know it's a problem on my end. If not, I guess the next step is to contact the creator? Thank you for your time.

For innocent red hair looks, how about this one from Ayashi? I really like the way Ayashi hairs are textured, the intent is to get an anime look but with natural colors it's not too cartoonish. For less stylized hair I like Tameless, the Tameless hairs use a mix of every possible type of prim/sculpt/mesh so you get little wisps of hair that move with you, but without looking like a bunch of noodles on your head. Here's one that looks kind of girl next door-ish. Also, The Sea Hole is a store of really cute dollarbies, I think these jeans would pair well with red hair and a tan skin.

Legendaire has some 80s themed outfits but nothing really prommy. Jumo does some nice dramatic gowns, but not necessarily to an 80s theme. I'd suggest looking through both for bits and bobs you can pair up. You could probably take any strapless gown and add some huge puffy shoulders to make it more 80s. I found some full perm shoulder puffs on the marketplace, potentially those can be colored to match whatever dress you go with.

New girl! I made this girl with the free WOH Altamura Jenny body. She's kind of built from necessity, since that body comes with only one skin and only one hairbase option, I gave her hair to match. There's not a lot of Altamura-fitted mesh in my inventory so she wound up being another goth girl because that was the best dress I had. Overall I think she's pretty good looking. I put her shape up for free with full permissions up on the marketplace. The full function Jenny is supposed to be released soon right? (or maybe it already is) So now there's a curvy shape out there to match it.

Ooof, I shoulda posted a while ago. I actually was active on SL pretty much every day of December, but I was just trying to scoop up as many advent calendar, event, and hunt freebies as I could. I burned myself out a bit. But over the course of November til now I did make a few avatars. I just didn't draw them, but now I did so here they are. This one I just sort of threw together from whatever looked good. The shape is one I picked up as a freebie, and I didn't edit it. The hair and jewelry I had on because I was unpacking stuff and trying it on. I tossed some of my favorite leggings together with a tank that I wear a lot in different colors, and this happened. The boots are my favorite part, but because I guess they're kind of old they're super complex and laggy. I got booted from a sim for exceeding complexity limits for the first time because of those boots. I thought it was going to be the jewelry, but nope. This girl I put together intentionally. I just decided on a whim to construct a new face. AT some point during the process of adjusting sliders I decided she was going to be a mean girl. The hair I gave her just screams "I want to speak to the manager" to me. This girl was made with an 'Antivirus Daemon' fursuit. It was one of many ancient avatars being given away for free in the creator's store, where they were selling much more modern creations. I was in there in October while doing a hunt. I went with the white/blue color scheme because it was the first one in my inventory alphabetically. I had unpacked it first and immediately thought 'ooh I can work with this.' Because the USB cord tail has such a dark black to it, I went with all black for the clothes. So she's sort of a goth, but not really. I have a bunch of December finds to unpack still, and a bunch of October hunt finds that I still have barely touched. But I've been occupied with other projects, and Second Life took a backseat. Now that I've drawn and posted these three though I should go back in and make something new!

The Paws Big Ears are free and very widely used, so get those if you haven't yet. I thiiiink if you find the Paws store inworld they have some other free stuff, but I'm not remembering what's there. There are a lot of texture mods for their heads as well. The basic mammals (feline, canine, etc) have tons of support. EDIT: Oh also! Search for the Crux Roadstead, where you can pick up all the Crux avatars for free. They're kind of outdated but I've seen people use the heads on other bodies, because Cruxes have a very unique style to them. Someone made Kemono skins to match all the basic Crux colors, and it's easier to mod the Kemono than to mod the Crux so it's a nice option if the Crux aesthetic appeals to you.

I haven't used them myself but the Raven Bell BJD heads are anime style while still looking like plausibly adult males. Might be worth demo-ing.

Yeah, why is it that some skin/makeup/etc products are applier only? If they're Omega compatible they're using the standard SL map, right? So they've got the whole thing done right there. Or is it more complicated than that?

Head: https://marketplace.secondlife.com/p/Freebie-Fox-Avs/5702416 I retextured the eyes with a Kemono eye I had made myself. The texture's not available on its own but you can get it on a Kemono applier: https://marketplace.secondlife.com/p/Testy-Pink-Eye/12196617 Body: https://marketplace.secondlife.com/p/free-furry-avatars-by-Wingless-Emoto/5846626 Tail/Fins/Top: https://marketplace.secondlife.com/p/Taliesins-Tails-RFL-Purple/6108273 Hair is from some freebie place inworld. Freebie Galaxy maybe? AO: https://marketplace.secondlife.com/p/Taliesins-Tails-Basic-mer-ao-Boxed-V2/4325396