Best mesh body

[Brianne Ellisson]

Hey there, I've been recently in the market for a new mesh body, but there are many to choose from! So, I came here to find out a few things, A) Which mesh body is the best? B) Which has a larger clothing selection? C) As an SL pauper, which is the easiest to afford in the long run? ex: There are a lot of cheap clothes for Body A unlike Body B D) Which bodies can use Slink hands and feet, other than Slink?

Right now Lindens isn't an issue because I chose to spoil myself for once, so I can afford whatever for the moment. Also, I did pick up some demos from Slink, Maitreya, and Belleza, but I'm interested to hear what people who actually use these or other products have to say and share their experiences.

[Chic Aeon]

The best mesh body is the one you feel most comfortable in.

That being said Maitreya has by far the largest share of the pie and there are several top designers that ONLY make things for Maitreya. Hence you will have more choices with that brand. If you like clothes then picking from the top three (you have the demos) is a wise plan.  

 

[karynmaria]

Like Chic says the best body is the one that works for you.

I can't stress this enought but the best thing to do is demo, demo, demo.  You want to see if you can get the shape you want as you can use the same shape for each body, however, it will look different on each one.  You need to make sure you try the alpha cuts to see if it works with your clothing.  Each body is unique and i have found that no mesh body is prefect they all have pros and cons.  You have to find the one that has the most pros for you.

I have both the Maitreya and the Belleza.  I like Maitreya as I find my clothes fit better and I can find more clothing for it plus i like that i can make everything smaller and trimmer.  Belleza I use when i want a curvier look for nude or bathing suits, however i seem to still have an issue with the neck seam but maybe that is just me.  Also both these bodies come with feet and hands and i like that.  I don't want to have to buy hands and feet as an extra when I buy a body.

 

Edited to add more info.

[Rhonda Huntress]

You may have heard this before but http://meshbodyaddicts.com/ is a good place to start for reviews and features.

A: You may think it is a cope out answer to say there is no best but it is absolutely true.  Any of the three you are looking at can be called the best. 

B: My own personal perception seems to be that Maitreya has a very slight edge in this. However that is also the body my main avatar wears so I shop for Maitreya clothes most often.  With the exception of a single store , the places I frequently buy from have all 3 bodies in every box.

C: Cheap clothes will be in "standard sizes" which do not fit any one body well.

D: Both Maitreya and Belleza fit Slink hands and feet.  Belleza has a Slink fit option on the HUD to ensure a perfect fit between their included hands/feet and Slink's.

 

One that you did not mention is Tonic.  Their Fine Beauty body is intended for trim, less curvy looks.  It fits Slink hands but not feet.  However the feet already fit slink shoes.  Clothes rigged for Lara and Isis bodies usually fit well.While it is a lovely body it does break away from the cookie cutter standard and will obviously take more effort to demo demo demo to find the right clothes.  Anyway, just an option you may have over looked.

 

 

[Annika Velde]

Really it is up to you but to point you in a good direction to start, what kind of body type would you like? For more slender figures Slink, Belleza, and Maitreya may be what you are looking for. I will say, for more curvy figures, I have been able to manipulate my Maitreya body quite well. The Slink Hourglass shape is also perfect for a curvy figure. I will never recommend TMP. They are just not my cup of tea but would be an option for a slender figure.

Personally, Maitreya has been by far my favorite as a TON of content creators have made clothing and accessories specifcally for the body.

 

Happy shopping and don't forget; DEMO, DEMO, DEMO!!!

[Bobbie Faulds]

An addendum to the Tonic. I have both Tonic, Maitreya, Belleza and both Slink. I've found that many of the Maitreya clothes fit the Tonic just fine. It also has the benefit of having all 3 heights in the feet, one hand. It also currently has the beta Bento rigged hands for free for Tonic owners.

Again...demo, demo, demo. Get your body demos then demos of some of the clothes you're interested in and try them on. 

All are Omega friendly. You have to get the kit for Maitreya/Belleza/Slink. Tonic is ready out of the box.

As for the neck seam...First be sure that the body neck is set for the body fat you have on the default avi. Next, be sure you have the applier and skin from the same maker. Third, if you have advanced lighting on, you get a shadow from your chin that shows on your neck and makes the difference in rendering more obvious.

[Pussycat Catnap]

Demo it all, and demo slightly beyond your normal shape dials.

That said I would say the best flat out is Belleza. It can handle the widest variety of shape dial and avatar physics settings without distortion. This shows up particularly strongly in the bosom:
https://catnapkitty.wordpress.com/2016/04/26/mesh-avatar-bosom-comparison/

and in sit poses.

Maitreya has the most clothing support - I believe they require many people to agree to support only them in order to get the developer kit. But Belleza and Slink also have good support.

 

My review of Belleza:
https://catnapkitty.wordpress.com/2015/09/13/belleza-v3-mesh-body-review/

Is actually one update behind the current version, and the current version vastly improved things to a level putting it way above the competition in terms of quality. It is now a very highly configurable body and possibly the lowest lag option available for human bodies.

 

[Brianne Ellisson]

I really want to thank all of you for your help, you guys have definitely made it easier to decide. Definitely want to go for the Maitreya, but going to look into Tonic some more before making a final decision.

You ladies are awesome and again I thank you for your thoughts and experiences.

[Penny Patton]

I still wish they included whether or not a body is modifiable in their list of features. That's such a huge thing to leave out.

[Rhonda Huntress]

---

Brianne Ellisson wrote:

Definitely want to go for the Maitreya, but going to look into Tonic some more before making a final decision.

---

If you do pick Maitreya's body there is an inworld group caled Maitreya Lara Friends you should consider joining.  It is not associated with the store; it is just for people who use the body to help each other.  It can get a little chatty (little .. HA!) but you can always find help and advise for technical issues, fashion advice or how other body parts work with Lara.

[Bobbie Faulds]

Very few mesh bodies are mod, mainly because of the scripting involved to get the layers to work properly. If they were mod, that could very easily be broken.

You can change what's on the different layers with appliers, ie skin/tat/underwear/clothing, as well as get designer kits and make mesh clothing. 

Mesh bodies/heads are like onion. You have the main body, then the layers are, for the most part, just a slightly larger size of the main body. So 4 layers for the body and many more for the static heads that have expressions. Bento should help cut down on the number of layers since facial expressions can be done with animations rather than a layer with a different expression on it.

[Penny Patton]

---

Bobbie Faulds wrote:

Very few mesh bodies are mod, mainly because of the scripting involved to get the layers to work properly. If they were mod, that could very easily be broken.

---

That's a non-issue unless the body is no-copy. There really is no reason to sell a  body no-mod. The modifiable bodies out there, with the same layer features, never seemed to suffer for it.

---

Bobbie Faulds wrote:

Mesh bodies/heads are like onion. You have the main body, then the layers are, for the most part, just a slightly larger size of the main body. So 4 layers for the body and many more for the static heads that have expressions. Bento should help cut down on the number of layers since facial expressions can be done with animations rather than a layer with a different expression on it.

---

Yeah, and if you're not using those layers for anything, it's great to be able to unlink them and remove the scripts for a drastic reduction in draw weight. I never have to worry about being rendered as a jellydoll thanks to my Lena body from Kitties Lair being modifiable.

[Rohander]

some advice on realistic male avatars would be great too. 

[Raindrop Drinkwater]

16 minutes ago, Rohander said:

some advice on realistic male avatars would be great too. 

Of the ones I've tried, I prefer Slink Physique or Signature Geralt for a slim look, and Signature Gianni for a more muscular look.

[Fionalein]

Realistic can be defined many ways, both Andre the Giant and Arnie were real, so most men's mesh bodies can be considered "realistic", best describe what you are looking for...

[Marianne Little]

1 hour ago, Rohander said:

some advice on realistic male avatars would be great too. 

Belleza Jake is what my alts prefer. The body is prettier in my eyes, than the others. The HUD is good to use.

Signature is also a good pick, there is not much made for Signature Geralt, so if you want slim and many clothes to pick from, I would recommend Slink Physique for men.

One thing with Signature and Slink: You can turn off an arm tattoo and avoid 2 identical, mirrored tattoos on the arms.

[Alyona Su]

3 hours ago, Raindrop Drinkwater said:

Of the ones I've tried, I prefer Slink Physique or Signature Geralt for a slim look, and Signature Gianni for a more muscular look.

I agree. Belleza Jake is a good "in-between" also. As has been stated early in the thread: Grab all the demos, create a shape for each of them and adjust them to your liking, then compare them to each other. I have seven mesh bodies myself but always come back to my favorite (because of silly details, like the way the knees, wrist and breast-profile shapes look.).  Though I think most people in SL aren't as snooty about attention-to-detail the way I am LOL

I've found one of the best ways to compare competing things like bodies, heads, etc: take a snapshot (save to disk) of each from the front, side, and 3/4 view. Then you can switch between pictures instantly to compare the details you like and don't like. If I had thought of doing this earlier I wouldn't have seven or eight bodies and eight or nine mesh heads (half of which are five Catwas and now I even have a "Beta" version head that isn't even ready for sale, yet!) Someone slap some sense into me, please.

Edited August 13, 2018 by Alyona Su

[Lindal Kidd]

Alonya Su said, "...Someone slap some sense into me, please."

https://youtu.be/ke6MgMf8og8

Edited August 13, 2018 by Lindal Kidd

[BelindaN]

I don't believe it. There are people on here who are nuttier than me.........

I'm like a drip (of water....haha). I take the easy route if I can find it.....

So once I'd seen a Lara on the forum and thought Wow!...... and got the demo and thought Double Wow! That was me done.

But mesh heads are a bit more alluring......

[Lara Aulder]

Lara it's a nice proportional body, easy to edit and has a good HUD, I recommend buy the Maitreya Body Lara. You're not gonna regret. It's the only body I have and I never felt the necessity of buying another. But if you like more curves Belleza Freya/Isis are good bodys as well. 

[Fionalein]

1 hour ago, BelindaN said:

But mesh heads are a bit more alluring......

I have dozens, even several bento heads ... however I have only one head people are used to seeing me in so I wonder why I have the others, they didn't cost me afortune but I still wonder what I shoudl use them for (asides stealing some of their animations for my usual head)

[Coby Foden]

I have exactly one body (Maitreya Lara) and one head (Vista Lia). That combination is perfect for me, no real need for anything else.
(Unless there will appear something really, really awesome.)

What I really would wish though is that LL would upgrade the classic avatar's mesh to excellent one.

[Rhonda Huntress]

I wear Slink on my male alt but have not tried any of the newer bodies.  I can't really say what is the most realistic but Slink gives me the look I'm going for.

[Skell Dagger]

9 hours ago, Rohander said:

some advice on realistic male avatars would be great too. 

As others have said, 'realistic' is as subjective as 'best' when it comes down to it. It's just personal opinion, and 'realistic' can be equally defined or changed by the choice of skin worn on that mesh body. The ladies of the thread have told you what bodies they like to wear on their male alts, but as someone who has lived in a male body for 11 years in SL I will always ask any guy who wants advice regarding mesh bodies this one question:

"What build do you want your body to have?"

Because that's pretty important to us guys Personally I'm not a fan of the 'spends a lot of time working his delts and biceps' look, so I favour slimmer bodies with a longer torso and broad "swimmer's shoulders". However, for someone who does want the worked delts and biceps look, an entirely different body than my usual one would be recommended. While I do own those very popular 'gym bunny' bodies, I've spent a lot of time working with their shapes to bring down the musculature as much as I can, because a lot of clothing these days is only fitted to those bodies, so the more bodies I have to choose from, the better my clothing choices.

As a CSR for one of the big mesh head brands in SL I see this a lot in our support group chat: a guy comes in and asks which mesh body is the best. Almost immediately about half a dozen women chime in to recommend one particular body (yes, the worked delts and biceps one that's so popular!) but - once I ask him what kind of build he wants - more than half the time he wants a slimmer body that would require a completely different recommendation altogether. (That hasn't happened here, thankfully. You've been given a fairly wide range of suggestions. But it happens elsewhere with depressing regularity.)

In short: let us know what build you want and we can help you further.

Edited August 13, 2018 by Skell Dagger

[AyelaNewLife]

On 8/13/2018 at 10:09 AM, Rohander said:

some advice on realistic male avatars would be great too. 

Do you intend on doing much with photos?

Belleza's Jake is a great looking body, but I still have borderline PTSD over the neck seams that body has with most popular mesh head brands. Slink Physique and Signature Gianni don't have anywhere near as severe a problem with neck seams.

Niramyth's Aesthetic body looks out of place when next to the other male or female bodies, especially when still using the head that comes with the body. I've seen a small handful of guys who have done a lot of work to improve their appearance and make themselves radically different from the "out of the box" Aesthetic appearance, but most don't bother and... bleh ?

If you don't really care about any of that - and most don't - then go for the body that you can make work the best with you. Grab some demos and play with the sliders a bit.