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How to make a good looking avatar


xcookiemonsterx
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Tutorial: How to make a good looking avatar without spending so much.

Well, to have a decent avatar, you're going to need a Full Avatar Pack, you can get these off the marketplace, stores like ZYRA,NOYA and, R.icelli sell them, they cost around 299L$ they come with skin, shapes, mabye outfits. Then after you got you're Base avatar you're going to want an AO(animation overider), you can find some Neat AO's down at Region: Kuso if you land on the ground and not in the store look on you're radar and ask someone to tp you up, and say thank you to them :).Kuso provides a large range of AOs for male and female avatars for not a large price, mostly around 150-300L$.After you got you're AO you're gonna want some good Clothes and some good Hair, you can get some nice hair and clothes, at Region Freebies, and other freebie stores, just look it up on the search: Freebies.

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xcookiemonsterx wrote:

Well, to have a decent avatar, you're going to need a Full Avatar Pack

Not true. I never bought a full avatar - I created my avi from bits and pieces. A shape from one place, a skin from another, eyes from another, clothes and hair from tons of different places...Many people make their own shapes by wearing a newbie shape or choosing "create new shape," and manipulating the sliders. The thing with full avatars is that they're generic. Everyone has access to those kits, so lots of people buy and use them. When you create your own shape, or even buy skin and shape separately, you end up with a more unique look. (Not entirely unique, but much moreso.)

It IS a good idea to get a new shape and skin. Skins can be found at freebie stores, but good quality skins are often found in the stores of major creators, as group gifts. Many of those groups are free to join. Shapes can also be found in freebie shops, but the truth is that it's better to go ahead and create your own, or - if you don't want to create on - invest some $L in buying one. There are some good freebie shapes to be found, as well; just make sure the shape is mod, so you can edit it to be more "you."

You're right about an AO; even a cheap, simple one can go a long way towards eliminating that "newb" look.

Savior hair is also great for cheap/free hair. Clothes can be found in any number of freebie shops. And of course, the marketplace is always good for a few freebies/cheapies.

Your intentions are good, and thank you for posting to help other newbies! But some of your information is inaccurate or incomplete, unfortunately. Again, though, thanks for the helpful post!

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Full avatars are OK for as a starting point for newbs that want to lose the newb look immediately with an instant avatar, or for people that don't want to take the time to put their own together, but your going to look like a lot of other people on the grid.  If individuality and/or a unique look is what you want, your better off putting one together on your own.  Its cheaper too because there is a lot of quality free things out there if you take the time to hunt them down.

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Ariel Vuissent wrote:


xcookiemonsterx wrote:

Well, to have a decent avatar, you're going to need a Full Avatar Pack

Not true. I never bought a full avatar - I created my avi from bits and pieces. A shape from one place, a skin from another, eyes from another, clothes and hair from tons of different places...Many people make their own shapes by wearing a newbie shape or choosing "create new shape," and manipulating the sliders. The thing with full avatars is that they're generic. Everyone has access to those kits, so lots of people buy and use them. When you create your own shape, or even buy skin and shape separately, you end up with a more unique look. (Not entirely unique, but much moreso.)

It IS a good idea to get a new shape and skin. Skins can be found at freebie stores, but good quality skins are often found in the stores of major creators, as group gifts. Many of those groups are free to join. Shapes can also be found in freebie shops, but the truth is that it's better to go ahead and create your own, or - if you don't want to create on - invest some $L in buying one. There are some good freebie shapes to be found, as well; just make sure the shape is mod, so you can edit it to be more "you."

You're right about an AO; even a cheap, simple one can go a long way towards eliminating that "newb" look.

Savior hair is also great for cheap/free hair. Clothes can be found in any number of freebie shops. And of course, the marketplace is always good for a few freebies/cheapies.

Your intentions are good, and thank you for posting to help other newbies! But some of your information is inaccurate or incomplete, unfortunately. Again, though, thanks for the helpful post!

I agree, I searched around online and found some skin template PSD files, after disecting and studying them I made my own skin and then using trial and error adjusted my shape to fit the skin, as for the rest, again trial and error until I found hair, eyes, makeup, ect that I like 

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full avatars are ok, but in my opinion any i bought felt like they werent original or me... I started off going to the freebie places then bought some hairs skins etc and experimented with what i liked... Most places in SL have demo's people can try so that helps alot.. What i did for my avatar was started off with taunt hair, freebie skin clothes and shape.. upgraded my shape to a Rac One then from that i adjusted it and started to make my own ones i liked.... I then upgraded to the likes of calico and truth hair and bought redgrave skin... I personally didnt see the point in buying some boxed set... theres nothing wrong with them just not all peoples tastes :( i think if someone wants to start of with a decent avatar then they can search the market place and buy stuff free or search for freebies or actually deposit for what they want straight of.

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pretty similar here. Started off with freebies and slowly modded and replaced them with more advanced (and expensive) stuff as I found things I really liked.

That way I didn't end up buying and discarding many different skins and stuff.

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Meh. There's no free kit in a box that will give a catwalk-tier look. They're also, by nature, canned. On the other hand, they look far better than mystery sim freebies and the stock LL clothing. The better economical boxes stuff and discontinued premiums are sufficient enough that a new user can at least aclimate to the SL environment; some might find they prefer building to people, or that they're rarely on, and for them, the cheap clothing and goods may forever prove adequate.

 

 

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Well whilst the original post is wrong to say you need a full avatar pack, It is however good advice for creating a nice looking avatar, better than most you see on the grid and for not a lot of money.

For an Alt I went to Secret Passions, got a avatar pack for about 300l$, the maths teacher AO from Daiz Papp 150l$. I then fiddle with the shape a bit... (legs seemed ridiculously long, or was too tall). Bought a Truth hair and an ADN outfit or two, HOC for some shoes, Devicious for the free outfit with nice boots and after a couple of days got a 400l$ skin from pink fuel. Full look not much more than 1000l$, hardly any time spent shopping and faffing about and.ended up with an avatar as good as if not better than most you see around the place and no scouring of laggy freebie places for relative gems you would soon ditch and not be seen dead in later anyway.

Good enough for shopping in and not feeling embarassed in Coco, Icing, Graves or wherever you like to go shopping, anyway hehe

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  • 5 years later...

I love to work with "expensive" items, i feel like they look better,shall I say. but if you cannot afford mesh bodies or mesh heads, I'd buy a cute shape from marketplace for a starter. Noya is a nice start to a cute avatar especially because the creator of Noya has such a nice taste and dedication to looking fabulous. Next, buy a skin. No one wants to wear the starter skin, unless you do, thats not my say. Cheap skins are easy to look good, if you find the right shape. the next step is to find hairs, clothes, and shoes. I suggest mesh, which you can find for cheap! always remember you can contact a skin creator, but it may take some time and a couple thousand lindens, but if you have a friend who is good at skins its always a good idea to ask if you can get one made for you specially for a good deed or free. good luck!

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For a year and a half I used an avi that was a free promotion. I added tats and different hair so the total look was not free, but i got compliments on my look up until the day i retired her and went to mesh. You can get a great look for not much money here if you just put the effort into finding good stuff. Promos are great because stores that make high quality stuff will often offer free or cheep versions to get their stuff out there.

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Dunno, I've never bought a shape. I used the Appearance settings to create my own.

There are good tutorials on the internet how to create well-proportioned shapes (for people who draw tho), and over at SLUniverse, there also was a tutorial on how to create a well-proportioned shape inworld, elaborated by @Vaelissa Cortes if I remember correctly.

However, I bought my current skin and hair like 5y ago - and haven't changed shape nor skin since then. Even though I'm now wearing a Maytreia Lara mesh body around my shape, I still wear my system head and my flexi hair (when not wearing the hood, anyways). Why I prefer the old flexi hair? Simple: Because it looks and moves more naturally than mesh hair.

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I think the best advice is to learn how to make your own shape and go from there. That was the best advice I was given as a newbie and it still applies today. Your shape is the basis of everything if you are system, mesh parts or totally mesh.

There are plenty of shapes on mp that cost 1-10 L. Buy one of those, start tweaking the nose, eyes and mouth. Cam all around yourself, then leave it alone. A few days later try again. You'll quickly find your range of what looks nice. Once you have an idea of how the shape sliders work, then start playing around with skins. When you go back in to make adjustments, you'll naturally gravitate back to your range.

The same thing applies to mesh bodies and heads. Play around with them! It's a lot of fun! It's the only way you'll know what's possible.

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Like others, I would not want to buy a complete avatar because I want to be unique.

SL is just like RL when it come to looking nice. You can spend a lot of time and little money or a lot of money and little time.  IRL, you can shop thrift shops and dress very well, but you'll spend a lot more time than if you shop department stores.

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If you Google there are so much freebies, I think looking for them is my biggest addiction now.

Love how you can look for free, don't really have the money for mesh, so really happy with all

the shops who give away so much great stuff.

Next up: learning to make decent pics O.o

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