Skins

I've had my avatar about 5 weeks now & i like her face but not her skin.

I have bought new skins but it always changes her face too. How do i put on a more realistic skin but keep my original face?

Thanks

You can't. Every skin includes the face as well, more so for women whose skin includes a number of make ups. You should pick the skin you like best and tweek the face shape settings until you get a result you're satisfied with.

oh well, thanks

Once the head, upper body, and lower body textures get combined into a skin, they become inseperable. There's no practical way of separating them back out.

Do a lot of shopping before you buy a skin. Don't buy a skin unless you can see it on yourself as a demo first. And be resigned to the fact that you're going to spend some time trying on different skins from different merchants until you find the one you like.



Edit: And even though there are unsupported ways by which you could accomplish separating a skin back out into the texture files, if you have technical savvy, unless the three skins textures were designed to be used together, you're going to find that you can't mix-and-match. If you want a new body, you're still stuck with getting a face that was designed to match that body.

putting on a skin should not change the shape and features of your AV's facial definition ....but it does slightley .

I put it down to shadows on the skin that seem to make your face shape seem to change ...and sometimes looks very very diffrent .

Only real way round it is to demmo as many skins as you can till you ether find one that you dont mind the change or one that has subtle shades and it dont change the shape too much .

Others might have tips on how to get round this , i would be interested to hear them too

That's exactly right, Lostmedia.

Getting your Av to look her best is an iterative process. First you tweak the shape until she looks good. Then you find a skin you like. Now you have to go back and tweak the shape again, for the skin to look its best.

You probably also will want at least two shapes...one for when you're wearing pants, and the other for skirts. SL skirts make everybody's butt look fat.

One final touch that adds a remarkable improvement is the use of a facelight. This is an invisible set of light emitters that give your face an attractive glow, especially at night...but also cut harsh shadows in full sun. There are several good commercial models, but I made one myself pretty easily...just a couple of small prims, set to emit a warmish light, positioned in front of the face and given an invisible texture.

One other thing...a few upscale skins are semitransparent, allowing you to adjust lipstick shade, eyebrow color, and even skin tone in a limited range. I REALLY like this feature.

3 words -Second Life lighting!

It plays havoc with the skin. you turn one way, face looks great....turn the other way and you get shadows and what not.