How to make a new avatar?

Hello, I've just recently signed up with Second Life, and am unfamiliar with everything.

I am not satisfied with my avatar, and I am unable to edit it to my satisfaction. Is there a way to start over with a new avatar but keep my current name? I don't know what to do. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

use your sliders to alter your shape.

then, try out lots n lots of demo skins until you find one that matches your shape and gives you the look you are shooting for.

or, buy a shape and skin from one of the skin stores.

you don't need a new account to change your shape.

There are many ways to change your avatar. Your avatar is a combination of a shape, a skin and may also include one or more "prim" parts, depending on what form you take. And clothing, if you're human in form.

Assuming you are human and want to continue to be human, you can change your shape by buying a premade shape, change to a new skin, buy prim hair, buy attachable "bits"... the list is endless. There are many stores that offer free goods to new residents, and you can find lots of suggestions by searching for threads about "freebies" or "shapes" or "skins".

Adam and Eve is one store that has nice free skins and clothing, Sarah Nerds Freebie store is another resource. Searching inworld classified ads for Freebies is another way to find free goods. There's a store called Icing that has free complete avatars "Jack in a box" or "Jill in a box".

Good luck.

Hi Rinon, and Welcome to Second Life!

Yes, you absolutely can change your avatar and keep your name. The two are completely separate. In Second Life, you can change every part of your avatar - including your body shape - just like you would change clothes in real life. In fact, Second Life uses the same terminology - you "wear" a body or a skin, just like you "wear" a piece of clothing. There are some things that you can't "remove" though (for example, you can't "remove" a shape, because then you would have no body at all! You just have to "wear" one that replaces the one you're wearing at the time)

You can change the shape of your avatar by choosing "Appearance" from the Edit Menu - this edits your current Shape. You can store different Shapes, Skins, and everything else in your Inventory and Wear them whenever you want to.

Most users create avatars by designing a Shape for themselves, then buying (or obtaining free) Skins and Clothes and combining them together. If you want to create your own Skins or Clothes you have to do it using an art package - it's best to find a website tutorial or attend a class in-world for help with that, as it's quite involved.

All the avatars you can choose at sign-up are also available in your inventory, in Library/Clothing.
But all avatars use the same basic "skeleton". There is nothing you can do by choosing a different avatar which you can't do by tweaking the settings. Don't despair; refining your avatar is a never-ending process of getting a little closer and finding new ideas.
Also be aware that a lot of the good looks you see around you is not something you can achieve just by fiddling with the sliders. Much of it comes down to finding specific skins and hair and all sorts of accessories inworld.
I am sure many can pitch in with their favorite places to get good stuff, ranging from free to very expensive, but generally, look around.
I'll recommend The Free Dove. They have a good selection of free stuff, as well as pointers to stores, many of which have special offers for new people.

Hi Rinon, welcome

Going in world to send a New Resident's Kit to you put together by Lucrezia Lamont. There are coupons in there for residents 30 days old and younger for free hair, skin, shapes, clothes from some great designers

i thought it only had hair. hmmmmmmmmmmmm

This should get me going. Thanks everyone!

You can also get lots of non-human avatars, but the really good ones are not free; they have been designed by talented residents and you can buy them in world. I have a dragon (ok several dragons), butterfly, Cylon Centurion, mermaid, cat, Dalek, gingerbread man... and that's just the tiniest sample of what you can find out there. The nice thing is they are all things you "wear" so you can change it whenever you feel like it.

It's been updated since it first came out and there is now a really nice gift certificate to...oh gosh...not in world...but a place with a name I can never spell that has really nice lingerie and other clothes and I'm pretty sure skins.

Szentasha?

Good point! And you're right the really detailed non-human aren't free. But just for fun, Grendel's Children has a bunch of 1L (I don't think they're 0L) avatars that are a lot of fun - like the flying book.

Insolence has skins, lingerie and footwear, all top quality.
I really like the style of the skins and the way they hit a balance between realistic and stylized to fit the digital world. If I ever needed a human skin, this would be where I'd get it.

Szentasha doesn't deal in skins, as far as I remember.

Grendel's have lots of avatars, and while many of them are more jokes than avatars to wear daily, there are also some very impressive ones, still quite affordable.

If you want a more non-human, hybrid look, say so, and I'll drop some recommendations. (I'll not spam the thread unless you're interested in that direction).

That's it!! For the clothes part Thanks!

I am not entirely certain Szentasha's outfits qualify as *clothes*.

LOL, well I did say "lingerie" when I was trying to remember the name of the shop. But...the last time I was there (quite awhile ago) there was this really cool-looking techno flight suit. Sort of out of place with the rest of the errrmmmm *non-clothes*.

Search for FREEBEE CAVE, it's on my land, its about 200+ boxes of free things by now, a lot of clothes and skins, for both guys as well as gals