Default skin, some changes prohibited?

Completely new to the experience. The potential is amazing, but I am having some growing problems right out of the box. My first major problem is that, according to everything I have read, the initial avatar is totally customizable in re to features suck as skin color, etc. Unfortunately, I cannot seem to change anything hair or skin related, only shape. So the Boy Next Door avatar can become fat or skinny, short or tall, with a block chin or pointy chin. But I cannot turn him whiter, darker, etc. Something I'm doing wrong, or limitation of avatar? If the latter, is there a place to obtain a totally customizable skin?

TIA for what I am sure will be the first of many questions.

We have some new default avs and not all of them allow modifications. Rummage around the Library folder and you should find something with full perms.

Remember though, you can't actually remove body parts, you have to replace them. This includes skin, shape, eyes, and system hair.

Hi Cian, welcome!!!

From what I understand the latest 'newbie' avatar is supposed to have been upgraded to a more appealing basic male or female character....meaning better looking skin for the most part. But, the basic avatar should be modifiable by going into edit appearance and using all the different sliders.

That said.....it's possible if you are using an nVidia card with the 177 drivers.....that you might be running into a texture glitch that is wide spread right now and effects certain modifiable layers.

But.....you can also get all kinds of wonderful skin, hair and eye upgrades from places all over SL to give your avatar a look that is unique. The skins that are sold are created in photoshop and then uploaded as skin layers......so they are not modifiable n edit appearance. But....the massive variety of amazing, beautiful life like skins makes it very easy to find just the right look for your avatar! You can also find hair that is worn as an attachment (not like the funky cartoon hair that sprouts from the avatar scalp lol). And you can get some really amazing eyes to 'wear' as well.

That's how folks change their appearance once they get their feet wet a bit in SL and learn all the cool stuff there is to learn.

Don't have the male avi, but I think the boy-next-door is one of the latest starting avatars, no? While it might be full perms, it's an overlay skin, meaning you can't change the skin tone on it.

What you would need to do is go to create and new skin. You'll find that you can fully change it's color and all, but that it has less detail than a Ken Doll. But it's good practice for future enterprises.

OK, I went and looked at these - Ann doesn't look good in male skin, btw - and the Boy Next Door skin is completely opaque, so slider adjustments wouldn't show. The Clubgoer and Professional Male skins are somewhat transparent, so you should be able to see the changes with those.

Oh, and the hair CAN be changed, but via the Edit window, not Appearance. It's prim hair - an attachment - not system hair.