Male avatar shapes

I'm looking for a good male avatar shape for a friend. Masculine, but not macho.
Tall, somewhat muscular in the torso, with strong facial features. Don't want to pay more than around L$500 or less if possible. I'm not used to shopping for men, so I'm in the dark regarding who the good avatar designers are for men. Any suggestions?

edit: I'm looking for an adult man, not someone who looks like a boyish 20-something.

Thanks!

IMO, Kmadd/MADesigns look the best...not sure of the pricing though

i can't think of any off the top of my head, but your friend can use appearance in the pie chart by right clicking his avatar. and it won't cost him a thing. i'll be in world in about an hour and i have a lm to a skin shop(can't remember the name of it). i do believe they have shapes as well.

Hi Princess...

Throw me an IM in-world....I can help you with this one~!!!

There's also a limit to what you CAN do with the male avatar shape. I ended up using a female shape with breast slider set to zero to get rid of the axe-handle scapulas.

? Interesting idea! Hmmm.

KMadd is definitely the best choice, though it costs more than 500L$, but a good shape and a good skin is priceless...

I think I got mine from Millage (?). It was about L$900 though.

=^-^=

Immy worked this out.

I gave my old male alt a makeover a while back using a female base shape. (^_^)



Gotta say... I'm happy with the end result. =^-^=

Male shapes are tough. I went with skin first (I wanted a certain face), and then a shape that worked with it.

I started with the the shape that came with my Redgrave skin, and made little adjustments from there.

Nice clean look Jerboa

I make mine off photographs, or i get demo Skins first than build around it...in my earlier days, i did it the other way round, which got expensive buying a ton of skins to see what suits the Shape best.

I'm not into too thick necks, square heads, tiny waists and over-sized biceps...which is what you get at some well known providers.




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My favorite ones are Savoir Faire Shapes.

http://slurl.com/secondlife/Pax/247/125/29

$200 for the no modify shapes. $500 for the modify/copyable shapes.

They're not overdone.

For shapes, it is the "face" that is hard to get looking good. There are a zillion sliders and 100 zillion combinations. There are a lot less variations available for the bodies - and thus it's pretty easy to tweak the body to look like you want.

TIP: Never ever get a shape where you can't modify it. Some outfits you might have to tweak a little bit for it to look right (I have to turn my butt almost inside out for one of my outfits with a trench coat lol). Should also be copyable too - so you always have the original to go back to after you mess it up. lol

So, in the end - the real trick is to find a shape with a decent looking face. Minor tweaks to that along with doing whatever you want for the body and you don't really need to spend an arm and a leg. I started out with a freebie one - chose one that had the least offensive facial features, got a good skin and tweaked it a bit in the face, but most of the changes came in the body part.

Savoir Faire has good male faces. It's one reason I like them. The other is their bodies are proportionate and do not look like a superhero.

They even have 'slim guys'.

The pictures don't do the shapes justice, so be sure to try on some shapes. Take a decent skin with you of course, a bad skin will make any shape look bad.

For $200 (they don't need modding, although of course that's an option at a few hundred L$ more) I think the shapes are a steal.

Of course there are always freebie-mall shapes, too. But they're not distinctive, if adequate.

Oh - also go to Adora if money is a problem. They have a freebie male shape. Always try to go to real stores for a freebie instead of freebie malls. Usually the quality is much better. Also don't forget the MHO hunt going on til the end of June. There are a handful of free shapes in that. One of the freebie blogs has pix of every prize from MHO if you want to look it up.

Its not as easy as people would believe. Sure you can create a male shape in short time....but will it look nice? It's the same as i can build a complete house in no time at all and texture it too....will it be any good though? You can create laggy scripts or one that perform the same functions with a better written scripts that provide low-lag within SL.
I see creating Body shapes as a form of sculpturing.....and not everyone has an eye for it or it's proportionate dimensions.



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Some freebie blogs. The first one even mentions (as of today) a freebie male shape & skin combo on the first page.

http://ffform.wordpress.com

I think this is the one that covered the MHO hunt although that's not on the first page any longer. Avatar nudity on the first page, actually, as of this typing:

http://freefindsformen.blogspot.com

A not free male fashion blog: http://slstyle.wordpress.com

MHO blog: http://makehimover.blogspot.com

The GNUbie store isn't a typical freebie store. It's more like a collection of the freebie/demo sections from a bunch of great stores.

It's also the last place on the grid you can get an avatar by Samara!

Thanks for all the input everyone. I agree, the face is what is really important, and what is the hardest thing to get "right" with the sliders. So I am looking for faces I like, on copy/mod bodies that I can tweak.

I'll try some of the shops suggested - thanks for the input. I've fallen in love with the picture of one of KMadd's shapes - hoping they have a demo that can be tried out in the store. L$1000 - ouch. But if it works, it is worth the money for the look we want.

Thanks for all the suggestions, everyone.

I'm sure you know this but just be sure to try a demo. I've bought shapes before that looked amazing in the poster/pic, but horrible on. Also, study skins first and/or use the skin you plan to use, when you try the shape demos. Some just do not go well as a set.

(Some shapes makers offer a 'style card' so you can go and get the same hair, skin, etc. as in the picture. But I've done that before with a female av shape and it still didn't look as good. Maybe just like people, some avs take a better pic in 2d than they look in 3d?)