Complete makeover after 1 year?

In my first year, I think I created a completely new avatar about once a month, and just kept switching them around, like outfits. My only "recreation" av was trying to make one as similar to the There avatar, which of course failed but certainly made for a distinct look. I can understand how some clothes horses would fit everything around a distinct shape.

These days I am much more consistent in my look, for one very simple reason: voice. Voice as a form of SL communication shapes my image in world. To those who can hear it and know a spoken language - a good deal fewer than can understand it in written form! - a voice is more memorable than just another visual appearance. Timbre, frequency, and prosodic features (cadence, inflection) shape my ongoing customization around "something that would speak like that".

As real-time voice changing software becomes increasingly sophisticated, not only shifting formant frequency but changing timbre and other effects, voice will become less of a factor. Nothing but speech therapy and intense study (and talent?) will change accent or cadence. Many now avoid using voice due to issues of communication, comfort, or personal identity. I like being able to speak too much to discard it as a tool. It obviously had strange though not unpleasant consequences.

I like that idea. I am already over 6 ft tall here, and though that is not tall by SL standards, it still seems too tall to me. I have considered adding a bit more to my height, but maybe my guy needs to shrink a bit also.

Just went through a complete makeover in-world myself.. haven't been around that long as this av, but already had one lol...

Kept the shape (Rather partial to it) but new skin, hair, got neko ears and tail, new clothes (Bunches), new eyebrows (Lol the skin forced me to change them.. they were like hooks with the new one!)

In my opinion, the difference between the two looks is that thi new one looks older somehow. Before it was rather... well... cute, in my opinion, now she's a bit sexier, and the hair styles seem to be more 'fashion-y' as well.

I look completely different, and had to move my eyebrow ring, since those moved (And resize it too). Otherwise though, no trouble fitting cause I kept my shape.

However.. 'identifying' is interesting... before, i can honestly say I think I acted 'cuter' if you will.

I change my look quite often, but the shape stays the same. It developed steadily over my first six months or so, then a few more subtle changes a few months back (reduced height somewhat, and scaled everything to match).

Even though I change hair & skin quite often, I consider them more like extreme forms of make-up & style than actual changes. Under it all, there's the me that you see in my profile & forum pictures. I usually revert to that look before very long, although recently I've quite taken to a quite drastic change of hairstyle. Who knows, that might soon be the 'real' me.

Was this when you found out you had made yourself to look like human Crazod? Or is this a new version of you?

No, the human Crazod was Max v2 - the fact that it was a mirror image from the past was the most interesting thing about it.

Max v4 is the one you know.

Only changed looks once. I started SL as a vampire and eventually the rp got tiresome.. so I became human or at least close. My current look fits who I am better, I have not changed since.

.d

I need to make my av shorter...I measured her properly using a prim instead of those inaccurate detectors, and she's 7' tall in bare feet. I'm just so not motivated to tweak all the sliders I'd need to in order to keep her shape looking the same at lower height. *sigh*

The only thing I change a lot is my hair....it is always red but different styles.
I have a couple of skins but they are very similar. If I change anything my SL hubby is very quick to notice lol...I just moved the slider on my lips just a tad, and he noticed first thing

I spent months getting my shape 'just right' esp the nose, eyes and cheekbones, and I'm very happy with it. It's me. So when I shop for skins I try demos and see which skin works best with my shape. Some don't work at all. You just have to keep putting them on until you get one that clicks. So I enjoy changing skins a lot but they always pretty much look like me cos I stick with the same shape and match the skin to it.

I've done a complete restart a few times with an alt. I purposely stayed away from everything familiar. You should definitely go for it. It's both eye opening and liberating to free yourself from .... yourself. You don't know what you're missing until you try it.

We should have a Weston makeover shopping trip or something. Let me find some ZZ Top sound clips.

Couldn't agree more Bree
Bilbo kind of had a history before coming to SL but starting a new avie is like a rebirth. A new life cycle starts, a new character develops. I can log from one to another and although it's the same conscience at the keyboard, there are quirky changes of nature.
Bilbo is on mkII and probably here to stay but the others though staying physically believable and probably not remarkable in any way, still have enormous freedom of form.
I can spend hours just tweaking a shape and the youngest is out for a big make-over .. 19 demos from ETD Hair!!!

Went from my original look to the look I have now. I do try demo skins on just for shoots and giggles but some just dont go with my shape. My hair I have 3 styles same color made by the same person. Tried going taller once but that just wasnt me either. Guess I am used to being short. But maybe down the road I might who knows.

But if you want a complete make over then I say go for it!

Bec

Sorry for bumping this thread. It's just that I started it and then promptly lost it! So I've just now got caught up. As always, there are a lot of useful ideas here.

Thanks for all the replies. I didn't do a count but it seems as though 3 quarters say to go for it. I've compromised for now and kept the skin which I rather like, and I've changed the shape radically to taller and more grown up and confident. It will require a lot more tweaking before I'm happy with it.

As for the shopping spree - that would be an embarrasment of riches, but could be fun. Maybe a male makeover day at the hangout some weekend?

Thanks again y'all!

I just gave myself a total makeover since today is my rezday and I haven't changed skins in about a year. I never felt quite right in the skin I had. I just found the perfect skin, shape, etc for myself and am feeling very comfy in the new set up.

I say go for it if you want. Just be sure and grab demos of skins to try before you buy. It helps to not just try them on, but mess with the shape sliders some too to get a real look at what is possible with the skin.

Good luck!

Part of the beauty of SL is the ability to change anything you want and still be able to go back to an 'old' look if needed.

Only been in SL for just over 4 months but already have at least 7 definitive extremely different skin looks each that add something to whatever I'm wearing at the time. I just keep the looks and shapes in different folders in a 'base file' that way I can swap and change to my hearts content.

Variety holds interest and it's always fun to take the chance when you can, try a demo skin and try it against your clothes.

Same here, LittleMe. I was fortunate enough to find a skin/shape combo I loved my first week or so in SL and they define "me" in SL. When I bring on one of my alts occasionally, I just don't feel like "me."

When I first started in SL, I wasn't in my 'newbie' skin for very long.... I bought a skin from 'Avalon' and I loved it.... My first shape was also storebought....because in my 'innocence' I thought that you had to have a special program to make shapes..lol But a friend told me that it was only a matter of adjusting the sliders... So I set to work on my own shape... I'm very short for SL standards, but my height is definitely something that never ever changes. More recently, I've been wearing different skins, but always with the same kind of look. I also never change my eye colour..they're always brown..just as in RL.

I think my look has 'settled' somewhat....and I feel comfortable, but having said that, I do change appearances quite often...just to be different every now and again. I change my hair frequently......

For me, it's one of the fun aspects of SL, changing when the mood takes you.. If you ever look up my SL profile, in the 'profile picture' section, I have a 'montage' of pockets as my profile picture....

I totally agree and I catch myself doing that all the time. The only thing I don't regularily change is my shape, and I'll only make small adjustments to that. Everything else I can change on my AV without actually changing the AV is fair game. I'm kind of a chameleon in the respect. Friends are always telling me they never know what I'll look like from 1 night to the next, and one of my favorite things to do is go for the complete opposite or contrasting look or style.

I almost always wear my original skin and I am on v3 of the shape I originally made. I have come to identify that look with me and don't really feel the same looking different from that. My outfits change completely though lol.

I will say that when I change in to a non-human AV obviously I look completely different. I am not often non-human looking though.

Now that I have an (new-ish) alt though I am finding it difficult getting her look just right. She does not feel right being the same as my main but I have not found a look that I am happy with either yet.

I discovered early on that my shape is what made my face look as it does, and I didn't want to change it much. But I'm on my 4th skin...and I admit that I've kind of been looking lately, even though I'm thrilled with what I have. I stay very consistent with my hair too, because it's the most natural flowing I've seen anywhere in SL.

But if you aren't happy, by all means, go for it! Get your shape first!

when joseph(worthington, not abel), and i shrank ourselves to our now new RL hieghts, when had very little if any tweaking to do, outside of the arms and hands that was it. we are now at 6'2(joe) and 5'7(me) and wow the difference is amazing when he or i go about our SL business/shopping/exploring.

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to answer the OPs question, go for it. find something YOU feel comfy with and go from there.

I like my look, it fits my personality but most of my friends when they do photos or post them just don't include me.
They tend to include only their sexy avatar friends.
This has been my usual look or close in the last few months. I just haven't updated
my forum picture.
I prefer being childish looking elf or non-sexual being.