change body but not face

Hi everyone, I hope I'm asking this in the right place, I'm very new to sl and am enjoying it immensely, my question is; is it possible to buy a new body for my avatar while keeping the face and hair I already have? I spent ages playing around with my facial features and I'm really happy with the results, I've also bought some fantastic hair but I feel my body is a complete let down, I added nipples (for those intimate moments) which resulted in my skin being a different shade from neck to waist (not so attractive, lol) I'm not experienced enough to change things with photoshop etc. so would ideally love to buy a body I could attach my head to, thank you for any help or advice

You can buy shapes in world. Or you can play around with the slidders till you get a shape you like. As for the nipples you created it sounds like you basically made a skin for your avi but only for the "upper" body.........perhaps you can continue that skin to include the whole body? But then you would have to do the face too...........which is what you are trying to save (I think).

You can find tons of skins in-world. Many come with a shape too. I personally don't get shapes because I've "created" my own with the slidders........took a few weeks to get it right for me but it's worth it. You can save your shape once you get it right so you can always go back later if you want to play around with it again or try a shape you think you might like. I just buy skins and put my shape on them.......but you have to remember that the skin may not (probably will not) look the same if the shape is not the same as the picture you see when shopping for them. Do a search in-world for shapes or skins. I have skins from Chip Midnight, Robin Sorjourn, Sache Vixen (Adam n' Eve), and several others. All have nipples and other bits..........try the demo before buying because almost all skins are non-transferrable and once you buy one it's yours and you get no refund.

Hope I've helped a little.

I don't think you can get a new body without changing the look or shape of your face. As for the hair, if you've bought it and it's in your inventory, you can attach it to any shape you end up with.

You can buy add-on nipples, if that's the only part that's troubling you.

You can change the shape of your body with the Appearance sliders...but that won't change the skin texture, or muscle shading types of details. For that, you need a new skin.

The skin is head to toe, so it WILL change the look of your face, too. But you can look around for a skin that goes well with the current shape of your facial features, and only needs a little minor tweaking to look its best.

What these other posters have said is correct. Here's a good way to think of it:

The Shape is the "framework" of your avatar. It determines how long your legs are, how big your nose is, how muscular you are, etc. That's the part that you're changing when you go into "edit appearance" and select "shape."

The Skin goes OVER the shape, like wrapping plastic wrap around an orange. The skin determines what color of eye shadow you wear, whether you have shading around your muscles, and freckles/wrinkles and details in hands and feet. Nipples are included in the skin, unless you want some 3D ones. In that case you can buy those or make them yourself, and attach them to your avatar.

You can buy both shapes and skins. You can make your own shape, as mentioned above. Making your own skin takes hundreds if not thousands of hours of time practicing and learning Photoshop or any other graphic editor.

Some people choose to buy both their shape and their skin. Others choose to mess with their shape on their own, and buy skins.

As far as I know, shapes are a little less expensive than skins, but everything can be pricey, depending on quality.

Good luck and have fun!

Well that's certainly food for thought lol

Thank you for your help and making everything clear, I shall certainly be looking for a skin as close as possible to the one I have while keeping my current shape, you've been a great help.

Orana x

Yes, you can. Make sure it's modifiable and your face won't change.

so if the shape is modifiable, when you put it on your face stays the same? I had no idea, very useful.

No, if you put another shape on, the shape of your face will also change. A different skin on the other hand will not change your basic shape. That is why demo skins are so important, because a skin will likely look very different on your shape compared to the shape worn in the ad.

Oh, ok. I thought that was they way it worked, got my hopes up there

Go into Edit Appearance and look at all the sliders for your current body, the one with the face you like. Write down all the numbers for Head, Eyes, Mouth, Chin, etc. Dig into the menus and get all the numbers. Then get your new Shape. Make a copy of your new Shape, so that you don't lose what you have purchased. Put on your new Shape, and then go into Edit Appearance. Get the piece of paper out that has your old numbers written down on it, and change the sliders around to match your old face.

Things always look a little different depending on the Hair and Skin that you are wearing.

I was thinking along these lines earlier but something I've discovered is that for all the theory, a different skin *will* change the face. You might put the original settings in but it won't look the same I'd put money on .. except gambling's illegal!
If you're lucky mavbe just one or two of the sliders will need fine-tuning but it is amazing how once you change one, another needs compensating!!

I've actually done that - I thought I must be the saddest person in the, writing out all the values. Time consuming but it works.

I have one basic Oryx shape that I made myself (took me ages, and I still tweak it now and then - horrors, I actually ADDED body fat the other day). I adore this shape, but it seems that the lips always need a little change with each different brand of skin I buy. So I have one Oryx shape for all my RaC skins, one Oryx shape for all my Celestial Studios skins, and one Oryx shape for my Insolence skins. The sole and single difference between all three is the thickness of the lips.

The most obvious difference areas for skins are lips/ nose/ eyes.

Lips and eyes are relatively easy to change, the avatar nose is tricky.

Really the OP should get a full body skin. The SL default skin is dull and lifeless. Whether someone prefers hand painted or photo real - Most of the skins for sale out there have better color and contrast that the look far superior to the LL standard issue.

And don't forget that if you're very new (less than 30 days) you can pick up some quite good freebie skins. I'm not sure where from, but some of the other posters are bound to know .... no?

Oooh you're right, i know that Tete a Pied has a good newbie skin ("Girl next door," I think it's called) for anyone under 25 or maybe 30 days old. Calla has 2 free (well they're L$25) hairs for newbies, and several places have coupons for newbie hair (Gurl6 comes to mind.)

SinSkins do a lovely freebie pack of skins for newbies

If you did want to wear the body part of one shape but have the face from a different shape you could:
1. Put on the shape with the face you like.
2. Write down all the slider positions that affect the face and head.
3. Put on the shape with the body you like and move all the head and face sliders to the settings you wrote down.
This will only work if the shapes are both modifiable of course.

You would probably want to wear the same skin (coloring) that you liked on your face.