padded bra

In SL (as in RL) I am male transvestite. I choose to wear a female skin over a male shape because I think it is more realistic. However, I really need to wear a padded bra to give me some decent breasts.

Can anyone advise me please?

Oxy

A padded bra would mean 'prim breasts'. You can find a lot if you search for 'pregnant' in SL search.

Just be aware that those might be huge! Make sure they are modifyable (so you may change the size if they are too big) before u buy.

And also: you have to buy an outfit along with the breasts (a whole kit). The ordinary clothing layers do not go on top of prim-breasts. Also the coulour might not match your favorite skin...

(May I suggest that you try out a female shape too? You might find that u can make it look semi-gender...)

Hmmm, nice build challenge.

Beware that prim breasts will not act upon the basic shirt, undershirt and jacket clothes.
So you have to design a shirt, that that the same texture and color as your breast prims, otherwise they look like Xena clip-ons

My advice would be to wear a female shape with minimal breasts and hips and wide shoulders. Adjust the facial features to the masculine side of things...slightly smaller eyes, larger nose, a bit of a brow ridge, deeper and wider chin, a bit of jowl.

You can get more of a "tranny" look this way than by wearing a female skin on a male shape. The very few people I've seen that do it your way just look like a guy wearing makeup and womens clothes. Thart's OK if it is the look you are after...but you say you want "decent breasts" which sounds to me as if you want to look a little more passable...but still clearly on the masculine end of the spectrum.

Lindal's reply made me remember a female friend's attempt to make a male avatar:

My friend made a copy of her (female) shape, and began modifying it to make it look more male.

In the end she didn't use it because it still looked too girly...

But the idea might work for you in the opposite direction. If you take a male shape and try to make it girly... even if you made the breasts large, the head, shoulders, hands, feet would still be big, and the hips narrow.

Maybe make an alt account and give them a female shape. Log your main and alt in together in a quiet place where you won't be disturbed, and then stand the 2 avs next to each other and see if you can adjust the female shape to look like your male shape, but with breasts!

If you manage to create the right shape, your alt can then give 'you' a copy of their shape to wear.

I think the female av has a naturally slightly more curved spine than the male one but that might not notice very much with the right adjustments.

All he has to do is pull out Ruth. She's always been a little mannish.

I am pretty sure the male shape does not get the breast sliders that the female shape has.

There is a male/female toggle in Edit Appearance. It probably turns that on, but I don't think it girlifies the shape.

Correct! You are not able to create breasts with a male shape.


Yes it does.
Take a male shape, make a copy and wear it. Then then toggle the gender in Appearance mode. The shape will get 'girlified'. Goes for the other way around, too.

But this might still be the best way to start if one is trying to create a female version of a male shape.
The face doesn't change 'that' much...

I thought that was the desired effect, though... that it look mannish.

This is probably why mannifying a female shape didn't work for my friend.

You'd probably need a mannish skin to make the effect right. Although Ruth still is mannish.

Maybe try the reverse, I know a lot women who want to look Butch tend to use a female shape but a male skin to get the desired effect.

If you still want to go the "prim boobie" look thought, check out Winter Ventura's store Eclectic Randomness, she makes a nice set that are resizable.

I played about with an alt (Conifer never morphs!) to get a realistic fat butterball type man. I found I got a better result by starting with the female shape. Incidentally, he is just stored for use in cartoon strips, he plays no active part in SL social life! I gave a copy of the shape so 'he' might be out there somewhere, at least visually.

Try not to over-think realism. Second Life graphically is more cartoon than real, and the laws of physics apply differently in Second Life and real life. Second life just does not give you the tools to pull off the level of detail or complexity which you are seeking.

If you want more geometry to your breasts, using a female shape and tweaking it as much as possible with male features may be the way to go. It will make it far, far easier for you to buy clothing. As others have pointed out, with prim breasts, you just can't use most of Second Life clothing.

If you are concerned that others in Second Life imagine your breasts as prosthetic rather than real, that's something you can point out in your profile.

And anyway, if you used prosthetic breasts in real life, wouldn't you want a set that look real at first glance? So if Second Life residents are unable to tell your avatar's breasts are prosthetic at first glance, you have acheived realism within Second Life.