Secrets of Looking Good

Hello Everyone,

A big thank you again to all those kind people who shared their Library and Inventory wisdom with me.

I'm looking for comments/opinions/tips/whatever on the subject of avatar appearance, especially practical know-how: for example, in my experience, once you start messing with hair, there's a big chance you're gonna end up having a bad hair day . What's your attitude towards people who switch their sex for SL - males playing as females, and vice versa? What do you think of the ready-made avatars that are part of the Library? What motivated you to look the way you look in SL? And so on, and so forth, you get the drift.

As usual, the authors of the quotes used will receive full credit. Thank you in advance.

Thats why you don't mess with it and get yourself a nice prim hair. Linden hair is by far one of the ugliest blobs of amorphous crap you can ever allow to be attached to your head. Seriously. Do yourself a favor, get a prim hair.



The stock AV's from the library are fine if you want to just be another cookie cutter clone, but lets face it SL is all about innovation, creativity, and standing out. Sure its a good starting point, but if you see that as the end of your personal journey you would probably be happier with some place like WoW.



Its hard to say what motivates me to look the way I do in SL, I have so many looks to choose from. I have a firm belief in tasting everything on the buffet, and being picky like I am, I went for the best of the best. It is hard to tell what I'm going to be from one day to the next. A magnificent dragon, a bipedal wolf, a vampire, or a really good looking human. Thats the beauty of SL, your not stuck in any one typecast role unless you choose to do that to yourself.

One thing you'll find as you spend time in SL is that tweaking your appearance is kind of a hobby for most everyone (except for Schwanson, who changes his shirt once a year and calls it a day.) You'll want to save your appearance as an "outfit" on a regular basis so you can always go back to it. For example, I keep folders of "Isa June 06" and so on. I delete the older ones after a bit. If you don't save your appearance as an outfit it is possible to loose all the times you made little adjustments to your shape.

I'm probably the only one in SL over 1 month old who still uses the built in hair, but there are some really great styles out there. I wouldn't shop for hair until you've chosen a skin. A skin is probably the first thing I would buy because it has such a dramatic affect on your appearance.

As Lupus noted, you can create as many avatars as you like. Save them as "outfits" and include the gender and all body parts - then just wear the entire folder. There is no limit to what you can be; you can be Neo one minute and slip into your Donna Dominatrix avatar the next. If you do a search on SLBoutique or SLExchange for avatars you will see the amazing range of what is out there and what you can make yourself.

What motivates people to look a certain way is something I wouldn't even begin to speculate on. Ultimately, your avatar is your representative in-world and can run the entire range of your personality. It's your second life, be whomever and whatever you want to be....

A bit of advice on slider manipulation in Appearance:

Unless you're after something extremely different, don't go too far over/under 50 on any given setting. +/- 10 is a good average, 20 for the outside.

The only exceptions to this are feet (most shoes take a size 0 foot, which turns out to be not ungodly looking) and shoulders -- the SL avatar is designed so the arms look like they're hanging off of a crossbeam. This is especially applicable for women, but narrow your shoulders down to between 30 and 40 if you want a more realistic shoulder width that doesn't look mutant-like when you use certain poses.

Also, I see a lot of new residents on a given day. One thing I've noticed as a common theme is a tendency toward HUGE eyeballs. Please, if you want to make yourself bug-eyed that's one thing. But immense, goggly eyeballs are NOT attractive or realistic.

Your appearance is based on a number of factors. While using the default options are ok, to be a true pixel babe/hunk, you'll probably need to buy the various components from various vendors. As this can get expensive, learn as much about them as you can and experiement with different combinations.

Here's a breakdown of what to consider.

Skin: This is probably the most important aspect. A good skin can make or break an avatar's appearance. Demos are usually dirt cheap, so stock up and experiment. Once you find a good design, then you'll have to decide skin tone and facial hair, as that overrides the default controls.

Hair: Prim hair. Its a must. Finding good prim hair for men is hard. Women's hair outnumbers mens by about 1000 to 1 it seems. And even when you do find men's hair, very often the same style. Nothing against long hair, mind you, but thus far I've not been able to find hair that gives the GQ look although the prim hair I have now is pretty close.

Shape: Your shape will radically change how your skin looks, especially on the face. Professional shapes are usually better than what you can do yourself, but even then, its tough to find a shape that is everything you want.

Eyes: Good eyes can add a nice touch.

Animation override: The best avatar in the world will still look clunky if you use the default animation set.

Clothing: As in RL, clothes mean a lot. There's a lot of garbage out there and some really nice things too. Don't be afraid to ask where people got their stuff. More often than not, other people are willing to help, and once in a while, you meet some cool people who turn into friends.

Hope this helps.

Cindy makes a great point about the eyes:

they really look better smaller!

Smaller than what most people have anyway.

But I like the realistic look.

1. What's your attitude twoards people who switch their sex for SL?
I feel that it really does not matter (to me), since gender in SL is completely meaningless. What I mean by that is, since it is so easy to switch gender from one moment to the next, it does not bother me if a female friend suddenly goes male for a week. It is trivial here.

2. What do you think of the ready-made avatars that are part of the Library?
Well, for the most part I think they are mediocre. They are of course free, and I believe they can all be modified, so for a creative new user, they are a great starting point. Sure some higher quality models could be released, but that would hurt professional AV designers.

What motivated you to look the way you do in SL?
Hmm, lets see... I actually have several different AVs, some I used for fun, others are utilitarian. Most of the time, I run around in a Luskwood Red Dragon AV. Although, I also use a Ninja Weasel Studios Red Eastern Dragon AV, and a mu Kingyo Gold AV (giant fishy). I do have my old "generic" AV for times when I need to attach something, and a furry AV won't do the job. All of my AVs are modded, some of them heavily. Generally on my usual AV, I wear a Maximillion in Plum suit from Silver Rose, a custom made Top Hat (which sits at an angle and is oversized), and a pair of round-rim glasses with purple lenses.

The reasoning behind all of this is, I wanted to have a look that conveyed the idea that I was a mythological creature living in the late 19th Century. Alot of the reasoning behind that is because I run a bookstore in-world, which is also themed to a 19th Century motif. The furry thing? Meh, something different.

Something I believe in Avatar design is that everyone should add their own flair to their AVs, something unique to themselves, even if it is just a modification of another AV part, it really sets one's AV apart.

Just some food for thought.

As for gender changing, well i guess its just fantasy perhaps to see what its like to be an opposite gender from what you are, perhaps a cross dressing fetish to indulge in, there are as many reasons as a rainbow to change gender in avatars, as far as bodies go, i am sure we all fudge just a bit and have the body weve always longed for, and all without the long hours in the gym or on the treadmill, lol. The only thing i change alot on my av's body is her hair, i love all the new hair and am such a sucker to buy it..love the changes it can make in the avs appearance. Also i have a shoe fettish from hell that i indulge to my hearts content. god i love shoes....anyway, its your av your imagination, i say go for it, be whatever your heart desires

gaaaahhh dont get me started on finding good hair for men! Walk into a big hair shop, wall to wall of hair styles, stacked upon each other for multiple floors, so many styles it will take ages to look through them all. But wait! They are all female styles! Look around for men's, look, look, keep looking, there must be some here somewhere. Finally find the section with men's, walk around the other side of the display hoping theres more, only to find there isnt. Buy whats there and walk off. Spend next hour or so whilst partner checks the rest of the shop.

All kidding aside, I have found some really good designs and theres a bunch of really talented hair stylists out there

Whenever I see good hair for men, I landmark it for the guys I know. IM me if you want some landmarks

Making the look

Using only the sliders it's still possible to make yourself look at least very decent.

The big mistake is adjusting blindly.

The first thing you need are photos (front, side, and quarter view) of the kind of face and the kind of body you want. From here it becomes a simple matter of nudging sliders so that you get a good approximate. Most actors, actresses, and photos of normal people (yourself included if you wish ) make good models. Want a fashion model look? Go ahead.

But IMO for males, photos of competition bodybuilders make the worst models because most of these photos are competition poses and will create a very unrealistic-looking avatar (I'm sure you've seen them around). If you want a bodybuilder look that's believable you have to pick the shots where they're relaxed.


Regarding hair? I will have to make my own prim hair someday. Just haven't gotten around to it since I'm still studying how I will pull it off.


Default Avatars

The default avatars are serviceable at best. I don't like them.

Cross Gender

Though I don't roleplay in SL, I am a roleplayer. Cross-gender avatars don't bother me in the least. It's a given that if you're a roleplayer and you intend to be a good gamemaster you HAVE to be able to portray anything and everything (male, female, aliens, all sexual preferences included, plants, animals, inanimate objects, etc).

Motivation for my look (only my default look)

I'm on the short side and trim. Always wanted to be bigger but genetics and metabolism declared otherwise (a few hundred people I know wish they had my metabolism). So avatar is a bit tall and on the heavy side (but neither pudgy nor musclebound). He's Irish even if I'm not because I decided to port over my ID (Aodhan) from the last MMOG I was in. Irish name goes best with Irish surname.

The cybernetic right arm was something I started fooling around with when I was new. I liked it and I just kept evolving it. It rarely fails to catch the attention of people I meet. I was initially planning to make a product version of it because it was attracting attention, but I decided not to because people liked that it gave me a unique look. In a world where any look can be made but where some looks are mass-produced, it's nice to know that one has something that is unique.

I'm a techie-geek and proud of it. My look reflects that in all original equipment from the arm, to the visor, to the gadgety-looking belt.

Side Notes: Eyes

The default eye texture has an iris that is way too large.

I have found it makes a better impression if you wear a tailored diaper.

no kidding!! it's like getting into a staredown with a muppet.

also generally agree on the sliders... though you can trend overall upwards or downwards, beware of the extremes (esp. for non-scripted 'tiny' experimentation) - again, save for feet at 0 for primshoes. once you've hit the limit in any part, getting all others to match up and look good is nigh impossible... need to keep some sliding room all around.

Alazarin's Secret to Looking Fabulous:

Stand next to someone plug-ugly with no dress-sense. The effect is immediate and it won't cost you a penny!

Unlike skins where the skins you can buy are a lot superior to the default Linden skin, the "professional" shapes are made using exactly the same sliders in appearance tab that anyone can use, what you are paying for is someone else's set of numbers plugged into the various shape sliders.

There is no reason why you can't make your own individual and unique shape using the sliders and then its uniquely yours, rather than just being another clone. How anyone was ever convinced to pay for a shape is beyond me.

Every build is made using exactly the same building tools that everyone else uses, too, but people are usually happy to pay for built objects.

It's just that both builds and shapes can require a lot of tweaking time. I admit I'd be reluctant to buy a shape because of the individuality issue, but if someone just wants to look a particular way right away, I can see it being valuable.

It would be great if somebody could post up a guide to calculating shape values for particular looks, though!

It is a bit different though when you are comparing skins and shapes. As I understand it skins are produced by an artist either painting the skin from scratch, or using photographs or a combination of the two to produce the skin textures. Then the textures have to have shadows and maybe makeup added and the various sections brought together without seam lines. So that involves a lot of outside content being added and then skillfully manipulated to produce the final product, a process I understand can take dozens or hundreds of hours.

On the other hand making a shape only requires manipulation of the appearance sliders. Sure it takes some time and a bit of an eye for keeping the proportions more or less humanlike but its a few orders of magnitude simpler than making a new skin.

I'm going to sneek in a voice of dissent on the prim hair vs. slider hair issue: I've avoided prim hair in the past, mostly beause of the fact that it looks unaturealy stiff, particularly with long hair. It also has a tendacy to be prim-heavy and liable to choke one's video card.

The appearance of slider hair can be improved immensely with the application of a good hair texture (my favorite and the one I wear was made by Robin Sojourner). If you want pigtails, ponytails or hair that sticks out from the head than prims are a must, but I tend to use them with a slider hair base.

My new favorite trick? Flexiprim hair extentions. I've had several avatar comissions in the last few weeks and they've been immensely helpfull in overcomming the limitations of the slider hair without that awkward stiffness. Once they become more advanced (more shapes, colision, etc) I'm pretty sure most of my objections to prim hair will disappear. ^.^'

For skin, I like skins that are just translucent overlays that allow the slider color to show through. That way I'm not tied down to the colors that the skin maker wanted to use.

Gosh I wish i knew you people in real...I would never be a day without laughter....they make tailored diapers???errrr nm thats a whole other topic...
rain

Actually Neph made me a sequined diaper.

After tweaking my avatar into what I felt was a good appearance in the starting area I set out to find myself a flying machine (with a name like mine what else could I do?) using search and TPing. As I materialized in some new place to start aircraft shopping I found myself standing next to an avatar so complete looking, so well shaped and dressed that I felt like some 2d drawing or something. A bit of friendly conversation later and I found myself setting out on a different sort of shopping trip.

First goal, a new skin. First feeling, sticker shock! The first area I had TP'd to had skins, only in groups of 8 skins each of a different level of tan and with 4 different facial hair types. Price? $3600L! Did I really need 8 different shades of tan? Four different beards? I eventually ended up buying the first decent skin I found under $2000L.

The same store had shapes as well so I bought a decent seeming one called, I think, "Logger" (No not lumberjack, no snickering in the back there).

As a previous poster noted I found tons of stuff for female avatars but precious little for us menfolk.

In searching for hair I found that most of the hair for men was of various extreme styles. Mohawks and spiky hair aplenty. I even found a "mullet" (was that ever REALLY in style?). I eventually settled on a slightly longish, tousled look that went well (I think) with the shape and skin.

I bought some clothes in a store that must cater to mafioso. Dark pinstriped suits and hats. Violin cases. That sort of stuff. I never did find a good aviator suit but did manage a bit of swashbuckling kit from a store on an island that seemed to specialize in themes.

The final piece I needed was an AO to correct the woeful default movements. I found someone that was at least standing in a natural manly sort of way and asked him what AO he was using and went and bought that. While all of it was an improvement over the defaults the walk still has a bit of problem. Men walk with their elbows out and have a bit of swagger. This walk has the elbows in and looks like any second I'm going to break out in skipping along.

All in all not too bad. Any advice I can get on a more manly swagger and a decent aviator suit (with leather helm and goggles) would be most welcome.

Captain Blackhawk

I'm a chronic do-it-myselfer.

HAIR: I hate the standard hair blob... but have butchered it into something that seems to work for me with a texture I hacked up. Neeeeed work, I can offer no advice with that..

GENDER: My personal philosophy? If I'm not gonna get in your pants, I don't care what's in them. (or not). Though I will admit decent looking male avatars are more likely to get me to peek at their profile.

LIBRARY AVs: The newbie clone seems got an update some time ago and is better than it used to be. I definitely don't stick to 50 +/-10 on my sliders... Some sliders cancel each other out in various ways that I like. I would recommend against 100 or 0 on anything, it tends to make the polygon model a bit pinched looking. I stick to the 10 to 90 range.

EYES: The stock texture for eyes has one main benefit... like hair it really encourages people to do something better. Anytime I meet someone wearing the stock eye texture I give them a no-transfer copy of whatever I've made that's close to the same color.

Don't get me started on skin tone, or the hair color sliders!

I apologize for horking the thread, but here's a related question:

Let's say I want to start building my avatar...but I live in the middle of NOWHERE (in RL) and have dial-up. ***everyone gasps in unison*** ***the heartless ones begin to laugh maniacally***

Now, I'm new here, but I know Siobhan Taylor is about to type in a Dante quote, but, seriously, do I have no hope? So far I've just been trolling the forums and reading up the background on SL...not playing yet. I figure my first step tomorrow will be to create my happy little avatar, but I have some doubts...

Advice?

My .02L$

Get a decent skin. Get a hair color that complements your skin tone.

Save your AV shape before every change.

Eye spacing, breast size and arm thickness for female AVs. Male AVs: Head and chest size.

Save your changes!!!

Enara don't expect to become an SL god or goddess overnight. In fact you may want to explore a bit before making any changes. You'll get more sympathy if you look like a newbie.