this should be a easy question

hello, i'm a completly new Second Life player, and have a couple question. there didn't seem to be a forum 100% accurate to the questions i'm wanting to ask, but this one seems the closest.

k, firts of all, my questions relate to this picture i found:


1: when i first made my character avatar, i saw nothing like that. how do i get it?
2: even when i picked the "Furry Male" one, which is the closest, i can't seem to change the skin color to that blue-ish shade. in fact, i can't change it from anything but the default tan. how do you change the skin color?

thank you.

#1 they are prims attached to a (usually disfigured) small normal human av

#2 you have to paint a texture and upload it, or purchase one inworld

if its a texture you have to drag the image to the little boxes in the skin menu

if its already a skin you just dbl click on it in your inventory

what are "prims"? and why a small normal human avatar?

this is not really a shape. Think of it more like a big animal costume.

In SL, most objects are made from a set of "primitive" shapes, such as box, sphere, cylinder. Hence the short name, prim.

This person made their regular shape really small, and then made a rabbit head, rabbit ears, rabbit feet, etc, and they are wearing them like a costume that you might rent at halloween.

Use Search, and visit the many shops that sell things like this already made.

Use Search, and find a building class to learn more about prims (or check out YouTube.

All AVs are normal humans underneath, but may be shrunk or deformed to make them fit inside an AV.

Prims are what everything is made of - buildings, trees, vehicles, everything, more or less - the building blocks of SL. The AV in the picture is wearing a "suit" made of prims. The human shape inside will probably be small, and may be deformed, to make it fit inside the suit.

You may or may not be able to change the colour of an object, something made of prims, depending on whether the creator has set the permissions on the object to allow you to do so. Reasons for not doing so include preventing the purchaser from making a mess of of his/her creation, or to persuade you to buy several versions in different colours.

Assuming you haven't got a modifiable AV similar to that one, the only way to get one is to buy one or make one. You might find one in a freebie store, but a really good one you will have to pay for.

Looks like someone skipped orientation.

Prims are the basic geometric building blocks that nearly all objects in SL are made out of. The word "prim" stands for "primitive" which is the term for simple 3-dimensional shapes. A cube is a primitive, a sphere is primitive, etc. Something more complex, like, say, the topology of a human face, is not a primitive. Make sense?

To see the types of primitives SL can create and use, click the blue Build button at the bottom of the screen. The object editor window will open, and you'll see icons for all the prims right across the top. You also might want to pay a visit to the Ivory Tower of Primitives for some good tutorials and demonstrations of how prims are used to create all sorts of objects.

The only things in SL that are not made from these basic shapes are avatar bodies (sans attachments, of course), land, particles, and Linden trees.

Recently, the ability to utilize "sculpted prims" (or "sculpties" was added to SL. In the strictest sense, these objects could not accurately be described as "primitive" in many cases, but we still refer to them as "sculpted prims", no matter what shape they take.



The reason it needs to be small is so that it can fit inside the attachments. The avatar itself is always human. It can be proportioned and contorted in ways a real human body cannot, but it's still a human body nonetheless.

Think of the avatar in your photo kind of like a person wearing a Halloween costume. That dog head (or whatever animal it is) is kind of like a mask or a helmet. Inside it is a human head. The paws are like gloves, with human hands inside them. The tail is just stuck onto the back, not a real limb. Etc., etc., etc.

So, if you want an avatar like that you've got two options. You can either learn how to make one yourself or you can buy one from someone else who already has.

To do it yourself, you'll need to learn how to build things out of prims and need to learn how to use Photoshop or a comparable image editor to texture them. If you want to incorporate sculpties, you'll also need to learn how to use a 3D modeling program.

To buy one, simply search for "furry" in-world or on shopping websites like shop.onrez.com or www.slexchange.com. You'll get thousands of results. Take your pick. (Assuming you have money to spend, of course.)

so these "masks" and costumes that people have, like the rabbit in the photo, are they bought with real-life money, or in-game money? or real-life money to buy the in-game money to buy it? if it's the first or 3rd option, is there ANY way to get these masks without paying real-life money?

That is a purchased costume - a "Furry Avatar" that the person is wearing. If you look at my forum pucture, you'll see I am a red furred fox. That shape and skin texture is impossible to achieve with just the appearance controls.

The "Furry Male" and "Furry Female" in the default avatar options are a Furry avatar set that used to sell for soemething like L$600. It's an older offering from that content creator, and they voluntarily donated it to Linden Lab as a freebie for all new Players, so everyone had at least one "tailed" option right at their inception. If you spend any time on Help Island before jumping to the Mainland, there are other costumes there, for free, such as a white wolf and a simple green anthro (bipedal) dragon.

If furry forms interest you, go to Serenity Woods, Furnation Worlds Mall, or Rocket City Furmeet. They have large populations of Players with similar interests, and a wide range of avatars for sale. They will also probably have at least some free ones available there. The last time I looked, Serenity Woods had a freebie rack that had 20 or more basic furry outfits in one of the freebie boxes.

I'm not certain, but I think that blue Bunny is from the Lost Creatures merchants. It looks rather like their lop-eared lapine.

Feel free to IM me in-world if you have other questions about Furries in Second Life. There's quite a few of us here. I can also give you quite an assortment of free furry forms, that I have collected while travelling in the furry sims over the last two years here.

Some furry avatars are offered for free. Usually these are older creations by avatar makers, and they give them away to be nice, and to attract interest in their other wares. Typical prices for a good Furry avatar range around L$400 to L$600, and for an exceptionally detailed avatar you could pay L$600 to L$1500, or maybe even more. So, start with free ones, and save your L$ to buy a nicer one later.

Yes you need money to buy things. Money can be bought using RL money through this website or others. Or it can be earned in world, by making and selling things, camping, or taking one of the many jobs on offer from other players. In terms of what something like that would cost, you could get an AV similar to that for probably L$100, maybe a bit more, the equivalent of about 40 US cents, 20p in the UK or 30 euros.

But if you search in world for "freebies" you should find dozens of places that give away things. The freebies are not likely to be top quality, but many of them are very nice indeed. You may well find something very close to that picture.

where exactly is Serenity Woods? i'm still in the noob area, right before the flying part. what's the most direct way there?

Xuphor,

I'd highly recommend going back to help island and going through some of the orientation and also take advantage so some of the freebies. I, like most people, was anxious to get through there and see what was really happening in SL. The time I spent there was very valuable and made my experience in SL much better.

how long is it though? i rarely have more than 1 hour of free time to play SL. it's been 25 minutes in, and (as mentioned earlier), i'm right before the flying part.

while i'm at it:
i didn't see anything regarding mouse controls. is there a way to hold down a mouse button to turn your entire character?

If you are still on orientation island, then PLEASE, do yourself a big favor and take the time to finish all the simple lessons there! Those lessons are the fastest way you're going to learn how to move and interact in SL. Seriously! That is where you learn to move, talk, teleport, how to use the map and search, and other critical skills.

The next stop, after you collect all the stars at Orientation, is Help Island. There, you'll learn about prims and how to build, you'll learn about scripting, and you'll be able to pick up a BUNCH of cool free stuff, including houses, vehicles, clothes, furry avatars - All sorts of great things, FREE, to get you started.

When you think you have seen and done EVERYTHING on Help Island, then click on one of the signs that allows you to teleport to the Mainland. This is a ONE WAY TRIP. You can't go back after that. Once on the Mainland, if you open the Map and type in "Serenity Woods" as a location, it will center the map on that sim, and offer you a teleport button to go there.

I hope you enjoy second life. You'll enjoy it a lot more if you take the time to learn how it works. Trust me.

When you have learned how to search and how to send an IM, and are on the mainland, search for "Ceera Murakami" in the People search, and send me an IM saying you are on the mainland. I'll reply and send you come free furry avatars and some useful landmarks.

thank you
luckily, today i will have 3 hours of free time in about 4-5 hours. will you be on in 4-5 hours?

Yes, it's quite probable that I will be on about the time you're ready for the mainland. I'm heading in-world now, and intend to be on-line for a fair part of the evening.