HELP!!! Problem with terminology!

I am trying to figure this whole SL thing out! I need help understanding and using the different terms. Would someone give me a quick primer on the following terms:

1. Avatar
2. Skin
3. Shape


If I already have built a "shape" I like, but want lifelike genetalia and better face makeup, do I get a "skin" that goes over my already constructed body? Or, is a Skin a new shape of body?

Do I have to get separate makeup features like eye make up, etc? I have what I want in mind, just are not quite sure how to get it all put together!

Many thanks in advance!

PS - any help with places to go and acquire what I need would be great!

1. Avatar
2. Skin
3. Shape


Okies, I gonna try.

Avatar is who you are in Second Life. Your whole "look."

A skin is a skin. Just like you can have a shirt or a pair of jeans or some flip flops you have a skin. An it might be a different color and have some definition for your face and *giggles* other parts. It's a skin. (There are some really good skins free for newbies at sinskins.) Your makeup is part of your skin an for girls so is, you're *blush* other stuffs. Down there. Your skin is sort of like a piece of clothing, like your shirt or pants or whatever. (Cept you can take off your shirt or pants, but you can't take off your skin, you can only put on a new one.)

Your shape is what shape your body is. Like I'm a kid, so I'm short an I don't have any hips or other stuffs. Shape is height, weight, body, face, smile, cheekbones, an all that. If you to to right click on yourself and appearance, it's everything under body an all that. You can save your shape an it's like a thing like your shirt or pants or something like that.

Does that makes any sense?

Or am I sillies?

Avatar = Whatever you appear as in SL (child, raccoon, dragon, robot, etc.)
Shape = The frame work under your skin
Skin = The obvious, plus any make-up or tattoos (unless worn as clothing) ... the only layer available on your head, as far as I know.

Male genitalia most be purchased separately, while most female "part" are just painted as part of your skin.

Yeah I want life like genitalia too, that would be fantastic!!! ....oh you are talking about sl.....i'll get my coat.

Avatar is your character in SL. Your 3D "cartoon" persona, if you will

A skin is what your avatar wears to be that particular person you want it to be. A more or less realistic looking human, a puppy dog, wild tiger, robot, etc are some of the choices.

The shape is how you modify the porportions of your avatar to get the look you want with the skin your avatar is wearing.

If you are a female wanting more or less real life looking genitila then you are in luck. Many skins do, in fact, have those features on them.......males is another story though. If you are looking for male genitila then you have to go with attachments.

Makeups are almost always included with any skin you might buy.

The word "avatar" traces to Hindu philosophy, and literally means a vessel containing the consciousness of a higher being, by which said being is able to interact with the lowly physical world. Today it has been adopted by computer culture to describe any representation of a human user within a digital environment. For example, you have the option right here on these forums to place a picture in your profile to serve as your "forum avatar".

In Second Life, your avatar is that character model with your name above it that's always on your screen. It's aptly named, as it is the means by which you project your consciousness into the SL world so that you can interact with it. You are very much a "higher being" by digital standards. As a real human being, you have abilities that far exceed what the digital world can do, and you have the power to enforce your will upon the digital environment. You can "bring the rain", as it were, which pretty much makes you a god. The vessel of you therefore is literally an avatar.

The word also gets thrown around generically to mean the collection of physical attributes that make SL character models look the way they do. You'll see stores that "sell avatars", for example. In truth, they're not literally selling avatars or they'd be selling links to actual people, which obviously is impossible. What they are selling are full collections of body parts, skins, attachments, etc, that give avatars a specific physical appearance.

To use myself as an example for a moment, if you come to my place you can buy a Klingon avatar (among other things). You're obviously not buying a vessel containing the consciousness of real Klingon using SL from some other planet somewhere. You're simply buying a package of files that will make your avatar look like a Klingon.


The word "skin" in SL is usually used to refer to the skin portion of an avatar. High quality skins will be textured by talented artists.


If we're still in avatar context here, the word "shape" usually means body shape.



For male genitalia, you'll need to attach the requisite "equipment", as the avatar model mesh is not anatomically correct in that area. Some people complain about that, of course, but from a 3D modeling perspective, it would be a pretty big waste of polygons to include it, and perhaps more importantly, it would be pretty tough to keep the thing from poking through the front of your pants.

If you want to buy such an attachment, you'll find they're sold all over the place, with all sorts of variance in functionality. You can also of course make your own. Start with a cylinder, and work from there.

For female genitalia, it's best to paint it onto the lower body skin texture. You can buy skins with or without it, or you can make your own.


For makeup, you can use the slider settings in appearance mode to apply the default makeup, or for better results, you can buy or make a skin with makeup already textured onto it. You'll find that a talented, or even mildly talented, texture artist can do a much better job creating makeup that looks pretty by texturing than by using the sliders.



To do texturing work yourself, you'll need Photoshop or another good raster image editing program. If you're looking to buy things made by other people, then all you need is some Linden dollars. You can buy them at secondlife.com/currency or from 3rd party services like anchechung.com, or you can earn them by opening a business of your own or by working for someone else.

Check the classifieds both in-world and on the forums for an endless list of where to shop (and where to work if you're looking for an in-world job).

so, the shape that I am pleased with I can keep, and I just get a "skin" that has the coloring, natural nipples, pubic hair etc to go over it.

Many of the skins, though, I don't like the makeup and hair on. Is that the "modifiable" I keep seeing? Also, do I "wear" make up and eyes and hair that I like? How does that effect lag time - I have been told to take off attachables at certain sites.

Many thanks for the responses - I am getting the hang of it!!

Attachables made of prims (including prim hair) affect lag. Skin and make-up are not made of prims and don't affect lag. Some clothes are made with prims, some not. I'd say don't worry about prim hair though. The standard hair that you adjust with in the appearance box is so hopelessly awful. Most all the gals wear prim hair no matter how crowded or laggy.

When shopping for skins, the body hair you see is what you get. The hair on the top of the head might be part of the skin or might be the prim hair that the model happens to be wearing. Read the fine print. I was soooo happy when I purchased my first skin. It made a big difference to my appearance. Have fun.

Most (if not all skins) do not include hair. Most do include make up or a several make ups in a package. The more make ups the more lindens to buy. Some skin makers make skins that allow for upgrading the makeups........but you usually must stay with the same maker due to the textures used to put the make ups on the skins need to match pretty closely.

The same goes for pubic hair...........and many skin makers include two skins for that purpose. One with and one without.

Check out Adam n Eve, Chip Midnight, or Robin Sojourner to name a few. There are so many really good skins out there for females........best to do a search in game for "skins". Go, look, and buy some demos to try on. IM the owner and ask them specifics before you buy.........they appreciate that very much because they don't want dissatisfied customers.

I should admit I'm a "skin" freak.................I have so many LOL. But I wish I had asked like you did first. It would have saved me thousands in lindens.

OK, me again ...

I found this site that had a bunch of free stuff, including skins that I wanted to look at. When I went to inventory, they were listed under "objects" and had little boxes next to them. If I "wear" them, I get a box on my arm. What the heck am I doing wrong!!??

Thanks for the places to go for skins!

Go someplace you are allowed to rez objects, like a sandbox. Drag the inventory item to the ground. Right click on it and select open. Copy contents to inventory. You are wearing the box instead of the items. Happens to every new resident.

You're doing the same thing everybody does, though usually when it's described, the box is on your head. It's really a usability problem in SL that annoys everyone at first.

Here's the explanation: In order to package a number of objects together, a dealer will often put them into a box. Sometimes, they'll just put it into a box just to have a pretty box for the item, which is nice if you want to give it to a friend. You can't wear a box in RL, but in SL you can - but you'd never want to. This is especially confusing since you can drag a folder (which is not a box) onto yourself, and that does work.

The way I know to deal with this is to drag the box from your inventory to the ground. Then right click on it, and select Open from the pie menu. You'll see a pop-up listing the items in the box, a buttons to copy/move the items to your inventory, and a button that will both move to your inventory and wear the items in one step. With some boxes, all you need to do is click on it, and it will unpack automatically. There are variations on this, such as opening the box by just left-clicking on it.

If an item comes with special instructions, read them, and then read them again. It is possible to break an object, so the instructions matter.

Once you've gotten the contents of the box into your inventory, the box on the ground is no longer needed and is probably empty. So be sure to delete it. Or you can take it, if it's not empty and you like keeping a copy in one bundle.

Now after you unloaded the box to your inventory you will probably find it in your clothing folder.............and soon that folder will be a mess with tons of stuff you don't even know what is. Before that happens make a new folder using the 'create' tab in your inventory and name it something that makes sense to you and drag the items to that folder...........I never use the copy to inventory option anymore.

Why not?

And some older ones...

Character / Toon: The basic figure you're playing, the 3D mesh of your character model.
Shape: The sum of "morphs" of the avatar mesh to change the body shape. Can be altered in the appearance menu.
Skin: The lowest texture layer on your character, often containing photorealistic facial features, painted 2D genitalia etc.
Clothes / Tattoos: Additional texture layers. Can be partially transparent to let the skin look through.
Prim Attachment: A body part or clothing made from prims (= primitives, the geometrical 3D objects used to build things in SL). Hair, 3D genitalia, wings, tails etc.

Avatar: A complete "look", containing all of the above. Your avatar is not your game character - you have only 1 character per SL account, but you can switch between multiple avatars (male, female, human, furry etc.)

And it was so annoying when they changed the default attachment point to "Right Hand" Box-on-Head was a n00b right of passage that so many millions will never experience!!

Max

LOL Chosen! Very funny.. thanks for the laugh. LOL