Noobie Doobie Doo.... Oooh La La! Part 2 - A Male Avatar On A Budget

Now comes the fun part when creating a new avatar -- the tweaking! My plan for this avatar, was to stay as low budget as possible and mostly get free items. I'm not talking about the ones that you can get from freebie places or BIAB (business in a box) freebie crap. That is sooo 2006!

I'm concentrating more on the free high quality stuff for male avatars. So first I had a look at what the default library in the inventory has to offer, since there are new default avatars from top Second Life designers, now included to choose from. This is another picture heavy post, so please wait a bit for the pics to load, and click on images to enlarge.

First I tried the "Rocker Male" (I'm not using any hair here, cuz I still think most male hair are blech!):




Hmmm.. the skin is well done, but the shape is weird. So I tweaked the shape to get this result:

It looks better now. But I wanted to see how the other ones look like.

This one is the "Party Male"

This one is called "Designer Male"

This one is the "Student Male"

This one is obviously the "Gothic Male" which already looks scary.

And this is the Shitty oh I mean "City Male"
All Skins and Eyes: Adam & Eve (Inventory Library)

This is only about the skins, which I tried on with the same shape. They will of course all look more pleasant, if you tweak the shape for each skin, but I was lazy. So I finally decided for the "Rocker Male", which looked best in my opinion.

I got some free outfits from the Discovery Island and tried them on:

Hmmm... nah!

This one will be fine for now, since I need to go shopping for real good stuff.

I gave my new avatar an allowance of 1500 L$ (I usually spend at least 10.000 L$ on a new avatar) and that should be enough, to get everything he needs. Some other residents called me "Obama" while I was shopping around and I just responded "yes we can" to them.

There are several options, when getting a free high quality skin. Either you join hunts, which is very time consuming and annoying; join groups of skin designers, which might cost an amount to join e.g. 250 L$ or stand around lucky chairs and wait until the first letter of your name shows up.

Since the skin (and shape) is one of the most important thing, that an avatar should invest on, and a shape too, but since I'm a shape maker, I don't need to buy a shape. I thought of investing the majority of this avatar's allowance on the skin.

Now finding the right one, which fits the budget, was a very difficult task. I didn't want it to look too "boyish", "gayish", nor the typical gorgeous face that most steroid-overdosed-T-Rex-pin-head types wear, like you see them everywhere inworld. I wanted it of course to look absolutely gorgeous but with that certain something, if you know what I mean. It took me a couple of days, until I decided for the one I liked best that fit my budget -- a Redgrave skin.

Isn't he gorgeous?
Boxer Shorts: Phoenix Rising Closing Sale (25 L$)

It's actually amazing, cuz I was never a fan of Redgrave skins, but her releases lately in both male and female skins are just awesome and they only cost 990 L$. So I still have a lot of lindens left for apparel.

I made the body shape as aesthetic and proportional, the way I create the body shapes I sell (I don't sell male body shapes though). For me, this means no pin heads. The muscles shouldn't be too bulging and the shoulder like ten meters wide, then a teeny weeny head. And absolutely no T-Rex syndrome. This means, that the arms shouldn't be above the hip.

For example:

This might look weird but I didn't get him a penis, since I'm not planning to exchange pixel juices with anyone.

This is so very wrong. Notice the exaggerated massively bulging muscles and the tiny head. The arms are too short and the hands too small. Unfortunately, most male avatars roaming the grid prefer this kind of shape. To all you male residents out there, listen -- this is a no go! It's ugly. It's retarded. It's scary.

Perhaps the guys who prefer that body shape, looks in reality like this:

...but we will probably never know.

Anyway, I first went to Mad Designs, to get some male freebie stuff, then join the Make Him Over Hunt 4. Then over to Duh! to get some cheap shoes. Oh and also one of the most important thing to consider, is to get a decent Animation Overrider (AO) HUD. You definitely don't want to walk or stand around like an idiot don't you? The duck walk is so noob really.

So I went to LAP for the AO, cuz they have a starter AO free, for both genders under 30 days old. Really awesome and decent AO. I also got a starter one from Vista Animations from the Second Life Marketplace for 1 L$. But I still prefer the LAP one, even if I like the walking animation from the Vista HUD. So there's no excuse even if you don't have Linden Dollars or you simply don't want to spend any.

Here's how my avatar looked so far:

Jacket: Muism (free at Mad Designs)
Jeans: FIR & MNA (free at Mad Designs)
Sneakers: Duh! (20 L$)
Skin: Redgrave (990 L$)
Eyes: Exodi (free)

He already looks pretty good but notice the jeans. I don't like skinny jeans on guys really. So I had to go and shop for a better one with sculpted jean bottom parts. I therefore went to Phoenix Rising, cuz they are having a closing sale till the end of this month and almost all items are 25 L$, which should perfectly fit my budget.

All I needed were basics anyway, like casual outfits, underwear and formal or business oufits. I'm glad the clothes I got there were only 25 L$ though, cuz like I say, you get what you pay for. I would have been so pissed off if I paid more (some prim parts are no mod, but I ain't stressing cuz they only cost 25 L$).

I also went to HOC Industries for more cheap shoes. I needed a sneaker and one for formal outfits. They got some pretty good and cheap stuff over there, but the men's shoes were so huge, I needed to modify them. Luckily it wasn't a problem, since they were modifiable. The sneakers I got from there were also color changeable, so it was a pretty good deal.

I remembered that they still had that awesome Aoharu Leather Jacket and Hoorenbeck men's boots, over at Le Look. So I went there and spent most of my last Linden Dollars for the group membership fee of 100 L$, to get them. But it was worth it.

The last thing I wanted to get were some headphones, as an homage to myself, since I mainly walk around with headphones too in real life (but my headphones are not as huge). I thought I probably would need to spend a little fortune, if I wanted some high quality ones, but lo and behold! I found a shop called JBX in a Japanese Sim and they had these awesome headphones for free! They also sell music equipments and speakers etc.







I must say, that it's not as fun as dressing up a female avatar or a themed avatar. But I'm glad I got everything I needed and I still got 34 L$ left. So these are the stuff I got so far.

Jacket: Aoharu (at Le Look, free if you join the group)
Sweater: Phoenix Rising closing sale (25 L$)
Jeans: FIR & MNA (at Mad Designs free, modified anti skinny)
Sneakers: HOC Industries (40 L$, color change 16 colors)
Animation Overrider HUD: LAP (free for avatars under 30 days old)
Location: Soap

Sweater: Phoenix Rising closing sale (25 L$)
Bag (part of complete outfit): Phoenix Rising closing sale (25 L$)
Sneakers: Duh! (free for avatars under 30 days old)
Headphones: JBX (free)
Necklace: Curious Kitties (at Discovery Island, free)

Outfit: Phoenix Rising closing sale (25 L$)
Shoes: HOC Industries (20 L$)

Shirt with tie: Phoenix Rising closing sale (25 L$)
Pants: Phoenix Rising closing sale (25 L$)
Location: Sick

You probably would ask the question, what if they didn't have the Phoenix Rising closing sale? Well I admit it was some sort of good timing, but I asure you, that there are still other great options out there. You just need is to find them. I'm even positive that I wouldn't have needed to spend anything on clothes and shoes, but it would have taken more time and effort researching.

I believe I created a damn good looking male avatar, don't you think so? Not "boyish" nor "gayish". By the way, when using the term "gayish", I don't mean homosexuals. It's the look, if you get what I mean. I got a lot of gay friends and they don't look "gay". They are simply men, and I love them. So if you see some gorgeous looking male avatars out there, watch out! Cuz they are mostly operated by females in real life lol! But vice versa? Hell no!

P.S.

Reviewing my post, I just noticed that my avatar looks like he got boobs when wearing that tight sweater. This is caused by wrong or exaggerated shading. I therefore suggest to only wear it with jackets.

Noobie Doobie Doo... Oooh La La!! Part 1

I divided this topic into two parts, cuz it's a very picture heavy post. The first part mainly shows the new resident first experience and the second part goes more into the fun part -- tweaking the avatar.

So I thought it was time again to create a new avatar, cuz it's been a long time since I created my last one. I also wanted to see what has changed in the first experience process. As always, I wanted a little challenge when creating a new one. I always have a certain concept or theme even before I choose the avatar name. This post is picture heavy, so please wait a bit, if the pictures don't load that fast.

I had to register from a third party site to get a certain last name (check out SL Name Watch). The option to choose an avatar from the variety of choices, when you normally sign up at the main Second Life website, was therefore not available. So when I rezzed first time inworld, I still couldn't decide the gender for my avatar (most names of my avatars are unisex).

I actually thought of creating a male avatar this time, which will be a freebie one. This means, it is more challenging to put up a stunning male avatar together for little money, because unlike stuff for females, it's more difficult to find really decent stuff for male avatars. So this is how my avatar first looked like:

But he looks kinda sad, boring, worthless and griefer-inviting. So I thought just to be on the safe side, I should create a female one first, cuz first of all, they look better, secondly, I can dress it up faster.

I also recalled, that there are some new pleasant newbie avatars in the default inventory library. I remember the student female looked pretty well, so this was the transformation:



Mind you, the female avatar was around 2 feet tall (just compare the sign in the background), no wonder we have so many giant female avatars walking around. Now it's time for the first steps, before being released to the huge SL world. Let's see how it goes this time (click on images to enlarge):

This is basically going through the "how tos"

After going through those "how tos", I thought of going to Discovery Island, as the first place to go, cuz they have very cool freebies over there.

You need to check out Discovery Island, it's very well made, showcasing a very pleasant image of Second Life and a sample of some of its finest contents.



Here's showing you the different Linden Home styles for residents, who want to have a home in Second Life, without the hassle of finding a land, then purchasing etc.

You need to sign up for a premium membership, which will cost you a fee of 9.95 US$ per month if you pay monthly (plus VAT for european countries, this means it's more expensive for people like me, which sucks), 22.50 US$ if you pay quarterly, and 72 US$ if you pay annually, which is the cheapest payment plan (it results to 6 US$ a month).

You can of course keep your basic membership, which means -- free, since you actually don't need anything in Second Life and you also can get all the wonderful stuff for free. You just need to know how and where to find them.

But if you decide later on to have a little home or "privacy" (there's no real privacy in SL, since pervs still find a way to hide behind the bush and camera zoom at you) or open a little business, you probably will consider going premium.

The benefits to being premium, is a weekly allowance of 300 L$ and a free 512 mainland land, that you can purchase inworld, or a linden home, which already includes a themed house.

Here are examples of the themed Linden Homes:


Pretty bad they don't have vampire and cyber themes, though they are very common communities in Second Life. That's it for the 1st part! Up next is the 2nd part, which is tweaking the avatar. See you!