Noob Make-Over 2 - Inventory's Mesh Avatar Delilah

So I thought of doing another newbie avatar make-over or rather tweak-over, but using only items from the default inventory - library, as I've already did once, which you can read here. Since we now have starter avatars in mesh, I thought of using one this time. I chose the one called "Delilah",coz I find the face the most decent out of the other female avies to choose from. Above you can see the default avatar, which has totally a strange looking body shape and humongous hands.

This is the Delilah Avatar's original appearance.

In the next shot, you can see the same avatar stripped naked (doesn't have wee bits and so on). 

I made a different body shape to start off, as you can see in the next shot.

Here is the direct comparison, side by side. The mesh body is rigged but kinda distorts weirdly somehow. Good thing is, that you can change some parts of the body, but unfortunately, it is not possible with the face.

Another example for comparison - here you can see the WowMeh mesh body with Slink hands and feet. 

 

Here is again the Delilah mesh avatar with the default body shape.

Here is the Delilah mesh avatar with my body shape.

Here's the direct comparison, side by side.

A close-up of the original shape.

My make-over shape. Notice that the mesh avatar is very blocky due to lesser polygons. I especially did not do any image post processing, so you can see the real deal.

This is wearing the WowMeh Mesh Body as an example, notice that it over all rounder and smoother.

 

Here is the final result of the tweak-over.

Then and Now - My Rezzday Post

Today is my 7th Rezzday in Second Life, which means, 7 years in a virtual world! Now with fitted mesh coming our way, we really came a long way.

I can still remember the pre-sculptie, pre-windlight and of course, pre-mesh days. Clothing were painted on textures and were always super tight. So male avies looked like they were always wearing tight leggings, with their butt cracks heavily emphasized.

Hair were huge and looked like helmets and shoes were horrifying, especially the attached invisiprims, which were partly huge and showed up, when standing on alpha textured floor. I couldn't find regular prim made shoes, cuz I think I deleted them all, when sculpties were introduced. So I had to wear sculpted boots in my "then" picture.

Famous designers those days were the ones who could paint textures with more depth and 3D like effect, since that was all they could work with, to make the product look a bit realistic.

I'm still in the process of updating all of my apparel, hair and  to mesh. I have also been updating some of my products to mesh.

Here are a few examples of regular prim made objects:

My first house on my first purchased land on mainland. All objects were made of regular prims

 

This complete look was all made of regular prims (before the introduction of sculpted objects)

There are still people who are quite against mesh, which I can't understand. Don't they have a sense of aethetic? Don't they like realistic looking stuff? I do still use non-mesh, system layer clothing, to combined with mesh clothing, but I have tried to completely eliminate all sculpted made items in my inventory, cuz though they looked better than regular prims, they mostly rezz slowly and often not properly, which looked like balls. 

Remember trying out demo hair at a super crowded store, and all you see is your face full of balls, cuz it wasn't rezzing properly? Man I hated it. Even now when you visit places, where they still have sculpted stuff all over the place and haven't updated yet to mesh, you see balls all over the place, cuz they just take a while to rezz.

Mesh pros:

- Looks more realistic and more 3D than sculpties and regular prims

- Rezzes faster than sculpties

- Lower land impact, mostly, depending on how it was sculpted

- Rigged mesh follows body movement, e.g. hair and clothing

- Easier to wear, which means, you don't need to wear different parts individually. Like with sculpties, attach collar, attach cuffs etc. The adjusting of individual parts, was time consuming and annoying.

New Newbie Avatars!

We now have some additional avatars and accessories available in our inventory library, that came with the new SL 2.0 viewer! I really have to say, that they look quite better than the previous ones, though they still got that "noobish" touch.

So I thought of trying them out and tweaking them up, to make them look more decent. It was a real challenge to make the avie look better, by creating a different shape. The good thing is, we finally have some high quality hair (by Truth) and some sculpted accessories. Check them out if you get the chance. They are to be found in the "Clothing --> Initial Outfits" folder.

In the meantime, let me start out with the comparisons. Oh I have to say that, I didn't do any fancy editing on the shots, cuz I was too lazy lol! All I did was crop them and put borders. Let's take a closer look at some of the female avies, shall we? So here we go (please click on images to enlarge):

This first avatar is called "Female City". The one on the left side is the original and on the right side is my tweaked version. All items worn are from the library. I found this neat Second Life T-Shirt, some capri jeans and a pair of cool sneakers. I got the sneakers from one of the new male avie folders. I just had to shrink them a bit, since they were too huge. The hair is called "Asymmetric Bob" by Truth.

This next avie is called "Female Designer" and I really have no clue why. It seems like it's suppose to be more teen or kid looking, since the skin got that "innocent" look, including freckles and no makeup, so I created a teenager shape for it, to emphasize. I noticed that most default face shapes got the "quasimodo" touch, don't you think so?

It also reminds me of the Sims2 default avies. You can see the default on the left and my tweak on the right side. The default is also wearing some underwear, which is already painted on the skin (see 2nd picture), so there's no danger in showing any vajay jay or nipples. The hair I'm wearing on this one is called "Tapered Bob" also by Truth.

The next one is called "Female Goth" which, imho, looks kinda cartoonish, which isn't bad. Reminds me of Alice in Wonderland.


This last avie is called "Female Student" which is the best one in my opinion. But I also made a tweaked version.

Another newness is also that, all new avies are now wearing ugly underwear by default, which is painted on the skin, so no naughty bits, might accidentally show up. I didn't try out the male avies, since I didn't really feel like. There are still additional female avies called "Female Party" and "Female Rocker". I'm just wondering why they never added a "Female Slut" avie in the library, since it's the most popular and desired look in SL.

I guess the purpose is, so that new residents will be tempted to purchase "real" skins with all that naughty jazz, and lots of slut wear, which is of course a great concept. I'm thinking of giving away my tweaked shapes as a freebie for new residents. Well I might. I just hate boxing up items *sigh*. So don't forget to visit my shop in world to get them in the future.

C-Music Lounge - New Look and Feel!

After having C-Music Lounge now for more than 2 years, I thought it was time to redesign the whole building, since I also needed more prims for my other creations. So this time, I built the lounge by myself and re-designed the whole place.

The old C-Music Lounge design was more like a vintage jazz club, the new one is more modern and minimalistic in style, similar to the bars and lounges I love to hangout at in RL. I minimized the prim count more this time, by using mega prims and sculpties. I will still have a 2 year anniversary party at the lounge by chance, I'm just not sure when. So join one of my groups "C-Music Lounge" or "I Love Can'Tell!" to receive notices regarding events and my upcoming live concerts. Take your virtual partner with you (whatever it is) and come over to C-Music Lounge! Relax and listen to the best Neo Soul, Smooth Jazz and Mellow Hiphop grooves on the grid.

Here are some shots of the old and new C-Music Lounge for comparison:

The old version

The lounge itself, was a prefab that I bought years ago when I started and didn't have much skills yet in building. Most furniture etc. were also purchased ones, made by other designers. I just enhanced and changed this and that, as time went by, but never seriously thought of building them by myself.
The new version

This time it's vice versa, cuz I created most of the items and I only took very few purchased items, for the whole set-up, like the seating furniture, the piano and most of the plants.

C-Music Lounge from the outside. The medieval out of place tower beside my C-Stylez store, belongs to my neighbor, so please excuse the view. It's one of the disadvantages, when living on a mainland region. Oh how I wish I had my own island...

Is This The Latest Fad? WTF?!!

I honestly don't go fugly avatar hunting, since I rarely have time for SL anyway, but when I go shopping, especially at crowded spots, I can't help myself to take shots of these species, when they activate my eyesore alarm. These are one of the reasons I started selling shapes, like I mentioned on my previous post.

The funny part was, I was out to check out some shops and I happened to cross some of these examples, which almost had identical shapes. Well the concept was the same: zero waistline, but maximum ass and very short legs, almost looking like midgets. I call it "Miss Piggy on the loose". Maybe there's a secret underground shape maker who does all these shapes and these people purchased a family pack? Is this the latest fad or am I missing something?

Is this a midget avatar?

A back shot

Another example, that makes me totally speechless

These avatars perhaps belong to the same family, but the shots were from different places. So I'm really clueless

All I see are asses

Surprise surprise! I wish I didn't cam down

Well curiosity killed the kitty, I mean the cat. So here's a closer shot...ooohah! Are those testicles?!

Another example from the distorted family

It's not my PC that caused the distortions... I swear!

Just when you think it couldn't get worse

Now for the finale, this is a different example, which belongs to the slut department of bling and poofer dreams (or nightmare in SL)

Ohah! Something is hanging down there! Kitty getting some fresh air! Thank god we can't smell in SL! LMAO!

Fun As A Noob!

I created an alt recently for a change and I tried to go through all the required tutorials again at Orientation Island. Strangely, there weren't much noobs being born at that time, the sight of confused half naked and bald female avies were very refreshing to see lol!

I thought I'd try on the box avatar and walk around the place a bit. When I reached the "edit appearance" tutorial, I thought of changing back to a human avie and this is what I turned out to be:

Me doing the obligatory "take the torch" tutorial

The torch somehow got stucked into my torso lol!

Seems pretty empty and lonely at the orientation island.
Notice the confused female avie in the background lol!

Going for a ride hoooooweeeeeeeeh!

My sexy back shot lol!

Oh speaking of fugly avies, here's one avie I had to take a shot of, while I was out shopping. I can bet my ass that a guy is behind this angel lol!

This is how you can get nightmares in Second Life. Yes, the two shiny balls are boobies with nipple piercings lol!

I'll post more fugly avies when I get the chance so stay tuned!