A New Year - A New Noobie On A Budget!

First of all I want to wish you a happy and exciting new year! This year will be the year of the Dragon, which is a good sign, cuz I'm compatible with dragons. Hopefully this year will be good to me.

My first post for this year is another entry to the newbie challenge which actually already ended on December 31st, 2011. Anyways, since there were lots of free goodies during the holiday season, I took advantage of it and went shopping with my second noob. Here are two looks, the later with two hairstyles. I'm including the links to the stores this time.

Hair: Lelutka (free subscriber gift for Xmas, hurry up!) = 0L$
Skin: YS&YS (free group gift) = 0L$
Body Shape: My own (not for sale) = 0L$
Eyes: [Roly-Poly] (free on SLM) = 0L$
Dress: R.icielli (sale) = 30L$
Boots (Viewer 2 compatible): Vida (via SLM) = 29 L$
Lipstick: R.icielli (Promo via SLM) = 50L$
Eyeshadow: Mons (via The Dressing Room Blue) = 50L$
No Alpha Eyelashes: Skintimate (via SLM) = 10L$
Sunglasses (scripted): Koguma Kumaki (via SLM) = 0L$
Pearl Necklace (modified): Jetcity (via SLM) = 0L$
Earrings: Sn@tch (free gift) = 0L$
Animation Overrider: Tuty's (via SLM) = 0L$
Poses: Masoom (via Fabfree Headquarters @ The Wash) = 0L$
Location: Downtown District 8

Total amount spent: 169L$

Hair: Analog Dog (3 Hairstyles Xmas Gift) = 0L$
Skin (incl. tattoo lashes): YS&YS (via The Dressing Room) = 70L$
Body Shape: My own (not for sale) = 0L$
Eyeshadow: Mons (via The Dressing Room Blue) = 50L$
Eyes: Insufferable Dastard (Xmas gift via SLM) = 0L$
Top: fri.day = 45L$
Scarf: Mr. Poet = 0L$
Jeans: Nardcotix = 37L$
Boots: COCO Designs (group gift) = 0L$
Belt: COCO Designs = 50L$
Animation Overrider: Vista Animations (via SLM) = 1L$
Location: C-Music Lounge

Total amount spent: 253L$


I'm busy working on new releases for my store at the moment, and I've been working on three Complete Avatars at the same time. But I still can't finish them, cuz creating hair is such a pain in the ass and I haven't got much time.


Hopefully I can finish and release one new product this month, so stay tuned by subscribing to my blog.

CanTell's Version - Newbie Style Challenge II

When I read Juicy Bomb's Newbie challenge, I thought that this time, I'll join, cuz I missed the one last time. I already posted a few make-overs and noob stuff in the past, which you can read here and here and some other posts, but my budget was more.

So here's my newbie version. I might do some more versions later on. It's just too time consuming, if you're on a tight budget and I'm talkin' bout really tight, cuz it ain't suppose to go over 550 L$. I created a new avatar for this challenge on 11.11.11 and gave her an allowance of 550 L$. I also was able to get a last name yay! I found one site, where it's still possible. If you wanna know, just send me a message, cuz I know LL takes them down, if the link is posted.

I felt sad sometimes, when I even have to decide which lingerie worth only 10 L$ each, should I get, cuz I could only afford one. Same with other stuff.

An avatar make-over for 550,- L$ was very time consuming. I even spent some time at some lucky chairs to get the prizes, which I decided not to use in the end.

 

This is suppose to be an avatar make-over, as if you are really new and don't have a single thing, not even poses (you out there heard me?). I also purchased all poses I used for the shots, in which one set I paid a decent amount of L$ in relation to the allowance and regretted it, cuz I didn't try them out first before purchasing. Well what the hell.

The biggest challenge for me were hair and shoes. I purposely avoided The Dressing Room, cuz I know a lot of the participants will get their stuff there and it's just not fun to see the same stuff over and over again. As if we were clones. If I see some items being blogged to often, I won't purchase it anymore, no matter how awesome it is.

So I joined lots of groups and went to lucky chairs. Though the hair I got were cool, they just didn't fit my concept, so I had to purchase hair, that I really like. It's also where most of my budget went. It was a hard decision to spend 275 L$ for hair, but I had to do it. After that, I had to watch out, that the remaining items are free.

So spending that much for hair, I couldn't get me some decent pumps anymore. I didn't want to get shoes with prim feet, cuz tinting the skin to match, gives me the urge of killing cute little bunnies sometimes and they are kinda getting out of fashion now. Didn't you notice it? It's like back to the roots with pumps. For example, I so love my N-Core Coquette Fat Pack. I probably got around 20 or more pair of plain pumps from different designers, but the N-Core ones are my favorite.

My plan was to get the HOC All Colors Pumps, but I couldn't afford to spend 175 L$ anymore. So I first got the group gift from COCO Designs, which is cool too, but flat. I need heels. I discovered the ankle boots at the discount department, removed parts of it, like the belt, buckle and invisi prims, and got some free alpha layers from SLM. I also changed the attachment point to lower leg instead of foot, cuz the boots are fucked up, depending on the AO anims.

Sames goes with the no alpha lashes. I deleted the lower lashes completely, cuz it was difficult to fit them. I prefer no alpha lashes, especially when the hair has lots of alpha, like the one I'm wearing. Or else, you'll see the lashes floating on top of the hair, which would be very creepy.


Ok here's my list (sorry couldn't get the digits straight, don't know how):

• Skin - YS&YS group gift = 0
• Body Shape - self-made (not for sale) = 0
• Hair - Analog Dog = 275
• Eyes - ~*By Snow*~ via SLM = 15
• Eyelashes - Skintimate no alpha lashes via SLM = 10
• AO - Vista Animations via SLM = 1
• AO - Tutys = 0
• AO - Sylva Petrov = 0
• Necklace - Gabriel group gift = 0
• Lingerie - Etiquette Lingerie via SLM = 10
• Pants - COCO Designs = 50
• Belt - Gabriel group gift = 0
• Fur Bolero - COCO Designs discount shop = 50
• Bracelet - edge grafica via SLM = 0
• Boots - COCO Designs discount shop = 50
• Avatar Alpha Overlays - Imnotgoing Sideways via SLM = 0
• Nailpolish - J's = 0
• Poses - E.inK 18 Poses via SLM = 0
• Poses - ++Desire++ 5 Model Poses via SLM = 0
• Poses - (pda) 8 Poses via Collabor88 = 88

Total: 549

This means I still got 1 L$ left yay!

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!