I Took the Plunge

Image Source: http://www.pinterest.com

I’ve been hemming and hawing for quite a while about whether or not to get a mesh body.

After doing some comparison shopping and talking with people who already own a mesh body, I finally decided to take the plunge.

I spent most of one evening trying on all the various pieces and parts, and snapping pics as I did.

I’m still not quite clear on how some of it works – there’s a lot more to a mesh body than simply clicking ‘wear items.’

I thought perhaps some of you might be interested in the details.

It will probably take more than one blog post, but I hope to share what I found, what works, what doesn’t, and whether a mesh body might be the right choice for you.

I’ve been looking at mesh bodies for some time.  I had the WowMeh demo and really liked the body, but it was unfortunately removed before I could purchase it.

I’ve tried the demo for the SLink Physique body.  There just weren’t enough alpha choices to make it a practical choice for me, although the fact that it was (obviously) compatible with SLink hands and feet was a plus.

I also tried the demo from The Mesh Project.  Frankly, I found their HUD overly complicated, not user friendly, and generally annoying.  The body itself was ok, but to get any real options, you need to get the deluxe version, which is $5000L.

After finding out a fellow dancer had the Belleza Venus body, I decided to try it out.

Unfortunately, my timing was bad.  I arrived at their sim, was greeted by a giant box warning of griefers, and crashed trying to walk over to get the demo.  I logged back in and managed to get the demo without further incident.

Before I even found time to try out the demo, word came that the body had been DMCA’d and would be pulled until the legal issues were sorted.  Having been bitten once over the WowMeh, I decided to put a mesh body on the back burner again.

A few weeks later I got word that Maitreya would be releasing their mesh body.  At the bargain price of $2750L (half the price of most mesh bodies), I decided I needed to at least try the demo.

I got the demo, tried it, and was generally pleased with it.

But I was still hesitant to purchase.  I had more discussions with people who own mesh bodies and people who, like me, were trying to decide whether to buy now or wait.

Things change so quickly in SL it’s hard to know whether a purchase like a mesh body will be worth it to you.

As I’ve stated before, tossing 3/4 of my wardrobe did not sound appealing at all, nor did mucking about with zillions of appliers for everything.

However, with 2015 fast approaching, a change from my skin/shape choices from 2013 did seem like a good idea.  😀

Because the Maitreya body comes with presets for Glam Affair skins, I headed to GA to find some demo skins and shapes and see if I could find one I liked.

I picked up 3 or 4 shape demos and 4 or 5 skins to try.

I must say, I wasn’t thrilled with any of them.

I didn’t like any of the shapes at all.  Some of the faces were ok, but nothing that screamed ‘Yes! Buy me!’

The skins were kind of a let-down as well.  I have a fairly tan skin tone and I don’t like really pale skins.

The Glam Affair skins run to the pale side.  The ‘Artic’ tone was reminiscent of vampires or frozen ice queens.

The darkest tone ‘Africa,’ was too dark for me. I tried the ‘Jamaica,’ thinking it would be a few shades lighter than Africa, but it was actually a rather pale skin.

The closest tone to my current skin was the ‘India.’  If I buy a GA skin, it will be in that tone.

My main skin maker has always been Laqroki.  Call me old-fashioned, but I love their skins.  I have skins from lots of different makers, but the Laqroki was my ‘go-to’ skin.

I also have one of their shapes, which has been modded several times.  My current shape is the work of Diawa Bellic, who decided one day that I had a ‘boob shelf’ and therefore needed help modding my Laqroki shape.  Three versions later, under her critical eye, I found my comfortable ‘go-to’ shape.

This is my ‘every day’ skin and shape:

I chose to wear an updo hairstyle to show my neck while I was snapping pics of everything.

But this is me.

Ugly-ass system avatar feet, with the weird ankles.

System man-hands, that are forever frozen in that ‘jazz hands!’ position.

Other than the hands and feet, though, I’ve been very happy with my skin and shape and appearance in general.

I probably should have snapped a pic from the back too.

Dang it.

Well, anyway, you get the idea.  This is me ‘before’ the mesh body.

One of the things that was a ‘must-have’ for me was the ability to use my own system avatar head.

There are lots of mesh heads available (I even saw a post today about a mesh head for men), but they aren’t for me.

The mesh heads are pretty, yes, and I get the appeal of being able to put ‘expressions’ on them.

However, I don’t like them.

So the first thing you do when you wear a mesh body is wear that alpha that hides everything of your system avatar except your head.

You look like this:

A floating head.

That’s it.

Everything else is hidden.

This is why system clothing doesn’t work with a mesh body.

The system clothing is a texture applied to your system avatar, which is now invisible.

You can wear system clothes, but they too will be invisible.

Now you’re ready to wear the mesh body.

It attaches just like other items (mesh clothing or prim attachments).

After you put it on, you look like this:

Yay! A body!

Umm, where are my hands and feet?

And I got pale.

Ack.

Now what?

Before I go on to the next step, I want to mention that I haven’t changed these pics in any way, other than cropping.

(And adding the ‘censored’ bars.)

But I kept everything else consistent so you can see the differences.

The body comes with a HUD, which you need to wear to access the various options.

The HUD for the Maitreya looks like this:

Here you can see the Alpha tab of the HUD.

You can use the HUD alpha options to hide various pieces and parts of the body.

I wasn’t really sure what the three options at the bottom (tattoo, underwear, and clothes) were for.  So I skipped them for now. 😀

As you can see, the default skin tone of the body does not match my skin tone.

But at least I have a body now!

Now, how do I make it match my skin?

On the Skin & Options tab of the HUD, there are 10 presets for the Glam Affair skin tones.

I played with them, and found one I thought was pretty close to my current skin.  Not a perfect match, but ok.

I could have spent time using the RGB settings to get a better match, but it was close enough for blogging purposes.  🙂

Here’s me after applying the skin preset:

Like I said, not a perfect match, but close enough.

Now that I look like I occasionally see the light of the sun, what’s next?

Hands and feet, of course.

On the Skin & Options tab, there are 19 choices for nail polish (feet and hands are separate).

There are 3 foot options – flat, mid, and high.

There is a ‘neck-fix’ option and preset ‘save’ buttons so you can save your favorite skin tones for quick application.

I pretty much stick with one skin tone (because I’m too lazy to keep changing appliers for feet/hands), so I didn’t use the ‘save’ option.

The Skin & Options tab of the HUD:

I may go in and play around with the RGB options and see if I can find a closer match to my current skin.

I am happy with the 3 foot options.  Being able to click a button and change foot shape is a god-send.

I hate having to rifle through my inventory and find the right SLink feet to wear with the right shoes.

Much as I love the way the SLink feet look, I often avoid wearing them to avoid the hassle.

I also like being able to just click a button and change my finger/toe nail polish.

I love the SLink polish appliers and all the fun nail polish you can get, but I’m usually so exhausted from finding all the right pieces for the feet and hands that looking for a nail applier is often just not worth the time it takes.

I’ve gotten to where I just leave my polish as the French manicure unless I am dancing and want something specific for a costume.  (Which most people don’t get close enough to see anyway – I’m not even sure I should really bother.)

The next step is to add hands and feet.

However, I think this post has already reached the ‘TL:DR’ stage, so I will continue with the hands and feet in the next post.

Be sure to comment and let me know what you think of this post and whether further posts would be helpful/needed.

Stay tuned!