BUYING CLOTHING:
This is what little I think I know about fashion in Second Life.
Your clothing choices will be determined by what body, head, and components you choose to wear. Second life clothing cannot be altered by letting out a seam or putting in a tuck. You might be able to rotate a hat, or tint or re-size some items, but more often you have to change your shape if the clothing doesn't fit. If you choose the wrong clothing parts of your bod may stick out in embarassing places, or you might look like The Invisible Man getting dressed.
It is always good to try a demo of any clothing before you buy. After you put it on, look at yourself from all angles and also check how it looks when you move! Once you've found a good clothing/body combination save the outfit under the 'outfit' tab. You can even take a snapshot and put it in an outfit gallery.
You can alter your body contours, but some clothing will not fit your body no matter what you do. In these cases you may have to use 'alphas', which are basically are shapes that cover parts (or all) of your body so that it doesn't show through your clothing. Some of the bodies on the market come with HUDS so that you can 'alpha' some parts.
Avatars vary in complexity, from the very simple "Ruth-like" primitars to the avatars with multiple bento parts.
When you first come to Second Life you are currently given a choice of "system" avatars that usally include the head and body, shape, skin, clothing, alphas, and basic animations. Use the "edit outfit" tab to see what your off-the-rack avatar is wearing, whether it is part of another item of clothing (like the hat and hair in the "Bitsy" avatar) and what part of the body it is attached to.
The avatars you get when you first sign up for Second Life are usually one unit, with the head and body together. When you decide to upgrade your appearance you will find heads, bodies, skins and shapes being sold separately, because creators tend to specialize in one area. I remember how shocked I was when I went to upgrade my image and bought a body and it didn't have a head. You can still buy a few all-in-one avatar, but they are rare.
If you go through New Resident Island (which is run by volunteers) you will find a lot of information on fashion. You can get a new mesh body, hair, and clothing. The body is a mesh body, and the clothing is Bakes on Mesh (BOM) which means that they are textures baked onto mesh. The tutorial is excellent.
The parts you can't do without:
Body -
Head-
Shape -
Skin -
Now, parts you can find being sold separately:
- Body
- Head
- Shape
- Skin
- Eyes
- Hands
- Feet
- Nail polish (if your hand has nails)
- tattoos
- Hair
- Hairbase (basically a tattoo)
- Shoes
- Animations - An AO (Animation Overrider) is an attachment that makes your avatar move a certain way. The one you get when you sign up is pretty basic. Without an AO, we would all be 'duck walking'. If you have a classic body you can find a more advanced free AO for it on New Resident Island.
- Poses - Most of the beautiful models you see on Second Life blogs are usually using special poses or animations. You can buy these or make these. You will find that there are a lot of poses included in newer furniture.
- Gestures -
- Physics - I added 'physics' to my avatar and parts of my body started jiggling like jello. I didn't like it.
- Clothing
- Other parts - if you plan to be 'sexual' in Second Life you can buy and attach the appropriate body parts. It is advised not to wear them in public, even 'under' your clothing, because it is common for your clothing to download last* and you will just look silly.
- Non-sexual parts include things like horns and tails, wings, prosthetic limbs, etc...
An alpha is just an invisible piece that makes part of your body disappear so it doesn't show through your clothing. You can have an alpha for small parts like eyes, or a whole body alpha for some fantasy shapes. When you change clothing without changing alphas you may have air space showing. say, if you were wearing a dress with a dress alpha and you put on a top and jeans your middrift may be empty space. Some body/clothing combinations may not need alphas, but try different poses without an alpha first to make sure you don't have problem areas when you move.
Since I first came to Second Life there has been constant evolution in avatar fashion, and I'm not always sure it is an improvement.
"Legacy" may refer to the older classic bodies, or to a particular brand.
"Bento" is a term referring to a body with more 'bones' and hence more movement possibilities.
You are not alone if you are having trouble getting your clothing and avatar together.
For expert advice I recommend the SL forum, and information from the newcomer centers. Some of the bloggers I list on the sidebar put out good tutorials. Still, it is not uncommon to find disagreement about problem solutions and sometimes even the most experienced residents will say "I was wrong."
How not to end up partly naked: (If that wasn't your intention).
If you change clothing and then part of your body is now naked it is because when you select "wear" the creator of the garment made it to be attached to a particular body attachment point and it replaces what was there before. Selecting "add" works better.
When you change clothing and find part of your body is now invisible it is because you have an alpha over that part. An alpha is just an object that hides part of your body. Try to find the correct alpha.
If you have a seamline at your neck it is probably because the body and the head don't match. I have been told to use the 'shape' that came with the head. There are always turtlenecks.
There is a contradiction in the fact that we are encouraged to wear 'low-lag' clothing when we are in a public place, but then who but your friends is going to see the wonderful outfits and poses you have put together?
If you are interested in knowing what other people are wearing you can ask them, or you can look for an app like "What is she wearing".
Do not ask me about BOM, appliers, or relays. I know only enough to get into trouble. Take a few deep breaths, find an isolated spot, and go through the manufacturer's notecard and play with the HUD.
 |
| Only a few of the controls on an older Catwa Pro Hud |
Hope this helps. Please let me know if I got anything wrong or if you think there is a better way to explain things.
Note: Although I have bought several different bodies and heads, I tend to go out most of the time wearing one of the system avatars. I occasionally get a bit of harassment from folks who think I am a noob (I was in a sandbox recently, and someone dropped a house on my head) I don't have to spend a lot of time deciding what to wear, and then finding a body the clothing will fit.
How complicated does it get? Try reading this thread.
*All those naked people at big events are not perverts, they are just waiting for their clothing to unload.
Added 5-13-22. Official Second Life has now put out a short YouTube video on how to buy clothing and how to get dressed. Boston Blaisdale, who also has a YouTube channel with other good tutorials, walks you through:
Topics Covered in this Video:
No comments:
Post a Comment