Once in a while, I get a request to help someone's friend to get acclimated into SL because they're getting increasingly frustrated with the learning curve, specifically of mesh bodies and heads.
This was one of those times.
Andy has been in Second Life for a little over two months and had been using pieces and parts of the starter avatars with the effect of "looking like a dweeb" (his words, not mine). The result was that he was beginning to hate logging into SL, even though he enjoyed meeting people, connecting with his cousin (who lives in another state), going to concerts, etc.
In World of Warcraft, as an oldbie, Andy fairly easily changes his "toon" to look exactly how he likes--he's adept at grinding for a piece of gear then modding until it's just right.
Second Life was a whole different world. He'd buy a shape or skin only to find that it didn't look the way it was advertised because he didn't have the specific body/head combination--or windlight--or add-on makeup/tattoos. It's not hard to see how a newcomer could get overwhelmed and frustrated.
This is where I came in. Andy's cousin, who had introduced him to Second Life, was becoming just as frustrated as he was. She'd had a hard time as well when she joined SL a little over a year ago but took advantage of the freebies that were in abundance around the beginning of the pandemic. Plus, as she put it, it's simply harder to outfit guys, at least in Second Life. So she asked if I could help.
Since Andy's name inworld is directly tied to a certain character in WoW, I had an inkling of the look he might be going for, but didn't realize how devoted to the idea he might be. Then, he sent me this picture...
Fair use, Link
Woooo boy! Challenge time!
First, I had him try on several mesh body demos and look through Marketplace for looks that were close to what he wanted. The idea was to get something close so that we could then shop the combination of mesh inworld, grab demos, and see if the look was anything similar to the photos.
Then he happened upon a video about the free group gift male head from AK. So he had scored a quality head and opted for the Belleza Jake body. On the right track! Or so we thought.
We got it sooooo close to what he wanted! But he couldn't get rid of the neck seam, even after asking the AK group for assistance and trying several remedies. It was disheartening but also promising because he'd gotten so close to the look he was after.
Back to the drawing board.
To take a break, I told him a large part of the look and feel for SL is getting the right animation overrider. So he went off, neck seam and all, shopping at animation stores. A few hours later, I came back to a message. He'd found an animation--and bought another head--this time, the male combo at Vista.
My response--AO, great! Head, erm? I have NO experience with Vista heads so it was going to be a challenge.
And a challenge it was.
Trying to find a skin that looked right for both the Jake body and the Vista Gerard head was not easy as it isn't BOM compatible--and fewer and fewer skin shops inworld have omega options. He ended up going to the Clef de Peau store in-world and purchasing one of the body skins to go with the preloaded head skin from the Vista hud. (He voiced that he's not thrilled with it but it was the best of the choices we had at the time--perhaps if Vista updates to BoM, he can get something closer.)
He found a hairstyle at No Match that was close to what he was looking for (and a couple of backups), and thanks to my having a full-perm mesh royal costume in my inventory, getting him dressed was easy-peasy.
The result? Not bad and certainly somewhat drool-worthy. :)
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| Artist's Rendition of Anduin Wrynn, Gamepedia |
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| AnduinLlane in-world
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