SLUniverse Forums

Raindrop Drinkwater · 08-07-2008, 12:23 PM

The shape of the eyebrows is VERY important. It can change the look of the skin in a dramatic way, and the ideal shape and height change for almost every skin. As the eyebrows are not under the "Shape" menu, this is often overlooked.

Another little bit that matters, apart from the obvious lips, nose, lip cleft yadda yadda, is the "eyebags" slider and its close companions (can't remember the exact names). It mostly affects the expression, in a permanent way. So you can be moody

, or always surprised

, or permanently bored

.

So, hmm. Buying a skin: it's all about the shape.

Raindrop Drinkwater · 08-07-2008, 12:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Raindrop Drinkwater

So, hmm. Buying a skin: it's all about the shape.

Except when the Willy is painted on.
In which case, you try another skin.

ETA: Yeah, I quoted myself. Sue me!

Beezle Warburton · 08-07-2008, 12:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Arilynn

Thanks, Charlemagne.

Does "rather photosourced" mean it looks too realistic?

Yes. Because the AV mesh isn't the best, a PhotoSourced skin looks like a human skin stretched over a mannequin. Not pretty.

Lexxi Gynoid · 08-07-2008, 12:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bilbo99 emu

Add: Oh and SkinWithin was doing their Allegra Skin free for newbies if you get there in time.

I thought Skin Within was photorealistic. And I think most of these newbie deals (Sin Skin, Fleur, Gurl6, Diversity, Szentaska, etc. are under 30 days).

Of course I, myself, am now wearing a freebie I found on OnRez. heh.

Raindrop Drinkwater · 08-07-2008, 01:00 PM

Check Another Skin by Eloh. I quite like them, and they work on most shapes. Frick does interesting, very cheap variations on them.

Lexxi Gynoid · 08-07-2008, 01:06 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Charlemagne Allen

Arilynn, I would recommend Tete a Pied, Pixel Dolls, or Nomine for skins; Citizen Politik is rather photosourced and is rather yucky in my eyes, but I know friends who swear by it. Brig has very good taste, of course, and I'm sure she'll know exactly what to do.

Tete a Pied is now Fleur. As ............wait! I just remembered!

Go to M&R Cupcake (I haven't figured out how to find this place other than putting it into the all search, looking at the one or two classifieds and clicking on the one for M&R Cupcake) - look for the two main entrances near the center of the building (as opposed to the entrance/exit that is at the end of one of the buildings). Pan your camera up. You will be looking for a picture with 12 faces on it - 12, in my opinion, high-quality skins for 12L. And - it will give you an example of what those skin lines look like without having demo stamped all over you. Plus you could just use those skins as is, for 12L.

Right, back to - Tete a Pied is now Fleur. RaC is now Laqroki (or something like that), Rosmarr (or something like that) joined up with whatever M is to become M&R Cupcake, etc. Oh, and in the in world "Another Shop" appears to be gone now - at least the one I knew about.

Savoir Hair has great free hair from many places.
Fabulously Free has shapes, hair, skin, full avatars, clothes, shoes, jewelry, etc.
Sarah Nerd's Freebie Pa....is it paradise? has some nice freebie stuff.
I've found that there are some nice quality free stuff on OnRez and Slexchange. (Pixel Dolls has, I think, moved their free clothes to only OnRez/Slexchange, qualilty freebies).

Hair - ETD, Bishwear, Armidi (can't remember how that one goes), Gurl6, .... (heh, I can't remember the name of the place of the hair I am currently wearing), Detour.
Eyes - I'm wearing eyes from Winter Ventura's place, some nice freebies out there also (not that the eyes I am wearing were free)
shape - you appear to be happy fiddling with own shape so no need to mention shape shops (free or otherwise)
Skin - see this thread
the "naughty" bits - Xcite, Sensation

clothing - quality free stuff on OnRez/Slexchange. Free "everything this creator made before they left and gave up their stuff to do with as they please" clothing box at the Forum Cartel Hangout - on the deck. Truth may or may not still have their sale going. Awesome Designs has some quality stuff in the discount/newbie area (oddly I have never attempted to shop there after I stopped being newbie).

Shoes - you just missed the shoe expo. There are a rather nice pair of boots that I picked up at Detour.

Avatars - Grendal's Children has some quality avatars if you were interested in looking at non-human (and some human, I think), stuff - relatively cheap compared to other places.

Lexxi Gynoid · 08-07-2008, 01:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Brig McD

As long as you aren't going crazy with the boob sliders the skin shouldn't be effected too much by changes. It's the face where you see the most difference.Certain makeups look better on certain facial features, that's where you need to be careful.

You also need to try on demos because some skins may have an incredible face, but there may be dark shading under the breasts and butt cheeks that look unsightly. The demos are great because you can see the total package before you invest the Linden.

I can take you several places for demos. Then you can take them home and try them on and see what works best for your shape, with the least amount of tweaking.

Be careful though. There was one skin I loved from that place everyone seems to love to go for Neko skin (actually it was the shop under the Neko place; where doesn't matter or I'd try to be more specific), but it didn't look like its demo in one important aspect. - The demo had a really neat tat on it that I thought would go great with some vampire hunter clothing I had found. So I bought the skin. Skin did not have that tat (and no, it did not say "demo", it was a cross, or something like that, burned into the skin). I IM'd the creator, who was on-line at the time, but she completely ignored me, so I never bought anything there again. Left a bad taste in my mouth for the Neko place also, though they didn't have anything to do with it (I think).

Mereille · 08-07-2008, 02:03 PM

Another thing to think about is are you planning on being nawhtey. Some skin lines have fabulous makeup (starley's Vogue skins come to mind). While others might be more limited in makeup styles, but look gorgeous naked.

It took eight months for me to settle on a skin and shape. I settled on what I'm wearing now because of how the makeup looked on my face. At the time I didn't give much thought to how it looked naked. My only complaint now is that it does suffer from the 'dirty bottom' effect due to the shading there. Now I don't plan on changing either one. Of course there are more makeup options for this one that I don't have yet.....

For reference, it is the Skin Within Adhira freckled.

Tranquility · 08-07-2008, 03:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Stephanie Misfit

Yes. Go into appearance mode, and at the bottom choose "Make Outfit". You can then choose to have everything you are wearing including your skin and shape saved in a subfolder in the Clothing folder in your inventory. Name the folder to something you'll remember. Watch out if anything you are wearing is no copy though, it will be moved to that new folder.

Wow, you learn something new every day! I always manually made my outfit folders. But I love that you can drag the outfit folders from your inventory onto your avatar and it (semi) instantly changes your outfit!

Oh, try joining the blowpop update group (I hope thats the right one). In the past they have given out free skins.

DJQuad · 08-07-2008, 03:51 PM

An awesome place to go is Kmadd. They sell shapes but they come with a styling notecard that tells you where to get the skin, hair, eyes, jewelry, and even the clothes that the model in the pic is wearing. They design the shape based on the skin which is the best way to do it IMO.

bilbo99 emu · 08-08-2008, 06:22 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lexxi Gynoid

I thought Skin Within was photorealistic. And I think most of these newbie deals (Sin Skin, Fleur, Gurl6, Diversity, Szentaska, etc. are under 30 days).

Of course I, myself, am now wearing a freebie I found on OnRez. heh.

I'm not sure what the newbie freebie at SkinWithin is these days. When Lorna was new she got both the Allegra and the earlier, drawn Eva. This, I fear, like the earlier Panjens (Joy, Fawn ...) seem to have been withdrawn

Add: Oh, Raindrop mentioned eyebrows! You can have fun changing the 'bald head' about between skin folders when you've collected a few .. makes for some interesting variants

Ann Launay · 08-08-2008, 02:07 PM

No one mentioned Celestial Studios? o.O

Express Zenovka · 08-08-2008, 07:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lexxi Gynoid

Oh, and in the in world "Another Shop" appears to be gone now - at least the one I knew about.

Try the third floor at GNUbie. I believe she has stuff there now, in addition to that flea market spot whose name I can't spell.

Arilynn · 08-10-2008, 02:24 PM

Thanks for all the information.

To be honest, all this about skins seems so complicated and detailed that the part of my brain that was thinking about it overloaded, caught on fire, and burned out.

IRL I take about 3 seconds to decide whether I like an outfit - this seems like it will take hours and hours of looking for a skin. I still want a skin and will use all your great suggestions and would love some guidance, but I need my brain to stop smoldering first.

One very kind person showed me about 10 different skins she had. I didn't really see a big difference except for skin tone and facial expression. She would point out that this skin is more/less this and that skin was more/less that. I didn't see this or that, really.

Raindrop Drinkwater · 08-10-2008, 02:54 PM

Ah, simple advice: go for Nomine.

Io Zeno · 08-10-2008, 02:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Raindrop Drinkwater

Ah, simple advice: go for Nomine.

Don't listen to her, get a Gala.

Io Zeno · 08-10-2008, 02:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Arilynn

Thanks for all the information.

To be honest, all this about skins seems so complicated and detailed that the part of my brain that was thinking about it overloaded, caught on fire, and burned out.

IRL I take about 3 seconds to decide whether I like an outfit - this seems like it will take hours and hours of looking for a skin. I still want a skin and will use all your great suggestions and would love some guidance, but I need my brain to stop smoldering first.

One very kind person showed me about 10 different skins she had. I didn't really see a big difference except for skin tone and facial expression. She would point out that this skin is more/less this and that skin was more/less that. I didn't see this or that, really.

Ok, if they don't look much different to you, there are some.... things to consider. That she probably didn't show you.

The girly bits, ahem. Some have them, some don't. Some have pubic hair, some don't.

Also, think about whether you want to change your makeup a lot. If you do, go for something less expensive because you have to buy a new skin each time. If you don't, you can spend more knowing it's going to be a rare purchase, just get something you really like that will go with most of your clothing and your own look.

Siyu Suen · 08-10-2008, 03:06 PM

I was about to jump up and down in disbelief that no one had mentioned Blowpop yet. Thanks Tranquility

The skin that's in my avatar pic right there <---- I paid 200L for at Blowpop. She drastically discounts her old skins without retiring them, I love her for that. She has some that are even under 100L, so if you want to start somewhere, there ya go

They're hybrids with a wonderfully soft look, and I definitely suggest looking at her Mellie skins and her Tuesday (or was it Thursday?) skins.

Tuli also passes out free skins in her update group

They tend to be really nice plain everyday looks too, and have a wonderfully soft face.

And of course, Munch at Nomine (HEAR THAT IO!?) has some very discounted skins as well, in her sale section she has skins going for 200L but unlike BP she DOES retire them, so I'm not sure what she has out right now.

Raindrop Drinkwater · 08-10-2008, 03:14 PM

I had never heard of Blowpop. Thanks Siyu!

Arilynn · 08-10-2008, 04:02 PM

So I wrote down all the suggested stores - and have 14+.

Any agreement about just 2 or 3? or another with Nomine?

Thanks!

Decadent · 08-10-2008, 04:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Arilynn

So I wrote down all the suggested stores - and have 14+.

Any agreement about just 2 or 3? or another with Nomine?

Thanks!

Gala.

Gala.

GALA!

Ann Launay · 08-10-2008, 05:23 PM

My top three are Celestial Studios Vogue, Fleur, and Gala. That's a (CS) Vogue in my SLU avatar.

But, really, it depends on personal taste...there are a lot of well made skins out there which look perfectly weird and un-Ann to me when I try them. You may be new enough not to have a solid idea of what your av 'should' look like yet, so all I can say is demos, demos, demos!

Beebo Brink · 08-10-2008, 06:14 PM

When I first joined SL I fell in love with a freebie skin that turned out to be perm-rip of Santana Lumiere (Nevermore Studios). I tracked down her store to buy a legit skin and my main wore one of her Hybrid II skins almost exclusively until I turned her into a testing alt.

The Hybrid III series was "Coming Soon!" for at least a year, and I would visit the store at least once a

08-07-2008, 02:03 PM	#33 (permalink)
Mereille Senior Member Status? I have status? Join Date: Sep 2007 Posts: 474 My Mood:	Another thing to think about is are you planning on being nawhtey. Some skin lines have fabulous makeup (starley's Vogue skins come to mind). While others might be more limited in makeup styles, but look gorgeous naked. It took eight months for me to settle on a skin and shape. I settled on what I'm wearing now because of how the makeup looked on my face. At the time I didn't give much thought to how it looked naked. My only complaint now is that it does suffer from the 'dirty bottom' effect due to the shading there. Now I don't plan on changing either one. Of course there are more makeup options for this one that I don't have yet..... For reference, it is the Skin Within Adhira freckled. __________________ I don't know why I think I can manage Second Life....just look at my First Life! Gah!

08-08-2008, 02:07 PM	#37 (permalink)
Ann Launay Neko-licious™ Likes Spoons Join Date: Aug 2007 Posts: 2,024 SL Join Date: 8/8/06 My Mood:	No one mentioned Celestial Studios? o.O __________________ ~Now Trout Re-Re-Certified!~ "I'm bumping you to a 7.3. You are now beyond girl-next-door-hot and into dream-girl-steamy-fantasy hot. I approve. Shame on you and congratulations! You are borderline slutty." Obligatory Flickr Stuffies

08-07-2008, 01:00 PM	#30 (permalink)
Raindrop Drinkwater Pudding Status edited Join Date: Jul 2007 Posts: 1,039 Business: A2NZ: When creativity goes global SLShopper Ads: 32 My Mood:	Check Another Skin by Eloh. I quite like them, and they work on most shapes. Frick does interesting, very cheap variations on them.

08-07-2008, 03:51 PM	#35 (permalink)
DJQuad I has a user title Join Date: Dec 2007 Posts: 54 Business: CZ Estates and NxTek Solutions Inc My Mood:	An awesome place to go is Kmadd. They sell shapes but they come with a styling notecard that tells you where to get the skin, hair, eyes, jewelry, and even the clothes that the model in the pic is wearing. They design the shape based on the skin which is the best way to do it IMO.

08-10-2008, 02:24 PM	#39 (permalink)
Arilynn wonders "WTH" a lot o\|// \|\| Join Date: Jul 2008 Posts: 517 SL Join Date: Too lazy to look up - just think "Noob" Business: Wandering about in a daze. Running away from people. Asking in front of a group what "freaking" is. Blog Entries: 2 My Mood:	Thanks for all the information. To be honest, all this about skins seems so complicated and detailed that the part of my brain that was thinking about it overloaded, caught on fire, and burned out. IRL I take about 3 seconds to decide whether I like an outfit - this seems like it will take hours and hours of looking for a skin. I still want a skin and will use all your great suggestions and would love some guidance, but I need my brain to stop smoldering first. One very kind person showed me about 10 different skins she had. I didn't really see a big difference except for skin tone and facial expression. She would point out that this skin is more/less this and that skin was more/less that. I didn't see this or that, really.

08-10-2008, 02:54 PM	#40 (permalink)
Raindrop Drinkwater Pudding Status edited Join Date: Jul 2007 Posts: 1,039 Business: A2NZ: When creativity goes global SLShopper Ads: 32 My Mood:	Ah, simple advice: go for Nomine.

08-10-2008, 03:14 PM	#44 (permalink)
Raindrop Drinkwater Pudding Status edited Join Date: Jul 2007 Posts: 1,039 Business: A2NZ: When creativity goes global SLShopper Ads: 32 My Mood:	I had never heard of Blowpop. Thanks Siyu!

08-10-2008, 04:02 PM	#45 (permalink)
Arilynn wonders "WTH" a lot o\|// \|\| Join Date: Jul 2008 Posts: 517 SL Join Date: Too lazy to look up - just think "Noob" Business: Wandering about in a daze. Running away from people. Asking in front of a group what "freaking" is. Blog Entries: 2 My Mood:	So I wrote down all the suggested stores - and have 14+. Any agreement about just 2 or 3? or another with Nomine? Thanks!

08-10-2008, 05:23 PM	#47 (permalink)
Ann Launay Neko-licious™ Likes Spoons Join Date: Aug 2007 Posts: 2,024 SL Join Date: 8/8/06 My Mood:	My top three are Celestial Studios Vogue, Fleur, and Gala. That's a (CS) Vogue in my SLU avatar. But, really, it depends on personal taste...there are a lot of well made skins out there which look perfectly weird and un-Ann to me when I try them. You may be new enough not to have a solid idea of what your av 'should' look like yet, so all I can say is demos, demos, demos!

08-10-2008, 06:14 PM	#48 (permalink)
Beebo Brink Uppity Alt I'm the woman your mother warned you about. Join Date: Jul 2007 Posts: 2,097 SL Join Date: January 2007 Business: Brazen Women Shapes and Skins SLShopper Ads: 17 My Mood:	When I first joined SL I fell in love with a freebie skin that turned out to be perm-rip of Santana Lumiere (Nevermore Studios). I tracked down her store to buy a legit skin and my main wore one of her Hybrid II skins almost exclusively until I turned her into a testing alt. The Hybrid III series was "Coming Soon!" for at least a year, and I would visit the store at least once a