Back To The Future with L'Uomo

You may remember when I first blogged the new mesh avatars L'Uomo had released and today's post again may read a bit like a tutorial.

At the time one couldn't do much more with the new mesh avatars than run around naked as there were no special clothes available for them. Rigged mesh wouldn't attach correctly and neither the old layered clothes.

The only solution for visiting Moderate and PG Sims was not using the “Hide All” alpha from the mesh avatar package but one of the “Hide Upper only” alphas instead. Then, by clicking the lower half of the mesh avatar invisible on the Avatar Control HUD one could make the regular avatar legs reappear. This way, one could wear regular layered or even mesh pants but would not have the well-defined leg muscles and firm, toned butt anymore – for many customers one of the main reasons to buy this type of mesh avatar in the first place.

The situation has improved since then as a few designers have started making special clothes for this new type of avatar. And, it's a back to the future experience dressing one's new mesh avatar since the new apparel consists of ...

1. a special layer of clothing (pants, shirt, suit) which comes in 6 different versions matched to each of the now 6 basic L'Uomo mesh avatar shapes and is worn like a mesh item without alpha,
2. old style prim parts (sculpties) for collars, shirt cuffs, bulges, pants cuffs etc. that need the usual amount of fitting I thought was long behind me, lol.

( => click picture to enlarge !)

MESH

Avatar (left): L'Uomo/Animations Rising - "Bruce" Mesh Avatar V2 (read my first post on how Avatar package & Skin package work together) 

Avatar (right): L'Uomo/Animations Rising - "Steve" Mesh Avatar V2. 

Non-MESH 
Hair: REDGRAVE - Hairstyle CRUZ – BLACK. 

Skin (left): L'Uomo/Prodigal - skin+skin texture HUD - Kai_dark_buzz_stubble (read my first post on how Avatar package & Skin package work together) 

Skin (right): L'Uomo/Prodigal - skin+skin texture HUD - Kai_fair_buzz_stubble.

Necklace (right): KOSH - COPECK NECKLACE [silver] (3 designs available) 

Shorts (left): SJ Thursday – Athletic Shorts (Bruce) with Bulge.

Pants (right): Georgette - [G] Tattered Jeans Black (multiple colours available)

Sandals (right): Omega Man - Sandals.

One thing I didn't realize at the time of writing my first post was that the same way one can make the regular avatar's legs reappear to wear existing pants from one's inventory, one can also make his head reappear. Guess I should have read the notecard, lol. 

In other words: You can decide to use your new mesh avatar body with your regular avatar's head/face. This was great news to me, since being able to keep my looks above the neckline makes me way more comfortable with my new mesh avatar body below.

And this is how it works:

1. Wear your regular shape with the mesh avatar body you need. There are four body versions included in the updated V2 packages: with and w/o feet (to wear with standard mesh feet) and with bigger or smaller nipples.
2. Wear the same skin you put on your mesh avatar's body. It comes with the skin package you bought (read my first post for more details).
3. Use the “Hide Upper/Lower - Show head” instead of the “Hide All” alpha. It's supplied with the avatar package. (Use the “Hide Upper - Show head” alpha if you want to wear your old layered or new mesh pants. See above for more details!)
4. Wear your mesh avatar control HUD and click on the head of the body pictogram: Your normal head will show. (As mentioned above: Clicking the legs invisible on the pictogram - while wearing the correct alpha - will also make your regular legs reappear.)
5. To make your regular head and mesh avatar body (or regular head, mesh avatar torso and regular legs) blend nicely into each other you now possibly have to change some settings of your shape. To fit the head, you only have to turn the slider for Body Fat to zero. You may want to increase the Head Size and the Neck Thickness, though, to achieve a more balanced look. 
   To blend the regular legs with the mesh avatar torso, the individual slider settings for the Belly Size depend on which of the 6 mesh avatars you have bought. 
   Two examples: The less muscular Steve needs a Belly Size setting of zero, the very muscular Bruce a setting of 20 instead. Obviously, that makes it far more difficult (if not impossible) to wear your new mesh pants with a Bruce mesh avatar and very easy if you own a Steve mesh avatar. Again, you may want to change some other settings to achieve a more balanced look. (These will work for regular layered pants, for mesh pants you'll need different ones.) For Steve I chose Leg Muscles = 80, Butt Size = 70 and Package = 85. For Bruce the corresponding values are Leg Muscles = 100, Butt Size = 90, Package = 100

( => click picture to enlarge !)

MESH

Avatar (left): L'Uomo/Animations Rising - "Bruce" Mesh Avatar V2 

Avatar (right): L'Uomo/Animations Rising - "Steve" Mesh Avatar V2 (Wearing my own regular avatar head here!!) 

Shades (left): Kumaki - K_gs CatzEyeR5. 

Non-MESH

Hair (left): REDGRAVE - Hairstyle CRUZ – BLACK. 

Hair (right): *Dura Boys&Girls*34 Black. 

Skin (left): L'Uomo/Prodigal - skin+skin texture HUD - Kai_dark_buzz_stubble. 

Skin (right): L'Uomo/Prodigal - skin+skin texture HUD - Kai_fair_buzz_stubble. 

Necklace (right): KOSH - COPECK NECKLACE [silver] (3 designs available) 

Suit & Shoes (left): Omega Man - Dress Suit. 

Shirt (right): Omega Man - Open Shirt-Plaid-RedBlack. 

Pants (right): Omega Man - ST-Jeans-BlackWorn.

L'Uomo

At the mention of Mesh avatars one tends to think of cute little petites but there's quite different guys around, also. Let me introduce you to Steve, a hunky, muscular Mesh avatar created in a joint effort by Ry0ta Exonar, owner of Prodigal skins, and Miro Collas, owner of Animations Rising.

And this is how it works: You need two parts to make Steve complete. First you buy the basic Mesh avatar and shape. Steve is one of three designs available. This package comes with a control HUD to turn the lower body, upper body or head invisible. [This option is important if you want to use clothes with your Mesh avatar and wear for instance a Mesh pants like I do on the picture. How to wear standard layered clothing is described in detail in the notecard you get with your Demo version so I will skip it here.] 

Then, you buy a skin or skin bundle that you want to use with your Mesh avatar. There's again three designs to choose from. That package includes the corresponding skin HUD that you wear and click to transfer the skin from your inventory onto your Mesh avatar. The same way you change between different beard styles if you decide to buy a skin bundle. Wear the new skin HUD, click and your beard has either grown, been reduced or has disappeared.

Steve has a very muscular shape but you can wear your own shape, too. Most sliders won't effect the way your Mesh avatar looks, though, but you can change a few details like the size of your avatar, the position of the eyes (important to fit your prim or mesh eyes), the size and length of your neck and the hip width. So, on the first picture I wear my own shape with the Steve Mesha avatar plus a pair of Mesh pants from BLM as well as a newly released hair from Alli&Ali Designs.

 
( => click picture to enlarge !)