Avatar inspiration focused posts are less in depth than most of my other content, but still credit everything used.
As I’m sure pretty much everyone can attest to, this has been a really long year. While my favorite holiday is Halloween, I can totally respect the people who crave Christmas year round. While it wasn’t cold outside my home for these photos, I still wanted to try to get in to that Winter spirit so many people hope for as November comes to a close. So I combined some Winter poof with some Halloween to get a fun style I’ll be wearing for a while.
If you’ve ever purchased clothing or accessories in Second Life you’ve probably run into alphas. But what are they exactly, what are the different types, and which ones should you use? That’s what I’m here to help you with!
What Are Alphas
Before mesh body parts were a thing we used alpha layers to hide sections of our avatars. These layers were (and still are) a type of texture in our inventories that we wear. Once mesh bodies came out they needed ways to hide sections as well. Designers built alphas into the mesh itself to replicate what we were already doing with the alpha layers. These new alphas were (and still are) controlled by HUDs.
You most likely have used at least one of these alpha types before. And if you’ve used both types you probably know that, while handled slightly differently, they are both really similar and easy to use.
Avatar inspiration focused posts are less in depth than most of my other content, but still credit everything used.
Halloween is my favorite day of the year. As such I find myself shopping SO many different events this season and designing so many fun looks. I don’t have time to share them all, and I’ll likely end up using lots of the lovely goodies I got the past month in various posts in the future. But I wanted to make sure you saw this gorgeous look I put together this week.
The Essentials
The most noticeable part to this style is the skeleton and the glowing body. This is made possible using the Honne-Onna inspired Hatsuhone by Ghoul. It comes with the skeleton and full instructions on how to make your Legacy semi-transparent for the eerie see through effect. I also added glow to mine and am in love with it. You can tweak the transparency, glow, color, etc to your liking. This is still available at Kinky Event which runs through November 22, 2020.
I also used makeup from Studio Exposure for the face. It is made for Genus (Though shown here on Catwa). It also comes with hair (not shown) and face spikes. The face paint is BOM so you can try it on any heads you’d like. I was fortunate enough to win this rare facepaint from the Skull Punk gacha at Hallow Manner (ends Nov 1, 2020).
The hair shown is another rare gacha I was lucky to pull. It’s the Siren (V1) hair by Doe. I do not recall which event it came from (I know, I’m the worst!), but I’m willing to bet the gacha will be in the Doe store soon!
If you haven’t seen it on the grid yet I’m sure you will soon. INITHIUM Kupra, the brand’s debut body, came out on October 20 and already people are using it all over the place. With the support of over fifty designers, and more coming on board each day, I can see this body climbing to one of the top curvy looks. If it reminds you of Sking bodies that’s for good reason; the creators of Sking are also the ones behind INITHIUM. They’ve brought their experience, knowledge, and connections to Kupra to give users a fleshed out body with a variety of clothing options right from day one. You can find a list of designers further on in this post.
Check Her Out
Kupra comes with everything you need for a complete look right in the box. Body, multiple outfits, complete skins (face and body), and multiple shapes are all right there. Plus they’ve included extra gifts for you too. INITHIUM is very generous with their base release. You can see a full list of everything included with your purchase over at Kupra listing on The Mesh Directory.
All About That Body
When wearing Kupra you have a few different options. You can wear her all as one piece (body, hands, and feet) if you love the way the default hands and feet look. There’s also an option to wear the body without hands or feet. This is great for third party options, but also for the variant included feet.
Have you ever wanted to swap from male to female, child to adult, and everything in between all with one body? Now you can! Rebirth has created a body with that much versatility. You can purchase the Male and Female versions independently, however if you purchase the full version it’s all included in one body and one HUD. For this post I used the full version. For an easy-to-compare look at the bodies check them out (Male and Female) on The Mesh Directory.
Your Second Life inventory can be a scary place. It’s so easy for it to balloon out of control. Have you ever been browsing your items and thought “I forgot I had that!” Or perhaps you remember those awesome shoes you loved but you can’t find them no matter how hard you try? That can be a thing of the past with Wardrobe.
I’m going to preface this by saying I started writing this blog post on August 9, 2020 but every time I opened it up to add more I just ended up wanting to Wardrobe more so I’d get distracted. I “Wardrobed” 500 items in less than a month because I’m just having way too much fun.
What Is Wardrobe?
Imagine if you could open your closet and see all your Second Life clothes, shoes, etc. Now imagine grabbing it off the rack and then putting it on. That’s Wardrobe in a nutshell. It’s an inventory management system that allows you to see visual representations of everything you have. You can even get dressed right from Wardrobe too! Just a click and your shirt is on. Or your whole outfit is on. You choose. The high levels of customization make it perfect for pretty much anyone with an inventory. Yes, even you who just installed yesterday. And yes, even those like me who have 14 years worth of inventory built up.
While Wardrobe is worth it on its own, I find it most helpful while using the Archive add-on. This is a separate purchase that makes boxing up your unused inventory super easy. Imagine all those items you never use being tucked away safely, but in a place you can still browse them and see what you have. Wardrobe has another add-on called Rulebook which allows you to automate putting things on/taking them off, RLV commands, and more. All in all I’ve found Wardrobe and its add-ons to be the most helpful, most comprehensive inventory management tools out there.
Avatar inspiration focused posts are less in depth than most of my other content, but still credit everything used.
A Trip to Salem
Salem in Second Life, that is! Salem is a lovely Halloween themed shopping event that runs through October 31. There you’ll find a wide variety of fun including gachas, gore, cute friends, and more! I picked up a few cat pets that I can hold or have hang out with me and even a little bat to sit on my shoulder. I absolutely loved it!
And of course, because Halloween is my favorite, I also got sooo many things. When throwing them on so I could organize my inventory, I realized I looked super cute and had to share it with you all.
This hair is one of my favorites. Ever. I’m generally a Truth girl as many of you know, but FOXY has been really winning me over too! I’ve snagged a few of their hairs recently and am really impressed. This style, Feline, has the ears built right in. You can also style it to remove the ears and have a two tone hair instead. Super awesome!
The makeup here is by Suicidal Unborn. I love the lipstick because it came with multiple options, many of them combinations of red and black (my fav).Their lipstick was sold separate, but the rest of the makeup (and brows) all came in one purchase. It even had 4 other makeup styles as well. Definitely worth checking out if this is your style.
For many people the mesh head is the most important part of their avatar. Which head you choose impacts not only the shape of your face, but also how smooth your animations are and what your facial poses look like. A huge amount of personality comes through in your face, so making sure your head works for you is very important. Of course by using shapes and skins you can change the appearance of a head, but most heads kept you looking either fairly masculine or fairly feminine. Lelutka River is a head that can very easily do both (or neither).
Prefer a feminine body and flat chest? You’re not alone! The V-Tech Boi Chest was created to fill this exact need, and has been a staple for many Second Life users for years now. Maitreya released their Flat Chest Add-on at The Itty Bitty Titty Committee event in September 2020. Both have a price point of L$499. This post is to go over each product and help you decide which is better for you.
V-Tech Boi Chest
V-Tech created the main flat chest mod for Maitreya back in 2016. Since then it’s gained quite the following and has the support of multiple skin and clothing designers. Their products have been featured at various events and their customers absolutely love it.
There are two versions included with your purchase: the regular version to use with appliers and the BOM version. The applier version has tattoo, underwear, and clothing layers that match up with Maitreya’s body and can be controlled via the V-Tech HUD. It’s Omega compatible and can also be modified with your own custom textures. The BOM version uses the system layers, so it cannot be used with appliers.
Overall it’s really rather straightforward and easy to use. When you put it on it will automatically hide the sections of the Maitreya body required. If you use the applier one you’ll have to apply your skin after putting the chest on so it matches your body. Please note you’ll need the Omega version of appliers since Maitreya appliers won’t work on the V-Tech. If you’re using the BOM version just pop it on and it’ll adjust to your BOM skin right away.
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