Theses are tips from our orientation Center:

Your Shape

Your shape is actually a series of body part appearance settings.

Shapes can be found for purchase from shops specializing in

avatars or avatar customization, and for free from “freebie”

places in SL or as free sample offerings through those shops.

Sometimes a skin has a shape included to compliment the way

the skin is created, but including that doesn’t determine the

quality of the skin and makeup either way.

You can alter your own shape in your Edit Appearance dialog

box, with a vast assortment of subtle changes to almost every

part of your avatar’s body.  Some avatars choose to use a

pre-made shape suitable to taste in appearance.  And a full perm

shape means you can adjust all settings and save it for yourself.

In the box below are some complimentary shapes. Combined

with various skins, including the free ones provided in the

Skins box nearby, you may find a nice look for your avatar that

fits your own style. Or, create your own shape. It can be fun!

Skins

Skin is a layer applied to your avatar’s shape to add distinguishing

facial and body features, skin tones, shading, makeup, and in

some cases, even tattoos are included. Skin is the finishing touch

to your avatar’s personal look in SL, before the clothing goes on. 

The complimentary skins placed in the box for you to wear will

help you get a good start in your own preferred style in SL.

When you go shopping for skins, look for demos, and check them

out!  The demo skins will be the best way to understand how well

you like a skin shop’s work.  The skin signs will not show exactly

how that makeup or shading along the body will really look on

you, but a Demo skin for free or for L$1 will give you the

whole truth of the quality and whether it’s to your liking, and will

ultimately save you hundreds more Linden dollars down the road

through trial and error.  Look for appealing shading on the skins,

for your body type.  Skin prices can range from few hundred

Linden dollars to over L$1000, depending on skin creator. 

Hair

The hair you choose to wear is a matter of personal preference.

Long, straight, short, wavy, curly, you’ll see all these styles in SL.

Hair can be found free, though the quality and selections are often

better on purchased hair.  You can find all color combos. Try a Demo

hair before you buy (Demo is the demonstration hair for a particular

style available for free or for 1 Linden dollar). With several types

of hair being created, you’re sure to find a hairstyle you love.  There

are three types of hair: rigid prim hair made of linked, individual prim

with textures on them, next is the flexible prim hair, with both rigid

prim and flexible (waving, moving) prim, to simulate the look of hair

as it’s affected by breeze and gravity.  The third kind is alpha textures

(transparent areas in a texture) linked and combined with other

prim hair.  Alpha texture hair can appear thinned or transparent

against certain other alpha textures, but it can still look good. There

are a few combinations of all types in world, and so many styles.

You can find hair in hair malls, salons, hair shops and certain

designer shops.  Or, you can find a limited selection of free hair in

the “freebie” spots around SL  The box below has some hair to give

you a good start in appearance.

Clothing

Clothing in SL is considered an almost definite must, if you plan to

be out in the SL world interacting with others in various social

settings.  When in public, you’ll want to be dressed. 

There are many wonderful clothing designers in SL, and your style

will determine who your favorite designers will be.  Some free clothing

is found at “freebie” spots, and sometimes in the shops carrying the

kind of clothing you really want your avatar to be seen in.  Not all

designers offer free items, and it does not refect either way on a

shop if they do or don’t have free samples. What matters is quality

and your budget.  As in RL (real life), be ready to comparison shop.

Clothing can have varying rights for your use, like modify, copy,

and/or transfer.  Importantly, however, check the right to a refund,

should you decide upon wearing the purchase that you have a

dissatisfaction you can’t get past.  A good shopkeeper will be happy

to offer a refund if you follow their refund terms, so find out how 

refunds are handled ahead of time.  Not all clothes have refunds.

Clothing can be found in wanderings, in malls, in searches and

by recommendations.  Please take the clothes in the box as a start.

Clothing Components in SL

Clothing in SL (Second Life®) is comprised of up to nine different pieces for different

parts of your avatar, and are worn in layers.

The pieces of clothing for your avatar’s body are as follows:

Gloves, Shirt, Undershirt, Jacket, Pants, Underpants, Shoes, Socks and Skirt.

These items are worn in a similar way as skin on the avatar body.

The clothing stretches and moves as your avatar moves. Because each body

is able to wear all of these clothing items, most avatar body shapes except for the

most exotic will allow the clothing to fit on it regardless of of your individual shape,

though the seams and fit may vary slightly from shape to shape.

Some additional clothing items can also be built as “prim” or primitive objects that

attach to various body parts; for example: armor pieces, flexibly flowing skirts,

the upper portion of some boots, a high stiff collar on a shirt, or ruffly cuffs at the

bottom of a lace shirt. Sight adjustments may be needed on position depeding on

your avatar’s body size and shape.  “Prim” clothing pieces are worn on the

appropriate body area, and the prim creator of a commercial clothing item chooses

the default attachment location on the body to wear the piece.  These items are

put on by right clicking in inventory and selecting “Wear” and are removed by

either right-clicking the worn item or right-clicking on the worn item in Inventory list

and selecting “Detach”

Below are some complimentary clothing outfits and separates for you to wear.

Shoes and Boots

Shoes and boots are...footwear.  A shoe base is a common inclusion

to all types of professionally created footwear, and is the “base” shape

of the foot to allow for a truer fit for things like heels. Many of the nicer

looking shoes and boots found in world are either prim shoes, or

sculpted prim shoes, and on occasion a combination of both. It’s even

common these days to find shoes with texture and color change menus.

The basic Linden shoe that is created in appearance won’t give your

avatar quite the same polished look as the prim shoes available in world.

There are many great shoe and boot makers in SL. As with other

aspects of the SL avatar, your unique sense of style will decide which

shoe and boot creators you will favor.  You may even decide you’d like

to make your own; and in that case, a thorough study of the

components of well made boots or shoes is the thing to do, along with

the right kind of practice in making your own components and textures.   

Shoes are often built for a size 0 foot.  Your foot can be adjusted

easily to 0 in the Edit Appearance window.

In the box below are a fine selection of shoes and boots for you to wear.

Animation Overrider (AO)

An Animation Overrider (AO) is a scripted object that can replace your avatar’s

default poses and animations with ones created by SL residents, when actively

worn. There are several brands of AO, but they’re all created for this similar

purpose.  AOs that are called populated or loaded have one or more

animations loaded into them.  An empty AO needs to have animations placed in

its contents and an adjustment of notecard coding. Information about loading

an AO can be found in SL’s support files or sometimes in the AO contents itself.

What are AO animations? AO animations are files that move or pose your avatar.

The most common type of AO is worn as a HUD attachment. A HUD is a Heads

Up Display, and with this kind of panel, you will see your AO menu right there

on a small portion of your viewer screen, not on your avatar.

Custom animations can be bought from animation shops, obtained

from your friends or on the web, and some animations can even be found

free in various “freebie” locations throughout SL.  So you are not without

resources on customizing the poses, walks, stands, jumps, falls, dances, battles,

or even the more intimate and romantic animations you want for your avatar.

In the box below is an AO for your avatar to wear for more expressive

sitting, standing and walking.

Opening Boxes or "Rezzing" Objects

Boxes are a common part of building in SL.  Not only can you build a box,

but you can put all kinds of things in its contents.  Many shops use boxes to

hold the products they sell, whether it’s clothing, jewelry, shoes, scripts, or even

entire houses.  Note cards can go in, as can a landmark (commonly called LM).

NOTE:  Sometimes a box is not just a box!  A box of items can be in almost any

prim form, like a nice gift bag shape, or a translucent sphere, a signboard, or yes,

even just a box. It’s what’s in the contents of the box that counts, when you get one. 

To open a box and get the contents, first find an area that allows builds, and

drag the box file from Inventory to the ground,  This is called “rezzing” an object.

“Rez” means to resurrect (no, not in a religious way) and means only to bring an

item back into the SL world again in its clear, original form. Just wait for it to appear.

Now that your box full of stuff is sitting there clearly rezzed on the ground or floor,

right click on it and select, “Open” from the pie menu. Let all the items show up

in the popup window, then click “Copy to Inventory” or “Copy and Wear” and the

items will start to copy or transfer over into your Inventory files.  Copy and Wear

is self-explanatory.  Transfer happens instead of copy only when an item does not

have the ability to copy enabled.  That means any non-copy item will exist in your

Inventory as a single item, and will be unable to be copied in Inventory either.

Once copy and/or transfers are done, right click and either select “Take”, or

select “More” and then “Delete” from the pie menu.