Please note that I am taking the entire month of July off as a self-imposed vacation from the blog so I can focus on my other work, except for sponsored blogposts and the occasional review, such as this one. See you in August!
In writing about free and inexpensive male mesh heads and bodies for Second Life avatars, I discovered that I had overlooked two products that can be used together, or you can mix and match them with other Bakes on Mesh-compatible heads and bodies:
- the Sweet’s Male Bakes on Mesh Bento Mesh Body (with Alpha HUD), available for only L$1 on the Second Life Marketplace
- the Sweet’s Roth 2.0 Bakes on Mesh Bento Mesh Head, also L$1 on the Marketplace (which comes with four shapes and a basic eye blink AO)
(I had written previously about the Sweet’s female mesh head and body here.)
Here is what the Sweet’s head and body look like, right out of the box, with the included Bakes on Mesh/system underwear (in this picture, he is wearing a male BoM skin I picked up as a free introductory gift from a store called DNA/Digital Nude Art, which has unfortunately since left the grid):
The Sweet’s head (but not the body) is based on the open-source Roth 2.0 mesh avatar project (which I believe was started in OpenSim and moved over to Second Life). According to the product description of the Sweet’s head:
Based on the Roth Project Mesh head – based on Classic SL head.
This is a basic mesh head, a bit jagged – but OK to start with and it works nice if you want to go mesh and still keep the look of your old system avatar. It actually works best with skins for classic avatars.
And I can attest that the head does look a bit jagged up-close. There are other options for free and inexpensive male mesh heads that could probably give you a better look, but if you are wedded to a particular facial look from a classic, system avatar, you will probably be able to easily reproduce that look on the Sweet’s head.
As for the Sweet’s body: the biggest single problem that I have with this male mesh body are the hands, which are among the ugliest, most misshapen hands I have ever seen on a mesh body, with short and stubby fingers:
The fingernails and toenails are separate system/Bakes on Mesh gloves/socks, or tattoos if you prefer. The feet do look better than the hands:
The Sweet’s male mesh body comes with a HUD with some rudimentary alpha sections, which means you should be able to get most clothing designed for other brands of male mesh bodies to fit fairly well:
Here is my Sweet’s male avatar all dressed up with some hair (the Tom hairstyle is actually included in the package, and it comes in a wide variety of colours):
I picked up the top and pants as free prizes from a recent hunt at Etham, and the sneakers are the unrigged Karmenov hightops, a free group gift from VERSOV (here’s the exact SLURL; the VERSOV group is free to join, and you can pick up three other high-quality sneakers as group gifts).
In summary, this is a perfectly serviceable male mesh body for only L$2, but I do think that there are more attractive-looking male mesh heads and bodies out there on the market. (Sorry, but those hands are a deal-breaker for me, personally!)
In addition to the mesh head and body, Sweet’s also sells men’s classic/Bakes on Mesh skins, in a set of lighter skin tones and a set of darker skin tones, for only L$1 each. Second Life vlogger Cat Pink SL recently published a YouTube video of several inexpensive (L$1 to L$10) male Bakes on Mesh skins available both in-world and on the SL Marketplace:
If you are looking for eyes, you can start here for a good selection of free system and mesh eyes (Sweet’s also has a nice free set of eyes available).
I have added Sweet’s to my comprehensive list and inexpensive mesh heads and bodies for male avatars.
