Not too long ago, I wrote a blogpost about how I deal with Vanity Fair’s bloated Second Life inventory of 240,000 items. And I said that one of the reasons I was so loath to part with anything was that they would probably be usable again once Bakes on Mesh was released.
Well, people, that decision is paying off in spades! Bakes on Mesh works beyond my wildest dreams, allowing me to wear system avatar skins, and all my older layer-based clothing that I thought, at best, I would only be able to wear with a system body, my Catwa head, and Slink mesh hands (which gave me a noticeable seam at the wrists, despite my best efforts to match the skin tones). So I rarely wore my old system-layers-and-flexiprim clothing once I switched to a Maitreya Lara mesh body and Catwa Kimberly mesh head a couple of years ago.
But I am having a blast digging old system skins out of my inventory and trying them on my mesh body with the new Bakes on Mesh system! Here I am wearing an old Exodi skin called Isolde Soleil (a hunt gift from many years ago), which I used to love to wear back in my pre-mesh days, along with one of my favourite system layer outfits, a black lace-trimmed gown called Look My Heart by Likka House:
I just love the soft, flowing skirt on this romantic gown, that gently sways as I move! A well-textured, well-weighted flexiprim skirt will always look more natural to me than a more modern rigged mesh skirt. This look is so elegant. Perfect for Frank’s Jazz Club!
The only problem? Well, I look great—if you have a Bakes on Mesh-enabled Second Life viewer. Somebody at Frank’s Jazz Place sent me a picture of what I look like if you haven’t updated your viewer yet:
*sigh* The price we pay for being one of the trendsetters, I guess! Note that both the standard Second Life viewer and the popular Firestorm viewer now have updates that support Bakes on Mesh.
And I want to share with you a great tip I discovered from one of NovataSecondLife’s YouTube videos about Bakes on Mesh for Maitreya: if you have a older system skin that doesn’t look quite right along the fingertips near the nails, there’s a full set of system hand tattoos that you can get for free from a store called League (here’s the exact SLURL):
It’s a package of both hand and foot fixes in a variety of skintones. I just added the Suntan nail base and it matches my Exodi Isolde Soleil system skin perfectly! (I’m usually wearing shoes anyway, so I didn’t bother with the foot fixes.) So if you are going to start wearing your all your old system skins on your mesh body, be sure to pick up this handy kit!
Bakes on Mesh has suddenly give me literally hundreds of skins that I thought I would never be able to wear again! And hundreds of older outfits that I can once again wear on a fully mesh avatar body. It’s literally giving a “second life” (pun intended) to my older inventory!
UPDATE 10:05 p.m.: I wanted to add that Altamura is another mesh avatar body maker which has released a relay for use with Bakes on Mesh (it’s available to Altamura group members for free at this exact SLURL; the Altamura Design/Mesh Avatars group costs L$50 to join):
Please note that Bakes on Mesh will only work with bodies actually purchased from the Altamura store, and not the free versions of the Altamura bodies available at Ajuda SL Brasil, UniHispana Crea, and the freebie store at the London City sim, or that you picked up at various hunts and events in the past. (However, if you were lucky enough to pick up the Romeo and Juliet full-body mesh avatars last Valentine’s Day, those are full versions on which you can use Bakes on Mesh.) Also, you do have to buy and install the Omega system kit on the body before you can use the Bakes on Mesh relay (it’s for sale for L$99 at this exact SLURL).
Altamura has thoughtfully included free male and female skins in the unisex Bakes on Mesh package, so you can test it out right away. This is the Venus female skin on the Altamura Juliet full-body mesh avatar, along with an old system-layers-and-prims dress from PixelDolls (remember them?):
UPDATE Oct. 5th: Here’s another good example of Bakes on Mesh. This is the Altamura Juliet mesh body wearing an older YS&YS Megan system skin. Again, I used the League sunkiss nail base tattoo to fix the fingertips near the nails to match the Megan skin.
