Once again, I have resurrected an older system skin and outfit, this time to create a wizard for Halloween! The mesh avatar I am using is the Altamura Romeo full-body mesh avatar, which requires a couple of additions to support Bakes on Mesh:
A Bakes on Mesh relay for Altamura mesh bodies (which is available for free to Altamura group members at this exact SLURL in the store; please note that this relay only works with full versions of Altamura bodies, including the Romeo body which was a Valentine’s Day group gift earlier this year)
You do have to buy and install the Omega system kit on the body before you can use the Altamura Bakes on Mesh relay (it’s for sale for L$99 at this exact SLURL)
This avatar is wearing:
Mesh Head and Body: Romeo mesh body by Altamura (a former Valentine’s Day group gift; Omega-compatible; more details here; the Altamura group costs L$50 to join)
Damn, this is getting addictive! I may need an intervention soon… 😉
Yep, yet another system skin and outfit given new life with Bakes on Mesh! Once again, the mesh avatar I am wearing is the Altamura Juliet full-body mesh avatar, which requires a couple of additions to support Bakes on Mesh:
A Bakes on Mesh relay for Altamura mesh bodies (which is available for free to Altamura group members at this exact SLURL in the store; please note that this relay only works with full versions of Altamura bodies, including the Juliet body which was a Valentine’s Day group gift earlier this year)
You do have to buy and install the Omega system kit on the body before you can use the Altamura Bakes on Mesh relay (it’s for sale for L$99 at this exact SLURL)
And may I present…the Snow Queen!
This avatar is wearing:
Mesh Head and Body including Fingernails: Juliet mesh body by Altamura (a former Valentine’s Day group gift; Omega-compatible; more details here; the Altamura group costs L$50 to join)
System Skin: Ice Princess skin by Damiani (no longer on the grid). This is an older system skin, so the area around the fingernails doesn’t quite match the Altamura mesh nails. I found that my earlier solution, the free finger and foot fixes available from League which I mentioned in this earlier blogpost, didn’t work for this light blue skin. To fix the area around the fingernails to match this skin exactly, I used nail covers by SmitCoStudios, which you can edit and tint any colour you wish (they are available for L$25 on the SL Marketplace).
Eyes: DRAAMA eyes in Winter – Ice by =catmonster= (I remember these were a hunt gift on a long-ago winter hunt. The store is still on the grid! Here’s the SLURL.)
Hair: June in silver by MADesigns (again, no longer on the grid)
Gown: Snow Flake dress in blue by Designing Nicky Ree (although this is a system-layers-and-prims outfit, it is so well textured that it holds up well after all these years, like everything DNR makes).
Staff: Staff of Winter with snowflake particle effects from Talevin’s Magic Sky Village, the best place to get staves and wands in Second Life! You can also pick it up for only L$50 from the SL Marketplace. (The staff is modifiable, so I added a set of staff holding and walking animations and scripts turned it into an AO!)
I’m very inspired by nature – you could say Mother Nature. I look at things around me and get all kinds of inspiration daily.
—Martha Stewart
Time for yet another resurrected system skin and outfit, courtesy of Bakes on Mesh! The mesh avatar I am wearing is the Altamura Juliet full-body mesh avatar, which requires a couple of additions to support Bakes on Mesh:
A Bakes on Mesh relay for Altamura mesh bodies (which is available for free to Altamura group members at this exact SLURL in the store; please note that this relay only works with full versions of Altamura bodies, including the Juliet body which was a Valentine’s Day group gift earlier this year)
You do have to buy and install the Omega system kit on the body before you can use the Altamura Bakes on Mesh relay (it’s for sale for L$99 at this exact SLURL)
Now that that is out of the way, you can put away the Omega installer and relay HUDs and the BoM relay once you have installed them, and start styling!
And here is Mother Nature in all her glory!
This avatar is wearing:
Mesh Head and Body including Fingernails: Juliet mesh body by Altamura (a former Valentine’s Day group gift; Omega-compatible; more details here; the Altamura group costs L$50 to join)
System Skin and Body Branch Attchments: Fleurs by Fallen Gods (I’m not sure if this is still available or not, as it pre-dates mesh)
System Eyes: Sunrise eyes in Celtic green by Fashism (no longer on the grid)
Hair: Botanical Pigtails – I Am Springtime by Nushru (I believe this was a hunt gift from the Crazy hair Hunt many years ago)
Fruit Branches on Head: Fruit Salad Tree Branches by Concrete Flowers (no longer on the grid)
Dress and Earrings: Spring outfit by Lemania Indigo (an old system-layers-and-flexiprims outfit which is no longer available)
My regular blog readers already know that one of my favourite pastimes in Second Life is to pull together an entire avatar look based on a theme, from head to toe. Sometimes, I will even take older classic avatar looks I had created many years ago, and give them a completely modern, mesh-body makeover. Some recent examples are this nun, a vampire, an elf angel, Mary Poppins, even Santa Claus! It gives me a creative outlet, and I find my quirky little hobby deeply satisfying.
Some avatars lasted only a couple of days before I deleted them; others have been with me since the very beginning of my adventures in Second Life. Witches and wizards and wolves, pirates and painters, sergeants and satyrs, barbarians and ballerinas, harlequins and hippies, gladiators and geishas… my hobby has given me endless hours of pleasure and escape. Some were exclusively for role-play purposes; others were just a means to live inside somebody else’s skin for an hour while strolling the grid. Others were created specifically to evoke reactions from passers-by. I could be whatever I wanted, and I was: an angel, a fairy, a goth girl, Elvis, Queen Elizabeth the First, Lady Gaga, Santa Claus, a supermodel, a hobo, a spaceman, a Na’vi from the movie Avatar, a medieval minstrel.
Sometimes, a single article of clothing in Second Life will send me off on a wild goose chase across the grid, to search out and find individual items and use them to pull together an entire outfit. And today, my starting point was this free Jessica Rabbit dress from COCO Designs!
So I decided to build a whole look for my main avatar (and Second Life supermodel 😉 ) Vanity Fair avatar based on that dress!
It was so such fun to play with the body adjustment sliders on my Maitreya Lara body to see how close I get it to resemble Jessica Rabbit’s curvy figure! I think I came pretty close, although I couldn’t make her waist any smaller, without making the entire avatar look too thin overall. Please note that this is not Vanity’s usual shape; normally she has much more realistic proportions. Remember, I was going for a cartoon look here.
And I was very pleased with the results!
Vanity Fair is wearing:
Dress: Jessica Rabbit gown (free group gift by COCO Designs; the group is free to join)
Gloves: Formal gloves applier by my friend Jasmine Moonflower Gardner of Sweet Tea Couture (L$199 for an eight-colour HUD); Unfortunately, this particular gloves applier does not come in purple like Jessica Rabbit wore in the movie, but fuchsia is close enough, and it looks great too!
Shoes: Gigi pumps in crimson by Garbaggio (my favourite shoe!)
Daria skin by The Skinnery (which has a red brows option to match the Jessica hairstyle; normally Vanity wears brown)
and my favourite forest green Darcey eyes by Suicidal Unborn
UPDATE Oct. 15th: I noticed after I took the pictures I posted above that Jasmine Moonflower Gardner does indeed sell a purple pair and a lilac pair of Bento mesh formal gloves at her store Sweet Tea Couture for L$199 for each single colour. The mesh gloves have an auto-hide for Maitreya so you don’t need to alpha anything out! You could also use the free group gift of purple gloves from COCO Designs’ gift wall, but those gloves do not support Bento hands, and you will have to alpha out your hands completely if you decide to use those instead. Lots of options here!
Here’s another shot taken at Sweet Tea Couture, next to the mesh gloves display. I am wearing the lilac gloves (the purple ones looked a little too dark):
In my opinion, Jasmine makes the best gloves on the grid, whether they be mesh or appliers! She also sells some seriously cute stockings, socks, shoes and dresses. Be sure to check out her store! She just recently returned to Second Life after an absence due to her job, and she has a number of brand new items for sale. The texture work is superb! Everything is very high quality and I recommend Sweet Tea Couture highly.
