So, my poor desktop is still waiting to see a doctor. In the meanwhile I'm trying to survive on SL with my laptop, which is not the best thing ever, and I'm always late. That being said, let's see what I have for you today.
Mesh landed on Second Life some months ago and getting used to it took me a bit. I actually still have some problems that I will explain you in this post, but I also greatly appreciate all the good features that are now added to our virtual selves.
In this outfit, hair, pants and shoes are mesh.
The hairstyle is Cherilyn from Wasabi Pills, a mesh hair forerunner since the first day.
Pants, Rabea, are a new release from Jada Humby Couture, which has recently put out a whole mesh collection that you should really check out.
Shoes are from NX-Nardcotix, Zoe, that I have already worn in the past and are still one of my favourite mesh shoes.
Please note that I'm not an expert, everything I write is related to my personal experience only.
The main issue I personally have with mesh is related to proportions: although the biggest part of the designers offers several sizes of their mesh products, I apparently have many troubles in finding the good one.
It doesn't obviously depend on the designers, that are all working really hard to master and spread the new tool, but on the big variety of our shapes and on the limits rigged mesh has at the moment on the grid. I am investigating about the matter, I'll let you know.
Winter is a quite slim avi, not thin as some models or kawaii japanese-style little girls, but I would consider her rather small. "S" and "M" sizes technically fit her, but they completely kills her hips (which are not huge but still someway round), giving her a weird and twisted shape. "L" and curvy sizes are way too big, out of proportion with the rest of her body.
I am not the kind who is not willing to tweak with her shape a bit to fit clothes, but not at the point of deforming her or totally changing her appearence.
For the records, a group of mesh forerunning designers (SLink, Lelutka, Celoe, Mon Tissu) provided a Standard Sizing Package, on which for instance Jada Humby's mesh clothes are shaped. I didn't get a chance to give it a try myself, so I am sharing the news for the sake of honesty, I will let you know as soon as I manage to examine the thing.
With hair, it's someway easier: I usually manage to wear mesh hairstyles with minor changes to my head size. However, sometimes it's still not possible: I obviously cannot successfully change my hair size from 20 to 70 in order to wear a mesh hairstyle.
So, thing is, ALWAYS try a demo before buying mesh items. Take your time to experiment and check: it's way better than being mad later for having wasted your money.
Now let's go to the good sides: mesh items move together with your shape, giving you a way more natural look than prims or sculpties, where your gestures and poses are limited if you don't want to have stuff coming out of your body or liying in awkward positions. Pictures like those below would have required adjusting prims inworld, and then re-adjusting after the shoot, or a lot of Photoshop work to rebuild the parts my body would have eaten. With mesh, this problem doesn't exist anymore: hair and all mesh parts follow your movement.
A post about other uses of mesh is coming soon. Stay tuned!
Last but not least, some sales and something new.
The top I'm wearing is from So Many Styles, which was having a 50% off sale on selected items. I'm afraid it's over, but a visit to Irie Campese's great store is always worth.
The necklace is from LaGyo, which is celebrating its anniversary with a 50% off sale, till January the 27th.
The amazing prop I used for this pic is PolyWall v.2012 from Diesel Works. It comes with 26 poses and 16 background texturess and the menu allows you to adjust the poses till the perfect fit.