Last night I had the pleasure of speaking with the group of lovely ladies and gentlemen who came along to hear me talk about Mesh Bodies. I’d like to thank Jena and everyone who attended, it was amazing to speak with you all and share experiences with mesh bodies, and I hope I was able to give you, if nothing else, at least a tip or two to take away with you!
I promised the group that I would post my notes for their reference, so I figured I may as well blog it, that way everyone can have the cliffnotes version of my ramblings 🙂 So here goes!
The core of it – what are mesh bodies?
So, to learn about Mesh Bodies it’s important that we start at the beginning – what is a mesh body?
A mesh body is technically an attachment. It doesn’t change the core of your avatar, which is the SL system avatar – we’re just wearing an alpha to hide that sl avatar, and putting a mesh body with a nicer shape on top of it!
This means one important thing – it means that although we look different on the outside, the core of our avatar is still the SL Avatar. This means that normal mesh, fitmesh clothing for the SL Avatar (ie. normal fitmesh) and other attachments (lolas, handbags, whatever you like) will still treat us as though we are using just the core SL Avatar, because they can’t ‘see’ the mesh body we’re in.
This means that any standard rigged items will be rigged to that SL System Avatar. Note – a rigged attachment is an item (hand bag, clothes, whatever) that the creator has told to attach itself to a part of the system avatar.
This can make it difficult if the mesh body you buy is too different to the SL System Avatar, because you will find that most rigged attachments/items will ‘cut into’ your body. The same rule applies for standard mesh clothing – it is rigged to the SL System Avatar, so depending on your mesh body, might be much harder to fit because your body will ‘poke through’. This makes unrigged attachments favourable over rigged attachments when you have a mesh body.
Okay I get that, so what is Omega then?
Just like lolas, phatazz and other ‘mesh’ attachments, a mesh body makes use of ‘appliers’ for clothing. Appliers are very similar to the old ‘system layer clothing’ (ie. the painted on clothing) that SL has, however mesh bodies are capable of showing much higher resolution textures, so these ‘painted on’ clothes look much much better! Every mesh body has its own appliers, the logos of which you can see on clothing advertisements, telling you which appliers are included.
The only exception to this rule is Omega appliers. Omega appliers were created to be ‘universal appliers’, meaning, you could buy a clothing item with only one applier in it (omega), and know it would work on your body. This saves time for designers, because they only have to make one applier.
This has worked very well, with most mesh body creators agreeing to make their bodies ‘omega compatible’, however it’s worth noting that two popular designers, Slink and The Mesh Project, have declined to do so or are unable to do so (which I don’t know, but it’s their choice and I respect that). Other bodies, like Belleza, Maitreya, Eve, Lena, Banned, Perfect Body – are all Omega compatible.
So how do you use an Omega applier? Well it’s no different to any other applier (ie. you attach the HUD then click the ‘apply’ button and the clothing appears), however you may need to ‘activate’ the Omega in your body first, depending on what type you use. By going to Omega headquarters, you can join their free group and purchase the applier for your body for 1L (sometimes 3L).
Depending on your body, you may have to rez your body and drag/drop the script in, or open the installer HUD and hit ‘install’, or in the case of Maitreya, wear a relay HUD when you want to use Omega appliers. Some bodies like Lena, you don’t have to do anything at all. After that, you can buy any outfit that has Omega appliers, which opens your range a lot.
I hope this little summary is of use to you in some way 🙂
❤ Daria
I’m pondering how long this post is gonna be in:
Mesh Body – Lara by Maitreya
Skin – Ana by WOW Skins (Available at Designer Circle now)
Hair – Jane V2 by RunAway
Sweatshirt – Zipped Hoodie by :: Miss Canning :: (Includes Maitreya, TMP, Slink, Omega and many other appliers)
Bodysuit – Bodysuit Black by MoDANNA (Available soon at the March round of AnyBODY) (Includes Maitreya, Slink, Omega and many other appliers)
Jeans – Flare Jeans V2 by Blueberry (Includes fitmesh versions for Maitreya, Slink & Belleza!)
Shoes – Shae Heels for Maitreya V2.2 by .::ILLI::.
Mesh Body Addicts 