Monday Meme: What's Your Digits?

It's that time of year again, when we all share our digits and see what's changed, and what hasn't. Strawberry is doing a Monday Meme on the topic; my biggest change has been that now I have two standard bodies - one which is my preferred standard, and one which is modified to fit most mesh clothing. The biggest difference between my usual shape and the Second Life default which drives clothing is that my bottom tends to be on the small side - I did a pure hourglass with Deoridhe's shape, while most women seem to aim for a pear shape with a rather sizable rear end. Part of an hourglass is the belly, which effectively don't exist in Second Life mesh clothing; even in fitted mesh, my usual shape can distort the clothing unattractively.

According to the Avatar Ruler, Deoridhe is 5'6"

Digits	Deoridhe - Standard	Deoridhe - Modified
Height	27	27
Body Fat	10	2
Head Size	56	56
Torso Muscles	38	38
Breasts	56	56
Arm Length	93	93
Hand Size	30	30
Torso Length	46	46
Love Handles	13	13
Belly Size	24	0
Leg Muscle	48	48
Leg Length	20	20
Hip Width	55	58
Butt Size	17	36
Saddle Bags	26	18

Side by side it begins to be more obvious what the differences are, slight as they are, and within those slight changes you can see the beauty values of the fashion makers of Second Life. I find the comparisons interesting but a little sad; mesh has universalized some aspects of body shape which I, personally, would wish were less all-encompassing.

Questions about Fitted Mesh:

1. What are your thoughts about Fitted mesh? – I haven't tried much, though the one dress I did try didn't smooth in my larger belly very well - it sort of bowed out and then back in again at the thighs.  I like it in theory, but I'm not sure it rigs smoothly enough to the skeleton to work as well as many of us would like - for example, with the belly, one would expect the skirt to continue flowing out once the belly is larger, but I'm not sure how that could be rigged.


2. Have you tried any of the new fitted mesh avatars released by Linden Lab? What do you think of them? – I haven't tried them, really. Having seen a couple in the wild, they look all right, though I worry at how confused people will be in how different their avatars are from the others they see across the grid.


3. Have you tried any fitted mesh avatars/bodies created by residents? – I haven't. I don't particularly like the various shapes they're conforming too - especially this weird cult of the thigh gap - and I really dislike the idea of not being able to use any of my textured clothing and much of my rigged (since the body doesn't necessarily fit over the bits). I am all but married to my hands and feet, though. 


4. Have you tried a mesh head? What are your thoughts about mesh heads? – I tried one of the heads and found it deeply disturbing and not me at all (I have similar issues with the petite avatars, who all have similar faces, much as I love them). Deoridhe's face is what I spent the most time on, and it's part of what I feel very attached too. If I could get the individual features which are critical to me I might consider trying a mesh head, but I don't see how that could be possible.


5. Do you foresee a lot of changes to our current Second Life avatars because of fitted mesh? – I would guess so, but at each level I would guess the number of people participating will drop off. SLink feet, ubiquitous as they have become among Fashionistas, are no where near universal, for example. At each level of deviation from the cheapest, there will be a certain drop-off among members of Second Life. I had hoped, honestly, that Second Life would make and dispatch a second set of avatar bodies and rigging skeletons to supplant the first - not replace, mind, but add too. I'm surprised they instead went with slightly cheap looking rigged skeletons which don't match up with existing bodies, but I would guess their perspective is very different from mine.

( More memes here. )

Credits:

Skin: Izzie's, Irene
Sparkles: Folly, Rainbow Sheen
Hair: Wasabi Pills, Robin
Ears: Illusions, Seelie Ears
Eyes: De La Soul, Rainbow
Eyelashes 1: SLink, Mesh Lashes
Eyelashes 2: Flugeln Brise, 05-A
Wings: Deviance, Seelie
Hands & Feet: SLink, Rigged Mesh Hands & Feet
Nails: Caroline's, Kitty Polish
Clothing: Ingenue, Bathing Beauty (Gacha Prize)

Pose: !bang,
1) stand 168
2) stand 223
3) stand 203

Location: My Platform
Light Settings: TOR, MIDDAY Precision Blue
Water Settings: Sim Default

Photographed by Deoridhe Quandry
Post processing: Cropping, only