I set out on this endeavor to attempt to figure out what, exactly, I could do with 1000L.
I built a newbie, and got spat out into a starting area looking like... Well, looking like this:
Something about the hair makes me so very, very angry.
At any rate, I proceeded to spend the next two days combing through SL's Marketplace. What I found amazed me.
Most freebies come in several formats: Circa 2006 And Made Out Of Fail; New Designer Trying To Make Good; Existing Designer Selling Old Shit; I Made This For The Luls and last but not least Attempting To Lure Customers Into My Store or Group Gift Turned Freebie.
Wait, there's also Inexplicably Good And Cheap.
Anyway, there are a lot of really great places to go from this:
To this:
Step 1: AAAH YOU'RE HIDEOUS, FIX IT.
The skins that come for newbies have mormon-esque underwear already built into them. Ick. The shapes are stiff, and they all have a vaguely pleased, yet poleaxed expression on them. The default animation looks like you're trying to walk with a stick shoved up your rump, and the hair these days looks like a bad day in a play-doh factory. The eyes are perpetually glassy, glazed-over, and creepy. Overall, your poor avatar comes onto the Grid the first time looking like someone tried to put real skin on a mannequin. No bueno. So, you'll have to tackle these challenges before you can overcome anything else.
That means you'll need the following:
Shape
Skin
Eyes
Hair
Animation Overrider
Personally, I never spend more than 30L on a shape. I'm very much aware that I'm just buying a face when I do and I'm fine with that. I suck terribly at faces, they always come out a little too alien, but the body shape I've gotten down to a science. In this case, for the sake of argument, I started with a cheap shape:
Himawari Girl/Women Shape .:BND:. at 10L, its a good start. I felt it needed some modding at the hips and shoulders, and that it was a bit too tall, but I do keep my avis short.
I'm a big believer in sticking with what works, so I continued with the same designer, Bird Next Door. I decided on the v20L skin Yuko. The makeup on it is heavy, but it looks good. Ultimately I did not decide to stay with that skin, instead I went with a 200L skin from Rockberry. This I acquired inworld, so I don't really have a link for it.
So now we have Skin, we have Shape, on to AO--and for this, I found a really cute freebie from
[ImpEle], choosing the Casual Girl AO from their free and rather inexpensive lineup. I'm also partial to their Chubby Girl AO, due to the fact that most of my avis have wider hips than usual.
Wait, there's also Inexplicably Good And Cheap.
Anyway, there are a lot of really great places to go from this:
To this:
Step 1: AAAH YOU'RE HIDEOUS, FIX IT.
The skins that come for newbies have mormon-esque underwear already built into them. Ick. The shapes are stiff, and they all have a vaguely pleased, yet poleaxed expression on them. The default animation looks like you're trying to walk with a stick shoved up your rump, and the hair these days looks like a bad day in a play-doh factory. The eyes are perpetually glassy, glazed-over, and creepy. Overall, your poor avatar comes onto the Grid the first time looking like someone tried to put real skin on a mannequin. No bueno. So, you'll have to tackle these challenges before you can overcome anything else.
That means you'll need the following:
Shape
Skin
Eyes
Hair
Animation Overrider
Personally, I never spend more than 30L on a shape. I'm very much aware that I'm just buying a face when I do and I'm fine with that. I suck terribly at faces, they always come out a little too alien, but the body shape I've gotten down to a science. In this case, for the sake of argument, I started with a cheap shape:
Himawari Girl/Women Shape .:BND:. at 10L, its a good start. I felt it needed some modding at the hips and shoulders, and that it was a bit too tall, but I do keep my avis short.
I'm a big believer in sticking with what works, so I continued with the same designer, Bird Next Door. I decided on the v20L skin Yuko. The makeup on it is heavy, but it looks good. Ultimately I did not decide to stay with that skin, instead I went with a 200L skin from Rockberry. This I acquired inworld, so I don't really have a link for it.
So now we have Skin, we have Shape, on to AO--and for this, I found a really cute freebie from
[ImpEle], choosing the Casual Girl AO from their free and rather inexpensive lineup. I'm also partial to their Chubby Girl AO, due to the fact that most of my avis have wider hips than usual.
All we have left are Eyes and Hair. Eyes are usually fairly easy if you're sharp--and I went back to Bird Next Door, for the Colorful Eyes pack.
Last, but not least, I got the Say freebie from one of my new favorite hair designers [elikatira]. Afterward, I went back and splurged on some gingers in an updo, because I love them so very much. Hair, kiddoes, is not something to cheap out on.
Next time: Step 2: Girl, what ARE you wearing?
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