Mesh heads are Clones!

I hear that a lot, 'Mesh heads look like clones'. Granted, each one has its own look and some are more versatile than others. Still, even before bento, there were so many heads out there and so many skins and makeups for them that they didn't really look that much alike. Now, with bento, you can change the shape of your head almost the same as you can a system skin.

Here's the Catya mesh head from Catwa in it's default skin and shape:

Here it is after I changed the shape:

I made the mouth and eyes a little bigger, shaped the nose, tweaked it here and there. Here's that shape wearing 9 skins:

Everything is the same except for the skins. If I can look this many ways on one shape, so can everyone else who has the head. Change the shape, hair, clothes, makeup, and skin tones. How many looks are possible? How many looks are possible with a system head? It doesn't matter to me at all if you wear a mesh head or a system head. There's room for everything in our wonderful world of SL. All I ask is that you think before you tell me I'm a clone because I choose to wear a mesh head.

Landscape With Owl

It's cold and snowy for me both in Real Life and in Caledon Moors. Snow is still fun this early in the season, and this lovely setting made by Luna Bliss captures the mood well. Like most avatars, I'm collecting Advent gifts. This outfit is from !Go! I'm wearing Valentine pants from Day 2 and Dagna Frill Sweater from Day 12. Most of !Go!'s Advent offerings have been mix and match. The textures are lovely. Look at the sheen on the lace in photo below:

To complete the look, I added Xmas Owl Scarf, a gift from MoonAmore+Cureless. My beret was a gacha prize from offbeat called 'I Believe'. It has an eye in a triangle patch, which I love. :) My Jewelry is from PurpleMoon's Advent Calendar, Day 10. My hair is Mara from little bones. It's available at the current Winter Solstice Event. It comes with hairpins to hold the waves and an animation hud for taking them off or arranging the hair. My boots are from G Field.

These wonderful John Lennon glasses are an Advent gift from Yasum, Day 12. You get several versions with different metal and lens options. My nails are from Nailed It, and came from the KittyCats Advent. My eyebrow applier is Ice Queen from #adored. It came from the Winter Solstice event.

Credits:

Usual Catwa head with Maitreya Body and Vista Pro hands

Wind light: *Starley* Settings 2 and Torley Foggy Fogvari

Hacking Bento

OK, I confess, I'm not a hacker, but I feel like one after saving $4000L on a Bento HUD. I'm talking about the HUD one can buy separately for the Catya head. I understand that a huge amount of work went into the head, and I believe artists should be compensated. My problem is that I only use about 10 animations out of the 500+ that the head can do, so I really didn't want to spend $5000L for it. I was really excited when I heard that the animations in the HUD would be available separately. Unfortunately, you can't put those animations into the HUD that comes with the head. All you can do is click on them to play them. That's ok, but Catwa's HUD that plays the animations is what sets it apart from other Bento enabled heads.

So I tried something, and it actually worked. \o/  I bought the animations I wanted, and put them into an empty AO that I got at Oracul. (The one that came with the Oracul bento hands that I blogged about earlier) I put them into the stand section in the notecard. (I'm assuming you know how to add animations to an AO. It's just like that.) Then I loaded the modified notecard and wore it with my regular AO. One AO makes my body move and the other moves my face.

It won't play eye and lip animations at the same time like the Catwa HUD does, so it's not as nice, but if you don't have $5000L or only want to make a few expressions, this is a way to do it. And, wearing only my Maitreya body, Catya head, Vista pro hands, Maitrya HUD, Catwa main HUD, and two AO's, it's 33 scripts. That's with no hair or clothes.

So there you have it. If you want it. :D

Urban Goddess Deck

Gingko Dryad

Normally unseen, the Gingko Dryad can sometimes be glimpsed in a swirl of leaves. She can be found in city parks and yards, anywhere gingko trees grow. When visible, she often looks like a young woman, wearing natural materials such as snakeskin. Her jewelry, if any, generally has a natural theme as well. She could be anyone, on the edge of vision, an anonymous woman going to a club. Gingko Dryads love to dance.

Credits

Dress: Solaris from PurpleMoon (advent gift)

Gingko Accessories from *Naminoke* (now at We Love Role Play)

Hair: Gracia from Phoenix

Necklace: Maiklu from Plastik (from a recent hunt)

Catwa eyes with Euphoric Jade applier 

Hypnose eye reflector from FussyxFoxcity

The usual: Maitreya body, Catwa's Catya head

Skin applier: Atomic. Gacha Elf in sugar (at the Arcade now) 

Location: Zahra's Garden

Windlight: Phototools Lo Light 04