I guess I should apologize for showing up here in my underwear today, but I just couldn’t resist. I got my hands on a few new things that have hit the grid this weekend and they were just calling out for a sexy picture.
My favorite release this weekend were the mesh hands. I know mentioned prim/mesh feet and hands before. I am a big fan of body parts. I feel the avatar hands and feet in second life are severely lacking and replacing them with prim/mesh feet and hands really brings a lot of realism. Especially if you are into photography.
I’ve written a very detailed post about the hands, the bed and my new skin on my blog here. So what do you think of my mesh hands?
In the photo: Strawberry Singh
Location: {Second Life}
Agnes Sharple
Botgirl Questi
Bumblebee (Wendz Tempest)
Canary Beck
Carissa Arthurine Somerset
Eva Marie
Fuschia Nightfire
George Coghill
Ironyca Lee
Jeremy Owen Turner
Joseph DeLappe
Kathleen Cool
Katie Vizenor
Krista Hoefle
Kristine Schomaker
Lizzie Gudkov
Aero Bigboots
RMarie Beedit
Marmaduke Arado
Isabella Medici
Nadya Tolokonnikova
Nathan Shafer
Pixel Reanimator
Ravanel Griffon
Scarlett Luv
Strawberry Singh
Tabitha Raincloud
Toni Tyldesley
Trilby Minotaur
Vanessa Blaylock
Xue Faith
Yordie Sands
IRL when a person uses a cosmetic procedure to change her bust size, some people will condescendingly say about her, “fake.” To me the single most defining factor in being human is desire, so for me Pinocchio is the most “real” boy of all, because of his singular desire. I’m not happy about a culture that can make us feel pressured to “need” a surgical procedure, it’s kind of chicken-and-egg teasing this apart, but if someone has enough desire to undergo a cosmetic procedure, I don’t call them “fake,” I call them real.
I do think the term “real” is fake.
I also think the term “natural” is fake.
Sometimes when a person who is wide IRL has an avatar that is less wide, some people say that is “fake” or “cheating” or “lazy.” Yet when someone who is short IRL wears prosthetic devices that make them less short, no one tends to complain about that, even though 15cm platform heels dramatically alter perception, perspective, and power relationships.
Given these opinions, it would be pretty strange to argue that an avatar with “artificial” or “add-on” hands or feet was in some way “fake.” haha, no, I want a “real avatar!”
In fact the Second Life avatar is nothing but a series of patches! The “Ruth” avatar was pretty good for its time, but it’s not an avatar most of us want to look at today. Over 99% of the avatars in Second Life are, in fact, bald, having “shaved off” (technically, buried deep inside their skull) their ugly “original” or “real” or “natural” avatar hair, and replaced it with a spectacular wig made by wonderful designers like my friend Carina Larsen at Amacci or one of the great designers that Berry knows.
Avatar skin has constantly evolved, and as Berry has helped documented with her “What’s Your Digits?” projects on Flickr, avatar shape, or body image, is also in constant flux.
So, suffice to say, I have nothing, in principle, against “fake” avatar hands or feet. In the past I haven’t liked them either because I thought they just didn’t look right or they were a monumental pain-in-the-butt to adjust shape and color, or most often both.
If we were still wearing Ruth, hands and feet might not be the first thing we worried about, but you’re right, for the contemporary avatar, these are really the most self-confidence crushing aspects of our bodies today. I try to hide my secret shame by NEVER wearing open-toed shoes. I’ve tried the different kinds of nail polish and hate them all, and I’m not really a glove person, so I pretty much just let my hands be, ratty cuticles and all.
BUT, I totally don’t know about MESH hands and feet. Ooh, that is exciting! Of course a Berry photo isn’t really a very good review of the state of the art on mesh hands, because BERRY PHOTOS *ALWAYS* LOOK PERFECT! But it’d be worth checking them out. Are they adjustable? Can we have shorter, stubbier fingers? Or are we all to become hand models now? Are you out there Moni? I’m sure YOU know about this!
haha the last paragraph in your comment had me LOLing. My pictures are definitely not perfect, and I admit neither are these hands. They were seriously a pain for me to tint, especially with this darker skin. I wore them with a lighter skin and for some reason found it much easier to tint. Took me a while and yes I do wish there were a few more options, but all in all, these are amazing. They come with 15 different poses for fingers so you can have your fingers positioned in a variety of different ways (sorry, no middle finger option as of yet lol). It’s fun and I do hope you pick up a demo and try them. They are great for pictures, especially if you have the patience.
As long as we’ve turned your uber-sexxy pix into a tech chat… I really wish they’d do SL Avatar 2! I know, I know, it’d break all kinds of things, people would be pissed, Yordie with her Phoenix viewer couldn’t see it… but daym! we’re all wakin’ around in 2003 avatars! It’s just flippin embarrassing!
Hi Berry… you’ve got some of the best undies in Second Life. Hehe. And those Mesh hands are gonna be a must have, I can see that coming!
I’m still hanging on tenaciously to my Phoenix Viewer but maybe it’s time to plunge into a true V3 clone so I can partake in all the Mesh stuff.
Cool and hot post!
I really hope you try V3. I know it’s not perfect and will take time to adjust to, but it will seriously give you so many new options and things to play with. You’ll absolutely hate it at first (trust me, I did) but now I can’t go back to the older viewers, I’m hooked!
I think I’m going to do like you do Berry. I will probably need to continue using Phoenix for boating and the like, but I’ll switch to Firestorm for other things (I’m comfortable with the V1-like interface). I’m not sure I can adapt to V3 though, I’ve tried twice and just not read for it. FS will be my next step though. 2 viewers, guess it could be worse. heh
OMG, DO NOT tell me that VeRB (Vaneeesa Riva Blaylock, haha, trying out my new middle name candidate! :+]
Don’t tell me she changed the name of your category again!?
kk, I guess “she”… “we”… “I” did…
“World Today” was good back in the beginning… but I’m glad we changed it to “Virtual Adventures”… but now that Ravanel has launched the iRez News Service!! O_o
and as you see on the home page, we have “Art News, Gaming News, Net News, Tech News” there… it seemed like a nice idea to change this over to “Photo News” and add it to that place. Which gives these a little longer shelf life and emphasizes the newness factor of the images.
So yay!
Also, I moved it over from the “Challenges” top level category to “News” for consistency. So you’ll find the category under
News > Photo News
LMK if you like that or not.
haha, Ms. Meta… maybe that should be my new middle name, VMB, Vaneeesa Meta Blaylock! 😛
Ok, so it’s Photo News now. So many things to remember! hahahaha It’s ok, I’m sure if I mess up tags and categories, you’ll be there to save me. <3
Also, I do like the middle name, suits you! LOL <3