Since returning to SL, Pattie has been appreciating the details that mesh introduced to SL in her absence. Not yet ready to take the plunge into a full featured and detailed mesh body or head, she did come across the “Your First Mesh Body” offering which comes at the very tempting price of ….FREE.
Of course, Free has it’s price. What you get for free is both a body and head which are not high detailed though do have all the correct parts. In addition, it comes with huds to implement transparencies in the body where practical and apply skin tones. YFMB also comes with a selection of shapes and hair. Finally, free clothes are provided so there is no need to leave the place naked in your new body.
After a bit of tweaking, I managed to create a new shape that I found pleasing and hoped she would too. No complaints.
There are two glaring issues with the head when you put it on. The first is the head to body joint. They don’t match and no amount of fiddling that I did with the neck size would make them match. The second is that unless your cheeks are flat, they are blocky and rough. That however, is just a challenge for me and my developing photoshop skills!
From the original photo for this shoot, the above images shows the lack of detail in the face. This is actually quite subdued because it was in shadow for this image. In full bright light, it is painful.
I found it necessary to use frequency separation and address both the high and low frequency layers to smooth the cheeks out. In hindsight, I could have removed a bit more of the darker color from beneath the nostril but I was being cautious about removing too much shadow while removing the blocks.
With the high and low frequency layers available, I also took advantage of the opportunity to smooth the eye openings and clean up the lips – more short comings of this body.
As shown in the original photograph below, I’m often amazed at what I over looked – like the full bright necklace that is nearly as bright as the sunset 😀
It took me quite a while to tone that down using a mask and adjusting the exposure level then finally adding a little shadow detail.
Finally, highlights and shadows were added. Because she was in full shadow, adding too much highlight was easy to do. It just didn’t look natural so in the end, I had to dial it way back to the point that it is very discernible though it is every where…face, hair, chest, arms and dress. The eyes that came with the YFMB body were very flat and lacking detail though I did add a bit of highlight to those too. Subtle is the lesson of the day.
Except for that necklace 😀