Vital Statistics Take 2

It's about a year since Strawberry Singh took the radical step of asking us to share our digits, and I jumped on the bandwagon along with hundreds of others. My blog post sharing my vital statistics has been my most popular of all time, with over 1,200 views to date!

A year on, with the advent of rigged mesh, Berry has once again laid down the challenge to share our digits, and has asked some questions about how the mesh revolution has influenced our avatar shapes.

1. How has the introduction of mesh affected your SL, if at all? Are you open to wearing mesh often or do you still shy away from it?

Anyone who reads my blog regularly will know I love wearing good quality rigged mesh clothing - in fact, these days I find myself not wanting to buy or wear anything else. I love the way rigged mesh corsets can actually reduce your waist, the detailing that's possible with mesh, and the way mesh moves with me.

But there are good and bad mesh designers, and I have a few pet peeves. Some mesh clothing simply will not fit, even if you make your shape so skeletal you look positively anorexic, particularly when you move. And I hate gaping alpha layers. If I can, I wear rigged mesh without alphas, and I'm becoming adept at using different alphas to get a good fit. I have also resorted to making my own glitch pants for a skirt I had to wear for a fashion show, as no walk I could find in SL would stop it from splitting when I walked!

I have learnt always to buy a demo when considering a mesh purchase - and if there's no demo, I just won't buy - I learnt that the hard way after wasting my lindens one time too many!

2.  Have you changed your shape to fit into mesh? If so, did you get bigger or smaller?

For me there have been some changes, but I think they are as much to do with becoming a professional model as they are to do with the arrival of mesh. I am a little taller (gigantic according to the avatar ruler!) but actually still on the short side for a runway model.  My head is a little larger, which has an impact on the overall proportions of my shape, making me look a little slimmer, and my breasts are smaller. I have kept my waist small and my hips relatively wide, to maintain some curves. I'm very happy with my overall proportions now.

One other important point here - I actually tweak my shape all the time - in much the same way as I reduce my butt size to wear old fashioned system skirts (the ones that make your butt look enormous if left at it's regular size). I might, for example, make my shape a little shorter and curvier for a lingerie photo, or taller for a runway show. And yes, I do sometimes change it to fit mesh. What I don't change is my face. That is what makes my avatar "mine". other than that, I see no real difference between editing the pixels on my body and editing prims on an item of clothing - they're all pixels in the end, and the "save as" button is a wonderful thing! 

3. Do you think the mesh deformer will resolve a lot of the issues people seem to have with mesh and will it encourage you to wear mesh more often, if you don't already?

As I understand it, the mesh deformer will make it possible for mesh to be rigged to the "soft tissue" measurements (muscle, fat) as well as the skeleton, as it is now. If it works, it will surely make it easier to fit mesh clothing and require less tweaking of avatar shapes, which must be a good thing, and will allow for more individuality. But I can see other issues emerging - the possibility of textures looking stretched and distorted with more extreme avatar shapes, for example.

I guess there will always be a balance, whatever type of pixel clothing we choose to wear, between the shape the designer had in mind when they created an item, and the shape of the avatar that wants to wear it. In the end, when it comes to fashion, maybe Second Life is more like real life than we care to admit!

Check out other avatars' digits and share your own in the Flickr group: What's Your Digits?

Style notes:

Hair: LeLutka - Trend /powder (mesh); 

Bikini: Baiastice - Shechy Mesh Bikini /flower glaucous

Feet: Slink - Bare Feet Mesh

Jewellery: Maxi Gossamer - Babette necklace combo /ivory silver - Boho banges / etched silver (mesh)