What Should I Know Mesh Bodies, Heads and Omega Appliers?

Intro to Mesh Bodies, Heads, and Omega Appliers by Teresa Firelight

There are several different mesh bodies out there. And when you want to paint something on them ... say a skin or a makeup or certain types of clothes (T-Shirt, etc) you have to use an applier to do that. Many brands come with their own unique applier. For example, catwa heads come with a built-in applier that works only for catwa heads.

There is also a "universal" applier that works on most brands .... called an omega applier. The omega applier comes with two parts. Part one lives inside the mesh body to receive whatever texture you want to apply to it. Part two lives in the product itself, and is called “the applier.”

Some mesh bodies and/or heads come with an omega applier built into it ready to use. But most don't, and require you to purchase something from the Omega Applier store for your mesh body or head.

Each body (slink, maitreya, etc) has their own unique omega applier interface so you have to buy the one for your particular body or head. But once you have it, you can wear makeup, skin, clothes, etc from any omega-compatible mesh applier product you purchase.

In general when you get a mesh body you want to consider several things:

1) how it looks on you.

2) what the HUD is like (try the alphas and make sure they cut at angles that work with the types of cloths you like to wear),

3) How readily product is available for them. You will find that many creators only make mesh clothes that fit only a few brands of mesh bodies

[It should also be noted that some mesh bodies are NOT omega compatible. I highly recommend that you stick to bodies that are omega compatible.]

For women by far the most popular mesh body is Maitreya. The second most popular are Slink Physique and Slink Hourglass and Belleza Isis and Belleza Freya. Generally it is easy to find clothes for those 5 mesh bodies. The same with skins, makeup, nails, etc ... it is easier to find them for those bodies.

For men, the most popular currently are Signature Gianni and Belleza Jake. Both are easy to shop for.

Question: Oh can I ask something quickly again Teresa? I have a line on my neck and I still have my System head, Is there a way I can make less visible, I don't want to walk around everyday with a choker on my neck XD

Most mesh body HUDs come with a "neck adjustment" that sort of blurs the line. However, if you have a system head and a mesh body, it is hard to get rid of that line entirely

Question: If I get a head one day which do you suggest I go then one day if i get one O.o Is the mesh head more difficult than bodies XD?

I should mention that if you decide to get a mesh head (most people get bento heads these days) then not all skins for your mesh body will work with that head. Each brand of head is built slightly different, so when the "face" is painted on the mesh head, parts (like skin around the eyes, the mouth, etc) might not look quite right if you get a skin that is not built for that head. For that reason, a lot of mesh skin stores only sell heads for certain brands. The most popular seem to be Catwa and Lelutka as far as I can tell, but I am not 100% positive on that.

(Vista bento heads are a bit less expensive than the other brands and they have great face animations. But there is a drawback to the Vista brand... very few of the really nice skin makers sell skins designed for Vista, so your skin choices are somewhat limited. The same is true for shapes... there are less nice vista shapes available than Catwa, Lelutka and LAQ. That is partially because Vista is a relatively newer brand. Over time we may see more nice skins/shapes for this brand.)

If you don't already own a head and want to get one, those 4 brands are the ones I would look at first.. try on the demos and play with them. But also look at some of the other brands.. it may be that one of them is just exactly what will work best for you.

Oh.. there is one more important thing you should know... the shape you wear defines how good/bad a head will look on you. The shapes that come with the heads are usually not the nicest available... there are stores who design/sell shapes designed for a given head. Once you recover from the cost of buying the mesh head (they are not cheap), you may want to shop for a nice mesh shape for that head… the usual cost for a nice shape is about 300L.

[The information in this notecard was originally presented as a question and answer from the FS/SL Gateway Help Network chat group. It was edited into a more easily readable format for this notecard.]

Suggested resource for more information on brands and their features:

http://meshbodyaddicts.com/