In the book I’ve used my own shape to demonstrate modelesque measurements. In this tutorial, I’m going to apply these measurements to different female body types: an extremely tall runway model, a petite and curvy shape, and a plus size shape.

3 very different shapes for Second Life: a slender runway model body type, a petite and curvy type, and a plus size body type.

In So You Wanna Be A Virtual Supermodel, I go into quite a bit of detail on using Second Life’s Appearance sliders to balance your shape. If you haven’t picked up the book yet, it’s only L$500 on the Marketplace. For this tutorial, I’m just going to share a couple of basic concepts to get you started on making your own, well-proportioned shape.

Measuring heads

In addition to measuring your overall height in feet/inches or meters, your avatar’s height can be expressed in heads. This concept might be already familiar to you if you’ve learned to draw people, ie.. through a life drawing class or lessons on illustrating for manga or graphic novels.

Body proportions for a Second Life model shape

Measure the distance from the top of the head to the chin. Then use this measurement to count how many “heads” tall your shape is. Our runway model shape shown above is very tall at 8 heads, demonstrated by the white strip to her right (each division = 1 head length.) An ideal shape for Second Life would fall between 5.5-8 heads in overall height, regardless of the body type. This is a little longer than Real Life, because in Second Life, you’re often looking at a downward camera angle which makes the shape appear a little squatter than it actually is.

When you’re deciding on your avatar’s overall height, don’t max out the height or leg length sliders! When you pull the Appearance sliders to any extreme, it squishes or stretches the shape, making it more difficult to maintain balanced, realistic proportions. I like to go for realistic heights. Our runway model shape is 6′ tall, a little tall for Real Life but not extreme.

Leg length vs. Torso length

A petite Second Life shape

The pale blue line to the left of the avatar represents her torso/trunk length versus leg length. Measure from the top of the head to the crotch, then from the crotch to the heel. These measurements should be about the same! (Extra length is shown in orange above.)

This is our petite shape. She’s 5’5″ according to a height measuring prim in-world… that’s average height for Real Life, but certainly shorter than most Amazonian avatars! Look at her head measurements: she is 7.5 heads tall overall, not too different from our runway model shape. Head measurements will help you keep your shape from looking like a pinhead or bobblehead.

Bust/Waist/Hip Ratios

A plus size shape for Second Life

The purple hourglass represents the torso shape. On our runway model and petite shapes, the waist is pretty small compared to shoulder and hip width. But our plus size shape still has curves!

Generally speaking, if your avatar is facing the camera, the shoulders will be about the same visual width as her hips, and her natural waist (the smallest part of the torso, not where her jeans fit) will fall halfway between the two and won’t be as wide.

Side view showing plus size proportions. The avatar's bustline is about the same as her hips.

The side view shows our plus size avatar’s bust and hip measurements in purple. When viewed from the side, her bustline and butt are the same visual width (both purple lines are exactly the same length.)

This is also true of our runway model shape, and our petite shape:

Side view showing runway model body proportions for Second Life

Side view showing petite/curvy body proportions for Second Life

 Overview

By looking at all three demonstration body types, you’ll see the overall proportions are actually quite similar. These measurements will help you create a natural-looking female avatar shape, whether you’re aiming for a “fashion model” look, or not. Once you’re able to master “ideal” proportions, you can play with your measurements for realistic curves… in Real Life, you might have wider hips and a smaller bust, for example. Knowing how to work with your shape will ensure you don’t end up looking like a caricature!

For a more in-depth look at Second Life body proportions and using Appearance sliders to create your own shape, check out Chapter One of So You Wanna Be A Virtual Supermodel, my how-to book on Second Life modelling.

Alaska Metropolitan’s Second Life book, So You Wanna Be A Virtual Supermodel, is now available via the SL Marketplace as a Thinc book object. This lengthy publication is written as a how-to guide for anyone interested in becoming a Second Life fashion model.

Topics of the book include body proportion and shape creation, inventory organization, smart shopping, styling and colour theory, runway techniques, choosing poses, finding work, and more. The guide is written in a casual style with plenty of full-page reference diagrams, photo examples, and bullet-point lists. Topics are separated into chapters and chapter reviews are included, making So You Wanna Be A Virtual Supermodel a good companion book to more structured Second Life learning.

The Thinc book format can be read in-world as a rezzed object or a worn “HUD” object. Marketplace customers can also request a .PDF eBook version for convenient offline reading. So You Wanna Be A Virtual Supermodel retails for L$500 at https://marketplace.secondlife.com/p/Book-So-You-Wanna-Be-A-Virtual-Supermodel-by-Alaska-Metropolitan-124-pages/3654160.

While the book makes certain assumptions (the example model, “Ruth”, is slender, Caucasian and female), Alaska’s advice and guidelines should be applicable to any aspiring Second Life model. Even veterans in this cutthroat industry should be able to learn something from this in-depth guide.

For more information please visit http://slfashiontutorials.com/ebooks/so-you-wanna-be-a-virtual-supermodel/ or contact Alaska Metropolitan.

This tutorial assumes you are using Google Chrome and have a Google account of some kind. Most people have, at one point or another, signed up for gmail or another Google service, and it’s free.

To start finding Second Life freebie fashion blogs, I typed “Second Life freebies blog” into the address bar (using Chrome, this will automatically search via Google.)

Over 3,000,000 results! Second Life freebies are a popular blogging topic.

I clicked to visit FabFree, a constantly-updated blog covering freebies, dollarbies, and group gifts in Second Life. On the top right corner is the orange RSS icon. If I click that, I get the RSS feed. It won’t look like much.

Example XML RSS feed

You’ll want to copy the RSS feed url (e.g. “http://fabfree.wordpress.com/feed/” in Chrome’s address bar.)

Now sign in to your Google account and click More > Reader in the top black bar (or just search for Google Reader to access the service.)

Once in Reader, on the left hand menu you should see your subscriptions list. Click the little black arrow to the right of the list, and choose Add a subscription… Paste the RSS feed url and you’re now subscribed to this blog!

Viewing a blog feed using Google Reader

If you did this correctly, you can now view all new posts, instantly, by signing into your Google account and viewing your Reader. You can add as many favourite blogs as you’d like, to keep them all in one place. You can create folders to sort your subscribed blogs to make it easier (e.g. Real Life, Second Life, etc.) Always look for the orange RSS icon to find the feed url, or look for a link to the feed at the bottom of the blog in the footer.

You can also subscribe to an entire feed website’s RSS feed. This will put all posts from, say, Fashion Feed of SL into your Reader.

Recommended Second Life freebie fashion blogs:
FabFree
Free*Style
The Freebie Telegraph
iheartsl – Freebie posts

And another look put together by finding Marketplace freebies: The Girl Next Door 

Casual look

• Ste-Pauline shape by Morani
• Skin from the free Koko avatar by DD Jameson
• Spring 2011 makeup by alaskametro<3
• “Elia” hair by EdelStore
• (Note: Green/grey eyes are You Are Beautiful by Vika Plaid but the listing has since disappeared from the Marketplace)
• Pink nailpolish by Even Genesis
• Tank top from free Debby outfit by Yuli
• Straight jeans from VA Creations (open price, send L$ if you enjoy the product)
• Pearly skirt belt by SAKIDE
• Mesh free necklace #2 by Modern Elegance
• Purple Copine shoes by Roly Poly

Evening/cocktail/club look

• Ste-Pauline shape by Morani
• Skin from the free Koko avatar by DD Jameson
• Adena hair by Amacci
• Fall 2008 makeup by alaskametro<3
• Petal dress by RunoRuno
• Open-toe pumps by Plausible Body (open price, send L$ if you enjoy the product)
• Mesh free necklace #1 by Modern Elegance

Finding free stuff in Second Life

Open the Search panel by pressing the magnifying glass icon in your toolbar. Type “free stuff” (or any other search terms you can think of!) and select “Places” from the dropdown menu. You should find dozens of places with boxes of free stuff set to buy for L$0. (You don’t need to have any L$ to buy something for L$0.) The items will then show up in your inventory, usually in boxes.

The search panel in Second Life

Finding free stuff on the Marketplace

Finding free stuff on the marketplace (http://marketplace.secondlife.com) can be a little harder than finding freebies in-world. Often searching finds completely unrelated items, or tonnes of demos. Here’s our tips for finding free stuff:

• Use combinations of likely words rather than just searching for “free”. For example, try the phrase “free promo shoes.”
• Filter your results by selecting the category you want from the left hand column. If you’re searching for skins, only show results from skins. This can cut down on the unrelated search results.
• Change your results settings: Items per page: 96 and Sort by: Price: Low to High.

Once you place your order, the stuff will be delivered to you, probably in a box.

Unpacking boxes

If you’re both broke and new to Second Life, chances are that you don’t have land to unpack all your free stuff. Search for “sandbox” under Places in Second Life search. At a sandbox, you can unpack your boxes and try stuff on.

Drag your box to the ground beside you. Right click the box and select “Open“. This moves (or copies) all your box contents to a folder in your inventory. Now you can wear stuff! You can delete or take the box once it’s unpacked (from the right-click menu.)

Sorting your free stuff

What to keep: shapes, skins, and hair

We had better luck finding free shapes than good skins or hair, but most of the free shapes we found were frightening. Try to find a shape with copy/mod permissions, free, and fairly well-proportioned. From there, you can make changes (as long as it’s modifiable) and use the free shape as a base while you tweak it.

Unfortunately, a lot of skins at in-world freebie centers are ripped off. We recommend searching the marketplace for a designer promotion instead. Look for even skintone and natural, smooth shading.

Good free hair is hard to find! Some hair designers offer a free style to demo hair colours and quality. You can also find free gift hair by joining hair designers’ in-world groups.

What to keep: clothes

For free clothes, the biggest challenge is finding quality. The marketplace had far better free items than the in-world freebie centres we visited. Look for matching seams and nice shading. Keep freebies that you’d actually wear rather than hoarding everything ever – you don’t need an inventory full of junk!

Our put together look: Dancer

This avatar is tall & sexy. Dancing in a club is a pretty common “job” in Second Life, so we’ve kept that in mind when putting her together.

Off-the-job casual look

• Tall, sexy shape and green eyes from the Anna avatar by Phoebe Duarte
• Tuty’s Nadia sunkissed skin is completely free in 10 makeups
• [e] Elikatira “Say” hair (free in all colours)
• We found the black glitter tank top from Freebie Style in-world. (Warning: there’s a lot of ripped off stuff here. We contacted the creator, Mat Kungler, to make sure this is actually a freebie, but haven’t heard back.)
• Capri jeans & peep-toe black pumps: from the free Koko avatar by DD Jameson
• KissKissBangBang branded handbag (free promo gift)

On-the-job dancer look

• Tall, sexy shape and green eyes from the Anna avatar by Phoebe Duarte
• Tuty’s Nadia sunkissed skin is completely free in 10 makeups
• Pink makeup from the free Koko avatar by DD Jameson
• Amacci “Danina” hair (free in all colours)
• Star prim eyelashes from Virzeni Boa
• Beautiful Dirty Rich sequin mini-dress
• Je T’Aime “Mandy” brown shoes
• alaskametro<3 french teal nailpolish
• Free earrings from Archetypus

In the next tutorial, we’ll show how to subscribe to freebie fashion blogs so you won’t miss any great finds.

While there’s a number of topics I could have written about (fashion marketing? Disappearing for two years and coming back? How fully hand-drawn skins won’t sell? A sociological thesis on why the majority of SLers look like Jersey Shore cast members?) I’ve chosen to produce a how-to guide on becoming a Second Life model. Why? Because I feel it’s a topic that I know a bit about, and I feel the average Second Life female avatar that says “well, I could model, it doesn’t look hard” may find that they need guidance.

My book, tentatively called So You Wanna Be A Virtual Supermodel (release date: mid-Spring 2012) covers more than just walking in a straight line on a prim runway. I included chapters on creating a unique model look, styling fashion for outfits, photoshoots, and the runway, organizing your inventory (don’t ask me about mine; I can’t take my own advice,) putting together a portfolio, finding work, and more.

I’m hoping this book will be helpful to both newcomers to the Second Life fashion industry, and veteran virtual models. I’ve designed it so that it can supplement any official in-world training or appeal to someone curious about it all. I’ve kept the tone light and humourous; I hope it’s clear that I don’t take myself, Second Life, or virtual modelling too seriously!

So You Wanna Be A Virtual Supermodel will be available both as an in-world book object and eBook .pdf. A single purchase from the SL Marketplace will give you access to both.

To keep informed about the book’s release, please join the mailing list, or check back at SlFashionTutorials.com.