Ummm... yeah, she needs work. That hair, those clothes, that skin... what to tackle first...
The duck walk! I cannot stand the herky-jerky newbie walk, and since I am going to be mostly looking at Quinn's back while getting her outfitted, that walk has to go!
Fortunately, Long Awkward Pose (LAP) has a perfectly lovely AO (animation overrider) that is free to residents less than 30 days old. The LAP AO comes with several nice stands and will give your avi a girly, sexy walk.
So, after escaping Newbie Island (and I do mean escape! It wouldn't let Quinn teleport away... perhaps because she skipped the introduction. I had to come on with a second viewer and offer to teleport (tp) her to my position to get her out of there!) Anyway, once free, she headed over to LAP on the Festival sim.
There just inside the entrance was the prize!
There's one for men and one for women. Grabbing the female AO, Quinn put it on and immediately felt better.
This AO isn't boxed, so all you have to do is find it in your inventory (probably in the "objects" folder, right click on it, look for the drop down box that says "Attach to HUD". You will get a second drop down menu when you put your cursor on the "attach to HUD", and from there, just decide where you want the AO to be. I usually wear mine on the lower right, but this is just personal preference.
If it installed correctly, two buttons should appear... a green one with a white one just above it. If the lower button is white rather than green, you will have to click it on. You should see your avi's posture change, and when you move... no more duck walk! Yay!
Next up, I sent Quinn to get some new eyes. I know, seems an odd second choice, but I knew her third stop would be the most involved: clothes, skin, new shape, hair, and shoes, so I opted to go for the eyes at this point.
In my opinion, the best realistic eyes in all of Second Life are the ones from Poetic Colors in Strata. Searching Poetic Colors, Quinn found the landmark, and tp'd off. The landing point is a central gazebo, and by following the red arrow, she found the correct store (the other is a furniture store called Kusshon... nice items, but no good for use as eyes!)
Quinn picked up two eye colors here... First up, she stopped at the sandwich board standing just outside the store's entrance.
Like the sign says, these are just for new avatars, and are the same gorgeous green color that Annah wears.
Now, these eyes came boxed in a folder, so Quinn couldn't wear them until she got somewhere where she could unpack them. However, heading to the back of the store, she found another set of free eyes.
These eyes are available to everyone, and the color is changed every so often, so you will want to keep checking back to see what is new! You might even want to join the mailing list so you will know when the color is changed.
Since this second pair of eyes came already unpacked, Quinn was able to wear them right away.
Ok... next stop, and this is where Quinn shed her newbie looks forever...the FabFree Headquarters in the Car Wash. For some reason, this place doesn't come up in search very easily... if you search Fabfree and chose the Carwash listing, it will tp you in front of the 7 Deadly Sins store (looks exactly like a 7-11!). The headquarters are just beyond on street that runs behind, and to the left of that store. If it helps, the coordinates are (94, 217, 24).
The Fabfree Headquarters opened up in the fall of 2009, and it is an extremely valuable resource for all SL residents. However, for a new player, it is more like a lifesaver. There is also an inworld Fabfree chat group you might like to join, and a very helpful blog called Fabulously Free in Second Life, that showcases some of the best free finds that Second Life has to offer.
Walking inside the FabFree Headquarters can be overwhelming, and you might be tempted to grab everything in the store! However, I urge you to pace yourself... later on when you have to open all the boxes, and figure out what to do with all this new stuff that you've flooded your inventory with, you will wish you had listened to your Auntie Ury. Trust me on this... I learned hard way! lol Also, be aware that many of the signs don't show you the actual item you are getting... some do, however, lots don't.
Fortunately, Quinn is a smart girl, and she just grabbed a few items, saving untold inventory angst later.
The first item she went for was the Cupcakes gift. Cupcakes makes high quality skins and clothes, and this gift comes with a shape, a dress, some eyes, and a skin in a range of tones. And yes, in this case, what you see on the ad are the actual items you will be getting, except for the hair.
Since clothes and such are a matter of personal tastes, I can't really advise everything to pick-up from here. Choose a few items of clothing, shoes, hair, maybe some jewelry and a pose or two, then head out into the street, where you can unpack your treasures.
To unpack a boxed item (yes, that would be the item you tried to put on, and ended up with a box on your hand or perhaps engulfing your entire person), drag the item out of your inventory and place it on the ground. When it appears (rezzs), right click on it. A pie chart will appear. Select "open". A pop-up will now show you what your box contains. Click copy to inventory (possibly another pop-up will come up saying something about not being able to copy items... yeah, yeah, yeah, just hit yes, and it goes away), and you should see a new folder being created in your inventory. Now, you can wear that new dress! :)
In SL, it is considered bad manners to leave your opened boxes laying about, so don't forget to grab the box you rezzed out. To do that, right click the box again, this time select "take". The box should disappear from the ground, and be back in your inventory, possibly copying itself. You can delete the box (or boxes if it created a copy of itself) now. You have what you want out of them.
I know this sounds complicated, but it really isn't, and you will soon be ripping open your boxes and bags without a second thought. Now be aware, many places won't allow you to rezz objects out, or they might have a selected area where it is allowed. In the case of FabFree, you can't rezz things in the store itself, but if you go out to the street in front, you can.
Try your items on... if you like the item, great! If not, delete the item NOW!
Start organizing your clothes, shoes, skins, etc. into subfolders in your inventory. One of the biggest headaches of SL is inventory control... keeping your items in such a way that you can find what your are looking for when you want it. There have been times that I've worn the same outfit for days on end, simply because I didn't want to look in my out of control inventory! Inventories can be like that throw-everything-into-it-barely-getting-the-door-shut closet in your house that you have to tip-toe by for fear of the vibrations unleashing hell on earth. So, if you are a new player, start organizing now while it is still easy, and then keep at it! Again, learn by my mistakes. :)
Quinn grabbed just a handful of items that caught her eye, and headed out to unpack them. This was how she looked after her FabFree visit.
What a difference! While it may not be the most unique and individual avatar that ever walked in SL, Quinn doesn't look like she just fell off the turnip truck less than a half hour ago either. And not a single linden was spent!
But Quinn wasn't done. No longer embarassed by her newbie looks, she headed to Cupcakes mainstore.
After spending some time trying her luck with the lucky cupcake and lucky chairs there, she'd won several more skins and clothing items. Less than an hour after being born, Quinn had further refined her look and given herself more options.
She also swung by Truth at Truth Hair and picked up the free Jess Hair from there.
What Quinn is wearing in the final picture:
AO- Long Awkward Pose (for avis under 30 days old... at mainstore)
Eyes- Poetic Colors (at mainstore)
Shape, Skin, Dress- Cupcakes (won from lucky chairs & cupcake at mainstore)
Jewelry- U&R Dogs (at Fabfree Headquarters)
Hair- Truth (Jess fatpack free on wall at mainstore)
All items worn were free. These items current in the stores as of 2-17-10, but may change or disappear without notice.
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