What’s Eating TMP 24

A friend who recently returned to SL after a hiatus messaged me with an SOS: “Billy I have a new Lellutka head on my new account and a free legacy (TMP) body. I can’t get the teeth an tongue to load and the ears are the wrong tint and I need a skin to put on it that would match the tones, any ideas?” If that isn’t a good reason for another episode of What’s Eating TMP, I don’t know what is. Some of the things below will have been explained in previous blog posts, but as it’s the first time I’m combining a Lelutka EvoX head with the Classic body, I thought I’d start from scratch.

Of course what my friend meant to say is that he got the Classic mesh body of the brand known as “Meshbody” (going for the noun as a brand name was such an arrogant choice!), who in the past were known as TMP. They also carry the Legacy and Athletic male mesh bodies, as well as several female mesh bodies. A lot of people seem to refer to them as Legacy, as if that is the brand, but that’s the name of one of their bodies. At least, that’s how I interpret it. It’s a good thing their bodies are pretty sweet, because they kinda bugled the branding. Anyhoo, There is a L$1 gift version of the Classic body that gives you everything you really need. Before you can grab the body, you need to join their group (named The Shops), but there’s no joining fee. There’s also a “Creative” version of the Classic body, which includes the Advanced Material Editor. For that you have to cough up L$2,500, but personally I don’t think it’s really worth it. I’m not really sure what you miss out of exactly.

I kicked things off with a clean classic avatar (Wyatt) and stripped him down till there was nothing left but skin and bones. I unpacked the Classic Meshbody gift edition and added both the body and Edit hud to my “outfit”. Yes, I know I’m naked, but in Second Life™ we call this an outfit (both technically and ironically). Naturally the result looks shocking at this point, but we’ll get there. If I would be working with a Catwa head instead of a Lelutka head, I would have been tempted to unpack the neckfades folder and try to match the head to one of the body’s standard skins. With a Lelutka head however, I don’t think that choice is available. Our best option is to invest in a bom skin or always wear a collar, which might work out if you’re going to be a submissive sex slave most of the time (whatever floats your boat).

So it’s BOM’s away! To enable BOM on the Classic meshbody, you first click on the the second icon on the left of the Edit hud. Note: If the contents of the hud aren’t loading, check the following settings: Avatar>Preferences>Sound & Media>Media: tick the box for Allow inworld scripts to play media. Once you can see the content of the hud, click on the button on the right that looks like equalizer sliders and then click on Apply BOM. Now your system body will disappear and the system skin you are wearing will be “Baked” on the mesh body.

Next I’ll put on a Lelutka head. I don’t know which Lelutka head my friend got and he isn’t online as I’m writing this (how inconveniant!) so I’ll just pick the Connor head.

There are a lot of items in a folder for a Lelutka head. There are several items with extras that need to be unpacked. This creates new folders with the extras in them and I usually place those folders in the main folder with the head, that’s why you can see all those “Unpack” folders at the top of my list… In case you were wondering.

Right! So what am I going to put on? Remember, always right click an item and choose “add”. If you double click it, you’ll “wear” the item and this may knock off something you already had put on. With righ-click and add, you’ll never have that issue.

• I started with the ALPHA ( BOM Head + Body – APPLIER Eyes ) to hide the system eyes
• then I added /EYES/ lel Evo 3.1,
• /HEAD/ lel EvoX Connor 3.1,
• /HUD lel EvoX (m)
• and last but not least, /TEETH/ LeLutka 3.1.

Note that at this point you can also right-click and activate LeLUTKA voice level 01 to 03. This will help your avatar move its lips when you’re talking. You could also choose to put on SHAPE Default lel EvoX CONNOR and SHAPE Brow lel EvoX CONNOR, because as you can see on the left in the compilation shot above, the Connor head is looking rather funky with the Wyatt shape and brow shape. I will be using my own Brent shape as shown on the right, which I made for this head in combination with the Legacy body. Obviously it looks different on this body, but it works for me. This shape is fully customisable anyway, as is the shape that comes with the head, so you can always make him bigger or smaller, a bit more muscular with more of a caboose perhaps?

Next we need to replace that plain jane standard avatar skin with something a lot more enticing.

I picked up the new Greyson skin by Birth for Lelutka EvoX heads. With all Birth skins you always get several eye brow options, which are indicated by the colour in the file name. For example “Birth ‘Greyson’ Lelutka EvoX/ BOM Head – Tone 04_Brown” is the skin tone #4 with brown eye brows. Note that this is an EvoX skin. If you apply it to your head and your avatar ends up looking like a blurry Picasso painting, you need to click the EvoX button in the hud for your Lelutka head. Another funny detail with EvoX heads is that the ear skin needs to be applied separately. You’ll find the matching ear skin in the folder for the Birth skin. Now that we’ve got a face, let’s focus on the body.

Because of the way the Birth skins for Lelutka EvoX heads fade into the body, you probably can use it with any body skin and you won’t see a neck seam. For the purpose of this exercise however, I’m sticking with Birth for the body skin. Birth don’t have a skin for the Classic mesh body, but they do have one for the Legacy mesh body and it works well with the Classic body. Meanwhile I also put on one of the many EvoX hair bases that come with the head, the Modulus Bailey hair and the Essential Jockstrap from Noche’s collection that still includes the TMP size. Sadly, currently nobody is making any new underwear for this body, so if that is your jam, you may want to switch to Belleza Jake, Signature Gianni or Legacy Meshbody.

That’s it for now, here’s a list of credits to sum it all up for your convenience. If your enjoying this blog, would like access to some extra somewhat naughtier material and show your appreciation, you can head over to Patreon and become a patron.

• Classic Meshbody
• Lelutka Connor mesh head
• Birth Greyson skin for Lelutka EvoX heads. This skin was at the TMD event which just ended, so in theory this means the skin can be purchased at Birth’s main store now. Also get the Legacy body skin in the matching skin tone from Birth, it works well on the Classic Meshbody even though it wasn’t made for it.
• Modulus Bailey hair
• Hair base comes with the head (LeLUTKA.EvoX.Hairbase.028 (m))
• Eyes come with the head, there are several standard textures to choose from
• Noche Essential Jockstrap. Before you buy anything else from Noche, make sure the item clearly shows that it’s for the TMP or Classic body.
• Noche Shower Towel (only available from Marketplace)
• For this look I’ve repurposed the shape I made for the same Lelutka head with the Legacy mesh body, which makes the butt a lott smaller on the Classic body. It’s my Brent shape, in case you’re interested.

If you feel a sudden overwhelming urge to show your appreciation and support for this blog, you can now do so by keeping me fully caffeinated. I have uploaded an extra picture to my BMC page, but you don’t need to actually buy me a coffee to see it.