Ferro @Ferrovore@monsterpit.net

Also, a writing tip: if you can't think of a name for a character, just dub them $PLACEHOLDER and continue on your merry way. It's easy to search-and-replace later.

I say this because I have a character in my current piece named $BARD despite having a recurring speaking role. I'll get around to changing it eventually...

"Gosh, dot-social sure is having a time of it today, I wonder why?"

[remembers that there was an NPR article that prominently mentions Mastodon]

"Ohhh, that might be some of it."

(a note: I'm fine with being the latter, but I get the feeling I'd get more visibility on my work if it's paired with the former, too)

As I am back from vacation, it's time to start getting back into a daily cycle. I'm not expecting too much from myself today as I'm having to adjust back to allergens, altitude, a proper swing-shift schedule, AND time management, but I'm ready to get back on the productivity train.

Today I plan to check for easily-fixed errors, review a manuscript in progress, and maybe tinker with comic planning. Your pal Ferro is closer to being a Webcomic Artist and not just one who puts Comics on the Web.

There you have it! Not every avatar is going to be this straightforward (friends, I have STORIES), but if you ever wanted to get into Second Life and like the idea of a full-featured scaly avatar you can easily make into all sorts of other things (dragons, lizards, Pokemon, ferrets, llamas...) the Snokra Snake is a great way to get started.

Thanks for coming to my little demonstration! Feel free to ask me if you've got further questions, and have a great evening.

And as proof this wasn't just me using a provided version of the default skins, here's that same body we just modded wearing a random freebie skin I had in my inventory. It fits perfectly!

Note that depending on the person you get parts from, you may need to rename objects after you link them (usually something like "arms" or "head"). In the event you put on your modded body and it looks like a nightmare, check the notecards that came with your mod to see if there's specific instructions.

Thanks to the magic of People Being Reasonable For Once, most custom Snokra parts are being designed so they work with existing appliers. Here I've simply chosen one from the HUD and wow, it works! I didn't have to buy any special skins or conversion kits!

This is NOT always the case with Second Life mods, folks, and we should be extremely grateful to people making parts for the Snokra for deciding to get clever with their scripting instead of increasing everyone else's workload.

Once linked, we use Take on the edited body, which by default will put it in the same folder we cloned the original from. You can then wear it! Here's Little Gentleman in his default body and in the one we just modded. See how it shares his original proportions despite the version we edited being taller and thinner? That's his shape file doing the heavy lifting!

"But wait," you might say, "what about his limbs? They're untextured! That looks weird!" That's our next step, my friend.

If you want to scootch your (still unlinked) mod limbs over, now is a good time to do it. This isn't necessary but it can help you keep your workspace tidy if you think you might be doing a lot of editing, or if you just prefer to clean as you go.

You can select multiple objects using Shift-Click. Making sure we select the Snokra body last, we now select the arms, the legs, and the body and link them together. The game now assumes the new limbs are part of the body object!

We repeat this process with the legs, since we're replacing both sets of limbs.

Select the rezzed avatar and choose Edit. This will make the avatar's entire wireframe light up. From the edit panel, choose "edit linked" and select the arms. Once just the arms are selected, click "unlink," then delete that object. You'll be left with an armless snake.

Reminder: these screenshots are taken in Firestorm, so your viewer might set things up slightly differently.

Next, I rez out a copy of the arms and legs I want from the Donut Steel set. Here I have the "Snakeperson" arms and legs, which are designed to be slimmer than the default "Snakemonster" set for the purpose of fitting into clothing more easily.

You don't need to line these up in any particular way, just slap them down on the ground near your main avatar. This will look fine later on once we're done and actually wear the modded avatar.

Next, rez the copy you just made on the ground. You'll need to be somewhere that allows you to rez items, such as a sandbox, land you own, etc. The default body has a land impact of 9 so you'll want at least that much, and probably more, to perform edits like this.

Since it won't be animating, you should see an eyeless body with a big butt spike of a tail. You may also see parts you normally hide with the HUD. That's normal!

My dapper ophidian Little Gentleman will be observing, here.

First things first, you'll want to make a copy of the base body. Any time you're going to mod something you want to make a backup copy (assuming the object will let you), just in case something goes catastrophically wrong!

I'll be adding in a set of the Donut Steel "Snakemonster" paws, so I've named the folder accordingly (mostly so I can tell at a glance what it is when I'm digging around later). You might prefer different methods. Just make sure you've got a copy made before you do anything else!

But wait, those hands (fig. 1) don't look anything like the normal snake hands (fig. 2)! How do we set that up? Is it difficult?

Friends, I am happy to say that the answer is NO, so long as you understand the steps.

These things took off pretty much immediately, which is why there are, at the time of this writing, over 600 non-demo mods for the Snokra, ranging from custom skins to entire body makeovers. Here's my blue dragon, Saeiqa Karitha, showing off a bunch of potential options you can get for yourself (plus things like a nose horn and bunny ears that aren't strictly for this avatar but work all the same).

You can do a LOT with just the default tools. The HUD lets you toggle parts of the body as visible or not, add or remove a hood, apply various breasts, adjust the head shape, modify fang size and tongue flicker, set the way your tail wags, and lots more!

Since the body is rigged, you can also use SL's shape sliders to further sculpt your snake. Here you can see I've added a hood, breasts, and a shape that's closer to the Snaggletooth Kobold in size.

Clickthrough for snake tits.

First things first, let's meet the default avatar.

The Snokra Snake is the newest release from Orange Nova Avatars, and is currently in an open beta of sorts on version 0.9 (the creator had wanted it done by Christmas but has that whole "external responsibilities" thing). The product has a full alpha layer to hide your weird default body, the snake body itself, eyes, a rigged shape, and a HUD for poses/skins.

Here's one basically right out of the box.

The rest of the posts in this thread are going to be unlisted to keep from spamming the local timeline. Feel free to comment or boost as you like, this is a resource for anybody!