This is an introduction to the process of planning the perfect "dream avatar" for you. ...And it includes some tips on making "good" avatars in general.
You don't need to chase any dream items right away. Just have fun and dress your avatar however you'd like. That said, feel free to ignore any of this style advice if it clashes with your preferences. What matters at the end of the day is that you like your avatar.
Have any comments, suggestions or opinions about this thread? Think it's missing something? Let me know! Please. c:
1. intro post 2. dressing avatar mechanics 3. style examples 4. what's your style 5. generic tips that apply to most styles 6. useful items that make old items look cool example of "bad" and making good 7. example ... using recommended items to alter the base 8. example 9. quick tips on earning gold and items 10. how to search for items 11. how to find help 12. blurb on questing expensive items 13. saving avatar images (and gaia upgrade) 14. 15. equipped items for each example used
textures, examples with old textures that looks good
§►Index Post One: Introduction Post Two: How to Dress Your Avatar Post Three: Avatar Styles Post Four: Finding your Style Post Five: Planning Your Outfit Post Six: Some Style Tips Post Seven: Example One Post Eight: Example Two Post Nine: Help with Planning Post Ten: Check the Layering Post Eleven: Buy that Stuff Post Twelve: Dream Avatars and Questing Post Thirteen: Final Thoughts
Posted: Wed Jan 21, 2015 7:05 pm
Avatar Guide for Newbies Post Two: How to Dress Your Avatar
How to Dress Your Avatar The mechanics of putting clothes on your avatar.
If you've already equipped and saved items onto your avatar, skip the first section. If you already know how to change your base avatar using potions and how to change your eyes and hair in Salon Durem, skip the second section.
• • • • Getting Started
Gaia Avatar Your avatar is the person you see at the top left corner of your screen. You created the base when you signed up for a Gaia account. In some other forums, your avatar is an image that you upload. On Gaia, your avatar will always be that person. Almost everything you do on Gaia will earn you Gaia Gold. In turn, you can use that gold to buy clothing and items to equip on your avatar.
How to dress your avatar 1. The easiest way to get to the dress up screen is to click the avatar located in the top left corner of the header. You are now on the dress up screen page.
2. The dress up screen is simple once you get used to it. Here is an explanation of some of the buttons.
The Heads : Above the save button, you'll notice icons of heads. Click the heads to use that base. For example, click on the cat head to use the cat animal base. Click on the human head to become a human. You can freely swap between these forms.
Animal avatars (paws) and humans cannot share items. Paw items are marked with the tag "[animal]" in the item name.
Save : No one can see the changes you make in the dress up screen. No one will see your final outfit choice until you click the Save Button. Don't worry about being naked on the dress up screen. However, if you click "save" while your avatar is naked, your avatar will appear naked to everyone who sees it until you save some clothes on your avatar. Reset : Click this button to restore your last saved avatar. Get Nekkid : Click this to quickly remove all items from your avatar. Undo : You can reverse your actions up to five times. There's no redo button. Stand/Sit : Click this button to sit down and stand up. Front/Back : Click this button to turn your avatar backwards and forwards. If you save your avatar while it's facing backward, your avatar will appear backwards in the forums. Choose Mouth Expression : Click this button to open up a list of mouths to choose from. Click a mouth for it to appear on the avatar. Click the blank option at the end to remove the mouth. Choose Pose : Click this button to open up hand pose options. Click the pose to change the position of your avatar's arms. Outfits : Everyone starts out with five outfit slots. 8 extra outfit slots can be purchased for 10,000g each. From there, 8 more slots can be bought for 20,000g each. There are 21 slots total. This is like a little closet. You can save outfits that you like so that you can swap quickly between your favorite outfits.
3. Your items are separated into seven tabs: "Head, Tops, Bottoms, Shoes, Accessories, Items, Animated." Click on each tab to find your items. Click an item if you want to equip it on your avatar. Click it again to unequip the item. Some items have multiple poses. In those cases, click on the pose you'd like to equip. Click the red X to unequip the pose. You can only equip one pose at a time. For example, if you see one person wearing three poses from one item, that means that they own three of those items.
4. When you have an outfit you like, click the save button. You have now dressed up your avatar.
• • • • How to Change your Base
If you aren't happy with the avatar you made when you signed up, you can change your base. Here are different ways to change your base. Please note that these methods change your actual avatar base. These are not items that can be equipped and unequipped at will.
Gender You must use a Gender Bender Potion to change your avatar's gender. You are entitled to two free Gender Bender Potions. Visit the account settings page for a link to claim your free potions. [Account Settings Page] Otherwise, you can buy Gender Bender potions for 50,000 gold each from the shop called [Skin Tyte].
Skin Tone Visit [Skin Tyte] and buy a Human Potion in the tone you'd like. Each human potion costs 100 gold. There are other potions available here that allow you to change your avatar into different species. These potions are one time use. If you're a centaur and would like to become human again, buy a human potion. Skin Tyte also sells various animal bases for your paws forms. These are items. They are not one-time-use.
Eye Style and Color Visit [Salon Durem] to pick eye styles in a color that you want. There are eye styles available in the salon that weren't available when you first created your avatar.
Hairstyle and Color Visit [Salon Durem] to pick hairstyles in a color that you want. There are hairstyles available in the salon that weren't available as options when you first created your avatar.
Avatar Deletion You can also delete and recreate your avatar for free by visiting this link: http://www.gaiaonline.com/profile/main.php?mode=delete The deletion process starts after you enter your password. You then get to recreate your avatar with the same options you had when you first created it. You will not have all the options that are available in Skin Tyte and Salon Durem. Please note that you will lose any hairstyle or eye style that's found only in the salon. You would have to buy back the salon eye style or hairstyle. Sometimes it's cheaper to delete and recreate your avatar and sometimes it's cheaper just to buy the new hairstyle, eye style or skin tone you want. Deleting and recreating your avatar only changes your avatar itself. You can delete and recreate your avatar as many times as you want. It does not delete your account. It does not change your username. It does not change your gender. It does not delete your items, gold or cash. It does not delete your number of forum posts.
where to find items. search mp and gold shops. also see post blah for other sources.
Avatar Guide for Newbies Post Three: Avatar Styles
Avatar Styles A snapshot of some of the styles on Gaia.
• • •• Here's a quick look at some of the avatar "styles" on Gaia. There are many other styles besides these ones. Go look through the forums and virtual spaces and pay attention to the avatars. Keep a mental note of what you like (you can also save them to favorites ************). Don't copy someone's exact avatar. It's rude. (If you and a friend want to dress like twins, that's different.) You can also play around on tektek for a while to get a feel for what you like.
Here's something to keep in mind about these categories. Sometimes avatars can fit in more than one category. A cosplay of a real life person might also then fit into the real life avatar category. A matching avatar might also have a theme. You don't have to be boxed into one category.
Here's a quick look at some categories avatar "styles" on Gaia. There are many other styles besides these ones. In fact, each forum and virtual space has its own popular items and outfits. The way you dress might be influenced by where you spend most of your time.
Cosplays:You can dress up your avatar to look like a famous movie star, movie character, cartoon character, historical figure, favorite anime, favorite video game, you name it. Gaia has a lot of tribute items for specific franchises, tweaked to avoid copyright issues. On the other hand, it can be difficult because the right items might not even exist to make the character. It can feel very rewarding to pull this off. Some people have usernames based off of a character and find it fun to dress and act like that character.
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Themes: With a themed avatar, you don't really dress your avatar up as a specific person. You dress like a stereotype. For example, you wouldn't dress up like David Blaine, the magician. You dress up like a stereotypical magician. You'd wear a top hat, have a magic wand, hold a bunny-- that kind of stuff. This category is widely varied since you can dress up in all sorts of themes from attorneys to zebras. Depending on the theme, the items needed might be cheap or expensive. You have to go all out though. You can't just hold a magician's wand and say you're a magician.
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Object Heads: blurb here
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Inanimate Objects:This is also neat. Here, people make their avatars look like a table with tea on it or like a volcano in the midst of clouds. To accomplish this, people usually turn their avatars around and often sit down. There is no way to preview items with your avatar turned backwards or sitting down. These types of avatars are usually discovered by accident as a person plays around with items they own. Note, there are also poses called "I am" poses. These are poses that turn your avatar into an animal, another person, and sometimes even objects like swords. Using an item that turns you into a volcano doesn't count in this category. To count, you'd have to use a bunch of other random items that make your avatar look like a volcano. :] In this example, seven different items were used, not just one item. This example is pretty simple because the avatar is hidden behind a wig that looks like gold coins. The rest of the items turn it into a scene.
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Cluttered Avatars:Clutter isn't all about showing off all your expensive items at once. In fact, stylish clutter is not about showing off items at all. However, you do have to own a lot of items. The goal here is to equip lots of items in such a way that it's hard to pick out each item. The items meld together in one large clutter ball. Most successful cluttered avatars often still keep their human shape. Cluttered avatars can match or not match. There are also varying degrees of clutter.
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Real Life Avatars: The goal here is to make your avatar look like an average person. You can dress up like that guy or girl you see walking down the street. You can dress it up to look like yourself. Yes, it's possible for a person to wear clothing like a toga or a suit of armor, but those kinds of items aren't everyday wear. An avatar dressed in a toga or suit of armor most likely wouldn't be a Real Life Avatar. A Real Life Avatar would more likely have a couple pieces of clothing with regular accessories like glasses, earrings, and belts. Real Life Avatars can look boring or they can look interesting. To make a Real Life Avatar look more interesting, you often need items like contacts, wigs, tattoos, scars, moles, etc. You might not see the difference between an average realistic avatar and an artistic realistic avatar until you've hung around the Avatar Talk subforum for awhile.
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Non-matching Avatars:This sounds easy, right? Just throw on random items and say you went for the non-matching style. Wrong. Non-matching avatars actually take a lot of coordination. There's often still a hint of matching. They often use different shades of of one color throughout the avatar. You also have to pay attention to the shape and texture of items. Texture is created by how an item is colored. Some items have a smooth gradient, some are rough, some are plaid, some dotted, etc.
Sometimes the two styles of Real Life Avatars and Non-matching Avatars look like the same thing. This is because an avatar can match, not match, be themed, or be a cosplay and still be realistic. A Real Life Avatar would wear an outfit that you can or would wear in real life (irl). A Real Life Avatar can match or not match. With Non-matching, the outfit might be possible irl or it might not. You can also get away with things like tails, wings and scarves that defy gravity.
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Matching Avatars:The goal of this style is to use two or more colors on an avatar. For each color used, all items have to be the same shade. For example, light sky blue does not match dark royal blue. Each color should be spread as evenly around the avatar as possible. Matching avatars can range from as simple as wearing five items to wearing forty items or more. Making simple matching avatars can be cheap, while the more complex cluttered matching avatars would most likely cost a lot.
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mix color schemes, match old items, intricately layer many items
Animal Avatars: The idea here is to make the avatar resemble an animal, an anthropomorph, or a Furry. These generally include ears and, depending on the animal, a tail. If the creator is going for believability, they will likely follow the color scheme for the chosen animal or add other defining features such as paws, collars, or special skins. However, if care is not put into these, they often look cheap and sloppy. An animal look is often taken as a theme with additional, non-animal items added to enhance the look of the avatar. Most users who attempt animal themes, for example, will use clothes or accessories to enhance visual appeal.
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Halvatar: A halvatar is an avatar with a very distinctive 'split' in color or theme. These can be diagonal, as in the example, or they can be vertical or horizontal. The same concept can also be used to achieve a gradient effect- where one color slowly fades into another through careful choice of items. Horizontal halvatars tend to be fairly easy, and most people will look at them as non-matching messes if few items are used. Diagonal is a bit more difficult, and a vertical split generally requires quite a bit of time and effort to achieve. Most diagonal or vertical halvatars tend to be a bit expensive to execute. Halvatars are hard. They're easier to make while using Gaia's real layering with the dress up screen. Tektek's layering will lie to you and you might make many impossible avatars using tektek. Halvatars require you to play around with item combinations. Try to add colors to only one side of the avatar. Sometimes a color will be added to both sides. For example, most pants cover two legs, not just one. If you want the other leg to be a different color, you must hide the pants with items of the correct color. Along with Blobs and Inanimate Objects, Halvatars are easier to make when you own lots of items.
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Credit: A thanks to Daypaw for adding the animal and halvatar sections.
Posted: Wed Jan 21, 2015 7:07 pm
Avatar Guide for Newbies Post Four: Finding your Style
Finding your Style What do you want to look like?
• • • • What's Your Style? Now that you know how to obtain items and dress yourself, let's consider what you want to wear. There's more to dressing your avatar than just equipping all your favorite items. This post is about how you find out what style you like.
The great thing about this is that you're never locked into one outfit or style. You can change your mind (and your avatar) at any time. When you're starting out and don't have many items yet, it's good to have a theme in mind. It's much easier to make good-looking outfits when your items pair together.
So as you buy your first items, it's good to already have a goal in mind.
Some ideas that people base their avatars on are:
Their OCs (Original Characters) Their username A favorite color scheme A favorite animal Cosplay a favorite character from a movie/TV show/book/video game/etc. A theme or job. Examples include clown, nurse, lawyer, pirate, demon, and angel. A hobby Some real life styles. Examples include (but are not limited to): goth, punk, hipster, lolita, decora and steampunk. This might be how a person dresses in real life, how they'd like to dress in real life or just a style that they admire.
Gaians often take these ideas further and have some styles that exist on this site like matching, monochrome, inanimate objects and halfatar. (As seen above.)
Making an outfit often starts with stumbling across an item you absolutely adore. Another thing Gaians build avatars around are items. Sometimes an item sparks an idea for such a cool avatar, you've gotta have that item.. and make that avatar.
• • • • Finding Your Style
As you surf Gaia, you might also be inspired by the avatars you see. In fact, each forum and virtual space has its own popular items and outfits. The way you dress might eventually be influenced by where you spend most of your time.
As you make your way around the site, pay attention to the avatars you see. If there are some types of avatars that draw your attention, maybe that's the sort of style you like. Do you like an item that someone else is wearing? There are a few ways to figure out the item's name:
In the forums, there's a bar under each person's avatar. This same menu will also appear under the person's avatar in some profiles. Hover your mouse over the triangle and a drop down menu appears. One choice says "View Equipped List." If you click on that, another image appears on your screen and lists out each item a person has equipped. Some items have more than one pose available. The main item icon is shown, not each individual pose. Each item links you to the marketplace. You can preview the item on yourself in the marketplace. This won't always work since some people have this option turned off to hide the items they're wearing. [Example drop down menu][Example Equipped List] Some people have a list of equipped items up on their profiles. You can send a PM or comment on the person's profile and ask what the item is called. Sometimes people are nice, sometimes they aren't. They might be tired of answering questions like that. They might even get defensive and think that you're trying to copy them. If you have a screen shot of the item (or a good description), you can ask other users to help you find the name of the item. Here's an example of a great thread just for that: What's that item?
Avatar Guide for Newbies Post Five: Some Style Tips
Some Style Tips A few guidelines to polish your look.
Making a stylish avatar isn't as easy as just piling your most expensive or favorite items on at once. Obviously, each style has its own rules... that differentiate one style from another. However, over the years, I've noticed some basic attributes that most stylish avatars seem to share. Just as there are no hard set rules to fashion and art irl, the same goes here. These rules will generally apply... but there will be times you break them. Crafting a stylish avatar is art... and you've got artistic license.
That said, do keep these tips in mind. They'll usually get you far. And check out the next post for some examples of items that'll help
• • • • Expression These style tips aren't listed in order of importance, however, this is the most important tip to keep in mind. Make your avatar expressive. Your avatar can be angry, haughty, bored, happy, crying, whatever.
If done right, a plain face is expressive. That will be hard to achieve when you're new to creating avatars. So, for now, go as expressive as possible. In other words, don't use your default face options. Use faces, eyes, noses, mouths, etc poses from items.
• • • • Overall Shape Avatars are more appealing when the overall shape is not too cluttered, doesn't have odd things sticking out everywhere and isn't too bulky at the top.
You'll also want to consider using body mod items. While not necessary and more limiting, these items are currently the height of fashion. They also help form an appealing overall shape. Be sure that the torso matches the legs. Nothing's worse than legs that are walking to the left, while the torso/arms are stiffly angled to the right.
• • • • Flow The items all have to agree and work with each other, ya dig? Items all have different patterns, textures and colors that can clash. Unless this is perfectly planned out, you usually look like a walking disaster.
Distribute colors/shades evenly around an avatar. You don't necessarily have to match (though that helps). Even non-matching avatars have balance. Don't have a ton of light blue items at the head with only a speck of light blue at the feet. It ruins the flow, man.
• • • • Details It's all in the details. Polish off your look. Remember to add items like makeup, glasses, jewelry, belts, etc. Hold an item. Add only what makes sense. This doesn't mean that you clutter every possible accessory onto the avatar.
• • • • Originality This is a big one if you're into asking others to rate your avatar. If you don't care at all what others think about your avatar, ignore this.
Putting together sets is seen as boring and not creative. It doesn't matter how much gold/cash you had to spend to create your look. It's not about the journey; it's about the destination. All you did was combine items that were made to go together. Big whoop. You'll get no points for creativity.
• • • • Disclaimer: I'm not saying that you need the items in this post. Items are just examples to help demonstrate the concepts.
Posted: Wed Jan 21, 2015 7:09 pm
item tips here
shoes, arms, etc
Here's a quick example of how to put together a matching avatar.
Start with one color and spread it around evenly. In this case, we've technically started with green and white since we've used items that are both green and white. Oops! The hat adds blue. We can either remove the hat or add blue. Let's add blue.
We've added blue shorts and a blue vest. You've got different options here. You could have added blue socks or blue pants. You could have added blue gloves, blue belt, blue tie... anything. At this point, the avatar looks bare. We could continue to add blue and green items. However, I decided to add another color: black. I made this decision because black is very easy to add. I also just felt like the black items would look good with this color scheme.
And, finally, the black items have been added to the avatar. Black was added to the bottom by using socks. Black was added to the middle by using a belt and a wool top. Black gloves could've been used too. However, I'm fond of the wool tops. They're great for layering. Black was added to the head by adding black hair. You could have added black glasses or a black hat pin instead. Eyes were also added in this step. Black, blue or green eyes would work. However, green is the better option here. The face is lined with blue (hat and vest) and black (hair) already. The area needed green.
And, finally, here's an example of spicing up the outfit. A more expressive face was used.
Let's check our style tips.
Expression: Well, the final one has expression, but we cheated and used non gold shop items. Okay, okay. I cheated. We're giving someone the side eye and our thin-lined mouth shows that we're not amused. Our clothing looks a bit... skater, sorta. It can fit. We were pretty free to use whatever expression we wanted in this case. Our clothing choices don't really restrict us.
Overall shape: Our avatar is compact. It works. Did we use body mods? Nope. ...Beware, this avatar looks very old school since it has no form of body mod items. Using smaller shoes would help fix that problem.
Flow: The colors flow very well. They're evenly balanced around the final avatar. Since this is obviously a matching styled avatar, we lose points here because our blue items don't perfectly match.
Details: We've got detail. We've got an undershirt, a belt, a necklace and socks. What would bump this up a notch is to hold an item in the hand. Extra points if it matches your theme.
Originality: Are we original? Yes. We did not repeat any items from a set.
Here, we've kicked it up a notch. We didn't use body mods, but the shoes are more dynamic than the other pair of shoes. The overall shape is still rather compact. Our blue shades still don't perfectly match. However, I couldn't find a better hat to replace the one we've used.
We want to make an outfit using dusty rose. Spread dusty rose items around the avatar. Hmm... we've also added white and rookie blue. White is a common accent color so we should be able to add that as we go. However, that blue will be a problem. We can either find a different head item or add blue. Let's add blue.
We've now added blue. When you don't use leg mods, you get more options. You can pick different shoes, socks, leggings (they layer under socks), anklets, pants, etc. However, we want to use a leg mod. This means that we need to swap out and use a different leg mod that adds blue. It will also need to add dusty rose. White bangs were added to the head. We could have used any sort of hat or hair, but bangs are also a versatile option. At this point, the avatar could be nearly complete. HOWEVER, I really don't like the lack of dusty rose at the feet. It's so minuscule compared to the large bow and dress. I decided to make more edits.
In this third avatar, we've reduced the amount of dusty rose in the avatar. The bow was removed and hair was added. The dress was removed in order to use a skirt that has less dusty rose. Alternatively, we could have added a blue/white scarf or vest to cover up the dress (so that less dress was visible). A blue hat was added. With the bow gone, we no longer had blue at the head.
Even more edits. An item (a white halo) was added to the head to cover up some of the hair as we had too much dusty rose at the head. A long scarf item was also added because it was cute and because it also helps balance out the dusty rose color. Glasses were added to help fill in the face.
And, in the final avatar, a face was added. The eyes are rookie blue.
Let's check our style tips.
Expression: Yep, we're happily and cutely drinking our tea
Overall shape: Our avatar has a lot of items and layers, but they're compact. One scarf does stick out from the avatar but it's okay. The shape actually helps bring balance to the bottom of the avatar. Our legs are very skinny compared to the rest of the avatar. Did we use body mods? Yep. Do they agree? Yep. We are standing and sipping tea. It works.
Flow: The colors flow very well. They're evenly balanced around the final avatar. We could have gotten away with the 2nd avatar. It's not too horrible since the bow does balance out the dress. However, the final avatar is much more balanced.
Details: We've got just the right amount of detail. Since we used body mods, it's hard to add anklets, socks, bracelets and gloves. We chose items that have details. We also added glasses and a scarf to help polish off the look.
Originality: Are we original? Yes and no. We are not full of sets. In fact, we didn't even use one set! We've only used one pose from each item. This is completely original. We lose some points for using this color scheme. It's very easy to pair dusty rose and rookie blue items because it's such a common color scheme.
Posted: Wed Jan 21, 2015 7:11 pm
Avatar Guide for Newbies Post Eight: Figuring Out Your Outfit
Figuring Out Your Outfit What do you want to look like?
• • • • Planning Your Outfit
Now that you have your idea, we're at the planning stage!
To plan out an avatar, you have two choices. You can plan an avatar using Gaia's Avatar Builder Feature or by using the Dress Up page.
Avatar Builder This feature is new as of March 2015. As I'm writing this in June 2015, kinks are still being ironed out. I'll flesh out a better guide in the future. Until then, know that the Avatar Builder is a viable option. It's just buggy so I can't write up too much about it yet.
Dress Up You can use the search tool to either search for items within your inventory or search for any item on Gaia. Search for items you don't own and equip them to create an avatar. Play with items until you find a combination that you like.
Pros and Cons Each method has its uses so use whichever tool you'd like. Use both methods and see which one works best for you.
The Avatar Builder allows you to create an avatar using any base - Female, Male, Human, Animal, Centaur, etc. In Dress Up, you will only be able to use your own base(s). (You can change between Human and Animal.
In Dress Up, you'll be able to save a single image of your avatar. You'll get a large image if you save it from the page itself. You can obtain a normal, avatar-sized image if you save the image from the closet preview. In the Avatar Builder, the image you save will show the avatar in six different poses. You'll have to use an image editing tool to snip it down to one. [I say this because most people provide one image for Dream Avatars. Who knows? As the Avatar Builder tool ages, maybe the population will become uses to the six-avatar image.]
The Avatar Builder will provide a list of items if you click "View equipped market data." This will provide you with an overall total cost. You can also copy/paste the list. In Dress Up, you'll have to manually write the names of items and add up the item costs.
The Avatar Builder will allow you to equip multiple poses from one item. Dress Up will not. For example, Jupiter's Lace is an item with multiple poses. In Avatar Builder, you will be able to try on all 7 poses at one time. In Dress Up, you can only equip one pose at a time. If your dream is to wear 2+ poses of an item, you will not be able to make that avatar in Dress Up.
There is an exception to that rule. If the item is an Evolving Item or Rapid Evolving Item, there will be multiple generations of those items. For Example, Zodiacal has 13 generations. You can equip one pose from each generation for up to a total of 13 poses from that item. (This is because Evolving Items and Rapid Evolving Items get the same poses, they just have different names.)
Please check out the next post for further instructions on how to search and save images of the Dream Avatars you make. Also, DarkerDemons has a wonderful guide in the NSTG called: [Customize Avatar, Avatar Builder, and Ghosting]. Read that thread for a more in depth look at how the Avatar Builder and Dress Up work and compare.
Item Search How to search for items from your Dress Up screen.
• • • • Search Items Within Dress Up
Gaia has thousands of items. There's been many trends and styles over the years. Often, the more affordable items are cheap because they're out of style. (Sometimes it's just because there's been such a mass release that the item goes dirt cheap, but is still a good item). Anyway, when you're just starting out, these items are likely what you'll be able to obtain. Heck, pffft, don't write off items cuz they're cheap. You can still make awesome avatars with them. The point isn't how much an outfit cost to make, but how good that outfit looks. Plus, a lot of Gaians usually wear the newest trending item(s). Using some of the older items will instantly help you look more original and unique. On that note, using mods (as I'll show below) on items will further help create unique items.
As you play with Gaia items, you'll come across items that can modify other items. I can't provide a full list here because there are tons. I'm gonna show a few to keep in mind and explain how it'll feel like you've got a bigger wardrobe than you have... since these items will change up the look.
Eye Mods One of the most useful tools you can have is an eye cutter. A lot of the faces and eyes on older, cheaper items have oversized eyes that are wonky. Don't get me wrong, every item has its place and there are people who can make these eyes look good. But on the whole, these faces give off a very "newbie" vibe since they give off "cheap" vibes. Another point to consider is maybe you just don't want large eyes... Maybe you don't want large eyelashes on your eyes. Orrr opposite, maybe you want to add large eyelashes to your eyes. All of this is possible... with the right eye mod. Depending on market value at the time you're reading this, there may or may not be cheap eye cutters. However, the right eye cutter is a good investment... since you'll be able to make all the cheap, older faces you have look more current.
shoes
hair cutters and shapers
Skin-showing items
check out this thread: has hair cutters check out thread for cutter items in general
Posted: Wed Jan 21, 2015 7:13 pm
Q&D Guide Post Nine: Item Search
Item Search How to search for items from your Dress Up screen.
• • • • Preview Items On Gaia, you can preview items in Dress Up, the Marketplace and the Avatar Builder pages. The advantage of previewing items in Dress Up and the Avatar Builder is that you can preview multiple items at the same time. Please see Darkerdemon's [Customize Avatar, Avatar Builder, and Ghosting] guide for more info on how to preview items using those features.
• • • • How to Search
You're set If you know the name of the item for which you're searching. Most items can be located by searching the item name.
But, what do you do if you don't know an item name? Or if you're doing a general search? Many items also have generic tags.
Some examples of tags that reveal items of a certain type:
premiumcs - Items sold directly in the Cash Shop premiumci - Items that spawned from RIGs/CIs (Chance Items). premiummc - Monthly Collectibles premiumei / premiumrei - Evolving Items (EIs) and Rapid Evolving Items (REIs) astra - Animated Items
You can also generically search for different kinds of items.
To find eyes, try words like: eyes, contacts To find faces, try words like: eyes, face, mouth, lips To find mouths try: mouth, lips, smile To find noses: nose To find hair: hair, wig, bangs, extension To find arms: arms, mod, armmod, gloves, hands To find legs: legs, leg, mod, legmod To find other extras: beard, mustache, scar, glasses, blush, makeup, eyeshadow, brow, ears, ring, earrings, skirt, shirt, boots, tail, etc
If you like a specific color (or color scheme), add the name to your search. Most items are tagged by color, but not all. You can find a list of color tags here.
You can also narrow down your searches by combining tags, ie "red premiumcs" or "green nose" or "demure flowers"
Avatar Guide for Newbies Post Eleven: How To Save Avatar Images
Saving Avatar Images Here's a quick section to explain how you can save images of "dream avatars" created using the inventory search option of Dress Up.
People usually save images of their dream avatars to share with others. People sometimes put them in their sigs or in a quest thread.
• • • • Save the Images and Share -- Avatar Builder
You've created a Dream Avatar using the Avatar Builder. Now here's how you can share it.
Option One: Print Screen It The advantage of this is that you can control what you want to save. You can crop and save just one avatar (of the six poses). Or your cropped image could include the item icons.
Just use the Print Screen button to copy the image. (Don't know what that key is? Here's a link to the Wikipedia article.) Open up your Paint program on your computer. Paste. (ctrl + P) Use the Select tool to crop the image. Upload the image to your favorite image hosting site. (I happen to always use tinyurl.com)
Option Two - Directly Save to Computer The advantage of this is that it's the fastest method. The downside is that the image is that of six different poses of one avatar. It's not a single avatar image.
Right click the avatar. Save the image. Upload image to your favorite image hosting site.
• • • • Save the Images and Share -- Dress Up
As you know, you cannot save your avatar with items that you do not own. But what can you do if you want to share the image of an avatar made with items that you don't own? Here are three options.
Option One: Print Screen It The advantage of this is that you can control what you want to save. You can crop and save just the avatar. Or your cropped image could include the item icons.
Just use the Print Screen button to copy the image. (Don't know what that key is? Here's a link to the Wikipedia article.) Open up your Paint program on your computer. Paste. (ctrl + P) Use the Select tool to crop the image. Upload the image to your favorite image hosting site. (I happen to always use tinyurl.com)
Option Two - Directly Save to Computer The advantage of this is that it's the fastest method. The downside is that the avatar remains the same size as it is during dress up -- giant. It will also retain the background (either the dressing room image or a white background).
Right click the avatar. Save the image. Upload image to your favorite image hosting site.
Option Three - Add to Outfits Before Saving The advantage of this is that the saved image will be the same size as a regular avatar. The down side is that you'll need to have an open outfit slot.
Open the outfits (located to the bottom left of the item icons). If you have an open outfit slot, you should see the avatar in it. If you don't have an open outfit slot, get one. Right click the avatar in the outfit slot. Save the avatar. (Literally save the image of the avatar. You do not need to save the avatar to that outfit slot. It doesn't hurt though.) Upload image to your favorite image hosting site.
Need a more detailed explanation? Let me know and I'll try to help ya out.
Posted: Wed Jan 21, 2015 7:15 pm
Avatar Guide for Newbies Post Twelve: Help with Planning
Help with Planning Need some help with creating your dream?
Creating a whole new look from scratch is tough work, especially when you're not familiar with Gaia's items. You can ask other Gaians to help you create an outfit for you. Don't be shy. Many people love making people happy by creating avatars for them. Heck, even very capable avatar-makers ask others to create new looks for them so that they can get a fresh perspective. It's a normal thing here.
• • • • Gaians want to help you!
The [Dressing Room Subforum] is a forum dedicated to users making avatars for each other. This option is good if you know what general style you want, but aren't good at creating an outfit yet.
You can make your own thread and ask for help. Some people want you to come and ask in their threads. There are even user-run shops where you can pay users to make an outfit for you. Sometimes this is free; sometimes it's not. You will get more responses if you offer users gold or prizes for creating an avatar for you, but it's not necessary.
Be sure to tell others if there are certain items or colors you want included. You can also state a general style you like. If you absolutely hate a certain color/style/theme, be sure to state that. Also be sure to give a price range you're willing to work with.
When you're fist starting out, you might not have much items to work with. However, if you want a Dream Avatar created using mostly items you own, you can ask people to "ghost" your avatar by using the Avatar Builder tool. Be sure to give people your user ID. You must click "Allow ghosting" from the Avatar Builder page to allow users to do this.
Your user ID is the string of numbers at the end of the url for your profile. For example, my user ID is 2449642 as you can see from my profile.
When someone ghosts your avatar in Avatar Builder, they will be able to create a Dream Avatar using your inventory. What they see in the Avatar Builder screen is what you would see. They will know what items you own. (If you have rare/expensive items, scammers will see them and might try to scam your password out of you. Never give your Gaia password to anyone. Gaia staff will never ask for your password. Never.)
The Avatar Talk forum is a good place to get opinions and feedback on your avatar or dream avatar. Here's your warning: that forum is full of tough critics. They might rip your avatar apart and suggest that you change it in certain ways. Don't take it as a personal attack. It's just their opinion and you asked for it. However, they usually have the best intentions and are trying to build you up, not tear you down. And, heck, the advice is free. Don't care about other people's opinions about your avatar? Don't ask others what they think.
You can also make a thread in the NSTG Chatterbox and ask your fellow guild members for help.
I'm happy to help. I'm always happy to give advice or help tweak an avatar. I'll try to keep your goals in mind while critiquing and not just give a critique based on standardized aesthetics. Shoot me a PM.
When requesting help from other people, give them some ideas or information to work with. The more information you give people, the better they will be able to make an avatar that you like. Heck, they might make a gorgeous avatar using pink and orange that would make anyone jealous. However, if you don't like pink, you're not going to like that avatar. You might not know what you want the avatar to look like, but you know what you like. Do you care what color your hair is? Skin tone? Eyes? Are there colors you love or hate? Items you love or hate? Specific styles you like? A price range you want to stick to?
Avatar Guide for Newbies Post Thirteen: Buy that stuff.
Buy that stuff. Own it so you can wear it!
• • • • Earn funds. It's time to save up to buy those items. This is not a comprehensive list since there are many ways to earn funds. I'd like to highlight some quick, easy methods here to help get you started. Please see JoyRose's detailed guide [Earning Coins on Gaia] for more info.
You can earn plat/gold by posting in various areas around the site. You get a boosted amount of plat/gold for your first post of the day... in different locations around the site. For example, as of Jan 2023, you can earn:
Collect the Daily Gift each day when you log in. It's a small amount of plat but everything adds up.
You can also sell items that you don't want to earn some more plat/gold. Here are some ways to get items: Collect the Daily Chance carts. The DC carts can be found on the main landing pages: Gaia Online, My Gaia, GCash, Shops, GoFusion, Forums, World and Games. You will find a variety of plat/gold and items. Each cart can be clicked once a day. Carts turn from red to yellow if you've logged in for six of the seven past days. Yellow Carts have a higher chance at better rewards.
Use Dumpster Dive. This is a feature where you can get items that have been donated by other Gaians. These items range from trash to treasure. You may click Dive once every five minutes.
Collect Item freebies. Check for new, free Grant Items. Grant items are freebie items obtained from Gaia just by clicking on the grant link. There are a few lists that keep track of the links. Here's one: Official Item Grant Archive. You can sell these items and use them toward your quest. It's also nice to have extra items to wear when you want to change your outfit.
Check out the games and contests in the NSTG's Charities, Contests and Games subforum. Other Gaians have created fun ways for you to possibly earn some gold and items.
You can buy and sell Cash Shop items to earn platinum/gold for your quest. Cash is a Gaia currency that you buy with real currency. There are some ways to slowly earn free cash: Collect free Gaia Cash from the Gaia Cash Tree. You'll get small amounts of cash, but it all adds up! Beware offers that ask for personal information (like credit cards).
bulletin board
Some other ideas... sell art, craft avatars
Posted: Wed Jan 21, 2015 7:18 pm
Avatar Guide for Newbies Post Fourteen: Dream Avatars and Questing
Dream Avatars and Questing So you're saving up...
add to wanted list
gaia upgrade add on to make list avatar builder to make a list
• • • • Dream Avatars and Questing
You can only wear items that are in your inventory. The next step after you have your planned outfit is to buy the items on Gaia. This could end up taking awhile if your dream avatar is expensive.
Is it too expensive? Try to find alternative, similar items that will work just as well. If you really really want one of the expensive items, you're in for the long haul. Saving up your gold for an item or items is referred to as "questing." If you're doing activities around the site to earn gold to save up for an item, you are questing.
Even if you don't have your dream avatar yet, you still need something to wear right now. It can take months to save up enough gold for your new outfit. Put together a nice looking, cheap avatar to wear while you save up.
• • • • Ask for help. Please don't beg. Make a Quest Thread. Quest threads show your dedication to your quest. It's a place where you can keep track of your progress and show others that you're serious about your quest. Many Gaians are more apt to donate when they see that you're putting in work towards your goal and not simply begging for handouts. You can make a quest thread in the NSTG's Item Quests forum. You can also make a Quest Thread in Gaia's main Charity/Quests subforum. (Be sure to check out other quest threads before you make your own. See what sort of information you should include and how many posts you'll need in order to keep it all organized.)
Be sure to keep your thread updated with your progress. Post often. You can also put a link to your Quest Thread in your signature or profile. Also consider having a public wishlist on your profile.
Don't expect people to give you all sorts of gold and items. Keep in mind that many people are also questing items. Be thankful for every donation. Be sure to give back and donate to others when you can. Karma.
Avatar Guide for Newbies Post Fifteen: Final Thoughts
Final Thoughts Here's s'more rambling~
• • • • Dream
Many people change their dream avatars a few times before they ever complete one. So take your time and see what items exist. Make as many dreams as you want. And remember, avatars don't have to be expensive to look good. (Just follow the style tips! ;D)
Many don't even have dream avatars. Many just save up for items that they like. I think it's good to start off with a dream avatar. That way you've got at least one complete outfit.
Eventually, you'll get to a point where you won't need to plan out each outfit ahead of time. You just create new avatars from your dress up screen because you've got plenty of items to work with.
• • • • Habits
Some Gaians pick one look and stick to it foreverrrrrr.
Some Gaians pick one look and stick to it for the most part. However, they might tweak bits and pieces of it over the years as Gaia releases new items. "Oh hey! I need a mole!" "Oh hey, I love that haircut!"
Some Gaians change their outfits, but always stick to the same general theme. This includes keeping the same face and hair, but changing the outfit. This includes always making a demon or always making a pirate.
Some Gaians change with the season or holiday event.
Some Gaians change their avatar daily. Some even vastly change themes and styles.
What you do is up to you. It's your avatar.
• • • • Ciao, for now~
I was serious when I said that the face is the most important part of the avatar. Avatars range in complexity. The one thing that always makes an avatar look complete is to have a good face. Don't have one? Get that first!
For an expanded version of the style tips, please visit the Avatar Making Guide. Have fun!
And remember, all that matters is that you like your avatar. (And follow the TOS.) It doesn't matter what other people think. Ask for help if you need or want it. Don't ask for opinions if you can't take objective criticism or (possibly) negativity.
