Join us SUNDAY May 24 for our GRAND OPENING of this beautiful venue! On board will be DJ Country Bob at 1pm, known throughout the metaverse for his diverse collection of musical styles, followed by Clan Escotia singing LIVE at 2pm till the neighbors storm the castle walls! Full stage band featuring Clan's Band will be on board! Don't miss this once in a lifetime event! Region is OPEN NOW, feel free to come by and say hello any time!

An Art Hive is a community art studio that welcomes everyone as an artist. From an art pop-up in a local library to a community studio or gallery, at its heart, an Art Hive is about inclusion, respect and learning. It's a welcoming place to talk, make art and build communities. Responding in creative ways to things that matter.

Come and contribute to our Virtual Hive and find out more about the history of the project here: https://arthives.org

Rakis Heron

Your contact person for grid (no drama)
and hometown sim advisor.
Owner of grid. 8 domains, 6 servers, 5 works,
hardware, software, business internet and
all bills every month. $ 300 / month.
PayPal donations are always welcome.

## Create Your Own Mesh Avatar with Outworldz OpenAvatar

Have you ever wanted to create your own mesh avatar instead of simply using a premade one?

Outworldz has a free tool that lets you do just that.

**OpenAvatar** is a free, open-source mesh avatar maker compatible with OpenSim and Second Life. You can use the online creator to put together your own human avatar by choosing the parts you want.

You don't need to know Blender or another 3D modeling program just to get started. OpenAvatar does the basic assembly for you.

## Start with OpenAvatar

Go to the Outworldz OpenAvatar creator:

**[Outworldz OpenAvatar Creator](https://outworldz.com/OpenAvatar/)**

Start by choosing whether you want to create a **male or female avatar**.

Then you can begin building your avatar.

## Choose a Head

Select the head you want to use.

This is one of the fun parts of OpenAvatar because you aren't simply being handed one completed character. You are choosing the pieces that will make up your avatar.

Try the available choices until you find the head that works with the character you have in mind.

## Choose a Body

Next, choose the body.

Your head and body don't have to come from one predetermined avatar. OpenAvatar lets you put the available pieces together to create your own combination.

## Choose the Legs

Choose the legs you want to use with your head and body.

At this point, you've selected the major pieces that make up your custom avatar:

**Head + Body + Legs**

OpenAvatar then combines those selections into your avatar.

## About the Skin

OpenAvatar currently provides **one skin** for the avatar.

So this isn't a skin-selection system with a range of different skin choices. The customization comes primarily from choosing and combining the available **head, body and leg components**.

Once you've created the avatar, you can take your project further yourself if you want a different appearance.

## Make It Your Own

The OpenAvatar creator gives you a starting mesh avatar, but that doesn't have to be where your creativity stops.

Creators can take their avatar further with their own clothing, hair, accessories, textures and other custom content.

If you're comfortable working with programs such as Blender, you can also use your avatar as the starting point for more advanced creative work.

Outworldz has additional avatar-development resources available as well, including male and female avatar models in formats such as **FBX, BLEND and DAE**, along with skin templates and other resources for avatar and clothing creators.

## Why OpenAvatar Is Useful for OpenSim Creators

Sometimes you don't want somebody else's finished character.

You want a starting point.

Maybe you're creating residents for your own grid. Maybe you need characters for a roleplay region. Maybe you're developing clothing or accessories. Or perhaps you simply want to experiment with making your own avatar.

OpenAvatar gives you an easy place to begin.

Choose a head.

Choose a body.

Choose the legs.

Let OpenAvatar put them together.

Then see where your own creativity takes you.

## Try It Yourself

**https://outworldz.com/OpenAvatar/mergeHuman.plx**

It's free, it's open source, and it's another great Outworldz resource for people who would rather **create** than simply settle for what everyone else is wearing.

**Build it. Customize it. Make it yours.**