Strange Tomato (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
strangetomato) wrote2008-04-03 10:21 pm
strangetomato) wrote2008-04-03 10:21 pm
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Strangetown extras: Grunt Family Portrait
So, I finally decided to try my hand at making a custom painting with SimPE, and the process was super easy. I'll definitely be making more of these to customize the artwork in my story. More specifically, I'm going to decorate homes with photos of the characters in my story whenever appropriate. This will include family portraits, wedding portraits, and so on. I'd really like to recolour that cluster of smaller frames with random snapshots (but I don't recall seeing that template in SimPE. I'll have to look into how I'd go about doing that.)
My first first project was, predictably, a Grunt family portrait. I wanted to have the boys discover this stashed away with the General's belongings. It would be something he put away after Lyla left, since he couldn't bear to be reminded of her. I have no idea when this might turn up in the story, so I decided to just share it right away.
Ripp: Wow. I haven't seen this in forever!
Buck: I found it with Dad's things.
Tank: We're all so happy looking.
I've never made a group of sims view art at the same time before. They have a conversation, just like they do while eating or watching TV. The boys all stood around and discussed having 5 best friends (how appropriate!), and maxing out a skill, while they thought about the portrait.
The general behavior was mostly positive, especially from Ripp, and they made some of those puzzled expressions like the one that Buck has in this shot.
And what was their final reaction?
It's enough to just break your heart. They were all really sad about it.
Here's a better look at the source material. I posed them as if they went to a portrait studio. (I guess Buzz must have chosen the background colour.)
The photo is a little blurry when you get really close to it in-game, so I'm going to see if there's a way to improve it, but this might be as good as it gets with a .jpg file from the in-game camera. It will work just fine for story purposes as it is, so I'm not too concerned.
Pretty cool, don't you think?
ETA: I followed this tutorial from MTS2 to make the custom painting.
My first first project was, predictably, a Grunt family portrait. I wanted to have the boys discover this stashed away with the General's belongings. It would be something he put away after Lyla left, since he couldn't bear to be reminded of her. I have no idea when this might turn up in the story, so I decided to just share it right away.
Ripp: Wow. I haven't seen this in forever!
Buck: I found it with Dad's things.
Tank: We're all so happy looking.
I've never made a group of sims view art at the same time before. They have a conversation, just like they do while eating or watching TV. The boys all stood around and discussed having 5 best friends (how appropriate!), and maxing out a skill, while they thought about the portrait.
The general behavior was mostly positive, especially from Ripp, and they made some of those puzzled expressions like the one that Buck has in this shot.
And what was their final reaction?
It's enough to just break your heart. They were all really sad about it.
Here's a better look at the source material. I posed them as if they went to a portrait studio. (I guess Buzz must have chosen the background colour.)
The photo is a little blurry when you get really close to it in-game, so I'm going to see if there's a way to improve it, but this might be as good as it gets with a .jpg file from the in-game camera. It will work just fine for story purposes as it is, so I'm not too concerned.
Pretty cool, don't you think?
ETA: I followed this tutorial from MTS2 to make the custom painting.
New Reader
I've really enjoyed reading the story so far. I love seeing what other people do with the Maxis playables as I like including them in my stories, as well.
The family portrait of the Grunts is really heart breaking as well as their reactions. Tank, I think, gets me the most because he seems to hide his emotions well. The fact that he can't hide them here says that there's so much more beneath the surface.
I can't wait to see what's happening next!!
Stacie
Re: New Reader
Thank you. I'm glad to hear that you've enjoyed it so far. I'm always interested in seeing different takes on the Maxis folks too. So many possibilities!
I agree. Tank's shell is a tough one to crack, but I'm sure he has plenty of things buried deep inside. He's not likely to reveal them to very many people.