Strangetown extras: Grunt Family Portrait

[strangetomato]

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.

Comments

[strange-tomato.livejournal.com]

He was. What a cute little boy. I'll bet he was a brat though. I imagine him showing off constantly, asking a million questions, and whining about having to pick up his toys.

They do look like they are actually related to each other, and the more I analyze them the more I see it. You can see Buck in Tank here, and Ripp even looked a little like Buzz when he was cleaned up. (And I much prefer my Lyla to the bland one in Olive's graveyard - she just a straight face template, and doesn't match the family AT ALL). And the colouring of their genetics makes sense too (including recessive traits).

I think the Smith/Curious family has some good family resemblances too, now that I've spent more time with them. Jill obviously looks like Jenny, and Johnny actually resembles his uncle Vidcund in the nose (and chin too, I believe).

I find Pleasantview to be the worst for families that don't resemble each other. The Pleasant twins don't look like either of their parents, especially in the nose. I always assume that Mary-Sue (and Brandi Broke) must be meant to have recessive blond genes (even though they don't in the game). That's the only way to make the hair colours of their children make sense.

I've heard nothing but bad things about the Lyla in Olive's graveyard. That's another reason I decided to make my own. She's supposed to be missing data or corrupted in some way.

[simpathology.livejournal.com]

According to SimPE when I'm searching character files with everything selected (NPCS and townies both, lags like a bitch), Lyla Grunt is listed as having no character data. That's probably why no one can really clone her and resort to making their own versions if desired. Admittedly, for my Weirdsville neighbourhood I used your method of using Ripp and Buck to make her for the Grunts I've relocated.

[strange-tomato.livejournal.com]

Well, that makes sense. I wonder if that's why she also shows with random hair and clothes as a ghost in my game (a lot of Olive's ghosts do - it's weird).

I think it's a good method for making Lyla. If you're going to do it, you may as well give her a family resemblance, and she turns out quite pretty too! ^_^

[katsuko]

I wonder if that's why she also shows with random hair and clothes as a ghost in my game (a lot of Olive's ghosts do - it's weird)

Whenever she's roaming the lot in my game, she's bald and wearing that pink-shirt-white-capris outfit. The only time I attempted to resurrect her I had to quit the lot without saving because she borked it completely.

About the only ghosts on that lot that don't look weird for me are her former spouses and that maid-ghost. I keep expecting that one to start cleaning everything.

[saylee.livejournal.com]

Hi, I hope you don't mind a total stranger commenting out of the blue. I've been reading your stories foor awhile and really enjoy them.

Ihear you on the family resemblance thing, but I've always though that Jill had something vaguely alien about her feaatures, particularly once she becomes a teen. It's nowhere near as pronounced as in the real aliens, obviously, but there'ssomething about her eyes and nose, I think.

[strange-tomato.livejournal.com]

Oh, I don't mind at all. I love hearing from someone new. Nice to meet you!

I totally agree with you about Jill. She has a very small nose and large eyes, so it gives her a little bit of an alien look. I'm sure she's happy about that. Johnny, on the other hand, don't have very alien-like features at all - just the skin.