How Jessica got her groove back.

[strangetomato]

I've agreed to help meetme2theriver fix the premade sims with broken genetics (due to being created from broken templates — see her post for more details), which will essentially involve me recreating some of these sims from scratch using the fixed templates. Not exactly simple, but it's sort of like solving a puzzle, so I thought it'd be kinda fun.

Here's where you come in: I need feedback. I know my first draft isn't perfect, but I need some fresh eyes to have a look at it and to help me decide what else needs to be done. If you're good with BodyShop sliders, feel free to pick her apart and offer suggestions.

 

This last angle is the least accurate, but also the most difficult for me to figure out. Advice is very welcome.




 

 

Comments

[pixelcurious.livejournal.com]

All I can really see is chin height and upper lip width... it's really very close! You did that from scratch? :O

[strange-tomato.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the suggestions! ^_^ The chin is troubling me the most, since I've already moved it around quite a bit. It might be a case where I should move in the chin of another template. I'm going to load BodyShop and try some more today.

I started from template 25 and worked from there. It was quite an adventure! XD

[llama-ramalon.livejournal.com]

I am in no way an expert, but I might suggest that you bring the lip a click back?

[llama-ramalon.livejournal.com]

*lips

[strange-tomato.livejournal.com]

Thanks! It seems like her whole profile needs moving back to me, so I'll be working on that.

[llama-ramalon.livejournal.com]

No problem. :) Good luck!

[cosmetical.livejournal.com]

They are really close. I'd say the upper lip needs a little more fullness, forehead should come out a click, and jaw should probably go in a click. Maybe go a bit wider in the nose? It's really hard to tell, which is probably a good testimony to how well you're doing.

Edit: oops. I assumed yours on the left. If that isn't so, I guess you would do the opposite of any of these suggestions. :P

[strange-tomato.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the help. The forehead seems like an easy fix to me now. The lips and nose weren't obvious to me at all, but they are now, so thanks for that! This was really helpful. ^_^

[will-o-whisper.livejournal.com]

This is really impressive. o_o

Yours is the one of the right, correct? I think her face is a little too long. I'd start with pulling it up a click or two, maybe adjust her chin to match if you need to. Her nose looks a smidge too big so you might want to try shrinking it just a click or so; rotating the bridge out might smooth that area out, more like the original. I second thinning her lips a little.

All in all, though, wow. These are really close; I didn't realize they were different at first!

[strange-tomato.livejournal.com]

Thank you! The advice on the nose is especially helpful.

I'm not sure about moving the face up. She seems about right where her brow/eyes are and that would move up, too. I also avoid that slider like the plague because it causes the most breeding issues and eye makeup still shows up halfway down the cheeks. I think the Ottomas family is a case where their faces are too high, so that gives you an idea of what I mean. :P

I'm glad you think she's on the right track. I'm going to learn a lot about sim creation with this project! ^_^

ETA: No, wait! You were right about the face height. I did shift the face upwards, but then moved the brow orbit and nose back down to avoid the eye-level issues. It seems to be working! :D Thank you so much for that suggestion. You were right on track!

[meetme2theriver.livejournal.com]

It's really good! Thanks again for helping. :)

I pretty much second will_o_whisper, lips and nose a tad too big, and the chin needs to go in a bit.

Also, simlili found another one. Sohpia Jocque. D: I realise how time-consuming this is, though, so I could give it a go myself. I'm currently doing some random checking of other pre-mades I haven't played much with, to see if there's anyone else I've missed...

[meetme2theriver.livejournal.com]

Looks like they made her daughter, Violet, with the pacifier in CAS. She's not as obvious as her mother because she's got some of Marcel's features too, but the eyes and nose definitely change during the adult stage. :/ I really like how she looks as an adult, too. The question is, which one should she be changed to?

[strange-tomato.livejournal.com]

Well, I applaud them for actually using the pacifier to create the families in later EPs, but that does create problems for poor Violet, doesn't it?

I'd say we work with Sophia and then look at Violet. It might be possible to roll the dice and see if she'll pop up in CAS with the pacifier again. :P

In Violet's case, she really should look like her adult face, so I'd say that, though it does change her original look and people have grown used to her that way... hmmm. Maybe we'd be better off working with the teen face, then. We should ask for second opinions. A poll in Maxis_taste, maybe?

Oh, and I don't mind doing these restructures if you don't mind waiting a while for them. I'm just going to pick away at them one by one. I figure I'll learn more about shaping sims in the bargain! ^_^

[meetme2theriver.livejournal.com]

Yeah, some of the Maxis kids, especially in later EPs, actually do look like their parents. It's amazing. :P

The difference in Violet is not as great as in say, Hal Capp (I fixed him, by the way, it was really easy - just set everything except the eyebrows to Face #2), so I'm partial to making her like her adult face, but a poll is a really good idea. I can make one later.

I don't mind waiting, I'm just happy I don't have to struggle with them all on my own. ^^

[strange-tomato.livejournal.com]

Family resemblances... recessive genes... have they gone MAD?! XD

I think the best thing to do would be to stay consistent throughout this fix, so we should have her match the teen look, I think. It doesn't perfectly match her parents, but that's nothing unique among Maxis premades, right?

Maybe a poll would give us an idea of how people feel the changes should go in general? Plastic surgery on premades is a touching topic, especially among those who love the characters, so Maxis Taste would give us a sense of how most of those types feel about it.

I'm super glad you're able to fix this, so anything I can to to help is my pleasure, really! ^_^

[meetme2theriver.livejournal.com]

Tank and Ripp both have recessive blond hair by default, I thought that was interesting. Some of the Capp and Monty kids have correct recessive hair and eyes, too. But then some of them... just have random crap in there. Hal Capp's genetic hair colour was black. O.o

I should totally make a poll in maxis_taste, complete with pictures and everything, and include Gilbert, Denise, Jasmine, Hal... Violet of course... I've already fixed the four former, but it's no big deal to do it again.

I'm really happy about it too, it was bugging me so much that all these characters were broken. :) My Gilbert had a little girl with the borked BV townie (called Breanna Custer in the uberhood), and I had already surgeried her to make her looks consistent, but now I can breed her when she grows up after all - unless ACR makes her gay. And yes, it was kinda ironic that out of all the people I could pair up Gilbert with, I picked a townie with a broken face template (didn't recognise it on a female). :P

[strange-tomato.livejournal.com]

Yeah, the Grunts are quite strange that way, for the basegame. They have recessive grey eyes from Buzz, too, and yet they are so different looking that it seems unlikely they used the pacifier to create them. Very odd.

His genetic hair was black? That's really weird. I know the Smiths used to have wacky genetic issues too, with their skin being set as s4, but that was fixed with a later EP or patch or something. The Veronaville stuff wasn't?

You're already going with the shown faces rather than the genetic faces, right? I suspect that more people would want that, but the poll would be worth doing, I think. Pictures would be fun and would make it make more sense for those who are less obsessive about sim knowledge than we are. XD

So you have a child that was created from a broken template parent and a hidden genetics parent? Yeah, the odds were against it, but that's pretty interesting. Do you have a pic of her?

I'm all for anything to improve the breeding abilities of sims. That's the best part of the game! :D

[meetme2theriver.livejournal.com]

Yeah, Tank looks a lot like Buzz, but Buck and Ripp both are very different... Then again, there's no knowing what Lyla actually looks like, since she's completely and utterly borked. Extracting her and trying to load her in Body Shop makes the program crash.

...I wonder what would happen if I extracted her facial features only and put it on another sim...

Anyway, the actual problem with lots of sims in both Strangetown and Veronaville was that they were lacking one of the skintone strings in their DNA. They had the one called 'skintone range' but not the actual, main skintone string. So the game got confused and just defaulted to S4 when they had children. I'm guessing the patch probably fixes this somehow when you load them ingame, because the templates themselves are still broked. I just fixed them all myself.

There's lots of inconsistencies with hair colour and parentage, but I don't think anyone else's DNA were quite as wacky as Hal's. They just insisted on screwing him up in every way, I guess. I'm surprised he doesn't have brown eyes or something too.

The outcome will probably be shown faces, but I'll still put up the poll. Probably sometime tomorrow, I need to take pictures first. Heheh, obsessive? Who, me? :P

Here's a picture of Francine Jacquet as a toddler (held by her mother). Her pointy chin is more obvious there than at the child stage for some reason. It's from Gilbert's genetic looks. The Face #2 eyes are also from Gilbert, it's the only main feature that's the same in his genetic looks. The rest were all supposed to be Face 25 features from her mother, but appear Face 2. She's not terribly interesting. The chin's kinda cool at her adult stage, though.

(And yes, I do need that LJ edit function. FAIL.)

[sillysoraya.livejournal.com]

The lower jaw looks like it needs clicking back, as well as something being done concerning the lips, making them skinnier and less full-shaped, and also the cheekbones at the eyes a tad higher. And lower face less full, and smaller nose. :)

[strange-tomato.livejournal.com]

Thank you. ^_^ This was very helpful. I'll be playing around with those features in BodyShop today.

[aledstrange.livejournal.com]

She's looking great! I can't add anything new (lips and nose a bit big, maybe, but it has been mentioned already), but have to say you guys are doing an amazing job fixing this. <3 <3

[strange-tomato.livejournal.com]

Thanks! Coming from you, that means a lot. You're one of the resident "experts" on the Maxis sims, for sure. XD If my recreations pass your approval, I know I'm on the right track.

I'll be running them all by everyone again before we're satisfied that it's the final version. I'm pretty keen on getting them exactly right (or at least as close as possible).

[aledstrange.livejournal.com]

lol! Far from expert, tho, I didn't even know about all of these borked sims. XD

I knew about the Jacquets and the mess in Strangetown, but I'm actually shocked to find out that sims like Hal, and some many others, are all screwed up too. :O

[silentsteel.livejournal.com]

Wow, talk about having no under-chin flab - Maxis really cranked that all the way back.

I'm really impressed! This is a fantastic match case. I can see a few tweaks I'd try - like bringing up the nose length one click, and then lowering the nose tip to get that sharper 'v' shape - but you're spot on.

[selenecorvino.livejournal.com]

Pic #3: The one on the right - the lower cheek bulge is sticking out too far by 1 maybe 2 clicks.