Maxis Taste Weekly Dare 002: Freestyle make-over

[strangetomato]

If you haven't already checked it out, I recommend the maxis_taste community to anyone who shares the love of Maxis-made sims (I'm assuming that includes many of the people reading this journal). It's all about the Maxis-made sims and content that matches the Maxis style, which is right up my alley.

I decided to participate in the latest challenge (or "dare" as they are referred to in this community), which asks the participants to do a freestyle makeover of a pre-made sim (up to three), using any cc available to them. I chose Johnny and Jill Smith, since I've been wanting to make them over anyway. I did a little photo shoot, and here they are...

Here they are, enjoying the sun and sand (nice abs, Johnny!), but wait... there's something different about them.
 



I decided to make them over to be more genetically realistic. I'm not sure if this really fits the purpose of the challenge, but it didn't say we couldn't mess around with genetics. Either way, I've wanted to try this out for a while, so I did.

Jill hair is a little on the shiny side to be a Maxis match, I know, but that doesn't always bother me so much with hair. I really like this long flowing mesh to go with the beach look. (It would be cool to retexture it to be more Maxis-match... that could be another possible project.)




Here they are, fully clothed. They're fairly different from my other take on them in Strangetown, HWC, but I could still see them wearing something like this.

 Don't you love the scenery on Twikki Island? It's so beautiful.




This photo would be another nice addition to the wall in the Smith family den, don't you think?
 


Custom content used:

- Jack's alien eyes by pixel_and_bean
- lipstick and eyeliner by HystericalParoxysm
- eyeshadow by Lyran
- Johnny's hair by Maxis Dreams
- Jill's hair by Nouk
- Johnny's outfit is from the EA Store
- Jill's dress is a recolour of an H&M dress by me
- Jill's bikini is by HystericalParoxysm

Comments

[music-simbol.livejournal.com]

These two look pretty good! Genetically, one of them should have red hair, and Jill should be all aliened up. Those alien tans look good too. Very nicely done! :)

Btw, these pics look bigger than usual, you using a screencapping program?

[strange-tomato.livejournal.com]

Thanks. :) Their genetics really don't make sense, but that's part of their charm. I've always wanted to see them looking more correct like this too, so I gave it a try.

Yeah, I've been using screencaps for photo shoots for a while now. I don't bother for the usual story shots, since it would make it all way too much work (and I'd rather spend that time composing shots and writing instead), but I take a nice crisp screencap for artworks, the banner, etc.

I'm trying out the SnagIt 30-day trial right now. I like that program so far. I also have IrfanView, since you recommended it. I'm just playing around with a couple of different programs to see which one I like best.

[hannahspring.livejournal.com]

Aww, they look so cute! I really love them! Makes me want to hug them! :D

I think the red hair suits Johnny very well. Jill's hair looks also very nice, but as you said, it would look better if it was little less shiny. But I really do like the recolor of H&M dress - it's my favorite shade of pink. :)

Twikki Island looks brilliant. I can't remember the last time I sent my Sims on holidays. :(

BTW: Has the EA Store updated again?
BTW2: I'm jealous of your graphics card. My pictures always get blurry. *sigh*

[strange-tomato.livejournal.com]

Thanks. That's exactly how I felt about the hair - it's nice, but seems a bit out of place with the Maxis content (like all of Nouk's textures). I don't mind that when it's just a little bit different, but that one is shinier than anything I'd actually use in the story. There's another long one by Raon that I feel the same way about. It's nice, but needs a new texture to really work in a cartoony Maxis-match game.

I'm a big fan of that shade of pink too. I could upload it, if you'd like it for yourself. I'm planning to use that dress on Erin Beaker soon. She's such a barbie doll in my game, and I love it.

I love sending sims on vacation, but the game runs very slowly for me in the vacation lots. It seems slower than usual lately anyway, and I'm not sure why. When I go into the buy menu, the music is choppy too. This is a new problem since the reinstall, and I hope I can eventually fix it.

I think they've added some new FT and Ikea stuff to the store, maybe, but no new hairs or anything like that.

Yeah, my graphics card is great. I'm lucky to have it.

[simgarooop.livejournal.com]

Would you believe that I realized that Jill had green skin long after I noticed her black eyes and Johnny's red hair?! O_o

I love these makeovers! Especially Jill's! It is odd that she didn't inherit a single trait from her Dad! No wonder the poor girl ended up dying her hair green to feel part of the "alien clan".

[strange-tomato.livejournal.com]

That's funny. :P Maybe you're just really used to green skin now, so you don't even see it anymore?

Thanks. It is really odd about Jill, but I like the idea of that just be a genetic anomaly too. It could happen. It's a great little detail to add to her character, with how she feels left out from the alien experience, even though she's supposedly just as alien as Johnny.

[abbycat900.livejournal.com]

They're so cute <3

Jill is just so pretty with green skin :O And Johnny looks great with red hair.

[strange-tomato.livejournal.com]

Thanks. The green skin gives Jill some more interesting detail. She's pretty bland and pretty, so it's nice to have something different added to her.

Johnny and Jill both have recessive red in my game, thanks to SimPE, so their children could end up looking like that. I really want to see some of their children with the red hair.

[dothesmustle.livejournal.com]

They look adorable as "complete" aliens. Jill looks a little bit like Stella! I've heard that Ninika on MTS2 is making maxis match versions of a lot of popular hair styles, I think she's on GOS, too. So she can make retextures of a lot of pay hairs. Her name is "Neena_Needles" on GOS.

Also, Miki at GOS uses Maxis textures..kind of. This is one of my favorite hairs of hers.

http://www.digitalperversion.net/gardenofshadows/index.php?topic=2124.0

Not sure if that counts as Maxis Match.

She also has this hair. You can find it on her LJ, yaymiki.

[redqueenofevil.livejournal.com]

Thank you for the links. I hadn't seen the second hair before, and it's gorgeous.

[smjoshsims.livejournal.com]

Ah, I LOVE that hair. I made darker recolors of it because they were too light for my tastes, but that hair is wonderful!

[strange-tomato.livejournal.com]

She does look a bit like Stella, doesn't she? They're probably based off the same template. They're both very delicate and pretty, without any really extreme features. That's one of the reasons Stella will make a nice PT. There'll be some pretty hybrid children once she starts working.

Thanks for the links! :D I really like that Miki style, and it is somewhat Maxis match (works for me, anyway). I checked out Ninika before, and I love her textures, but I wish she'd recolour a mesh that I'd actually want. I just don't like most of Peggy's hair, no matter what texture it has. Same goes for Rose. I dislike all the stray pieces and excessive detail. There's this one male mesh (Rose's, I think) with these thin little pieces hanging down over the forehead... it makes me go nearly insane whenever I see it, but I digress... people seem to like it. I see it all the time.

[ikichi.livejournal.com]

Verreh verreh nice! I could live with Johnny having green eyes if Jill had black, but it did bug me that neither got the red hair. (But then again, out of the 4 kids PdC PT and Jenny had together, they're ALL pretty WTF and random looking. XD)

I would love to see Alien!Jill next to Jenny, since I've *just* noticed how alike they look as teens.

...Now I want to toss red hair on Jill to see how she looks with it.

[strange-tomato.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that would make more sense. It would still be genetically impossible for Johnny to get the green eyes, but he just wouldn't be the same with the alien eyes for me. I love when alien-skinned sims get normal eyes, as well as the opposite.

PdC is a custom neighbourhood of your's, right? Is it based on Strangetown? (Yeah, I missed the whole memo on that, so I have no idea what it's all about.) Did you breed Jenny and PT? Those kids don't match up with Jill and Johnny very well, in my experience. Well, maybe Jill, but the odds are low. PT's genes seem to dominate. If I had my time back, I would have tinkered with the dominant traits in SimPE to favour Jenny. It would make things more consistent.

Yeah, Jill and Jenny are basically clones, I think. I haven't analyzed them in CAS, but it seems to be the case.

I'll bet she looks lovely with red hair too.

[redqueenofevil.livejournal.com]

YES!!!! Johnny looks gorgeous with red locks. I didn't recognize him at first, thinking you were using one of simgaroop's sims for a second. But yes, he's totally rockin' the red.

Jill looks great too, especially considering that long hair doesn't usually match up with her face as well. Maybe it was an issue with her eyes.


Very good work on this photo shoot. The water at Twikki looks inviting, and now I wish I was back at the ocean again.... *wistful sigh*

[strange-tomato.livejournal.com]

Well, I have been known to use some of simgaroop's sims, especially those alien redheads (I have big love for Helena). Johnny does look good as a redhead. I really hope his (eventual) children have red hair.

I usually prefer Jill with short hair too, but this style seems to work for her.

Yeah, Twikki makes me miss Bermuda. The sand isn't quite as pink in Twikki, but it's still lovely.

[cindyanne1.livejournal.com]

I love them looking more alien! Johnny with alien eyes is awesome, and I love a greenie Jill! They both look great with red hair too!

I love screencaps... but you're right, they are SUCH a pain to use for a story. I about had my fill of them when I was doing the little Castaway thing (and that's a big part of why I stopped writing it although I do still play it on occasion. The in game camera in Castaway Stories is SO godawful it doesn't do the beautiful scenery in the game justice!)

I'm going to d/l those alien eyes. I hate how Maxis won't let alien eyes be used on any but the alien skintone and instead replaces them with brown... even if there hadn't been any brown eyes in the family tree at all! One of my Maxis pet peeves, lol!

[strange-tomato.livejournal.com]

It's nice to see how they "should" have looked, even though I wouldn't change them for the world now.

Screencapping gives you more control over the cropping of the image, which is appealing, but it's SOOO much extra work. I might consider using it, if I ever want to do something really special. It does make things look better. It's tempting.

You don't have Theo's alien eye fix? It allows the alien eyes to show up properly with normal skin. You can find it here:

http://theos.chewbakkas.net/stuff/index.html

It's essential. :D

[smjoshsims.livejournal.com]

They look great! I love how Johnny has his red hair, that makes him even more adorable. Alien genetic, how I love them. (Unless every other Sim in your hood has them, twitch.)

[strange-tomato.livejournal.com]

Thanks. Johnny's cute, no matter what you do with him, I think. ^_^

Yeah, it gets old fast when almost everyone is an alien. It's funny, though. :P

[franwi.livejournal.com]

Gorgeous shots. Those beach views are amazing. And I love that Jill's green! Yay! Wonderful makeovers. Johnny looks really good as a redhead, and I love that outfit. The eyes definitely look good on those two.

[strange-tomato.livejournal.com]

Thank you. Twikki island is just gorgeous. It makes me very excited to see the locations in Sims 3, with the improved graphics. Some of the scenery and skies look amazing in the screenshots.

I love that vest outfit too, but I wish the collar wasn't so open, and the jeans were neater (with no rips). I may do some fiddling around with it, if I can figure out how to edit meshes. I really want to use it on Frances.

[(Anonymous)]

I love the skin!! Johnny's outfit is really nice. I have to get it soon.

[strange-tomato.livejournal.com]

The tanned alien skin looks nice, doesn't it?

If you're looking for that outfit, you might want to check MATY first. Some of those items are available there.

[simfinite.livejournal.com]

Oh my god. I can hardly recognize Johnny! He looks so different as a tanned, tamed-haired red head!

[strange-tomato.livejournal.com]

He's just not quite the same without the crazy Nightlife hair, but I like that Maxis Dreams hair too. It wouldn't work for every sim, but it does for Johnny. He's not exactly known for his butch hairstyles. :P

[soniabigcheese.livejournal.com]

Wow, what a huge difference. Johnny doesn't look quite as 'uptight' and anal, in those shots and Jill looks like an exotic beauty. Certainly one that would make Ripp look twice at and kick himself for not grabbing the opportunity at the time. (That's if Johnny didn't beat him to it - ouchie!!!)

[strange-tomato.livejournal.com]

Too true. I'm sure she'd turn Ripp's head even more than usual. Jill's a pretty little thing.

[madame-ugly.livejournal.com]

Nice.

I think Johnny looks better as a redhead. It goes very nicely with that skintone (but I have to say, the slightly darker skin--and maybe it's the tan going on too--makes me think of lizards).

Jill looks great alien-ed up, too.

[strange-tomato.livejournal.com]

I like it, but I still prefer him as a blond. I love aliens with red hair, but I wouldn't want them to be too common. It makes them less special.

That hue is sort of lizard-y, isn't it? Well, maybe the aliens are something like lizards. It's not an angle I've considered, but it could work.

[xel-squirgle-ox.livejournal.com]

I love your graphics card.
That is all. :)

[strange-tomato.livejournal.com]

Heheh. Yeah, I love it too. It does bring out the limits in the graphics, though. It's hard not to notice how low-poly everything is.

[aledstrange.livejournal.com]

aawwwww!!! Jill looks adorable in green!! awwww!!!
That's so sweeet!! Im sure she's happier now, it must feel so bad to be the 'odd-looking' one in the family! lol

Johnny looks awesome in red hair, :) one of the children he had on my breeding project, turned out *just* like that!!

But I do enjoy that Johnny and Jill have odd genetics in the game, even if it makes no sense, i think it wouldn't as fun if they both were totally alien looking. :P

[strange-tomato.livejournal.com]

I'm with you. The odd genetics is really a part of their charm. :)

[katsuko]

Seriously, Jill looks great with full-on alien genetics.

...and because this got me to thinking, my new Strangetown's Jill might still have the S1 skin, but she has her daddy's hair and eyes. Oh yeah, I had to give her The Eyes. Everyone else I left alone, though (and I'm still debating on making the alien skin a recessive gene for Miss Smith, just to see if it crops up when she eventually has kids of her own!)

[80sfiend.livejournal.com]

Aww they look cool! :D Jill looks so different! :D