Sims Talk: Natasha Una, AL talk, and new Sims 2 Store hairs

[strangetomato]

As you can see by the title, I have a couple of things to talk about.

The first is Natasha Una. She's great. I love her. I have plans to include her in my story as one of my big names in the sim art world. Yesterday, I mentioned to smjoshsims that I was thinking of making a little short piece of writing to introduce her, but that hasn't happened yet. I'm thinking I'll hold off on that and just drop it into an actual chapter now. I did, however, play her lot today, and I have some pics to share.





I was trying to see what I could come up with for grilled cheese sculptures and art objects, and even after only playing around with it for a short time, I can see the potential. This one looks pretty stupid, but it's so rich with meaning. *wink* You have to read the didactic panel to really understand.




But the real gem was this grilled cheese mobile, à la Alexander Calder.

I had Natasha purchase the Mostly Modern Art Gallery in Desiderata Valley, and that's where she sells her work and the work of others. Despite having ACR installed, she has the sex drive of a ball of yarn. Her ACR clock is at -24, she doesn't have the hots for anyone, and she doesn't seem to care. She loves grilled cheese, baby!




Tash: Come to me, my delicious grilled cheese!

I gave her a makeover with an AL hair and outfit. It seemed appropriately arty to me, but a little less like a hippy (or, at least, a more stylish hippy).

Also, please notice the use of the awesome new feature to move items up and down the walls. *grin* VERY cool. When combined with moveobjects, you can actually make things fit on the wall together in ways that were impossible before.




Tash: Behold my grilled cheese, my knee sock that's falling down, and my AWESOME CEILINGS!

You can actually apply any floor tile to the ceiling, which is also very cool. The plain white ceilings are automatically applied beneath a floor tile (wihout the floor tile on the level above, you get no ceiling), but then you can customize to your heart's content. I didn't bother, so there's no example to show you.




Tash: Ahhhh, my tasty, tasty muse.

I love how quickly they eat the grilled cheese when they conjure it. It saves so much time.




Here's her living room, with some redecorating. It's all Maxis content, except for Pixel 's sci-fi paintings. The ability to raise and lower the paintings is a sanity saver for me. Having things hung too high or too low is a major pet peeve of mine (and thankfully, it's impossible to have them tilted), so this makes me happy. There were many paintings that always looked like crap if you had panelling on the wall, but now the problem is easily solved.

Elsewhere in Desiderata Valley, I tested a new Sims 2 Store hair on dancer, Sharon Wirth.






Poppin' and lockin'!

I find it funny that this is supposed to be zombie hair, but I like it better than many of their attempts to make cool hair. It reminds me a little of the femullet that Edie wears. I like it.




I also like the new longer cornrows and braids (I'm not completely sure if I'm sold on the beads, but that could be easily removed). I'm considering this as a future hair for Ophelia, since it continues with the braid theme. I was trying a new look on Johnny too, in the background there.




I'm not sure if I'll change it or have him keep the other one, but this Maxis Dreams hair does sweep to the same side as his other two hairstyles, so it would seem like a natural progression. I do sort of like it on him. I think it works well with the shape of his face.





 

Comments

[silentsteel.livejournal.com]

Yay for Natasha! :D I do like her. ^^ It took me a bit of searching to figure out the ceilings tho. ^^;

That's really nice hair on all three sims - Johnny's gives him a slightly softer, more romantic look than the previous hairdos. It's very flattering. :)

[strange-tomato.livejournal.com]

I had to look up the details about the ceilings and the wall hangings in the game tips (I have a Prima guide ordered, but it's not here yet). It wasn't obvious, but they do explain it in those tips.

Yeah, I'm pretty happy with those hairs. I think I will end up using them.

[meetme2theriver.livejournal.com]

Natasha Una is great, one of the best DV characters (there are some cool sims there, the neighbourhood is rather underrated. It should be featured next in Maxis Taste! :)).

Oh, DO WANT the moving-things-on-walls feature and those shelves! Haven't installed AL yet, but yeah, I'm almost more excited about little details like that than the apartments and witches. Also completely unexcited about the butlers. Although the Goths should have one...

The "zombie" hair is cool. I need to get my hands on that. Silly EAxis. Also love that hair on Ophelia. That Maxis Dreams hair is one I didn't download, but this made me change my mind! It looks very good on Johnny. Would fit him as an adult, I think, when he might want to tone down the hair gel just a little bit. :)

[meetme2theriver.livejournal.com]

Oh, and how did you make that grilled cheese "art"?

[strange-tomato.livejournal.com]

I do enjoy DV, now that I've played it. The characters are interesting enough, but I do wish the town itself had some focal point or theme to it. It's just there. The other hoods have defining landmarks and a better sense of place to me.

It would be cool to feature it in Maxis Taste, I agree. I guess they'll feature all the hoods eventually.

I'm not interested in the witches at all, but I love the apartment concept. I've been doing that on regular lots anyway, so this makes it so much easier. I completely agree that those features like the ceilings really make the EP for me too. This really makes the game feel so much more complete to me.

All those hairs can be found on MATY now.

The grilled cheese art objects were all made using moveobjects, snapobjectstogrid false, and the OMSPs. I haven't figured out anything really great yet, but the mobile was pretty cool. Those shelves that came with AL would work well in a gallery too, I think.

[smjoshsims.livejournal.com]

Sorry to butt in, but what's an OMSP? I heard Orikes talking about them as well, but I have NO idea what they are.

[franwi.livejournal.com]

One More Slots Package
You can find these on MTS2. There are a lot of them, for beds, counters, tables, fridges, etc.

[smjoshsims.livejournal.com]

Thanks!

[catladymeow.livejournal.com]

I would also like to know what OMSP is. I have seen it referenced before but no idea what it is. Thanks

[franwi.livejournal.com]

One More Slots Package
You can find these on MTS2. There are a lot of them, for beds, counters, tables, fridges, etc.

[catladymeow.livejournal.com]

Thanks, I will look it up in MTS2.

[leskuh.livejournal.com]

I lack most EPs so I'm not familiar with Natasha, but she looks rather fun.

I love the new hairs. The dancer one is really cute. And hooray for more braids for Phi! I love that they look sort of feathery and imply lots of thickness, because I imagine Phi with just... a lot of hair.

The one on Johnny is beautiful and he looks so handsome. I swooned a little.

[strange-tomato.livejournal.com]

She came with the new neighbouhood for Free Time.

Those braids do seem thicker than her current ones. I like how it looks on her, and that's a good thing, because I really wasn't sure what I'd do with her hair next, and I thought she'd eventually need a change. I like that it's significantly longer than before.

Johnny's hair reminds me of the way his hair looked in your last drawing. He does look nice with it, and I thinking if anyone can rock that "pretty" male hair, it's Johnny.

[ikichi.livejournal.com]

I really like how the longer maxis cornrows look (m&f). I have to see if the MATY versions work for me, or I may just be stuck until they mac-ify free time.

So, wait, the ceilings still work on 1 story's and the topmost floor, right? I was a little confused by what you said about needing a floor above.

[strange-tomato.livejournal.com]

Have you tried the other Sims 2 Shop hairs that MATY has available for download? I'm guessing that they would work for you, but you never know. I'll cross my fingers on your behalf.

This was a one-story house with a normal roof, and there was no ceiling until I went up and added tiles just under the roof. It's not a whole extra floor, because there are no walls, but there are floor tile under the roof. Does that make sense? My terminology is probably all wrong, so ask me more questions if that still doesn't make any sense.

[ikichi.livejournal.com]

I think I know what you mean.

And so far, it doesn't look like *any* of the MATY dls beyond the first set of store objects are working for me. It says that it usually turns up between FT and BV.

Actually, I've been having a bit of random cc trouble- the backless shower edits haven't been working either. And something just randomly decided to start working after a month or so. I'll probably have to do some hunting later.

[dothesmustle.livejournal.com]

I love how quickly they eat the grilled cheese when they conjure it. It saves so much time.

Yesssss! It saved me so much more time to achieve the lifetime want!

I love the grilled cheese furniture. XD

[strange-tomato.livejournal.com]

Grilled cheese sims are a lot of fun. It seems hard to keep their aspirations up, with such small wants, but if you serve grilled cheese to your family and friends, those wants get filling in rapid sucession. It's pretty cool.

Thanks. It was fun to come up with ridiculous things for her to make using grilled cheese.

[smjoshsims.livejournal.com]

Remember how I said Great Minds think alike? IT IS CREEPY. I used a hair like that on Johnny, here:



and AHH! Sharon Wirth! I WAS JUST WRITING ABOUT HER. She makes a cameo in my Thornn Legacy, and IT.IS.CREEPY how she's here as well!

Also, I LOVE the makeover you gave Natasha! I LOVE NATASHA! I actually made a hair specifically for her, here:



I love the way she rocks purple. ^__^

And I LOVE the Grilled Cheese Conceptual Art! Gah, you are amazing! :D

[smjoshsims.livejournal.com]

Also, I LOVE the Mostly Modern Art Museum. It's where Sil met Wyatt, so it'll always hold a special place in my heart. :D

[simgarooop.livejournal.com]

Hee! I love her "Grilled Cheese" art! (especially the mobile!). I've never played with the original Natasha Una (just a clone I made for a Little Mermaid poster), but I've read that she's quite a funny character (I guess that's a given with Grilled Cheese sims... I need to try that aspiration one of these days :P).

It took a long, long time to figure out which were the keys that let you move the wall art up and down. My keyboard is in Spanish, so a few keys are in different positions that the English one. For a moment I was afraid my version of AL was messed up. It is a nice feature, indeed!

The zombie hair is very cute! ANd I also like that for once they did something for babies and kids too! I thought the "braids hair" was only for men, though. Phi looks pretty cute with it. And that Maxis Dream's hair has been abused a lot in the past in my computer. It is pretty nice, and not too "girly" IMO.

Ceilings FTW! (though I have no idea how to modify them yet :P)

[hannahspring.livejournal.com]

Natasha! Great! I love her (see my avatar, it's her actually)! I'm so excited you're going to include her.

Anyway, didn't you say Desiderata is boring? :P I'm actually writing a story about that 'hood... it's still not on my site, but should be shortly. I'm waiting for my admin to add a banner. Hope it's going to be done soon! :) And BTW, I had to notice you gave her the same lipstick as I did (or at least it looks similar - HystericalParoxysm, right?).

Question: How did you make that Grilled Cheese to glow like that?

P.S.: Johnny looks amazing with that hair! I think you don't have to change it. :)

[cindyanne1.livejournal.com]

I love that cornrowed hair! I think I have the zombie hair too but I don't remember... was it for females too? I remember d/l a new one for men that had that sort of anime-type spiky look, but I don't know if I got the same for the girls. I'll have to check.

I thought the new EP enabled moving stuff up and down the walls but darned if I remember how to do it. :P I'll have to look that up (I'm having lots of duh moments today, lol. Meh... it goes along with my writers' block. Uggggh.)

[franwi.livejournal.com]

Use the [ and ] buttons for up and down. :)

[madame-ugly.livejournal.com]

Hmm, I wonder if the folks at MTS2 will convert the new AL clothes? I'm liking that droopy knee sock one.

I wonder if the multiple stuff on the walls works for the pot holders? I was mega miffed when I tried to sell potholders in the Round Robin family store only to find they have to be put on a wall and you can only put one per section.

Thanks for reminding me about the new ea store stuff.

Off to MATY to gets my free stuff.

[hviw.livejournal.com]

Is johnny's new hair the "Disheveled Hairstyle from Beyond the Grave"?

[strange-tomato.livejournal.com]

No, Johnny's hair comes from the Maxis Dreams site:

http://maxistraum.de/index-eng.htm

I did download the male "Disheveled Hairstyle from Beyond the Grave", but I didn't include any shots of that one.

[birdtooth.livejournal.com]

so did you actually pay for the ea store hair?

or is it, uh, available elsewhere?




p.s. i couldn't sleep last night, so i ended up reading your story until it was time for school. it is probably the best simstory i've read so far and i am kind of nerding out over it.

p.p.s. best line: "i'm dirty on the inside!"

[strange-tomato.livejournal.com]

*points towards MATY and winks*

You'll want to visit
this thread.

Aww, thanks! :) I'm sorry to hear that you couldn't sleep, but thanks for reading my story. I really appreciate it (especially any nerding out you do - that's such a compliment), and I'm glad you enjoyed it.

I had to think for a minute about where that line was used, since it was pretty far back, but I remember... it was when Johnny was flipping out over Ripp and his baths, right? *snicker*

"But you're not even DIRTY, Ripp!"

Oh, he's dirty... ;)

[birdtooth.livejournal.com]

thanks!

yes, the baths. that line has been stuck in my head aaall day.

oh, also: can i ask how you take your pictures? they are so nice and clean.

[strange-tomato.livejournal.com]

I just use the in-game camera (tab mode) for my story pics, but I occassionally do nicer ones by taking screencaps. I think the clearness comes from my graphics card (an NVIDIA GeForce 7300 GT) and having everything at the highest setting. I get crisp shots from the game camera, so I'm lucky like that.

I use gunmod's camera mod (from MTS2) also, but that's more of a conpositional thing. I much also say that having ceilings is helping my framing in a big way. I can play around with angles more easily, and I love it.

[birdtooth.livejournal.com]

how do you take screencaps? my in game camera is so-so, but the pictures are always too small for my liking.

ugh, sorry to keep asking so many questions. i am still kind of new at the sims. :x

[strange-tomato.livejournal.com]

No problem. :)

I'm using SnagIt right now, but I'm just using a free trial, so I don't know if I'll stick with that one, when there are free programs available. I do like it, though.

Another (free) program that I'd recommend is Irfanview. Music_simbol posted a tutorial on using it here:

http://music-simbol.livejournal.com/58450.html

You can usually specify the button you'd like to use to take the screencaps. I usually go with print screen, like the default screencapping system, but you can choose almost anything.

Once you have your screencaps, you'll need to use some image editing program to crop them. I use GIMP because it's free for anyone to use and does a lot of the things Photoshops does (but Photoshop still does way more). It's more than enough for sim photo editing purposes.

I hope this helps!

[tanathir.livejournal.com]

A grilled cheese conceptual artist. Awesome. Hey, how does one get a Sim to conjure grilled cheese?

[xel-squirgle-ox.livejournal.com]

It's the highest of the Grilled Cheese Aspiration benefits in Free Time.

[xel-squirgle-ox.livejournal.com]

Oh man, the grilled cheese art really had me laughing! So awesome. And her socks! Hehe, you really made her look like the eccentric artist that she's supposed to be.

I really like that Maxis Dreams hair. I used it on my adult Bunker clone in Desiderata Valley and I think I'll use it on him in the future as well. Looks good on Johnny too.

I could never see Ophelia without the braids! Glad to see that there's more maxis hair with them.

[franwi.livejournal.com]

Very cool stuff. I also love the up and down options for wall hangings now. And great hair choices. I really like those options for Johnny and Phi. I don't know who Natasha is, so I'm looking forward to her introduction - she's cute!

[jessicus.livejournal.com]

I love that hair on Phi!

[twistingsims.livejournal.com]

As soon as I saw that hair in CAS, after getting it from MATY, It just had Phi written all over it. I kinda thought you might like it! :D

[mrs-grunt.livejournal.com]

WHOA. Who is Johnny making googly eyes at in the last picture? :P

[showercapfrog.livejournal.com]

That looks like Bottom Summerdream... Naughty Johnny!

[strange-tomato.livejournal.com]

Yeah, it's Bottom, but he's just shaking her hand or something equally chaste. ;)

[80sfiend.livejournal.com]

Oooh I like Johnny and Opheila's hair! I think they look fabulous!! :D Also, yay new characters! :D