I'm working on a Sim based on the facial reconstruction of the Lady of Cao, a Pre-Incan mummy from the El Brujo site in Peru. I've only been able to get photos of the Lady of Cao at front view and 3/4, so this has been something of an interesting experience. (Her mummy, while in fabulous condition, is not exactly what I want to use for a base.)

My Sim is wearing a custom skin and has only used three custom sliders: the chin-to-neck slider, the chin width slider, and the plugs slider. Otherwise, she's pretty vanilla.

Picture one, reconstruction and Sim front view side-by-side.
https://66.media.tumblr.com/1ff4b4a...xngco1_1280.png

Picture two, reconstruction and Sim 3/4 view side-by-side.
https://66.media.tumblr.com/40c329a...xngco2_1280.png

What, in your opinions, should I do in order to have the Sim look more like her reconstruction--without tipping over into the "mannequin" side of the Uncanny Valley?

Hi there! I commented on your post on fumblr (studiok2sims). I'll repost here as well. I think you already know to work on the angles of your reference (sim) photos. Until you address that, it's hard to comment. But off the bat, move the upper eye apex to be more aligned at the center of her eye. The eyebrow shape, and perhaps selection needs a bit of work.

EDIT: Oddly, and somewhat macabre... but the mummy isn't actually a horrible reference. It will give insight into bone structure, which informs feature alignment, etc. And that is how reconstructions start.

Thank you--I'll take that advice and figure out how to take better pictures once I've made those corrections you mentioned!

I was a bit squeamish about the mummy (her teeth creep me out a bit--not her fault, poor thing), and I was also a little nervous about how the dessication might have affected her face--but I forgot all about how they would have started from her bones!

I also found some of the reference images the sculptors used of women in the area--it has a profile pic!!! https://www.elbrujo.pe/en/blog/the-moche-faces/

I took your suggestions and practiced more with the camera--how does this look?

https://66.media.tumblr.com/b676f05...xngco3_1280.jpg
https://66.media.tumblr.com/267f2b2...xngco2_1280.png

Okay, so I adjusted the orientation of your sims face a bit and put them side by side, as it's much easier to compare that way.

You have a good start, but there are a few things you can do - your sim's nose needs to be a bit more defined. I'd reduce the mass a bit and define her nostrils a bit. Reduce the size of the nose tip a tiny bit and maybe bring it out touch. The outer corners of her eyes need to go up a bit. Sharpen her jaw a TINY bit - her face is a bit more of a soft inverted trapezoid than it is "oval". A tiny bit fuller in the cheeks. Adjust the curve of her mouth. Maybe lower it a tiny bit.

You are well on your way though!

Also, you might consider changing from the red/pink undertone ramp to the yellow undertone one.

I hadn't realized that was part of what was throwing me off--but she looks much better in the yellow undertone! Thank you!

Nice work! She looks worlds different with just a few minor adjustments. I would play around with the fullness of her face a little, "smile" lines (nasolabial crease) and maybe reduce the width or scale of her nose a little bit. The corners of the mouth line up with her pupils, which is about right. But I would say from the ref photo her nose should be maybe half the width (or a bit less) of her mouth. And for skin choices, either is nice. The left (smoother) one is more sculpture like, so if you were going for more human-y less sculpture-y, then Mamy's would be the better of the two.

EDIT: I should also say that at this point, any adjustments should be micro-adjustments.

Thank you so much for your advice!

I know I'll need to get rid of, like, all her non-slider CC if I want to upload her here...so I should probably take Mamy's skin (and the Blueberry Pie default) off in order to see how she looks without. I'll play around with her nasolabial crease and face fullness--I'll try both nose scale and nose width and see which one looks better.

I haven't had a Sim with this much space between her nose and her mouth before, it's a bit odd to me--but now I'm looking at my other Sims and thinking "well, perhaps that's where I went wrong in the first place..."

I just took her default skin off, and she now has a very strange dark stripe up the bridge of her nose. No makeup is being used. Am I maybe doing photos wrong? Or is this normal?

@Windemeresimblr - you don't need to remove any cc from her if you upload her here. The only thing is to remove NON DEFAULT skin. If you are using default override skins, they won't cause issues at all. It's the non-default ones that cause issues. You just have to list all off the CC you used. If you are using default override skins or eyes, then you also need to note that in the description.

EDIT: AND you can still do all the pictures with the CC skin you used you just have to mention that you removed it for upload. (Check out some of my sims.)