NEW screen shots Aug. 25

I am working on Liam O'Dourke and his brothers. I want the brothers to be similar, yet different in their own ways. Each brother is a different supernatural. Any suggestions you have to make them unique is appreciated. Also, I am having some trouble getting "passport like" photos. How do you get the sim to assume a relaxed expression, stare straight ahead, not act goofy? Is there a trick I'm not getting?

I'm horribly busy today (husband is coming home after being away for work for almost a month) but I'll pop in and help you for the lighting/pictures at least. I'm glad to see you're working on these guys again.

The easiest way to get a neutral expression, without a pose, is to tell your sim to walk forward. Once they start walking, the expression on their face should go back to neutral and they should look straight ahead. Then, using moveobjects on, I move them back to where I actually want them for the picture. In the picture below, you can see my sim's full body and how she is in the process of walking forward.


For lighting, I make use of the buydebug lights. (See below)

I make a sort of cage around them with the wall lights. I use two 3x3 wall lights along the back, to keep it looking "pure" white (or whatever color). I put one 2x1 in front of the sim (probably about 3 tiles in front), then rotate 2 more 45 degrees (one left, one right) and put them kind of overlapping. Last, I have another 3x3 two tiles behind that, just for extra. I like lighting, okay? The middle lights (the 2x1 lights) I usually lower the intensity of 2 of them to between 0.7 & 0.8 depending on what I am going for. Overall, I've found this method keeps my background nice and bright and keeps my sim's face shown off but without looking washed out. Too close or too bright will get rid of all the shadows and will look just as bad as too many.

Thanks heaven. The lighting and photo tips are great! Have a lovely reunion with the hubby- been there.

new screen shots in first post also

These are cool, attuned - love the vampire

I am utterly crap at making sims so I can't advise in any capacity, but just wanted to say I liked them

The lighting definitely looks better. You might want to lower the intensity a bit, at least for Vlad. Poor baby is looking a little washed out.

Once you have your sim in the walking position, trying using tab mode to get close to their faces so you can get a straight on shot. The angles and expressions still aren't best for looking at their sculpt. Once you get an angle you like in tab mode for one of them, press ctrl+ (5-9). Your camera setting will be saved and, when you go back into tab mode, if you press, let's say 5 again, it'll go back to that spot. So you can move sims in and out of that spot using moveobjects and get the exact same angle and lighting for each sim. I find this really, really, really helpful when I'm making sims. Because, once you have a screeshot of the same angle for each sim, you can literally flip back and forth between them and see what changes between their sculpts. I actually have my camera settings saved in another folder specifically for sim making.

Another tip: for Albus and Oberon especially but also possibly all of them, remove the hair for the sculpt picture since it falls in their faces and the glasses (because of glare). I know you'll be using them for their outfits, which is fine, but it'd be super helpful to have one without these so

Thanks, Thranduil Oropherion- I appreciate the support. I like the vamp best, too. His name is Vlad. His toddler version is my avatar.

Liam without hair you say? Okay, but it won't be pretty. You have been warned. (I will be back..)

{new screen shots, w/o hair and glasses} I think Oberon's (in green) eyebrows are over powering his face in the first pic, so I changed them for the second.

@heaven -if you have time to take another look:

Oh poor bald babies! I meant use hair that didn't fall in their face, though bald works too! They do all look more distinctive now. I particularly like Vlad and Romulus. I am not personally a fan of those eyebrows on Albus/Liam/Romulus though, especially Albus. The way they turn up at the inside edges makes them all look concerned or surprised.

@heaven I reworked all except Vlad. What do you think? I'm not sure that Romulus is better in this new version. Are they ready for upload? If not, do you have any suggestions? Thank you! :lovestruc

The new pictures are darker now (the lighter was better). Also be sure that in their full get-up, you still have at leat one neutral, forward facing expression for each of them. If it doesn't mess up your canon for them too much I might get rid of Romulus's glasses. I think he looks better without them though that's not sculpt-related so it's just a personal suggestion. Possibly Vlad's as well though he looks kinda like a douche, hipster vampire with them (if that's what you're going for).

Are the ends of Oberon's hair tipped a different color? There's some weird coloring which makes the picture almost look photoshopped or something. Unless it's the lighting.

Otherwise, I think they're good. They're all distinctly different from each other now though they do still maintain a familial resemblance.

I took the pics quickly at like 3am. I will redo them for the upload. I am going to take another run at Romulus's brow area. I think I will show them w/w/o glasses. BTW- you totally nailed Vlad's personality.

The strange glow behind Oberon are his wings. The lights cause a strange effect- or else I mooed him through the back wall.

The Creator Guidelines say for Sims the only requirement is a close up of his face. I was thinking closeup for each- with and without glasses/ full length for each/ and several group shots. Is this sufficient?

THANK YOU!

Oh, just the close-up of each should be fine! You don't even really need to remove the glasses, especially since I've seen them here. It just helps when you're working on sculpts to not have anything in the way (or moderating so you can see the sculpt but, again I've seen them here so you should be fine). Any you do on top of that is extra.

I personally like the way k2m shows off her sims in download (example) with the one straight on required, then a collage of their face from different angles, and a body shot. You could do a close up of each sim individually and then maybe a body shot like this (from my sim Claire Paine) but with all 5 together instead of one sim, different outfits. There are lots of different ways you could do it and they'll all be fine, as long as you have individual, neutral close ups of their faces.

Update: still working on screen shots and presentation

@heaven 400 screen shots later and finally a sample of my screen shots for upload (in smaller sizes). Which Liam pic should I use? Will the individual pics here work as the required screenshots? I mean, are the poses okay?

I have collages for each brother. If you think these are good to go, I am probably ready to upload the whole project. Thank you!

They look great! The lighting is very nice. Vlad's individual pic is perfect! They all look a little small (remember 600 on the smallest size) but I'm assuming these are just small samples as you said, rather than the full sized ones. Neither of the Liam ones are optimal in my opinion (again, Vlad's is perfect) but either would be okay.

@heaven
I am having some trouble releasing this project to the universe (or the queue). Lots are so much easier to photograph- they don't move or make goofy faces.

Do you like the collages, Liam's here and Vlad's on post #16? Are they worth keeping in?

Should I crop all the pics, group and individual, so that they are all a similar size?

Here are some new Liams- Liam just doesn't take a good picture. He really hates to look at the camera.

Thanks!

If it helps, I usually use poseplayer to make them stand still the way I want them.

Thanks Tigerdyhr! I thought of using pose player, but I wanted to go old school, and probably made this project much harder than it had to be. Before I uploaded my first lot here a few months ago, I had never even taken a screen shot. In 15 years of simming, not even one. Needless to say, I have lots of catching up to do. Number one, become friends with pose player.

Did the walking trick not help out?

Hi Heaven
I am probably over working or over thinking this project. They have been on my mind for so long I just want to do them justice, but I'm afraid I can't be objective anymore. The walking trick worked great for Vlad, pretty well for the rest except Liam. I cannot get a relaxed face on this sim, let alone to get him to look straight ahead. I guess this is due to his traits? I know you said the shots in post #16 are fine, so maybe I should just go with that. I also had a few new shots of Liam in post #18, as well as some questions about the logistics of the upload, such as if all the pics need to be the same size, so please check post #18. I hope I am not wearing out your patience. I have a whole project planned around these brothers, including lots to go with each of them (stores, homes, etc) so I really want to get it right. Thanks!

Do you have the other sims in the same room as Liam? Sometimes, if they're looking at a sim when you have them walk, they'll continue looking at them instead of straight ahead.

As for image size, as long as you have the required pictures (neutral headshot only of each, uncollaged) you can do whatever you want with the rest. Even those don't have to all be the same size, as long as they are above the minimum size required (600 pixels on smallest side).

I think you are overthinking it a little, which is probably normal, especially for a project so close to your heart and part of a larger project. What you've got is perfectly fine. I do think the collages are nice as it shows off the sim in a range of expressions and kind of shows their personality off. I only mentioned you didn't have to do it because I didn't want you to feel like you HAD to if you wanted to get your sims approved. As far as images go, they'll be approved with just the ppS headshots of each that are shown in post #16. Anything you do beyond that is extra and a bonus for your downloaders/to showcase your creations, which is never a bad idea, but not required.