Okay so this dress got rejected because the top needs more work. So I was wondering if anybody had any suggestions to what else I could do to it to make it look more realistic.

Ignore the black in the outfit, that's actually been fixed.

Note: This is a full outfit, not separate.

The last two pictures is how it's supposed to look right now. Not sure why it showed up as the old version.

Firstly it looks very low quality especially the texture, what setting are the games on. I recommend taking all screens shots are taken on high settings so they look good. So Improve Game quality and the textures. Could you post the reasons you were rejected.

The game is on the highest settings...
Reason it was rejected:
While the skirt has very nice folds and crinkles, the top looks flat and painted on - it should have shadows/highlights, folds where the material bunches up above the belt and possibly at the armpits too, and so on. There should also be seams or hems where there would be on a real dress - at the shoulders where the sleeves are sewn on; and at the ends of the sleeves, at the neck, at the bottom of the skirt etc where the fabric would be hemmed over to stop it fraying.
I can see you've used noise to make the fabric look more fabric-y, which is an insanely useful technique; you might want to turn that down slightly though, as it looks like it's distorting the colours a bit.

I used the in game camera to take screen shots because I was told with a different upload that using Fraps or similar outside programs caused it to look crappy. :\

Edit: Added different screenshots...not sure if they help or not.

the issue with me is the top seems to glow. is it one dress or a shirt with a skirt, because right now it looks like the latter. the skirt looks like velvet, try making the shirt part a similar texture? you should also add some shading under the sleeves and around the neck

It's a dress. The glowing might be the lighting, I noticed that too.

Okay, I did some more work on it...what do you all think? Yay? Nay? Suggestions?

The texture is better, but I suggest something to make it look more finishingtouched..

Sorry for drawing on your picture, but it's the best way to show. (not my excellent drawing skills..)

That's a good idea. I just did an outline, does that look okay?

And should I do one at the bottom of the dress?

The sleeves look good!
I think the neckpart does need some more work. Maybe smooth it out a bit and make it a bit thicker.

Had issues with the neck part...I think it hates me. T_T

I posted some pics...I redid the "finishing touches" around the neck...but if you look closely, you'll see the issues I was talking about around the shoulder/neck part.

I can't for the life of me figure out how to fix it, I've been around and around the stupid textures and nothing fixes it.

So suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Also, does the neckline in general look better?

Edit: Nevermind, it was the UV map that hated me. But I fixed it, yay! Will post new pics in a second or two, once I take more. xD

New pics posted. So what do you all think?

I'm looking at the neckpart, but I think that you should make it a round neck, not \_/. I think that would look so much better!

The neckline looks like someone outlined it with Sharpie marker. Take a look at fanseelambs upload here: http://www.modthesims.info/d/415640

Notice the subtle stitching along the neckline and sleeves? When nikki said add a neckline, I think she meant to add a little stitching to it. This can be done with the pen tool, or the line tool if your image editor doesn't have the pen. I also find that adding a little noise to the stitching part makes it look more like thread.

Also, the top needs some clothing details to make it look less painted on. I hate to use my own stuff as an example but if you look on my Pretty and Retro dress (https://thumbs2.modthesims.info/img/...roversion2.jpg), notice the slight wrinkles on the breasts and back? Now, you don't really have to worry much about the breast area, but the back definitely needs some folds. Here's another example on subtle texturing: http://www.wisconsinhistory.org/mus...on/Z0019864.jpg

On the bottom of the top (oxymoron....sorta) there needs to be some wrinkles indicating that the shirt is being tucked into the the little belt. Here's an example on what the gathering should look like: http://recycledcrafts.craftgossip.c...shirt_dress.jpg

Lastly, the belt needs a little more 'belt/sash" texture, because right now it's looking a little bucketfill.

And, this is totally a suggestion, but why not round up the neckline? I think it'll look a lot more like a little girls dress if you did. Up to you though!

What about a box type neckline?

I just uploaded what the dds looks like...I don't have time to load my game and take pictures. Besides, I'm not done refining it yet. And I'm having issues with the uv map, which continues to hate me.

When I get more of it done, I'll upload sim pictures of it.

I wouldn't go for a box type neckline.
It doesn't look very realistic I think.

I still think you should go for a round neckline. It gives a softer look and most types of clothing have a round neckline.

Okay, how's this? I haven't added the stitching yet, obviously, I'll do that later, but I had to redo the whole dress because it was giving me issues.

Yay so far? Anything I should fix before I start on the stitching?

I would ditch the pattern you've added to the multiplier. What they're trying to tell you is you need shadows and highlights, wrinkles, folds, something that makes it look real as opposed to bucket fill and some noise. The tut here works really well for simple things like your top. WIth that and some stitching you should be good to go.

Or you can always find a similar top that's already in the game and steal from that.

Don't like the pattern, eh?

I'd definitely avoid that box neckline. It looks very unnatural - no fabric can hold that kind of sharp corner for long, especially not fabric that's constantly being mangled by a kid.

May I ask which graphics editor you're using? It looks like you're sticking mainly to straight lines - and I don't blame you at all, they're much much easier - but using more curves will make it much easier to get the texture looking natural.

If you're in Photoshop, I strongly recommend a few tools. The first is the pen tool. Yes, I know - good god, what, it makes no sense! Click to make your first anchor point, click again elsewhere, and straight away drag to bend the line. It takes a while to get used to, but once you've got the hang of it, it's invaluable for creating smooth curved textures - like necklines! Right-click once you're done drawing and do Stroke... to actually get colour. Sometimes, it can also be useful to use the shapes tool to do the same kinda thing. Draw a circle or rounded rectangle or something, use stroke as above, then erase the bits you don't want.

I have also developed a bit of a fetish for the warp tool (Edit -> Transform). I'm sure it's cheating really, but if you have a layer or section of texture that you need to bend or curve - or stretch, or shrink, or make wonky, in fact - the warp tool is perfect. It probably wouldn't help much in this case, but it's a useful thing to know about.

I would assume that GIMP has equivalent tools to all these, but I don't know for sure.

The skirt texture looked better before - I like the small folds, but the contrast is too high; the shadows look six inches deep.

I'm using Photoshop, thanks for the tips! I was trying to figure out how to do the curves and circles. Hehe. I'll redo the shirt tomorrow and fix the skirt.

Maybe some pics to explain what I think all the others mean.

In the first pic, top part you can see that the grey on the shoulders is lighter, and there the material is stitched on shoulder and the sides.

Second pic: detail of lining using different shades of grey to suggest some thicker material than the rest.

Third pic: the seams have a decorative function also.

The top part of the dress will look less ´painted on´ when you draw some seams etc. Just gather some really detailed pics of clothing that you can use as a example.

I agree on the others that the folds of the skirt were better in the first pictures.

Tip: When I made the swimmingsuit I copied and pasted detailed parts of the multiplier dds file of other projects. It will cost you less time.

Sorry if some jargon is not correctly translated. I'm Dutch and my English is not sufficient for that kind of stuff.

Thank you, that was very helpful.