Could I get some critique of my sim? I think he looks kind of derpy but that's because he's a test-sim but I guess I liked him way too much to let him go.

Some good, close-up faces of him in a well lit interior room would help a lot... Right now, with the harsh outdoor lighting and no real good clear shot of his face without him making a funny expression, it's really hard to get an idea of what he really looks like. Take some "mugshots" of him?

Ok sure!

Is this good enough? Sorry I haven't figured out how to pan camera angles and such.

He's a Night owl who enjoys parties and has a knack for performance and communication. He's a real social butterfly but has some secret commitment issues from the past three girls and one guy he has dated in the last four months. But maybe, DJ Testing (that's his name) will want to break even more hearts in the future.

Hows that for a sim?

See this thread for pictures and such: http://www.modthesims.info/showthread.php?t=432920 especially #6. Hopefully that should help to get a neutral, well-lit shot that shows his features. You might have to give him a different hair for the pictures (only the pictures), since the one he has covers a lot of his face.

You'll just need to see post six. I often like one photo room. I often go into a community lot, and add a non-accessible basement and teleport my sim, so if I make another sim and it's in my neighborhood, I will take him down there too.

Thanks.

I changed up the sims and took a few more shots... I'm quite new here so some things might not look so good...

I think he looks really interesting. He has a unique look to him. From what I can see, of course you should improve the pics a bit for when you upload him, though I know how hard it is to get used to camera mode. It involves a lot of fiddling, from going out of camera mode, readjusting, and going back into it so you get a straight on shot. I also don't quite agree with how the lighting part of her tutorial was done. I can take a few pics of my setup to show you tomorrow. Heck, maybe I will even make a quick and simple version of the tutorial.

But for what you can change, I'm not really into ea's freckles so much. Or at least that's me. Check these out.
http://www.thesimsresource.com/down...les/id/1221692/

What's cool about those freckles is they're genetic, so the kids can get them.

And I'd also make his eyes a bit smaller, otherwise, he looks good .

Plus, it looks like your graphics aren't up high. Max out at least the sim graphics when taking upload pictures. If you need it lower for gameplay, you can just switch it back.

ok thanks. I'll take note of these suggestions then maybe I might upload him to my simblr but hey.... I still don't know where half of his CC is from. XD

I wonder, should I go with a standard green blue mermaid tail or should I experiment around?

I would take off ALL the CC, and then put back only the items absolutely necessary for his look - and ones you can find and credit. Sims are more impressive looking good with less CC anyway.

A question, is a default skin necessary to retain his look? I mean, should I keep the skin, eyebrows, hair and sliders plus makeup but forego the clothes?

that decision is yours but i say what makes up an appearance in the first place would be the skin, eyebrows, hair and the shape of a sim (sliders used) and also make up or genetics (like freckles). clothes are secondary to me since people normally change their clothes sometimes ;-) LOL
you said you wanted to upload him? maybe its better than to use a non-default skin on him so that peolpe who might be interested to have him in their games dont need to get his default skin for all their sims. just an suggestion of course

also i am completely on HPs side: only use the content you can remember what is what and where you get it + that its still available so that your sims will show up correctly for others!

I don't have much to say before you post more pics, but I just wanted to say I think an orange tail would suit him better.

thanks, I dig male mermaids anyway. :P

Shmovese, noted, I think I'll have to forgo the hair sinc eI forget where's it from.

if you like the hair a lot you can ask the smart guys at the WCIF forum to help you where its from. why not? just give them a pic and see what they suggest. then visit the download sites (depending on the upload you only need to pretend downoading to get the filename / or download again for testing) and see which filenames matches the hair you actually have in your mods / downloads folder (search on computer by filename). then (if its no pay hair) you can link to it and use it ;-) solution: hasta basta ole
oh and if those guys are unable to find the exact hair they very likely provide you with links to other awesome and similar looking hair you can use cause you can refer to its origin then

thanks, you're all a great help!

That sounds cheesy...