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Lab Assistant
Original Poster
#1 Old 13th May 2020 at 7:27 AM
Default And in despair I bowed my head: "I cannot fix this Sim," I said. :(
This is just not my strong suit, at all, but damned if I haven't tried, for hours and hours, days, even. Finally i surrender and beg for help, metaphorical hat in hand. Be brutally honest.

The model I'm working with, who has, well, an interesting face. In a good way:













The "nailed it" version:



(Why does a Sim have to look COMPLETELY different once you leave CAS??)







Ugh.

I can see what's wrong. The nose is off, the eyes are wrong, the shape of the face, the proportions. But I can't make it work.

The hair is another story. Nobody makes plain old receding hairlines for average, middle-aged Sim dudes. At all.

FYI, he's pretty much makeup-free here, although I have just about every slider that exists.

I know I'm terrible at this, but maybe it's just too complicated for CAS to handle? What makeup would look best? I'm overwhelmed by the choices.

TL;DR: David Hewlett, I love you and your face, but right now I am very upset with both of you.

Help.
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#2 Old 13th May 2020 at 11:32 AM
This looks very good. The hair of the person seems darker. Your sims hair seems about right in create a sim lighting and too light in other lighting- I would maybe darken hair some. The person also has stubble and perhaps a more pronounced chin.
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#3 Old 13th May 2020 at 11:47 AM
First of all, this doesn't look bad at all! I think you've done a really great job! And yes, it is really annoying how sims look different in CAS than they do in game. I'm guessing it's to do with the perspective and lighting of the CAS room vs in game.

Second, I'm no expert at CAS but there are a couple of things that I am noticing.

I think the jaw could be a bit wider, maybe try a mix of some more jaw width and jaw shape.

The chin could be brought forward to stick out a bit more. I find that chin scale and chin depth kind of work against each other with this, and so you could experiment a bit to see what shape works best.

Lastly I think if you lower the mouth curve, so the overall mouth shape is a bit flatter, it might make him look less tense, like the lips are pressed together. It also might be worth ever so slightly fattening the lips? Just because I think in the particular photo with very thin lips, it might be that it's sort of a tight smile rather than a relaxed expression.

As for makeup, perhaps using some eyeshadow with a neutral shadowy tone could help giving his eyes some depth. Maybe even a custom eye bag eyeshadow? You could also try a custom makeup nose mask, which should help defining the shape the nose.

If you don't already have it, nraas master controller has a setting for allowing multiple makeups per location, which might be helpful in layering "blush" or eyeshadow for more skin details. And also has a setting for increasing the the slider range which can help if you find you don't have enough range to work with. I usually use it on slider multiple 2.
Instructor
#4 Old 13th May 2020 at 5:32 PM
I would recommend (if you are using custom sliders,cc) NikSim's chin width slider - that way you can widen it without increasing the scale in all directions. I would also recommend aWT's jawline rotate slider to get a better angle from corner of jaw to chin. I agree the jaw needs to be wider, and maybe also adjust the shape as #zoe22 mentioned.

Also... having done a number of celeb sims posted in this group - it's best if you only post live mode pictures (vice in CAS) as they look VERY different sometimes. Put the sim by a blank neutral colored wall, similar to one of your ref pictures. Finally if you can, it's helpful if you crop the photos and put them side-by-side into one picture - like a full frontal pic of the actor, next to a similar scale full frontal picture of your sim at similar angle - but in one picture? If that makes sense. It's much easier to make comparisons when you don't have to flip back and forth.

PS - I'll get links to those sliders here in a minute. Have to look them up.

EDIT: some of aWT's sliders can be found here . The original download site is no longer around. There is another more comprehensive archive somewhere, but I don't have that link handy. The jaw sliders should be at the link I've given. If not, ping me and I track down the other link.

Oops! It's not NikSim's chin slider, it's GnatGoSplat's and it available here on MTS

Duh and/or Hello!
(simblr)
Lab Assistant
Original Poster
#5 Old 13th May 2020 at 5:36 PM
Quote: Originally posted by fascisthater
This looks very good. The hair of the person seems darker. Your sims hair seems about right in create a sim lighting and too light in other lighting- I would maybe darken hair some. The person also has stubble and perhaps a more pronounced chin.


Thank you! Yeah, the chin is tricky to get right from both angles, so I mostly worked on the front view. I'll fix the hair too. I have made several presets and cycled through them, never happy with it. Perfection is the enemy of getting anything accomplished at all, y'know.

The right stubble has been hard to find too. His partner is the one with the noon-o'clock shadow, and they're all too much or not enough. I'll keep looking.
Instructor
#6 Old 13th May 2020 at 5:46 PM
Have you tried R2M's beards or Simnapules's?

Also... I've found one of the game's stubbles is not actually horrible if you lighten the color from the sim's root color.

Duh and/or Hello!
(simblr)
Lab Assistant
Original Poster
#7 Old 13th May 2020 at 6:35 PM
Quote: Originally posted by zoe22
First of all, this doesn't look bad at all! I think you've done a really great job! And yes, it is really annoying how sims look different in CAS than they do in game. I'm guessing it's to do with the perspective and lighting of the CAS room vs in game.

Thank you. I am insanely picky. It might never be "done" because I can never make it good enough. I've thought about commissioning someone to do it, but there's something about making it yourself, isn't there?

The perspective and lighting differences are ridiculous. Half the time I don't know if the change I made is going to be terrible or not. I tried to download a mod to fix the camera angle, but it didn't seem to work.

Quote: Originally posted by zoe22
Second, I'm no expert at CAS but there are a couple of things that I am noticing.

I think the jaw could be a bit wider, maybe try a mix of some more jaw width and jaw shape.

The chin could be brought forward to stick out a bit more. I find that chin scale and chin depth kind of work against each other with this, and so you could experiment a bit to see what shape works best.

I agree. I'm almost afraid to change it and completely botch the whole thing without knowing how to fix it. Happened to the other Sim I'm working on, and his poor nose has never recovered.

And some of my sliders quit working because I had to age him to full adult to get the right look.

Quote: Originally posted by zoe22
Lastly I think if you lower the mouth curve, so the overall mouth shape is a bit flatter, it might make him look less tense, like the lips are pressed together. It also might be worth ever so slightly fattening the lips? Just because I think in the particular photo with very thin lips, it might be that it's sort of a tight smile rather than a relaxed expression.

Ha, I forgot to mention, this is kind of intentional. Outside of the stock photos, the character looks like that all the time:



In fact, I have complained multiple times that I struggled to find any neutral pictures of him where he doesn't look irritated



shell shocked



or outraged.



Life's tough when you're an intergalactic supergenius.

So, yeah, the lips are a bit exaggerated. As a fan, I was so happy I found a slider for a slanted mouth that I had to abuse it. I'll put it back at some point!

Quote: Originally posted by zoe22
As for makeup, perhaps using some eyeshadow with a neutral shadowy tone could help giving his eyes some depth. Maybe even a custom eye bag eyeshadow? You could also try a custom makeup nose mask, which should help defining the shape the nose.

I've worked with these, yeah. I don't seem to have a good eye for it (I halfass my makeup in real life), but I'll keep trying.

Quote: Originally posted by zoe22
If you don't already have it, nraas master controller has a setting for allowing multiple makeups per location, which might be helpful in layering "blush" or eyeshadow for more skin details. And also has a setting for increasing the the slider range which can help if you find you don't have enough range to work with. I usually use it on slider multiple 2.

I think I have that setting active, but it sometimes glitches. I'll keep working on it. Thanks again!
Screenshots
Lab Assistant
Original Poster
#8 Old 13th May 2020 at 6:49 PM
Quote: Originally posted by k2m1too
I would recommend (if you are using custom sliders,cc) NikSim's chin width slider - that way you can widen it without increasing the scale in all directions. I would also recommend aWT's jawline rotate slider to get a better angle from corner of jaw to chin. I agree the jaw needs to be wider, and maybe also adjust the shape as #zoe22 mentioned.

I grabbed the chin slider, thanks. I do have the jawline one. I just don't have the magic touch, but I'll keep trying.

Quote: Originally posted by k2m1too
Also... having done a number of celeb sims posted in this group - it's best if you only post live mode pictures (vice in CAS) as they look VERY different sometimes. Put the sim by a blank neutral colored wall, similar to one of your ref pictures. Finally if you can, it's helpful if you crop the photos and put them side-by-side into one picture - like a full frontal pic of the actor, next to a similar scale full frontal picture of your sim at similar angle - but in one picture? If that makes sense. It's much easier to make comparisons when you don't have to flip back and forth.

I actually posted him out of CAS for that purpose. I felt like, what's the point of showing him in CAS? He NEVER looks like that when I'm done anyway. But I'll take your advice.

And yeah, I should have done side-by-sides, but it was late and I was tired. Next time.

Quote: Originally posted by k2m1too
PS - I'll get links to those sliders here in a minute. Have to look them up.
EDIT: some of aWT's sliders can be found here . The original download site is no longer around. There is another more comprehensive archive somewhere, but I don't have that link handy. The jaw sliders should be at the link I've given. If not, ping me and I track down the other link.

Oops! It's not NikSim's chin slider, it's GnatGoSplat's and it available here on MTS

Thanks! I think I do have all of aWT's sliders, unless I'm missing a few. Slider folder has over 300 of them. I'm just not a visual artist, so they don't do much good. But I won't give up.

Thank you.
Lab Assistant
Original Poster
#9 Old 13th May 2020 at 6:54 PM
Quote: Originally posted by k2m1too
Have you tried R2M's beards or Simnapules's?

Also... I've found one of the game's stubbles is not actually horrible if you lighten the color from the sim's root color.


Holy crap, it's a jackpot. I can never have too much CC for my lame, ordinary-looking male Sims.
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