Default Replacement Skins

[Renatus]

I love Enayla's skins and plan to make them default replacements... for my fantasy neighborhood. Like her artwork, they are very unearthly and would look odd on normal human sims, but they'll look great on elves and faeries.

I'm at least one person who nudged her about the nipple issue. She was very friendly about my suggestions for getting it fixed; I think like a lot of artists who work primarily in 2D, some errors are bound to crop up when working on something that would wrap around a 3D object and hints on how to make it work are appreciated. Not that she didn't make all of the other features work well!

[angelyne]

*giggles* hey JM, shouldn't I be a "Loudmouth Catfish"?   

Congratulations on your new title Sleepycat it's well deserved !!

[Sleepycat]

Renatus, I am really glad you nudged her and gave her some suggestions for fixing the nipples *laughs* 

I agree that her skins are perfect for otherworldly creatures *nods her head* I may or may not keep them in my somewhat normal hood, it does have a pointy eared slut who has a couple bastard children (atleast one has her mothers ears) and I may add more pointy eared sims cause I'm really getting tired of "normal" sims. For now, I plan to just enjoy these skins in my game and forget "realistic and normal" *laughs* I look forward to seeing the next ones she makes 

*giggles* hey JM, shouldn't I be a "Loudmouth Catfish"?   

Congratulations on your new title Sleepycat it's well deserved !!

Thank you  isn't it just great? *laughs*

[angelyne]

Woot guess what.  Enyala has answered my PM.  She is working on some default replacement skins.  They are gorgeous ! Preview here : http://www.modthesims2.com/showthread.php?p=1032178#post1032178 (bottom of page 2)

I kinda promised her to try to turn them into default replacement <gulp>.  I felt a little responsible since I outlined that method Sleepycat showed us before testing it and realizing it has some quirks.  Since it's a bit wonky, you can't really post the resulting files.  She would be flooded with people complaining about it not working.

Maybe some of you feel like helping <ingratiating smile> ?

[Sleepycat]

*drools* heh looks like I will be using custom skintones after all (was trying to avoid it) and I wasted my time making her others defaults because I will want her new ones as defaults instead *laughs*

those preview pictures are of other skintones she is working on, I'm gonna end up with all of them 


angelyne, I'll be happy to help    If I'm feeling up to it when she gets them finished then I would even be willing to do the whole S1 to 4 set, it's not work if I like the skintones *laughs*

[angelyne]

Wait she said that those skins aren't default, just an example of an asian skin and a nordic skin with freckles.  Her REAL default skins are coming.

Wow, productive girl.  I can't wait

[Renatus]

OooOooh. Those certainly look nice! I'm glad she's doing realistic tones as well - I like my skins from Oepu well enough but something about that "so hyper realistic it's not realistic" look grabs me.

[Sleepycat]

Her REAL default skins are coming.

She finished them! She finished them! She finished them! *is excited*  I PMed her and gave her my email and told her I would do the default versions for her if she wants, haven't heard back yet *is impatient* *wants them!*


*laughs*

[angelyne]

Hey Sleepycat check your PM please

[maxon]

I've done some looking around at realistic nude skintones and I still like Allan Akbars the best, they can be found here
http://www.insimenator.net/showthread.php?t=905

It's in the adult section so you will need to be registered and have adult access (PM Kathy for it)


Something I keep forgetting, which is funny since I requested it in the first place, is SimPE has made it extremely easy to make any skintone a default skintone (replacing the skintone of your choice) including Alien, Zombie and Vampire

scan folder/pick custom skintone/select it and then go down to the bottom, one of the tabs has the spot where you can choose which skintone to have it replace, select which one, a window will popup for you to give it a name, save and within moments (depending on your computer) you will have a new default skintone 

I took one of my tattooed skins (based on Allan Akbars) and made it my new alien default, worked great! but a few mins later when I was going thru my "pre-Uni" folder (boy am I glad I didn't just delete it) I happened to come across all my copys of Allan Akbars skintones and stuff (from his site when he still had it) including his very dark african one (which was the base for the tattooed skin I had just made into a default alien) so I decided to make that one my default alien skintone for now (while I decide if I want to do a special tattooed one)

I think after I get some sleep I will be updating my memory on his skintones, I used to love his ones with tanlines so I may make one of them a default 

Excellent - thanks.  Would you mind if I posted this on another newsgroup?

[Sleepycat]

maxon, sure go ahead but also add that the original file must be kept in the downloads folder with it or it won't work right

[myskaal]

Just wanted to post on what I just did for myself for a new alien default - thought others might like to know.

I wanted Enayla's Unearthly Jade for my new alien default, so to start I used the method SleepyCat outlined to create a default replacement file.
Then I opened the file in SimE and exported all of the images. I changed the eyes to the alien black on all the images in my image editor.
Then I opened up another already made default replacement file to use as a template (the one I used happened to be Sim Scribblings Alien Default Replacement by PattyMcPat) and replaced all the images with my altered Jade images via BuildDXT.

Viola. New default with no original file needed in the DL folder for it to work.

edit to add - it seems Enayla's skin doesn't have all the different fit styles included (at least the default file SimPE created from it didn't) so I ended up just putting the same fit style over all the fit styles available on my sim scribbling default. I'm not sure if this is because Enayla didn't make different fitness levels or because of something SimPE did to the file when making it a default because I didn't look through Enayla's skin before defaulting it but anyway... there's a short cut. Could probably skip the creating a default from the skin part first but it just seemed to make it easier to find the textures that way.

[Sleepycat]

I walked angelyne through the way I do it (make standalone defaults) yesterday, I think she might have plans to make a tutorial up but I'm not sure.

this is how I do it.

1, I get setup - rename the default files and make folders for each set of pngs

2, open Bodyshop and under create, I start a new project and export (and then cancel) each skintone (that gives me all the texture files I need, with names)

3, open my graphics program (I use PhotoImpact 10) and (batch) open the files for 1 skintone and then save them all as pngs to the folder I made earlier (you can batch save if you want)

4, open SimPE, open renamed default file and swap all the textures via BuildDXT (commit each time and save when all are swapped)

5, check new default in-Bodshop and/or in-game


The hardest part for beginners is getting accustomed to the texture file names.



edit - the simpe "shortcut" dosen't make proper defaults, if it did then you wouldn't need the original file but I consider the shortcut to be perfect for those that don't want to learn (or can't or just plain don't have time) the longer way. Everyone should be able to have their favorite skintones as defaults if they want and the shortcut makes that possible.

[angelyne]

Yes thank you again for that Sleepycat, that method rocks.

I went ahead and made Enayla alien skin default as well.  It was good practice.  I'm seriously thinking of writing a step-by-step tutorial.  I would  include which files correspond to which to make it easy as pie.

It's a really easy method and fairly quick once you get the hang of it.

I'll post it here first so you guys can tell me if it's clear, concise, easy to follow and most of all accurate.  Anyone interested?

[SIMplyLisa]

Put me down as interested in a tutorial. I've tried the "easy" method and would like to master the standalone method too.

[angelyne]

Well it's done.  Please let me know if you find it easy to follow.  I especially want to know if the chart I made is exact.

you can find it at http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/smf/index.php?topic=2930.0

On and Enayla has released her default replacement skins.  They were made just for this purpose, and they are just gorgeous.  She match Maxis default colors, only in "her style", as she says.

[Sleepycat]

I especially want to know if the chart I made is exact.

yes, it is, I double-checked it    I'm glad you did the alien default after all, good practice 


Enayla's Opaline and Golden Grace skintones are also available, that is if the damn sever isn't to busy    I managed to get them after a couple trys.

[jmtmom]

Very nicely done Angeline. You have a knack for making things simpler to follow.

I have a question though. When I did this before, using Patty McPat's cribbing defaults as a base, I never used a paint program. I just exported the skintones with body shop and then used those files to replace the textures in the default with dxt as you described. It worked fine. Is it really neccessary to use a paint program to convert them to png?

[angelyne]

That's a good question!  I was being a good little soldier and following instructions.  Didn't really stop to wonder why.  I know that just replacing the texture in SimPe can lead to a loss of quality that's why we use the build function. 

I did try the method using bmp file and it seems to work, although I did not save the work.

Sleepycat do you have any idea?

[Sleepycat]

no clue...maybe buildDXT is the difference or maybe simpe changed something. I only know that I was told they had to be pngs more then 6 months ago, when I first started making alien default replacments *was also being a good little soldier*  but if bmp/png really makes no difference then it makes it even easier  *laugh*


/rant on

What the hell is wrong with people over at mts2?  Enayla did those beautiful skintones, provides them as defaults (like people wanted) and quite a few people have to bitch about wanting them as non-defaults before they'll even download even after I posted how they could have them as non-defaults simply by exporting/importing them in Bodyshop *growls*

/rant off


edit - angelyne, I managed to get all my sims sorted out with their proper skintones between saving and exiting the lots and using the mirror a few times.

[Batelle]

What the hell is wrong with people over at mts2?

From my limited interactions with the larger MST2 community, it seems that they are never, ever content with something longer than 3 minutes.  The first few responses to a new object/mod/creation is always "I"M FIRST!!Thanks!", "You're Awesome", "I can't wait to see this in my game!" and then the resquests start, as though the creator has any obligation to change the product they're giving away. 

Anyway, I have Enayla's defaults now.  I can't wait to see them in my game.

[ZephyrZodiac]

What the hell is wrong with people over at mts2?

From my limited interactions with the larger MST2 community, it seems that they are never, ever content with something longer than 3 minutes.  The first few responses to a new object/mod/creation is always "I"M FIRST!!Thanks!", "You're Awesome", "I can't wait to see this in my game!" and then the resquests start, as though the creator has any obligation to change the product they're giving away. 

I totally agree, if you haven't had to pay for something, you have no right to complain if it isn't just what you wanted!  For that matter, if you have paid a sub to a site, you do that from choice, and although obviously if something is faulty, you have a right (and an obligation) to inform the creator, you still can't really demand that they change something which works perfectly well, just because it isn't exactly what you expected!  That kind of attitude if it becomes too prevalent will only serve to make creators reluctant to share their work with anyone, either on a free or a pay site!

[TaWanda]

 To be fair, there are creators who make things for themselves but are nice enough to share, but there are also a number of creators who ask for feedback and welcome requests. They seem to enjoy the challenge.
 I don't see anything wrong with politely asking about requests, I've had very positive response to the few requests I've made. However I do wish people would actually read the whole thread first to see if a request has already been answered. Too annoying to see people repeat the same request over and over after the creator has already given an answer. Especially if they are rude and whiny about it!

[ZephyrZodiac]

Well, I would go along with that - I did use the word "demand", which I think is a little different from "ask politely" - and a polite request is something I know most creators would at least consider, but a demand is more likely to get their back up!  And there are definitely some people who haven't a clue how to "ask politely" just as they haven't a clue how to just be polite!

[angelyne]

no clue...maybe buildDXT is the difference or maybe simpe changed something. I only know that I was told they had to be pngs more then 6 months ago, when I first started making alien default replacments *was also being a good little soldier*  but if bmp/png really makes no difference then it makes it even easier  *laugh*

Lol, somehow I had a feeling that's what you would say.  Mayber at the time buildDXT didn't support anything else but pngs.  I'll find some skin to make default and will try it with bmps.  If it works, i'll modify the procedure.

/rant on

What the hell is wrong with people over at mts2?  Enayla did those beautiful skintones, provides them as defaults (like people wanted) and quite a few people have to bitch about wanting them as non-defaults before they'll even download even after I posted how they could have them as non-defaults simply by exporting/importing them in Bodyshop *growls*

/rant off

lol, no kidding.  I was saying for god's sake! to myself reading that.  And btw, no one reads threads.  They just hop in and ask their question, even if it's been asked a million times upthread. It's a wonder that a creator even bothers.  In between the endless repeated questions and the slavish mindless praise (ok I'm guilty of that too lol), the thread doesn't make for interesting reading.  So beautiful..GORGEOUS, ur so talented and my favorite...keep up the good work.  <wince>

So glad this place isn't like that lol.

Oh and glad to hear you got everything sorted out.  I had only a small glitch with a toddler.  There was like a blue shadow of her.  The toddler mirror fixed it.  My sims are even more attractive than I had expected with her new skins tones.  I couldn't stop taking pictures of my sims.  It was worth loosing some hmm details    The only skin I am not sure about is the darkest tone.  She had trouble with that one, and you can see that dark skin is not what she does best.