More Awesome Than You!

Does anyone have SimCribbling's "Self-Makeup #7" skintones that they could send to me? (http://louis.new21.net/skin/Louis_main_03skintone.html) Since Maxis has to be puritanically prudish, I can't d/l it from SimCribbling. It would be much appreciated.

I'm specifically looking for the tan and dark tan, so just those tones would be fine. :)

yup, me to.
Isnt that what happens when you have it up on the exchange, but modify it so that its not DL'able?  :-\

It's what happens when you put a "realistic" skintone on the exchange.  Better to ask around to see if anyone has the skin to send to you.

That sucks...Ok then. I've edited the original post.

Well he did multiple skintones and then there's lots of variations on his that other people modified. Personally, I use the modified Louis #7 skins from Shiny Sims.

I've got someone sending the originals, so a big thanks. :)

And thanks to Motoki for the Shiny Sims link. I like the edits - they'll make great defaults, I think.

The do make good defaults IMO and I'm kind of picky too. The changes they made were kind of subtle, but they toned down certain aspects of his skins that made them look a little fake.

They also have a nice set of replacement eyes without the borders around them that 99.99999% of cc creators who make eyes use. This way they don't look funny when they look to the side, up, down or in the cinema scenes when their eyes get real wide.

I'm pretty sure I read some where that 'louis' is a she. :)

I like the Shiny Sims version of the skins too. I don't mind belly button piercings but it looks silly to me on every single sim. Looks better on specific outfits IMHO. I like Shiny Sims eyes also. They don't do that weird extra eyelid thing when the sim has the wide-eyed expression.

There are some at neighbourhood 99 http://p218.ezboard.com/fstarlightsimsfrm77.showMessage?topicID=173.topic you have to be a member though and there were some links here http://forums.sims2community.com/showthread.php?t=19091 hope it helps  ;D

Wow, that most *definitely* helped, Jinx! Excellent links :)

Cheers & thanks!
Liz

Yes, Louis is a "she." ;)

Which set would this be? I have one now that I really like (Obscure eyes from MTS2) but those borders around them are staring to creep me out!

http://shinysims.x-y.net/sims2/zboard.php?id=body&page=1&sn1=&divpage=1&sn=off&ss=on&sc=on&select_arrange=headnum&desc=asc&no=7

None of them on that page have the borders actually. They even have a pic of a sim looking down and you can see the border isn't there on the one set.

The first set is custom eyes without borders in a bunch of colors, the second set is contacts and the third one down the botton (this is the one I use) are defaults.

Oooo, those default eyes are nice!

/me goes off to download...

I use some of Seomi's defaults. They glisten, and there are no borders.

The rest of my eye color folder is Enayla's and Helaene's. I never use anyone else's. Although, those are very pretty. It's just way too easy to go eye color crazy. And seriously, how many blues can you possibly need?

I use GunMod's eyes from MTS2, including the default replacements, which are based on Helaene's original design. The weird colours work well for aliens, faeries, and such, whilst the more natural colours look great on 'human' sims. I've never noticed an unusual border on any of them.

I don't like most of the Louis skins, or the Enayla ones for that matter. They are skillfully done, and many of them are quite beautiful, but to me they look unrealistic and overly 'drawn' - sort of shiny and dirty at the same time. Real skin doesn't have so many shade-variations in it, plus shadows and highlights change based on ambient lighting. To have them rendered directly onto the skin (or the clothing, or the hair) just looks weird and extremely fake to me. Except for the 'Barbie and Ken' effect, I think the Maxis skins look much more realistic, although I don't understand why the breasts on the darker skins are so much lighter than on the rest of the body. Are they supposed to be tan-lines? :-\

I have the same misgivings, personally...Beautiful and wonderfully done as they are, they look...oily. And I don't like the hyper-definition they give to the face, they way they change the shape of the facial features and such... I like using default replacements that look like Maxis tones, with 'bits'. Forget whose I used, I'm playing vanilla-ish...
I guess the breasts on the darker skins are lighter to show some kind of definition, or something? Dunno...hehe

(edited cos I miss out words...>.<)

Any Helaene based eyes will have the borders unless someone did some SERIOUS editing.

Seriously, 99% of custom eyes have the borders and it looks like shit in the the game when the sim does anything but look straight ahead. It looks absolutely aweful in the cinema movies. And yet everyone oohs and aahs these custom eyes and makes them features etc.

Basically the ones I know of without the borders are Maxis and any simple recolors of Maxis eyes (ie they still look similar to the cartoony Maxis ones), Lyran's, a set that SimderZ did and Shiny Sims. If anyone knows of anymore eyes without the borders let me know please!

*Edit: I checked and Enayla's and Gunmod's both have the borders. They borrow heavily from the Helaene template. :P

Who is the one who started the who god damned border around the eye textures anyway? I'd like to slap the shit of out them because now everyone copies it. Newsflash, the eye mesh on sims is a separate mesh that's a ball inside the head. If I took my eye out of its socket in my head and you looked at it, would it have an eyelid wrapped around it? No. Then neither should a Sims2 eye texture.

*steps off soap box*

I never zoom in on my sims enough to see any painted on eyelid or lack of so, so I don't care either way.

Rosesims has a set of 4 "contacts" that are fabulous - more fancy than Lyran's, but still w/ the maxis eye borders. It sucks that there are only 4 colors, b/c I think they'd make great defaults, and I haven't had time to reccolor anything.

And on CC skins, I think one of the best things about them is the serious, serious defugging it enables, w/out any makeup at all. I've had sims whom I previously considered unredeemably FUG, turn up and surprise me w/ their attractiveness/un-atrociousness, using CC skins as defaults. Heck, even the exterminator surprised me w/ her un-fugging, and everyone knows how ugly those exterminators look. I'll try and get a picture if I can, but the difference is remarkable.

I've found Peggy's recent "special gift" skins to be amazing for defugging purposes, and in fact it was the one thing that made me cave to my only TS2 subscription, ever. And Enayla does a great job in making healthy looking light skins. A lot of times light skins can look deathly pale, but she makes hers look amazingly porcelain. Of course, both these skins required MAJOR editing on my part to get them to my tastes - decreasing the oil-slick shine on Enayla's skin of course, and getting rid of the belly piercings and lipstick and nailpolish, esp. since I mostly use CC skins as default-replacements. But once they're fixed, wow are they effective!

I don't even go that far... I usually just give them different hair styles and some blush, and their giant frog mouths and horse eyes suddenly become much less noticable.

Less noticeable, yes, but still fug. When I say these skins unfug, I mean they REALLY unfug...they're like extra strength scar makeup for the Sims - except more natural looking.

Wonderful (to my taste) photo-realistic eyes set by Wildstar24 at TSR (she is not a feature artist so her stuff is perm-free now) : exist as custom and default replacement. Also exist as cat eyes.
Default Replacement (http://www.thesimsresource.com/artists/wildstar24/downloads/sims2/sets/182088/)
Custom Eyes (Normal and Hazel) (http://www.thesimsresource.com/artists/wildstar24/downloads/sims2/sets/180859/) If you want I have them decustomized and geneticized (except the 5 default colors as I use the default replacement).
Default Replacement (Hazel) (http://www.thesimsresource.com/artists/wildstar24/downloads/sims2/sets/197767/)
Feline Default Replacement (http://www.thesimsresource.com/artists/wildstar24/downloads/sims2/sets/365096/)
Custom Feline Eyes (http://www.thesimsresource.com/artists/wildstar24/downloads/sims2/sets/365072/) If you want I have them decustomized and geneticized.

Pioupiou

Sylla (http://www.thesimsresource.com/downloads/sims2/search_sylla/) at TSR has some nice etes. In fact, I use them as default replacements in my game.

Thanks for the eye reccomendations, I will check them out.

I agree that the custom skins can defug some of the townies and npcs to a point, but some of those facial features are so monstrous that no amount of custom content will help. :P Thankfully, there are some face template replacements now.

I'm back w/ pictures!

(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v668/idatminger/snapshot_eda007fa_f2591364.jpg)
This is a serious Maxis fug which would've been previously unredeemable, but now squeaks by thanks to Louis's skintone.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v668/idatminger/snapshot_eda007fa_12591388.jpg)
Another Maxis fug who's a manager for one of my sims. Aside from new eyebrows and hair he's 100% Maxis. He's using Peggy's amazing new skintones, and topped w/ the abs on that thing, he's surprisingly good looking.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v668/idatminger/snapshot_eda007fa_f25919ac.jpg)
Yet another Maxis fug, but using Enayla's light skintone (w/ reduced shine), she's surprisingly elegant.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v668/idatminger/snapshot_eda007fa_925914fc.jpg)
And this dude isn't exactly a Fug, but look how much hotter he is w/ the Peggy skintone!

And okay, so the CC skins can't quite fix the neanderthal faces. Those go straight to the Cowplant. :P

They're a definite improvement, but I'd still probably throw the women at least into the surgery machine. And the last guy's eyes are a little too large and anime IMO, but that's how MaxisEA made those damned templates.

Speaking of custom content and replacers, has anyone done eyebrow replacements. I really loathe the Maxis ones and don't relish the idea of replacing every townie's eyebrows one at a time. I do use the Shiny Sims skin and eye replacers and LPTL's hair texture replacements, but now the eyebrows really stick out, especially that one annoying style that looks like knitted wool.  >:(
 

I think someone did make replacement eyebrows, and I think I have them in my game.  Let me look around and see if I can figure out the source.

That's not true. The only CC you need to fix that is an accessory of a paper bag over their head.

From Insim, though I don't know the creator's name.

Hair Texture replacements? Care to point me in the right direction?  ;)

And I actually kinda like the slightly fuzzy Maxis eyebrows. They look pretty good on certain sims, and the best on kids/toddlers - a perfectly plucked arch just looks weird on these stages. The other two are pretty bad, though. But I haven't found a good set of eyebrows yet that works on all sims.

There's always the cow and mascot heads...

The ones I have are by 'Amun-RA' -- I *think* I got them at Insim, as the .rar name doesn't follow the MTS2 format.

Edit: Yup, that's where they came from: http://www.insimenator.net/showthread.php?t=16222

It's at Insim in XPTL's section.