Guess who.

[agcons]

I would have said she was Cassandra, but if she's a nanny then I'm lost.  Kendall Lawson, perhaps?

I re-read "I, Claudius" and "Claudius the God" a few weeks ago, and so my nannies now have Roman first names:  Drusilla Despret, Agrippina Gast, and Messalina Lawson.  I declined to change their surname as I rather enjoy the cognitive dissonance that results from reading their full names.

[angelyne]

Isn't she pretty?

Ages ago, I had decided to age down my nannies.  I didn't like the old bats.  I discovered, to my surprise, that Kendal was quite pretty and she had in my mind, an indian look to her.  So I went looking for saris and bindi makeup.  I found both at the same place I believe, however I can't recall where.  I still have her character file saved I believe, I don't mind sharing.  Nothing she is wearing is from a pay site.

Oh and she has Enayla default skin at the moment, and Gunmod Helaene's default eyes.

Oh and Motoki, her bladder problems have been neatly solved by her dip in the fountain of youth

ps Oh I forgot to mention that she's no longer really a nanny, as I have exported her with sim surgery.  So she is just regular character now (which I turned into a townie).  I like having racial variety in my game. 

and I found the website where I got it.  They conveniently included their URL in the file .  http://www.tehhi.com/themes-sims.html
I had forgotten about that site.  They have great stuff I haven't seen yet.

If you use this to make any indus in your game, I'd like to see it!

[J. M. Pescado]

Is it just me, or do all Enayla things look exceptionally oily?

[JadeEliott]

Not just you. I am not sure why "oily" seems to equate "realistic" as far as skins go.

[BlueSoup]

Maybe Enayla is exceptionaly oily. 

[Renatus]

Er, as far as I can tell, real people really, really do have rather shiny skin when they aren't layering it up with powders and creams. Not quite as shiny as many of the skins, but not matte like is shown in magazines and such. Enayla's are rather shiny, but part of the effect is not the sort of shine skin gets in its natural state or from being greasy, but a 'glow' that is painted as to make it seem as if it's coming from inside. On the lighter skin tones it's more real than on the darker, where it's rather overdone.

[sanmonroe]

That is a great site.

[angelyne]

well put Renatus.  It's more of a glow than a sheen.  Look at the skin of a child, it reflects the light somewhat.  But I also agree that people skin's do not shine quite that much.  But I still like the effect in the game, except on the darkest skins.  But Enayla doesn't have much experience with dark skin, most of her art portrays light skinned people.  She is Swedish and very pale herself.

To each their own.

So JM, do you use a default skin ?  Or are you just using Maxis defaults <shudder>

[Ruann]

I personally prefer the Maxis Defaults, or at least things that match them.  The game isn't designed to look photo-realistic.  Putting stuff in that attempts to be photo-realistic just completely breaks any sense of immersion and internal consistency in the game.  I despised photo-realistic sims in Sims1 as well as photo-realistic objects because they had no place in the Sims world and they still don't. 

And if I really wanted to stare at something that looks well oiled and sweaty... well, I wouldn't be playing a video game at that point.

Does it mean the skins aren't beautiful?  Not at all.  They're quite well done and good looking.  They just don't fit in the Sims world.

This one isn't as extreme as some I've seen.  Anything low-cut just screams "pet me!" which is not good...

[angelyne]

This is far from photo realistic.  It's more at the level of air brushed fantasy art...which suits me fine.  I wouldn't go to the extreme like the skins  Xnem (?) makes.  That makes me shudder...it's just weird.

[Renatus]

I wouldn't go to the extreme like the skins  Xnem (?) makes.  That makes me shudder...it's just weird.

Me too, angelyne. I think that the super-real skins on sims make them hit the uncanny valley and the end result is my skin crawling at the sight. Ugh. It's even worse when someone posts a screenshot of a sim where they used a hyperrealistic skin - but kept the distorted default proprotions for the faces.

I like skins that make the sims look as real as a very well made doll, such as Enayla's and Oepu's. I like for their eyes to be the same - like eyes on a well-made doll. The ones I have right now are a little more simple than I would like (by sugarandcaffiene), but they look good no matter what expression the sims make, and I decided that was more important.I don't like the Maxis defaults because they are too simple and undetailed and put me in mind of cheap plastic dolls. The eyes especially, they are so flat!

I am not surprised Enayla has trouble painting dark skin - the shades and tones used in painting a dark skin seem to be very different from those used in painting paler skins, even if 'paler' is a deep tan.

[Kitiara]

I hate the way the elders look in game. Real 'elders' do not look like that, at least not until the final days. I always age my elder NPCs down to adult, just so I won't have so many elders in my game.

[liegenschonheit]

Personally, I like Louis' self makeup skins in my game. I picked up defaults for them somewhere on MTS. I like them because they add some nice detail, but don't look like they've been wrestling in baby oil. The reason a lot of skintones look all fake and shiny is because people are using photos to texture them, and the models in magazines always look horribly fake.

Enayla's skins do seem to be getting a little better now, but I still don't like them very much for my game.

[angelyne]

I like Louis as well.  I like the detailing on the body, the well defined muscles and the defined belly button. I like louis's skins better for men.  I tried to see if I could mix and match textures to make my defaults (i.e. Enayla for female, Louis for male) but realized it wouldn't work because both sexes share some textures.

Renatus the most shudder inspiring exemple I saw was several months back when Xnem came out with his first ultra-realistic skins. he had one of his new skins on his webpage, but with the flat maxis default eyes.  It looked really really freaky