@Mstybl95 Thank you I have used a lot of CC sliders on Josh and he is one of my favourite sims
Glad you managed to get the shading back into your game I never bothered with changing any settings or even how defined my sims look because, to be truthful, it would be lost on me with my old lady vision
Here are portraits of half a dozen male sims that I have created myself over the years, they're all vanilla, no thirdparty skins or CC used. I think they look very different from each other, and none of them have "pudding" face with all the sliders in the middle position.
I don’t have CC or sliders mods and most of time I don’t mess with more than half of the default sliders, but I believe my sims are different enough.
What I do is first randomize the whole sim or only the face several times until I get some decent starting point and from there I take a caricature approach of selecting a few features and exaggerating them. Like: this girl will have pointy ears and a tiny nose, this guy will have a super squared chin and sleepy eyes.
I think hair, clothes and body already add enough differences, but considering what @cwaddell posted, I think I will check some of my sims made through the years to see if I have a somewhat consistent style.
Post edited by Keiomestre on
..... ..... ..... ..... My favorite Sims 3 family: THE ENFADONHOS!..... ..... ..... .....
Here are mine. Bear in mind, I've been playing with the same set of sims since the game game out. Haha...these are like 16 or 17th generation at this point, all born in game, except 1 that was a special download from a super simmer here. However, their skin is now different because I purged the original and their hair disappeared. Whoops!
Here are some pics before I changed settings to what @Emily4331 suggested:
And this is now what it looks like after the settings were changed:
The depth of field is AWESOME!!
It seems to be a little too dark in low light, though.
Thanks @Mikezumi! I love the way it looks now. A little tweaking for the lighting should do the trick. I have a lot of white and the bloom will definitely irritate my eyes.
@Mstybl95 Your family looks awesome! Bloom can be very brutal on the eyes, so I don't blame you for wanting to turn it down. I like darker nights, which is why I amped up the contrast so much and darkened shadows. Once you tweak the settings, you should post them here.
@Mstybl95 Getting back to your original question about how to make sims not look the same, be mindful of who your sims marry. It's been a long time since I played a save that has gone for 17 generations but I do remember finding partners for my sims' offspring was quite difficult after a few generations and, back in the day, I probably married service sims into the family in desperation. I am very slow at adding EPs, although I own them all, so didn't have genies or IFs in my game and I don't know what you have done for partners in your game but marrying service sims, IFs and genies into your family could cause sims to look alike since they are all zero slider sims. Looking closely at your sims I see that your sims don't look like zero sliders but it could be that you have picked heirs that were clones of a parent you favoured and that, too, can cause sims to look the same after a while. I know I am guilty of having favourite features on a sim that sway me to pick a particular heir.
As for going forward with making new sims, just work the sliders. Basing sims on real people is a good way to get sims that look diverse too and I find it helps with a more realistic feature placement. Here are some of my boys
Here is a partial collection of my sims made as young adults from CAS.
The women: On the top left, my simself's wife back from 2009. Also on the top, 3 women from my fruit named family in Twinbrook. Bottom left and middle are girls from Bridgeport and bottom right is my witch from Moonlight Falls.
The men: On top left, a neighbor created in 2009. Top middle are from the fruit named family in Twinbrook. Top right is my fairy from Moonlight Falls. Bot left is my founder on Riverview and the 2 other on the bottom are guys from Bridgeport.
Here are the colored sims under a mood lamp to make their skin look normal.
Do they look too similar? Do they look like they have been made by the same person? I don't see much of a pattern. Of course beauty is out of question here, I don't want all my sims to be supermodels.
..... ..... ..... ..... My favorite Sims 3 family: THE ENFADONHOS!..... ..... ..... .....
@Keiomestre Your sims don't look alike but I think you missed cwaddell's point.
I think unless a player purposefully tries to make their sims different they will end up very similar to their other sims. As others have said to get a different look the slider values must be different. But even with different slider values and different facial structures each player often has a style they prefer that identifies a sim as theirs.
I haven't seen a lot of your pics so don't know your overall style but many simmers who have been posting for a long time (and with a much higher post count than yours) are immediately recognizable by their sims. It's not that their sims look alike but the way they style and portray their sims that makes their "style" identifiable.
@Mstybl95 Getting back to your original question about how to make sims not look the same, be mindful of who your sims marry. It's been a long time since I played a save that has gone for 17 generations but I do remember finding partners for my sims' offspring was quite difficult after a few generations and, back in the day, I probably married service sims into the family in desperation. I am very slow at adding EPs, although I own them all, so didn't have genies or IFs in my game and I don't know what you have done for partners in your game but marrying service sims, IFs and genies into your family could cause sims to look alike since they are all zero slider sims. Looking closely at your sims I see that your sims don't look like zero sliders but it could be that you have picked heirs that were clones of a parent you favoured and that, too, can cause sims to look the same after a while. I know I am guilty of having favourite features on a sim that sway me to pick a particular heir.
As for going forward with making new sims, just work the sliders. Basing sims on real people is a good way to get sims that look diverse too and I find it helps with a more realistic feature placement. Here are some of my boys
Dang, your sims look like real people!
I have a hard time getting new genetics in my game. Once in a while I think about downloading new sims, but the CC usually makes me stop. I'm kind of picky about what I put in my game. What are your sliders set to? I feel like there is no way I could get my sims to have those features. Usually when I move the sliders even a tiny bit, my sims end up with jagged cheekbones and deformities.
Here is a partial collection of my sims made as young adults from CAS.
The women: On the top left, my simself's wife back from 2009. Also on the top, 3 women from my fruit named family in Twinbrook. Bottom left and middle are girls from Bridgeport and bottom right is my witch from Moonlight Falls.
The men: On top left, a neighbor created in 2009. Top middle are from the fruit named family in Twinbrook. Top right is my fairy from Moonlight Falls. Bot left is my founder on Riverview and the 2 other on the bottom are guys from Bridgeport.
Here are the colored sims under a mood lamp to make their skin look normal.
Do they look too similar? Do they look like they have been made by the same person? I don't see much of a pattern. Of course beauty is out of question here, I don't want all my sims to be supermodels.
Love your quirky style, but yes, they look similar. The noses and mouths look very close. I tend to think we all have a favorites. Like me, I love long noses so most of my sims have a somewhat longer nose. And @Mikezumi is right, you can usually tell who's who here when they show off their pics.
@Mstybl95 Thanks I just have my sliders set to default because I have tried making them more sensitive and I felt like I lost control of my changes. I like my slider movements to be very subtle and by the time I have tweaked a sim my hand is completely cramped
@Mstybl95 Your family looks awesome! Bloom can be very brutal on the eyes, so I don't blame you for wanting to turn it down. I like darker nights, which is why I amped up the contrast so much and darkened shadows. Once you tweak the settings, you should post them here.
I think the dark would be ok for playing, but I'm currently trying to build out a world and I could not see a thing as I was building. haha
I'm going to tweak it here soon. I'm going to play a bit to make sure everything in my houses can be used.
@Mstybl95 Thanks I just have my sliders set to default because I have tried making them more sensitive and I felt like I lost control of my changes. I like my slider movements to be very subtle and by the time I have tweaked a sim my hand is completely cramped
I may put them back to default. Thanks for the tip.
@Mstybl95 I forgot to mention that although my slider setting is default, I sometimes want them outside of the range and I manually type in the numbers I want them to be.
@Mstybl95 I forgot to mention that although my slider setting is default, I sometimes want them outside of the range and I manually type in the numbers I want them to be.
I swear I've been playing since the day this game came out, but I feel like a newb right now. How do you type it in?
@Mstybl95 I forgot to mention that although my slider setting is default, I sometimes want them outside of the range and I manually type in the numbers I want them to be.
I swear I've been playing since the day this game came out, but I feel like a newb right now. How do you type it in?
I'm pretty sure that it's shift clicking on the slider (I do things automatically so memory could be wrong) and a box will come up where you can type in numbers.
...
I'm pretty sure that it's shift clicking on the slider (I do things automatically so memory could be wrong) and a box will come up where you can type in numbers.
I've never typed the value in. I just slide until I get the number I want. I have this tendency (almost a compulsion) to make my slider values a multiple of 50 and sometimes it's hard to get the slider to stop exactly on the number I want. I'll have to try typing in the future. Thanks
@cwaddell I only type in the values when I have already reached the end of the slider's range but haven't got the look I want.
I have seen the values long before I added Integration as I have only had that in a year so perhaps it's another module.
It's probably worth mentioning that many of the very realistic looking sims make subtle use of makeup to give additional visual structure to faces. I think the name of the default skin I use, "Primer", already suggests that idea. Because of my color vision, I abstain from doing this, as the resulting faces would probably look like that of a mandrill, and this means that my sims will always look a bit bland. However, even with default sliders alone, I think you can already get some decent results, even if it won't be "top tier".
@Turjan Very true! Although I don't go for an overly realistic look, I do use quite a bit of layered makeup on my boys, although it's only been in the last year that I first started using it, other than the occasional eyebag.
It's probably worth mentioning that many of the very realistic looking sims make subtle use of makeup to give additional visual structure to faces. I think the name of the default skin I use, "Primer", already suggests that idea. Because of my color vision, I abstain from doing this, as the resulting faces would probably look like that of a mandrill, and this means that my sims will always look a bit bland. However, even with default sliders alone, I think you can already get some decent results, even if it won't be "top tier".
I don't use much makeup but I almost always use this EA eyeliner on my sims
... both male and female.
I make the opacity about half and change the color to go with the hair color to give subtle lower lashes.
I will use lipstick on the female sims and sometimes blush/face highlighting / face contouring on both genders.
Comments
Glad you managed to get the shading back into your game I never bothered with changing any settings or even how defined my sims look because, to be truthful, it would be lost on me with my old lady vision
Zumi and the Winchester Brothers
The Watcher's Caretaker - A Limited ISBI
What I do is first randomize the whole sim or only the face several times until I get some decent starting point and from there I take a caricature approach of selecting a few features and exaggerating them. Like: this girl will have pointy ears and a tiny nose, this guy will have a super squared chin and sleepy eyes.
I think hair, clothes and body already add enough differences, but considering what @cwaddell posted, I think I will check some of my sims made through the years to see if I have a somewhat consistent style.
Here are mine. Bear in mind, I've been playing with the same set of sims since the game game out. Haha...these are like 16 or 17th generation at this point, all born in game, except 1 that was a special download from a super simmer here. However, their skin is now different because I purged the original and their hair disappeared. Whoops!
Here are some pics before I changed settings to what @Emily4331 suggested:
And this is now what it looks like after the settings were changed:
The depth of field is AWESOME!!
It seems to be a little too dark in low light, though.
And the bloom on white is really bright.
Zumi and the Winchester Brothers
The Watcher's Caretaker - A Limited ISBI
As for going forward with making new sims, just work the sliders. Basing sims on real people is a good way to get sims that look diverse too and I find it helps with a more realistic feature placement. Here are some of my boys
Zumi and the Winchester Brothers
The Watcher's Caretaker - A Limited ISBI
The women: On the top left, my simself's wife back from 2009. Also on the top, 3 women from my fruit named family in Twinbrook. Bottom left and middle are girls from Bridgeport and bottom right is my witch from Moonlight Falls.
The men: On top left, a neighbor created in 2009. Top middle are from the fruit named family in Twinbrook. Top right is my fairy from Moonlight Falls. Bot left is my founder on Riverview and the 2 other on the bottom are guys from Bridgeport.
Here are the colored sims under a mood lamp to make their skin look normal.
Do they look too similar? Do they look like they have been made by the same person? I don't see much of a pattern. Of course beauty is out of question here, I don't want all my sims to be supermodels.
I haven't seen a lot of your pics so don't know your overall style but many simmers who have been posting for a long time (and with a much higher post count than yours) are immediately recognizable by their sims. It's not that their sims look alike but the way they style and portray their sims that makes their "style" identifiable.
Zumi and the Winchester Brothers
The Watcher's Caretaker - A Limited ISBI
Dang, your sims look like real people!
I have a hard time getting new genetics in my game. Once in a while I think about downloading new sims, but the CC usually makes me stop. I'm kind of picky about what I put in my game. What are your sliders set to? I feel like there is no way I could get my sims to have those features. Usually when I move the sliders even a tiny bit, my sims end up with jagged cheekbones and deformities.
Love your quirky style, but yes, they look similar. The noses and mouths look very close. I tend to think we all have a favorites. Like me, I love long noses so most of my sims have a somewhat longer nose. And @Mikezumi is right, you can usually tell who's who here when they show off their pics.
Zumi and the Winchester Brothers
The Watcher's Caretaker - A Limited ISBI
I think the dark would be ok for playing, but I'm currently trying to build out a world and I could not see a thing as I was building. haha
I'm going to tweak it here soon. I'm going to play a bit to make sure everything in my houses can be used.
I may put them back to default. Thanks for the tip.
Zumi and the Winchester Brothers
The Watcher's Caretaker - A Limited ISBI
I swear I've been playing since the day this game came out, but I feel like a newb right now. How do you type it in?
I'm pretty sure that it's shift clicking on the slider (I do things automatically so memory could be wrong) and a box will come up where you can type in numbers.
Zumi and the Winchester Brothers
The Watcher's Caretaker - A Limited ISBI
Numeric values on the sliders is a feature of a NRaas Mastercontrol add on mod. (I think NRaas_MasterControllerIntegration.)
I've never typed the value in. I just slide until I get the number I want. I have this tendency (almost a compulsion) to make my slider values a multiple of 50 and sometimes it's hard to get the slider to stop exactly on the number I want. I'll have to try typing in the future. Thanks
@Mstybl95 I’m hoping this might help you out.
Always "River McIrish" ...and maybe some Bebe Hart. ~innocent expression~
I have seen the values long before I added Integration as I have only had that in a year so perhaps it's another module.
Zumi and the Winchester Brothers
The Watcher's Caretaker - A Limited ISBI
Zumi and the Winchester Brothers
The Watcher's Caretaker - A Limited ISBI
I don't use much makeup but I almost always use this EA eyeliner on my sims
... both male and female.
I make the opacity about half and change the color to go with the hair color to give subtle lower lashes.
I will use lipstick on the female sims and sometimes blush/face highlighting / face contouring on both genders.
P.S. You sims look good without makeup.