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Field Researcher
#51 Old 4th Nov 2014 at 6:47 PM
I prefer everything to be realistic. I just tend to disagree with some people on what realistic is.

For example, custom eyes that are very dark/grey (the white parts of the eye, not the eye color). Personally... everyone I know has white in the.. you know, white of the eyes (linguistic fail). Shiny skins that comes with what looks like make-up to me, I don't consider to be very realistic, unless one is trying to replicate the human Ken doll, and some of the 'realistic' hairs look more like wigs, as they appear to have been inspired by anime. And anime isn't really known for realistic hair colours and styles...

So I suppose what I like is my personal idea of realism.
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retired moderator
#52 Old 4th Nov 2014 at 8:57 PM
People do the same thing to Maxis Match too. What one calls semi realistic another calls Maxis Match. MM is not bucket fill and clothes with unfinished edges. Maybe in 2005 it was, but things have moved on. So while questions like this are interesting everyone has there own interpretation of what fits into the MM, SR and R boxes.

"I dream of a better tomorrow, where chickens can cross the road and not be questioned about their motives." - Unknown
~Call me Jo~
Scholar
#53 Old 4th Nov 2014 at 9:14 PM
I lean toward semi-realistic. I think that used to be called realisim?

I do however use maxis match hair and clothes for sims. usually these are sims less concerned with appearance or with less money. just IRL less detailed clothing tends to be less expensive.

I stay away from the shiny-shiny hairs (which aren't realistic anyway) and tend more toward kinky hairs which have minimal sheen and straight hairs with just a little bit of shine.

Check out my simblr https://www.tumblr.com/blog/tbssimblr

Click the link, you know you want to. ;)
Mad Poster
#55 Old 4th Nov 2014 at 10:11 PM Last edited by gazania : 5th Nov 2014 at 2:50 AM.
Quote: Originally posted by joandsarah77
People do the same thing to Maxis Match too. What one calls semi realistic another calls Maxis Match. MM is not bucket fill and clothes with unfinished edges. Maybe in 2005 it was, but things have moved on. So while questions like this are interesting everyone has there own interpretation of what fits into the MM, SR and R boxes.


Exactly. I think that many of us have our own definitions of MM, SR and R skins.

For me, MM reminds me of ... well ... Maxis Sims. A little shading and contouring (and some are semi-Barbie or in a couple of cases, have their full bits, though that's rare), but if you were to put them side-by-side with the originals, the result would be the least jarring of the three.

Realistic ... very detailed. Lots of shading. Often, lots of muscle tone. Some can be shiny in spots. On some of the older ones, you can almost see pores. Some are so realistic that you can imagine seeing someone across the street looking like one of the Sims (well, except that some may be Barbie, or some may have blue or green skin).

Semi-Realistic. In-between. You could not imagine someone actually looking like this walking up to you in real life! Still retains a cartoonish/illustrative look, but not as detailed as realistic skins. Muscle-tone and shine are in-between MM and R.

But these aren't hard and fast categories, and can be open for interpretation. And it's all good!

Thanks to ALL free-site creators, admins and mods.

RIP Sunni ... truly a ray of light.
Mad Poster
#56 Old 4th Nov 2014 at 10:48 PM
Default Maxis Match VS Realistic? Which do you prefer and why?
I don't quite get the dichotomy of this thread. When I look at my pictures of Andrew, I cannot see anything "unrealistic" about him. His eyelashes are possibly a bit on the short side, but I'm sure it wouldn't be hard to find real people with short eyelashes. Yet Andrew isn't even Maxis match. As far as his skin, hair and eyes are concerned (and that's all OP mentioned) he's pure Maxis. But I actually find him more natural looking than some "realistic" female Sims I've seen, who I think are over made-up.

Also in the picture are a pendant by Noogie666 and a tropical shirt by sushigal007. I don't know whether these are classified as realistic or Maxis match. I only know I've worn very similar shirts in the past!

I admit that 2 or 3 of the Maxis face templates have mouths that are so wide that they look more like the missing link than anything fully human (maybe I should create a family of them and call them the Darwins ), but, if you steer clear of them, I reckon it's possible to create Sims in CAS, who at least reach my standards of realism, without using any CC for skin, hair or eyes. My main reason for using CC hair is to make all my Sims look different, not because I think Maxis hair in unrealistic. I reckon I've always played s fairly realistic game, but I think that has more to do with my playstyle, than with my choice of skins and eyes. In my game I usually avoid supernatural elements and male pregnancy. My only really unrealistic element is that I let (usually poorer) Sims grow money trees. ("Financial Forestry" we call it.)

I know I'm biased, because, when I look at those familiar features, I see a good friend whom I've known for nearly two years now, but please look at my pictures of Andrew in post #8, and tell me what's unrealistic about him, that could be improved by custom skin, eyes and hair.

All Sims are beautiful -- even the ugly ones.
My Simblr ~~ My LJ
Sims' lives matter!
The Veronaville kids are alright.
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retired moderator
#57 Old 5th Nov 2014 at 12:11 AM
Most people are looking at the eyes, skin and hair Andrew, not the lashes so much. If I used maxis eyes on the sim I posted after yours you would see what is meant by flat soulless maxis eyes. You can't see it because your graphics are poor. As I said people have different definitions of what is MM, SR and R is to them. To me, realistic clothes means photoshoped clothes which I dislike even when well done, but other people may say that isn't what they mean by realistic clothes. Way back, when cc first came out Maxis Match was defined by simple bucket fill and realistic was using a photograph, say of a real leather jacket placed over a mesh. It tended to look like a photo in game and looked out of place and often the zippers or buttons would look huge. Most of the cc looked pretty horrid, but it was still new and shiny for 2005 and we had low expectations. But graphic cards improved and we saw more details and people got better at creating and the divide between crap and well made started becoming more obvious. Some people still have 2005 in mind when they say MM or realistic but both have improved so much that the defining lines between the styles has blurred. I think the one thing that continues to stand out are the eyes. Anything with pink corners is to me realistic and if I accidentally download it, out it goes. Not to offend but it creeps me out. Now the Sleeping Lion eyes I linked to does have a faint shadow in the corner but in game it doesn't look pink and most of the time I don't see it, so I guess they may be labeled MM or SR depending on who is doing the labeling. I think everyone agrees that eyes with definite pink corners are realistic, and it's the eyes which really make the sim.

"I dream of a better tomorrow, where chickens can cross the road and not be questioned about their motives." - Unknown
~Call me Jo~
Mad Poster
#58 Old 5th Nov 2014 at 12:40 AM
Thanks Jo. I think part of my problem is that I really feel uncomfortable looking directly into someone's eyes (which is unfortunate as our western culture expects me to). I fear people think I look "shifty" and I seldom do well in interviews. (I do wish I could get a job as easily as my Sims!) As a result I think I probably avoid direct eye contact even with my Sims; I don't think I could tell you the eye colour of any of my Sims except Andrew, and I really only know his eye colour because of these pictures.

No, I really don't want to see the blood vessels in my Sims eyes, so for me Andrew, and his eyes are realistic enough. I prefer to use the word "believable" to describe my Sims rather than "realistic". I really don't feel that Andrew's eyes are flat or soulless, but then I know the "soul" that lies behind them.

All Sims are beautiful -- even the ugly ones.
My Simblr ~~ My LJ
Sims' lives matter!
The Veronaville kids are alright.
Test Subject
#59 Old 5th Nov 2014 at 8:24 AM
I prefer both styles. I have two neighborhoods in two folders and love both styles game, also i have sci-fi foulder and all neon colors hair put where. But like more semi-realistic my loved skins by Ephemera and these eyes http://modthesims.info/d/466842 in maxis match style i prefer Lilith Feather skintone and these eyes http://remisims.livejournal.com/118367.html Its just different style of game
Inventor
#60 Old 5th Nov 2014 at 4:34 PM
There's definitely 'a point' in how someone perceives realistic.
Field Researcher
#61 Old 5th Nov 2014 at 5:15 PM
I prefer semi-realistic, but mix maxis-match stuff in there too. For instance, my default eyes are realistic, but my default skins are maxis match in order for the pre-mades to look how they were intended to look. If I download something realistic-looking, such as clothes, it has to be well done (like on GOS or Trapping's stuff). I can't stand photoskinned clothes. They look faker than maxis-match, in a way.
Field Researcher
#62 Old 5th Nov 2014 at 8:03 PM
Some of the "realistic" stuff is, for me at least (and I suspect others), a manifestation of the uncanny valley.
Mad Poster
#63 Old 6th Nov 2014 at 5:08 PM
Yes - believable over realistic. AndrewGloria your picture of Andrew does look believable to me, and certainly more believable than some of the maxis created sims! But he does not look realistic. If I saw somebody with that shade of yellow hair, I would find it strange. Plus to have the hair hanging in such thick strands, as though it were made out of felt. He looks like a doll or figurine, rather than a human, but as you said - it's more of an artist's interpretation. You don't expect a sim to look like a photograph, or a human actor in a film.

You can see how computer generated characters can look much closer to human actors in the latest video games with realistic style graphics - Tomb Raider 2013 is a good example, and you can google it without fear of seeing anything too violent or sexy. I don't think that this level of realism is possible in The Sims 2 because the meshes just aren't that intricate, and because of genetics - in games like that, the skin is painstakingly painted onto the specific mesh. For a game with genetics, where a skintone can be applied to a totally different mesh, you need much more universality. (Also why MMOs like Final Fantasy have a more anime/cartoony look, because the skins have to be smoother and generalised rather than highly individual.) Plus, Lara Croft's hair on the latest version crashed many computers! Perhaps that level of realism is a bit too much for most people, at least until computers can handle it easily.

I read something once which said that there's only so far animators can go, there's a certain point at which computer-animated characters start to look seriously creepy because they are too human like. Especially if they look realistic, but move in unrealistic ways (which most computer generated characters do, and sims definitely do, as their movements are exaggerated for comic effect.) No, I'm happy to retain a sense of slight cartoonish artistic license on how my sims appear. It matches their environment and interactions. Everything is a little exaggerated, a little smoothed, a little more saturated than real life and I like it that way - besides, with CC clothing and furniture, it's possible to tone your game up or down any way you like. You can have a muted, darker palette or a much more bright, candy coloured world.

For me Fakepeeps7 is a good example of well-made maxis match clothing. They are not realistic, but they are entirely believable, especially within the context of the sims' world.

I use the sims as a psychology simulator...
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