More Awesome Than You!

After a discussion a few days ago, it seems that people are never entirely satisfied with their default replacement skins.

It's been ages since there was any discussion on this topic, and I know there are a few people on the lookout for a new set to try, so I thought I'd ask if people have seen anything new lately?

I'm currently using Lyrans defaults, which I seem to keep going back to after becoming dissatisfied with which ever set I'm currently trying.  They are a little too pale, but I've just not found anything better anywhere.

Helaenes I've found too hairy.
Enaylas I've found too shiny/oily.

I saw a set by hysterical paroxysm, but they seemed WAY too dark.

I can't stand the hyper-realistic skins, I'm quite happy with the cartoonish effect but find the maxis skins too grayish.

I've never bothered with removing the sensor blur, so realistic genitals wouldn't both me either way.  I wouldn't see them, but the fact that they would be there also wouldn't stop me using a set of skins.

So...  Any suggestions?  Any amazing new finds that some of us may have missed?

My options are limited, since I want skins that also have overrides in a similar style for aliens and zombies, and optimally even werewolves and plants.

Furthermore I play with a modified S1-S4 spectrum where base-S3 is my S4, and therefore I need a skintone set that offers a wider selection of choices (at least 4 or 5 choices ranging from pale to base-S3).
No sinister undertones: I just want a somewhat more realistic setting (as far as you can go in the eutopic suburbia that Sims live in, where supernatural events can occur!), so I use more realistic names (my mod), do not money cheat (loan paintings to represent morgages), and have no negroes with red hair and green eyes.

I don't know right now who the original author of the skinset I based my overrides on is: I didn't keep the originals in my game since I only play with my genetic spectrum (6 skintones in total, ranging from pale (under S1) to black (above S4). The set also has alien, werewolf, zombie, and plant overrides.
I think I got them from the adult inSim site, could be Louis.

I don't use crammyboy's penis mod, but an old mesh edit by duddly (what happened to him?) that just extends the bone there a bit, simulating the effect. My female Sims also have a slight boob job (also by duddly).

Death to all Nesses.

I use a set I modified, based on AllenABQ's hairy set #3, including a matching white/gray alien tone and a couple of in-between geneticized "hairless" tones for variety's sake.  I've been gradually upgrading them piecemeal with eyes to match my defaults and some nice teeth I found somewhere.  Unfortunately this means I can't share them with anyone else... :/

I also can't stand the hyper-realistic skins.  Creepy-mannequin factor aside, I find that a skin that's too detailed makes every Sim that uses it look the same.  If I need specific face characteristics for a certain Sim, I prefer to make custom face makeup for them (it takes up less space anyway.)  And for some reason the musculature on most detailed skins, especially about the abs, just doesn't look quite right to me.  Too much shine is also a rampant problem.  I don't care for painted-on genitals--they never looks right.  I just use Crammyboy's mod.

Mine are also in a lighter range than Maxis'.  However, it wasn't the mismatched skintones and hair/eye colors that bothered me, but the fact that the game does a really crappy job of rendering dark colors (not just in skintones, either; desaturated blacks look absolutely awful in clothing, so I find everything black I make has to have a somewhat blue tint to help smooth things out.)  I find this highly annoying, and if anyone has figured out a technique for making a properly dark S4 skintone that displays in-game without the ugly color striations and blotchy highlights I'd be really grateful to know.  Granted, the lighter colors do reflect the ethnic variety in my area pretty well and it does prevent massive feature mismatch, but it makes me feel somehow morally deficient even though my motives have nothing to do with race...

Honestly, I think anyone who's at all fussy about skins is better off breaking down and making their own set.  It's time-consuming, but not too difficult if you've got basic BodyShop, SimPE and Photoshop/GIMP/PSP skills.

Wild idea that just hit me: wouldn't it be nice if a bunch of skin makers got together and made overlays of various features (abs, knees, and so on) that we could download and mix and match/modify/share at will?  I know AllenABQ has made overlays of his various body hair sets available...

I use these by Knightskykyte (http://modthesims2.com/showthread.php?t=215889) Non-shiny and better colour than Maxis. My only gripe is the elders have smooth-skinned faces, but I usually put wrinkles on them to combat this.

Just out of curiousity (and because it almost kind of goes w/ this thread, and not meant to hijack it in any way at all) other than custom defaults how many custom skins do folks have? I think I have kind of alot, maybe 8 outside of the defualts. But I am always looking for the one perfect set of defaults so that I can get rid of my extras and just have everyone look similar w/o all the agressive custom skintones that come up over all of the other ones. Personally I prefer pinkish toned skins for my pale sims (of which there are plenty, being as I am pale myself), but olive (for a more mediterranean feel) for the mid-range tones and none of the darkest skins ever look right. My hubby teaches at an all black school and I have never seen a black skintone that looks anything like what I actually see.

But back on track, as far as the Defaults I have in my game, I do use Helaene's, hairyness and all. I like Enayla's, even though I don't have any in my game, but only for girls, cause they are way too shiny for dudes. Also most of Enayla's are a little too fantasy for me and/or have a weird undertone, although I do use alien/zombie/plantsim defaults made out of some of her skintones. Because they are supposed to look fantasy and/or have a weird undertone.

Apart from the KSK defaults, I have  Dylan's Laverwinkle alien default skins (http://laverwinklesims.com/index.php?topic=17.0) and Dylan's Vampire Paste default skins. (http://laverwinklesims.com/index.php?topic=11.0) I have no other custom skins in game. I find skin files are huge and I don't want them enough to fill up my downloads folder with them.

Can't stand the shinyness of certain skins, and although I used to use Heleanes and Ren's skins there was a patchyness about them I didn't like. Lyran's skins (http://www.lyran.net/ts2/) are also really nice, but the male skins have eyeliner on, and I don't like that.

I'm using default skins from www.paradisesims.com.  I find they are not too shiny and they have a range of skintones and colours (blue, purple, pink, etc.) if you like that sort of thing.  Genitals are reasonably nicely rendered, but no "moving parts" so to speak.  Have not checked compatibility with Crammyboy's stuff.  For those that like it, they also have "nude clothing", which subs for undies, swimwear, or athletic, so sims can go nude without shocking other sims.

Edit:  they do have "normal" skintones that mirror the default maxis skintones, and a choice of defaults with pubic hair or without.

Other than the ones inside the genetic spectrum, I have no custom skins.

After reading the very annoying rant from the creator of those, I'm going to put nipples and hair on them just to spite him!   :D

I have a set of defaults I like..reasonably normal looking, slightly less ashen colorations, some body hair and nipples. I have NO idea who made them, however...the file names are 'mydefaultnudesmale' and 'mydefaultnudesfemale'. If anyone can identify...that would be cool.

And the only other skins I have are those included with some of the Made-Up Animals...which I don't use except on that made-up animal.

I have ten custom skins, which includes four "normal" tones that match my defaults and give them a little more variety, and six "weird" ones I keep around for special effects purposes (skeleton skin, invisible skin, glowing, Swamp Thing, metallic, and transparent, for the record.)

Those sound interesting. Where did you find them?

Linkies?

I have as lot of customs, but I could probably ditch all but the default and vamp and alien replacements. I downloaded most of them in January the same week I got all the available EPs.

Click here (http://www.modthesims2.com/download.php?u=8833&showType=1).

I use Lin's edition of Louis' #7 skins (http://modthesims2.com/showthread.php?t=175159&c=1 (http://modthesims2.com/showthread.php?t=175159&c=1)) and I've had a few, including Navetsea's face-in defaults. But I like Lin's version because there are six skin tones, giving me two intermediate custom tones; and the defaults are not too shiny, not too realistic, and they have nipples, which I just can't live without. *g*

At the moment I'm using Shiny's version of Louis's skins, but I'm trying to make my own set based on some of Enayla's more recent skins.  Her pixie skins are way better about the shine, although I'm slowly deshining them.

A lot of people like oepu's most recent skins, and corvidophile2 did a default set here (http://www.modthesims2.com/showthread.php?t=223091).  They're not my personal favorites, but I keep finding Sims they look right on.

And is it just me, or do a lot of skintones look horribly ashen?  There are several creators whose skins I like in theory, but in the game make the Sims look all grayish and dead.  I correct a few, but I'm too lazy to do more.

Jordi, my aunt has red hair and red brows and brown eyes - and she, like myself is nubian rather than negro, thank you.  (Get with it son!) Her daughter (my cousin) also has blondish red hair.  In fact many of my maternal cousins have brown/auburn hair.  Possibly due to the fact that one of my great grandmothers was of Spanish origin. My hair was jet black - just like my paternal relatives, when I was younger, but close up  you can see I have orangy hair ends, reddish brown streaks - and wait for it - strands of blonde too.   Of course,  I dye it a darker brown to stop people staring at my hair while they talk to me - I could tell what they were thinking before  - "is it a trick of the light or is that a marmalade cat on your head?"  

There are nubian children with green, blue and grey eyes.   Not common, but they do exist and of course the gene/trait runs in families: I have taught and know of several.  

I use a set of default skins that make me happy - they might be Spookymuffin's version of KSK's skins http://modthesims2.com/showthread.php?t=215889, but I too am not sure because there is no creator's name on the defaults.  

Most of them came from MTS2--the link Flamingo offered above will take you to them.  Swamp Thing I made myself, and my glowing skin is a tweaked, more "normal" version of the noxious green flourescent one at MTS2 made by substituting a regular AllenABQ texture in place of the green in the file.

I'm with you on that one. Jeez.

I use Spookymuffin's default replacements, found at SexySims2, which are more-or-less the Maxis skins, but are anatomically correct and have better shading (IMO, anyway). She also has lighter and darker geneticised skins, that I use as well. I too can't stand shiny or overly shaded skins that look 'drawn' upon.

Edited because I hit a wrong button and sent the post too soon. ::)

I picked my favorite Enayla skins and made my own default replacements, plus I have 12 extra skins that have all been genetized. My vampire, zombie and alien skins are replaced by Enayla skins as well. I use her Pixie Serpent for alien, then always attach horns to make them even more unique. And my regular default replacements are Opaline, Pixie Dream, Pixie Hush, and Pixie Ashes.

I like nice detailing around the eyes and mouths so I use Opeus defaults in my MATYville, along with Barcelonista's eyes to give my sims a pretty realistic look. On another account I'm using SpookyMufin's KSK defaults with Helaena's eyes for a slightly less realistic, but still attractive look. I'm still looking for a nice non-shiny default for plantsims, and I've never even seen any skins for werewolves!

I have the Enayla default replacements for the base four, then most of the "normal" additional geneticized skintones by her from the thread here in Peasantry. A couple of those "normal" ones have an odd tint to me, so I trashed them, but I have sixteen being used. Plus, I have a default replacement for plantsims even though I don't have any plantsims. I also have default replacement eyes. I couldn't find a default replacement vampire/werewolf eye I liked, so I have a contact set instead for that.

Maxis crap is blah, that's why I couldn't ever share any of my lots as-is unless I could find a site that would let me say "except for the wall placement, none of it is mine. Enjoy."

I don't really do fantasy sims that much. I have one very small family where the elf gene rears it's head whenever a child is born with the founder's lavender eyes, and of course one mentally unstable sim who thinks she's a fairy princess.

I use Lyran's as my default, plus the three additional skintones from there (extra light, extra dark, and freckled), I've got several NPC-enabled Enayla skins, I've got more Enayla skins in addition to that, and then there are a few others I got packaged with character sims I downloaded that I keep around because they're all right.

I like having lots of genetic variety, and I geneticize every bit of bodyshop stuff that can be geneticized, so I like having a lot of different skintones.  It keeps all the sims from looking too similar.

Im between defaults atm. What ive always wanted and never managed to find is a default set ranging from realy pail to quite dark ... 1 bellow the maxis S1 and 1 above the maxis s4. Right now it seems that nipples ar out! I mean ... i eep finding default skins that look nice ( even if not my personal taste) with lots of details but NO NIPPLES! WTF?!
I detest 'barbie'! Im not 3 thank you! I can make do with out much between the legs ( I have exnems penis mesh for one thing) ..... but GAH!

Louis skins are really nice, so are Navetsea's ....

actually does anyone KNOW of anything like the 6 range defaults?

I use Hairy "Warlokk compatible" Louis skins from Jwilson5 on SexySims2 and SpookyMuffin's default zombie replacement from the same site. Jwilson5 has since added a new default plantsim skin, so I shall be replacing that today. In addition I have the geneticised Enlaya skins courtesy of dewshine (http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/smf/index.php/topic,7230.0.html (http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/smf/index.php/topic,7230.0.html)). I also use replacement pollination technicians and a replacement 'daddy' plantsim from MTS2 to avoid offspring having butt ugly meshes to drape my pretty replacement default skins across.

I don't think that's possible?  I mean, Maxis gave us 4 default slots and I don't think you can fiddle that.

However, if you were SimPE-literate you could make a default S1 that was very pale, and a very dark S4, then put two more skins wherever you like between the default values.  If you make the skins NPC-available, then new townies would spawn with them, as well as b-i-g playables.  That link that eevilcat provided in the post above provides some Enayla skins geneticised in this way.

I wish maxis/ea had given us more skintones (that we could then replace) and more eye colors (for us to replace too)



I have default replacements for all the skintones, all of them were originally done by Enayla but most of them have now been edited. most weren't even done as default replacements originally.

That's why Alkaloid's "townie-friendly" eyes are among my favorite downloads.  Townies, NPC's, and random CAS sims will all generate with these eyes, you can have as many as you like, and the files are the size of normal eye files instead of the size of default eyes.

I'm also on the "eternal search" for new and better skintones.  I like Louis' defaults better than any others I've tried.  Otherwise, my skintone collection includes a few of Enayla's pixies, a few Oepu skins, a couple of Helaene's, a couple of Lastrie's "glam" set (which I like much more in game than I thought I would,) a couple of Barcelonista's, and one of Hysterical Paroxysm's.  Maybe a couple other miscellaneous ones I've forgotten.  I like some variety in skintones, but I really dislike the ones that make sims (especially the males) look like they are wearing make-up when they aren't.  All the non-default ones are geneticized at either .20, .45, or .75, depending on how dark they are, so that every skintone has an equal opportunity of turning up on a new baby sim. 

I really liked Navetsea's skins, but I had an odd issue a while back where sims would occasionally go corrupt and I'd have to flag them as dead in SIMpe to be able to play their homes again.  I realized at some point that the two things these corrupt sims had in common were that they were teens, and they were using Navetsea skintones. I deleted the skintones and never have had the problem since.  Coincidence? Maybe, probably.  I've never heard of anyone else having a problem with the skintones, so I dunno.  I suppose it could have been because those skintones are really big files, and my computer is something of a dinosaur.  Just one of those mysterious things, I guess.

I still use navetsea's, i like the body, but I find the face off-coloured. And the skintones a tad similar.
I've realised I've lost my replacement pollination technician, since I didn't have a special default folder at the time. Which one do you use?

Sometimes I feel really woefully ignorant.  I've never seen any documentation for Body Shop, so I had no idea that you could set up skins or eyes that would generate randomly, rather than only if you specifically selected them.  Thus I only have robot skins for more variety in the appearance of Servos, and some replacement default skins.

One thing I find myself wishing for is some what to turn off the random selection of certain hairstyles.  There are townies and NPCs who have hair that I absolutely hate, and getting them in range of hacked object that will let me change them usually isn't convenient.

 - Gus

You can't in bodyshop. Bodyshop is far too limited.
But you can make eyes or a skin in it, and then geneticize it with SimPE.
I've done so for all my (Gunmod's) eyes.

I use Spookymuffin's wonderful defaults.  There are all Maxis skintones, plus chocolate, bronze, and extra dark.  There are zombie, alien and werewolf default replacements, as well.  They all have nipples and pubes, thank God.  I have the blur disabled because it pixellates them from head to knee, and that just bugs me.  Barbie bodies are vaguely disturbing.

I'm really hoping that she does a plantsim replacement!

iIm also a huge fan of alkaloid's eyes. I just wish that eye color was available for turn ons/offs.

I use Navetseas' defaults and I like them a lot, the only thing I would change is the faces, they are a little too pale. I am happy with maxis choice of face types when I choose them but I am not so keen on my defaults giving me a custom type face; but whatever, until I learn to do it myself I am happy to use these and other skins and am very grateful that the creators share.



As for Knightskykyte? Wow! We can put tattoos and scars on them but not nipples and pubic hair? How strangely deranged…the men have nipples? To me tattoos and scars are urghhh!! But nipples and hair are what we are born with. And surely nipples on females and hair could be classed as ‘changes in skin tone? (As are piercing and male body hair which are allowed in abundance?)  Come on, they aren't real after all. :P

I use the multi-pollination tech hacky-poo from MTS2 (4 daddies): http://www.modthesims2.com/showthread.php?t=71852
There's an expanded (8 daddies) type here that I haven't tried: http://www.modthesims2.com/showthread.php?t=79039

I forgot all about the eyes, I've got Alkaloid's geneticised eyes in game, but for default replacements I use Amun-RA's v7.5 eyes from Insim:
http://www.insimenator.net/showthread.php?t=21918 (http://www.insimenator.net/showthread.php?t=21918)
I think the alien eyes are the best I've seen.

I was using lastrie's (http://www.modthesims2.com/showthread.php?t=219983) skins for awhile, but I got pretty tired of all of my Sims having the same birth marks. The tan and olive skintones are a bit hard to tell apart as well. Aside from that, though, the skin is very nice. It doesn't look like plastic like other skins do. It's a shame that the males don't have any body hair; I was trying to find an overlay to put some of my own on, but couldn't.

For eye defaults, I'm currently using Lyran's. Then again, I have all of her eyes, and pretty much only her eyes, downloaded.

I think that these are the same ones that I use in my game. I made myself a readme with a link when they were moved off of MTS2, so I just happened to have the link readily available.

http://www.sexysims2.com/showthread.php?t=71168

Actually, I think you are using the newer skins that are linked to in this thread.

I especially like these because there is no problem with the alien eyes that some skins have. If a child is born with alien eyes, they will retain them throughout their lifetime. If born with regular eyes, then the regular eyes remain. Some skins have problems with the alien eyes turning normal during teen years.

Thanks to everyone that included links ... I've been using Helene's but may be willing to switch if I can find the right skin. 8)

I have yet to find anything that looked as good on as large a number of Sims as Louis's skintones, and since Louis herself made tones suitable for aliens and zombies that someone also adapted for defaults, and there's a lovely plantsim recolor as well, I figured I'd never replace them. Well, today I did -- with Nihilin's excellent edits of Louis's skintones that remove the painted-on eyebrows and the belly rings! (I had just picked up a promising set of default eyebrows and was bemoaning the painted ones, and someone hooked me up.) All I need now are some suitable werewolf replacements. (I've used Laverwinkle's Vampire Paste and am now testing out something or other by Enayla for a vamp default -- doesn't have to match perfectly since it's just a layer, although I suppose I could probably have made a Louis-styled vamp replacement if I wanted to, by lightening her Pale tone and editing the default package.)

I'm actually nearly as crazy about Helaene's 1/12 skintones -- which don't seem to be on her site anymore -- but I've never seen defaults of those, and they're so different from Louis's skins that I could never replace the one with the other; if I were going to use them, I'd make a new Windows login, or at least use them in just one 'hood and swap them out.

Find AllenABQ's transparencies here:
http://www.insimadult.net/showthread.php?t=23288
(must be 18 or older, registration required.)

There's a default vampire replacement on MTS2 that just makes whatever skintone your sim already has a bit paler. It comes in red-eye and non-red-eye varieties. I find this quite useful for my custom sims that I've worked so hard on.

I have over 100 (yes, really) skins in my game. Anything in a color that a human could have has been geneticised (my range is from 0.001 to 0.999). Blues, greens, and other fun colors I've left as "custom" so that my light/dark couples don't end up with an orange child.

I have every one of Lyran's, Sandy's (Around the Sims2), and Enayla's skins except for the latter's default replacements, and various others that I found at MTS2. I have every one of Genensims "normal", many of the "variant", and a few "deviant" skins. Oh, and a few from Obsidian and Sapphire Sims as well.
I have also left in the four from MaxisEA.

My sims come in all sorts: some are greyish, some yellowish, some shiny, some cartoony. I also keep the "fugly" townies.
I like the variety.

What happens if two skins have the same genetic value? I would like to make slightly hairy versions of all the Lyran skins (which I have as defaults and made genetic). Would it work if I put these to have the same genetic value as the non-hairy skins of the same colour, so whether the sim had visible body hair or not would be just half-half chance?

Yup, exactly.

I have several skins at the same value, even some at the same value as default (but only a single truly default skin).  So, in my game even two townies with the same default skintone can have spawn which are slightly different from the parents and from their siblings.

Done ;) http://www.insimadult.net/showthread.php?p=375713#post375713 (http://www.insimadult.net/showthread.php?p=375713#post375713)

I adore the Dark default I have which I think is by Ren(?) A non-barbie skin that is neither shiny nor ashen as I've found the majority of Black skins to be.  Not sure how I got them, (I have Pale as well, but don't use because it's too shiny for me) as when I went looking for the rest I had to join a paysite which I don't do.
i have only realised via this thread that I can mix and match default skins, so thanks for that. I know I'll have an easier time finding some Tan thru to Pale skins that I like, than I did with the Black.

All mine are at .20, .45, or .75, so that they all have an equal shot at appearing, and so that I have to put no thought whatsoever into what number to assign them.  Seems to work fine and pleases the lazy streak in me.

I do the opposite :) I try to make sure that the values are different (o.21, 0.22, etc) because it's a bit of excitement trying to see what kind of skin the kid got. I'm a skintone junkie, and it usually happens that even in a three to four member family, they each have skins by separate creators. It really helps in making sims look distinctive and unique.

I'd like a bit more variety in skin colours in my game, but skin files are massive!  Considering the total size of my downloads folder, I guess I could afford to add a few more skins.
I'm not entirely happy with the range of maxis skins.  The darkest maxis skin, S4, is barely African American black; I'd like the darkest skin to be something like what you'd expect to see on a farmer from Zambia.  The colour of roasted coffee beans, not milk chocolate.  The lightest skin isn't really light enough either.  There I'd like something in the range of sun starved Scandinavian, the kind that burns or freckles in the sun; never tans, and would look completely out of place with black hair.
What's holding me back is mostly the way maxis distributes hair.  I'm too lazy to make all townies manually these days, so I let the game generate a few, and I'm deeply frustrated at how many S4 townies with bright red hair I end up with.  I wish there was some way to restrict hair colour to certain skin ranges.  Given the maxis skin range, I'd like no red hair on S3 or S4, no blonde hair on S4, and no black hair on S1.

Thanks for the answers :)

Gwill, that's why I like Lyran's skins - yes, the defaults are lighter, but there's an extra skin which is darker than maxis S4 and certainly darker than hers. It's not quite as dark as skin can be... but it wouldn't be too hard to just darken that one if you wanted a darker one (because it's already quite dark). There's a lighter-than-S1 skin (as in, lighter than hers, so really pale) too. Those all compress to 4mb or less apart from her freckled one which stays pretty huge at 7mb, I don't know if it's that the images weren't compressed initially or what :S I know some people don't like those skins, but I feel they've got the best variety for a non-shiny skin set. And I'm not being paid to say this, either XD

I don't know if it's possible to do that with hair colours :/ I'd like that too. I hand-make my townies, but if an npc ends up with hair that looks weird I just change it with a mirror. I don't bother changing their genetics because my sims rarely breed with non-townie npcs.

I found these a while back at MTS2: Maxis-match Skintones (http://www.modthesims2.com/showthread.php?t=169063) by Purplepaws.
The shades encorporates around the four basic Maxis tones available and may be useful for anyone who wants variety with Maxis defaults.

I'm interested in variances between S1-S2, S2-S3 and S3-S4 with the Lyran default skintones (completed by the S0 Ivory and S5 Ebony available).
Very much like what I mentioned above yet in Lyran's style. Does anyone know if this has been done and is available anywhere?

I've looked...  and searched...  and I keep coming back to the fact that there's nothing out there that remotely compares to lyrans for me.

I'm currently pondering using some of the HP skins to fill in some of the gaps in the darker end of the spectrum, but I'm not so sure that it would work.  It's very hard to see how they two different sets would compare in terms of tones.

Weaver, I've looked at those maxis-match skins many times.  I've been tempted, but I just can't stand the grey-ness.  If they could be pinked up a little, then that would work.  But I'm effectively in the same spot as you - I want some skins to go in between the lyrans skins, but there doesn't seem to be anything even remotely similar.

The Maxis skins all look too yellow to me, and not grey at all (I'd actually prefer it if they were more greyish). Nothing else looks overly yellow on this monitor, so I think it's just the skins. I'm not sure why they look grey on yours. There are colour variances between different types of monitors. Perhaps you could tweak yours to look less grey.

I personally don't like HP's skins much at all, to be honest.  I don't know if it's just my computer or what (I thought her pictures looked pretty good--I wouldn't have downloaded them otherwise), but when I put them on a sim in CAS, they just didn't look real.  I know Enayla's got a lot of contrast in hers (that's what makes them "shiny"), and I guess there's just not enough in HP's to work for me.  It might be different if someone was running as high specs as possible, which would increase the appearance of the textures, but I can't do that right now.  The two darker shades I liked a bit, but so far, in messing with CAS, I haven't found a sim I'd want to put them on.  I was making a bunch of custom townies, so I figured I'd try a few new skins, but I didn't like those.

So while I like Lyran's as a default, I "put up" with having mostly Enayla as the rest of my custom geneticized skins because they have the variety in skintones, the good quality modeling, and the colors tend to be pretty rich and well done.  Though I don't like some of her lighter tones, either.

I want as many skintones as possible, but I'm picky, and I'm not particularly good at digitally coloring anything that isn't metallic, so I can't make my own.

These sound like monitor-calibration issues to me. Unfortunately, color calibration requires calibration software, which isn't always readily (or cheaply) available. Some Samsung monitors come with software that includes calibration, and Photoshop going back to at least ver. 5 includes Adobe Gamma (http://www.adobe.com/cfusion/knowledgebase/index.cfm?id=321608), which is what I use. Beyond that, there are stand-alone calibration systems using colorimeters that vary considerably in price, but none are exactly cheap.

At the least, virtually every monitor comes with an ICC profile--these are files with an .ICM extension ( in Windows) that define the color characteristics of monitors and other color devices like printers, scanners, and cameras. These allow color graphics to look the same on different monitors and print the same on different printers; when imbedded in image files, they (theoretically) allow the image to look the same on any calibrated monitor. However, on uncalibrated monitors and with images without embedded profiles, what you see on your screen is a crapshoot. Calibration (or the lack thereof) can be a problem for creators of custom content:  Most likely without even knowing it, someone creating a texture for TS2 on an uncalibrated monitor can easily produce something that looks very different in someone else's game than in their own.

To see if you have the appropriate profile for your monitor, open Display Properties, go to the Advanced section, and select the Color Management tab. Any profiles you have that are associated with your monitor will be listed there. If the field is blank or the profiles listed don't match your monitor, you can usually download what you need from the manufacturer's Web site. In WinXP, ICM files go in the C:\WINDOWS\system32\spool\drivers\color directory:

(http://i26.photobucket.com/albums/c102/callahfc/ICCfiles.png)

I recently acquired a 19" ex-work, I thought it was too blue-grey and I was missing reds/yellows - my techie-ex adjusted the monitor properties using the monitor buttons and that has made it much better. That's a simple thing you could also try.

I have to thank all of your for getting me to look around again at the custom defaults that are available and supplying links as well, I am now comparing skins and may very well pick out a new one! I've also found many other lovely things ;)

Thank you so much!  8)

Thank you so much for this thread.  I have been trying to find default replacement skins that were still Maxisy, but with some tweaks and improvements.  I have had Enayla's skins as my defaults in the past and while I do like them...she didn't have all of the matching alternate lifeform skins and I play those a lot.  Lately I have just been playing with mostly Maxis stuff with just a select few downloads thrown in (mostly hair and HolySimoly furniture), so it was nice to find Lyran's site that had skins to match.  I had never heard of her site before.  The skins are really great...they don't look out of place next to my alternate lifeforms, but they have some nice improvements.  The default eye replacements are really nice too.  I also really liked her three extra skins...the really light one, the dark one, and my most favorite of all the freckled one.  :D

Dream

I made a skin to go between Lyran's S3 and S4. It's exactly 50% of each and has genetic value .75. I'm not going to do that for the lighter skins because, to me, they're close enough, but I thought some of the people in this thread might find this one useful, so I uploaded it here (http://arina.4shared.com) :)

Well, I'll certainly download it and put it in.  Since I use Lyran's skins as defaults and everything else is geneticized.  I can always use more skintones!  Thanks. :)

 ;D Great!  I can't wait to get into my game and check it out now!

Death to all hairy bellied Nesses (http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/smf/index.php?action=profile;u=295).

Here's a tip for creating "in-between" skintones, for those who are not so good in Photoshop but who want to try making their own.

This assumes that you have a set of skintones that are all the same except for darkness/lightness. For example, Lyran's skintones (the default set) are exactly the same, but different colors from light to dark. However, one problem is that the difference between the medium skin and the dark skin is very big. Here's how to easily create an in-between skin without losing quality.

Export both the medium and dark skin in Bodyshop.

Figure out which files go together (female adult soft, etc.). Open two files that are the same in a graphics program that supports layers and layer transparency. Photoshop, Paint Shop Pro, Gimp, and I think PaintNet do, and probably other good programs out there do as well.

Copy the dark skintone. Paste it as a new layer on top of the lighter skintone. Now adjust the opacity of the layer so that it is 50% transparent.

Instantly, you have a skin that is in-between the two, and no loss of quality. You don't get the same result by adjusting the dark/light/contrast sliders, but that's how a lot of people do it and end up completely destroying the quality.

Try different transparency values for variety.

I remember doing something like that with one of Louis' skintones, and ending up with two bellybuttons on one without noticing.  Apparently they weren't completely the same in all shades.

Which is why you want two that are the same. :)

Of course, minor imperfections/differences can be fixed, but that would make it no longer simple and easy.

It isn't too hard to fix those imperfections, really. You could just use the clone stamp, though you may end up with a Sim's nipples or belly button faded.

I actually did something like what SaraMK described to create my current default. I took similar shades of two skintones that I happened to like and put them together. I brought defining features, that I wanted to keep, anyway to the top layer and simply erased the others with the clone stamp.

I did it exactly the way SaraMK described, so don't worry about anything like second bellybuttons on that skin XD I hope it looks good in your games. :)

Out of curiosity, what does everyone else have Lyran's 3 extra skins geneticised as? I have the freckled one at 0.1, ivory at .05 and ebony at .95.

I've done pretty much the same with the ivory and ebony.  I don't have the freckled one in as I could never decide where to put it...  but I think I want it now!

There seems to be some disagreement over where the belly button should be. Similar disagreements result over where the nipples belong.

And death to all hairy-bellied Nesses (http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/smf/index.php?action=profile;u=295).

Well, those things vary quite a bit from person to person, as does their appearance.  I've seen people fuss over how the knees and collarbones look too.  My big sticking point is abs--for some reason the tummies on "realistic" skins almost never look quite right to me.

Gwill, I agree with you about feeling that the dark skins aren't dark enough. It actually annoyed me when I first got the game.

This isn't a default, but I found a "chocolate" skin from Around the Sims 2 that I liked using for a while on my darker sims. They also have a paler, ivory skin available, and I guess it wouldn't be too hard to make it a default. They have a bit of that blueish undertone you see in African type skin which is missing in the Maxis defaults (which, IMO, look warmer and more Indian).

http://www.aroundthesims2.com/looks/genetics/skin/index.html

I suppose they could be geneticized or made into defaults easily enough.

.1, .05, and .99, respectively!  Though I did it so long ago, I might eventually go back and redo the genetics according to the collection of skins I've got going now, and where they fit with my default replacements.  (I didn't have any replacements when I first geneticized.)

I like those skins from ATS too, but they don't work for YA, so I ditched them shortly after Uni came out. It's a shame, because they are very nice.

I'd think it would be easy enough to make a version that does work with YA's in BodyShop?  Clone the skin, clone a post-Uni one, copy the textures from the old one to the new?

I thnk you just need to set the fiddlybit so where it says 0x08 for adults, it should say 0x48 for adults+YA.

(They work on my YAs......)
*shrugs*

I seem to remember someone saying once that YAs use the Adult body textures and Teen Face textures.
I know skins don't have separate YA textures, but I don't know if anything needs to be done to property sets.

Gwill, that makes sense, considering the teen face textures are the same size as the adults'. The adult textures don't look as aged as the adult face, either.