How to get inspired and come up with an interesting sims character
Well, CAS! For me creating characters is always something meticulous and exciting at the same time. And now I want to share how I create sims. What inspires me and what I never miss.
1. Inspiration and Image
First of all, I want to define that creating a character is not just about sculpting a face and picking outfits. For me, it is always like creating a complete personality!
And sometimes ideas come from listening to a song or finding random art on Pinterest. I'll give examples of the images that I created from pictures I saved. As you can see, being inspired by a drawing doesn't mean fully transferring it into the game. The point here is in your imagination, your feelings. What do you feel when looking at this or that image/sketch?
Look at the sketch and think about who, in your opinion, is depicted there? What is their character like? What job could they have? What do they love? Or what exactly is the character in the image feeling and doing? This can also help create a kind of portrait of their personality.
For me, coming up with at least a minimal story for a future sim, whether it's a simple townsfolk or a neighbor, is always more interesting.
But drawings are certainly not the only source where you can find inspiration for future characters. In general, it's always highly individual.
But sometimes even just one song can spark an interesting thought. Sad lyrics that could inspire you to imagine a beautiful girl with a difficult fate. Or a powerful phonk track that might evoke the image of a young troublemaker running from the police in a criminal district of the capital.
Sometimes, if the idea is specific, I turn on a particular playlist to get into the right mood. To set the appropriate atmosphere. Agree that creating a delicate cottagecore girl probably wouldn't work while listening to phonk in the background.
After an incredible burst of inspiration and ideas, we start to create. It’s usually enough to have an idea in my head. When you envision the personality or approximate characteristics of a sim, creating them becomes super easy.
But, of course, not always. Like many others, from time to time, I become a hostage to the perfect image, which sometimes makes it difficult to make characters as distinct as possible.
Because there are certain peculiarities that sometimes unconsciously transfer from one sim to another. A turned-up nose, green eyes, and so on. Everyone has their own preferences, but the fact remains. In such moments, I turn to my prepared board.
A board with photos of people.
Actually, I believe that observation of various appearances and their features greatly improves the skill of creating interesting, beautiful and proportionate faces for characters.
Well, that is, of course, if you aspire to that in principle. Perhaps you find it more interesting to create more cartoonish faces with sharp chins and big eyes. That's cool too! Everyone plays in a way that is more comfortable and visually pleasing to them.
Speaking of photos I also don't mean to imply maximum copying and transferring of faces. I'm pretty bad at that myself.
But sometimes looking at photos helps to notice attractive details that, perhaps, without that photo, you wouldn't want or even think to use on a sim. For example, thin lips or sunken tired eyes.
There are many beautiful people. And everyone is always beautiful in their own way.
Surely you've encountered situations like someone doesn't like their curly hair, while another person dreams of having curls. There are plenty of examples like this.
That's why I try not to always give a sim exactly the same face and nose shape that I find most appealing.
2. Technical aspects
Now I want to talk about important technical aspects that are essential for every character I create.
Firstly, cosmetics. Often sections like lipstick, blush and makeup serve as defaults for facial features. In other words, I choose lipstick not so much to give a specific lip color, but rather to add more vitality to them. A bit more gloss, micro-cracks and so on. Similarly, with the makeup section, where I mostly have various eye lenses.
Well, and the blush section is where I mainly get freckles or face shimmer. That's why almost all cosmetics are duplicated across all outfits for me. Since it complements the skintones. The only exceptions are eyeshadows and eyeliner.
You can see an example of how a sim looks without makeup and after below.
About skintones. Even though I use default skin, I still don't overlook additional skin details, both basic and downloaded.
In my opinion, it's always interesting to add extra details like freckles, moles and scars. All of these can beautify characters and complement their stories. For example, if they had a terrible fall from a bicycle or got sunburnt.
And another small but significant detail: baby hairs! Yes, those tiny hairs that uncontrollably stick out near the temples or ears.
By the way, all of the above can always be found in both alpha and maxis match versions. See the differences below. And here it's only a matter of taste.
3. Wardrobe
Well, it seems like there's hardly anything to tell. I think we all love dressing up characters, and everyone does it well.
Of course, the wardrobe is always a reflection of the character. The color and style of jeans and T-shirts they wear can tell a lot about how neat they are, whether they like to stand out from the crowd, and even if they're a villain! Although you can always disguise a cunning thief as a respectable banker by dressing them in a jacket and elegant trousers...
If you still have difficulties with outfit selection, you can always turn to the trouble-free Pinterest! There you can find plenty of cool looks for any style!
In conclusion, I want to say that perhaps all of the above is just my quirks. But I hope you found it interesting and maybe useful to learn about my vision of CAS and characters in it.
Creating perfect faces for you may not be easy. But the most important thing is practice. More you create sims, experiment, and mix, then better and more satisfying they will be created. Both female and male. And my mini-tips might help you in some way.
Sending hugs to everyone. Happy gaming!
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