Vezz Island

I created a neighborhood called, Vezz Island. Found this over at MTS2. It's an island.

Now, this is the residental side. I'm still playing around with it. It's not fully decorated yet.



And, on the other side of the island is the business section. I took this one at night.


I changed TJ a bit. Gave him different eyes, more realistic eyebrows other than those crappy Maxis ones and he's got a new skintone thanks to Sim-Antics. I gave him body hair. The very first TJ had body hair, I redid him over again with a skintone that was hairless, now, I have him back to his original state. Oh, I gave him his original glasses back too.


I'm showing him off. His everyday clothes.


Formal wear.


Undies.


Jammies.


Swim suit.


Workout outfit.


Why did I do this, well, it's something I had in the back of my mind for a pretty long time. I got rid of skintones I just don't use anymore. You should've seen how the size of my downloads folder dropped, just from the skintones alone. I basically use very little in the way of skintones. And, I got rid of a bunch of other crap via the CAS I don't use anymore. It was time for a bit of spring cleaning.

Yes, I only have one resident in the neighborhood.......It's TJ. Everybody else has been created and sitting in the Sim Bin. I just popped TJ in so I could show him off. All his outfits come from Sim-Antics.

Wow! I didn't think TJ could get much better looking. Great job, Ed!
The formal he has on is gorgeous. Wherever did you find it @ SimAntics?

LOVE the hood. It's really coming along. I might have to download it myself.
Neat island!

Don't you just love a good spring cleaning in your downloads folder?
I had over 14,000 downloads at one time and finally got it down to 8,000 and STILL had too freakin' many!!!
Feels good to get rid of crappola you know you'll never use or do not need.

Thank you for stopping by and sharing Vess Island & TJs makeover with us.

You have no idea how good it feels to get rid of that stuff. My downloads folder shrunk by 50MB. Got rid of the skintones and got rid of clothes/skins I don't use anymore. And, I still have more to go through.

Isn't that a neat island?!!? You can see how I have it divided up. It's small, which is what I liked.

Yes, the formal suit I got over at Sim-Antics. His everyday outfit came from, I believe, All4Sims. But, formal, undies, jammies and workout outfit came from Sim-Antics. If you look closely at the pictures, you can see his toes. That's the new mesh/skintone they worked on.

All of the SlimBodyBuilders I work on will all be the same way.

I'm glad you like the newer and improved TJ.

Thank you!

EDIT: Sugah, you'll find the formal suit here

It took me a very long time to go through each and every category of buy, build and CAS mode. I remember it was quite a process but SO worth it, Ed!
If you're feeling good about getting rid of just the skintones and clothes you no longer want, wait til you empty out ALL of buy and build mode.
It's such a feeling of accomplishment!

Besides Vezz Island being small, which I like about it (just as you do), Lala claims you won't need a camera hack to view the entire island. I LOVE that feature.
I can't stand not being able to see the hoods I download in their entirety. And I don't want to download any camera hacks, you know?

I've noticed more and more creators are going to the real looking feet/toes. Not sure how I feel about it yet for our Sims. It still weirds me out a little bit.
Anyhoo, THANK you for the link to TJ's formal. He looks gorgeous in it ... really wears it well.
Lovin' that work out outfit on him, too.

Oooh la la, dahling!

It felt good to see my downloads folder shrink. Buy and build mode is pretty easy for me to empty out. I've learned how to keep stuff in folders. Plus, I keep an extra folder inside for stuff I've recently downloaded. If the game crashes, I know exactly where to go, instead of wasting a day or two going through everything until I find it. I learned to do that the hard way.

I have a camera hack. It's nothing more than a text file that goes into your Camera folder. I did have only one camera hack, Live Camera. But, I just downloaded a different one, see if it works better.

The nice thing about the feet and toes is, it looks a tad bit more human. I've always said, I treat my Sims as if they were humans. Plus the added bonus is, the skintones are smaller in file size. Which I like!

I managed to get two different close-up pictures of TJ.

Great close ups!

I need to categorize my downloads folders. I've been wanting to create collection folders forever, too.

Which camera hack do you use, Ed? And do you really like it???

I'll teach you a little something in case you don't want to use a camera hack and you didn't know.

All the letters in bold print are the key you press on your keyboard.

First, hit the TAB key. This will put you in free style camera mode.

Foward-W
Backwards-S
Left-A
Right-D
Down-Q
Up-E
Zoom-Z or X

They don't have to be in capital letters. I did that so you could see them.

You'll want to be careful with the left and right and the up and down. Very touchy.

I thought I'd post a picture of Michael. I changed his eyes, but I might switch them back.

Also if you look behind him, you'll see his new counters. They almost match that wallpaper behind his bed.

How I got those was, someone over at Black Pearl requested them, and I jumped right on them when they were done.

No, I did NOT know those tab > key tricks to making my way around a hood with free camera. Cool! THANK YOU, Ed.
I shall try them next time I load up the game. I can't stand not being able to see all angles of a hood easily.
I downloaded Vezz Island, btw. I think it has major potential.

Michael couldn't be any more of a doll than he is. The eyes look hypnotic on him. Very yummy.
Did I tell you I absolutely love his Motown cd and play it often, while housekeeping?
It really gets me going.

Thanks for sharing, as always.

I love his Motown Music. That's what I imported into the game. No matter if I'm in Buy or Build Mode, he's playing. I sing right along with him. Phil sometimes sticks his head out the bedroom door and tells me to quit singing. I'm tone deaf. LOL

I'm glad you learned something. Just so you know, when you hit the TAB key, the User Interface will disappear until you hit TAB again. And, don't move the mouse, just use the keys.

I used to have my own choice of music downloaded when I played the original Sims.
I haven't thought to do it with TS2.
I can just picture a tone deaf Ed singing Motown with Michael McDonald, while Simming, and Phil calling out demanding that you cease the concert!
TOO FUNNY!!!

Quote :

And, don't move the mouse, just use the keys.

Good information. Thank you!

For the curious, here's TJ without his glasses.....

I really like that little island. I was going to ask if it was called the same think on MTS2, but I see Sugah already posted the link. Thanks.

TJ is looking great, by the way!

WOW! TJ is GORGEOUS without his glasses. He's a doll WITH them on, don't get me wrong.
But dahling...without them, he's a snack to the tenth power. Can you say "YUM"?

I can say, YUM!

Get a load of this.

I've been playing off and on not really paying too much attention to certain things. Well, yesterday, I happen to catch TJ taking a shower. I swear I had to do a double take. His body shrunk!! In the shower/bath, his body reverts to a Maxis body shape. I was beside myself. I sat here cursing a blue streak. All that work I did is now POOF! GONE! I'd have to start all over again. I downloaded the wrong skintone. ARRRGGGHHH!!!

So, my memory kicked in. I thought I remembered seeing something somewhere about changing the skintone in game. I spent some time surfing around looking for something simlar to that topic. And, I took a good long look at the skintones I did download. They are Maxis body shape. I had to find the ones for SlimBodyBuilder. Which I did find. Now, the hunt continues for directions to change a skintone in game.

What I found was, Giving Your In Game Sim A Makeover. It involved SimPE, Sim Surgery and BodyShop. Long story short, it worked. He retainied his memories and everything. I almost passed out when I started the game up and he was there. And, he was using his new skintone. Actually, I made him take a shower to see if he had the right one. It's the same everything, but made for a SlimBodyBuilder.

This is what I used

YAHOO!!

This is good information, Ed.
You may recall I created the scrumptious Eli Santana (see: here).
Everytime he goes off to work or steps in the tub, his body shape reverts back to Maxis. Annoying, I agree.
I didn't know about the shower proof skins, til you pointed them out to me awhile back, remember? (Can't remember where they are now, lol.)

I will definitely be looking into Wireless Guy's tutorial. Thank you!

BTW, I am starting a new hood using Vezz Island. It's called Terra Bella.
I'm going to do a themed neighborhood. All my Sims will be named after Italian food/drinks.
Did it once before when I played TS1 and enjoyed the hood MUCHO.
Thanks, again, for sharing Vezz Isle with us.

When they go to work, they automatically revert to Maxis default. The game does that. What I did was, I found this hack that lets them wear their clothes to work. This way, they keep the same shape. But, you have to be careful. I've had my Sims go to work in their underware or pajama's. Just before the carpool comes to pick them up, I click on them and have them change into their everyday outfit.

Showerproof Skintones are at WirelessGuy's thread. But, since Sim-Antics came out with better ones, I've been using those. I actually prefer them. Only one I have left is, the green one that I used on Ton'aldi.

Also, you want to make sure you get the Showerproof Meshes. They'll keep their shape in the shower or taking a bath. If you have only a head, quit the game. do not save and go get the meshes.

I was playing around last night teaching myself a few things here and there and I came up with this:



With the bottom one, I still have a bit of resizing to do. But, I'm actually amazed it worked.

Here's a shocker, TJ with less hair and no glasses. Almost looks like me without the tan. I don't have blue eyes and I do need to wear glasses.