By the way, which version of BodyShop are you using, or rather for which game version/EP?
Unfortunately I'm stuck all the way back on...OFB....which sucks. Although I'm hoping my partner will buy me Bon Voyage for christmas haha. Does Bodyshop improve as you get new EPs?
Well, I only go as far as Pests, sorry
Pets and the base game disc has gone walkabout, so I'm lumbered if I ever need to re-install everything from scratch. But there are definite differences between the original BodyShop and the Pets version, on a Mac anyway. I seem to remember a max of 512x512 textures on the old one that made everything look like crud when it was exported, especially hair. The later versions seemed more flexible and able to knock out some great quality hair and clothing, though the skintones are still disgusting. On the other hand, it tends to do screwy things with the thumbnails of items I created way back in the base game days, but I think that's just a Pets issue.
Anyway, try that disabling Optimized Rendering tip, it made a great difference to my game. You might also try re-calibrating your monitor to display colours more efficiently. Don't know how or if you can do it with Windows, but on a Mac it's a cinch. I use my home computer to process a lot of photographic images these days so getting the monitor set up properly was important. I noticed a positive effect on everything, including games.
Of course, if none of this works, you're back to textures and meshes, in which case it's sometimes useful to go back to basics and re-read the tutes!
Happy hunting.