Jennifer Aniston

Vera, I was thinking of moving out anyway. My philosophy on approaching celebrity simming is completely incompatible with their method of evaluation. I will make some features "off" if I feel the struggle to make them match exactly will lose the overall effect I'm going for.

Like with this Jennifer Sim--the real Jen's chin is longer and the base of her jaw is wider than the proportions I gave my sim. But when I changed my sim to match the reference photos, I somehow lost the look of her eyes that I was trying to capture. There was less "twinkle". Since I feel that the fun-loving twinkle of Jennifer's eyes is what make her special and attractive, I decided to sacrifice the accuracy of her jaw and chin.

When you think about it, some people call her "Maniston" because her chin and jaw are oversized compared to what people consider classic feminine beauty. But she is beautiful to a great many people anyway. I think that beauty comes from the image she projects of a sweet fun-loving girl-next door. And that all comes through her eyes. If you focus on that, you focus less on her large chin in real life. So in my sim, I didn't want anything detracting from the eyes. But in the small world of the computer screen, if you try to make an accurate jaw, that will be what draws people's eyes and make them go "Yuck" at the sim.

And there was a time at MTS2 when I think I could and did get away with decisions like that. But now, reading their criteria and policies, it seems like they are emphasizing geometric accuracy over artistic interpretation. My work would never survive such scrutiny. Even if it possibly could, I get too much anxiety and inhibition creating with the idea that I will have to please a committee.

If I work to please other people first, I'm just going to go nowhere but downhill.