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i have heard that you can put photos or artwork that you have on your pc into the sims 2 when the sim is painting a still life. according to many directions i have read it said the file is a bitmap, but when i look all of mine say jpeg, i proceeded to try anyway, and it wouldnt work, even when i changed it to bitmap. so what am i doing wrong here?

if this isnt the correct location for this question, just move it, i really wasnt sure.

I think they have to be jpegs ^^

when i googled this all of the links i found, the instructions all said that the snapshot you take is bitmap ( the one use re texture or edit) they say to keep it as a bitmap. well anyway, i cant get this to work.

You may have to crop the picture, but copy it into the "paintings" folder in EA/SIMS2 and it should become available for your sims to paint as custom paintings.

When it comes to paintings, there's two types in the game.  Most tutorials out there cover converting a in game picture to be a painting as found in the decorations section of the Buy Mode.  In order to make those conversions or recolors, the bitmap is needed.

Custom paintings done on the easel though require jpegs.  Cropping the picture isn't a bad idea, but it isn't essential.  The game will automatically perform some cropping to make the picture fit the easel.  But it may be so tiny that you can't see it :)

So bitmaps for Decorations/Paintings.  Jpegs for custom paintings with the easel.

Read Jennifer Ann's cogent response here:

http://www.gamespot.com/pc/sim/thesims2deluxe/show_msgs.php?topic_id=m-1-41861386&pid=939367

There are 2 different capabilities, dependent on whether you have Pets or newer EPs or not.

So far as the 'replace snapshot.bmp' method goes, be aware that merely changing the extension of your own file is not ever going to work. It MUST be opened in a graphics editor - my own favorite for quick and uncomplicated editing chores is Irfanview:

http://www.irfanview.com

and once opened in your graphics editor, edited, cropped, or resized to your needs and then either Save or Save As a .bmp file.

just to clarify this a bit, i was refering to paiting on the easel and when the game is paused you minimize the game and use one of your own pictures and then the sim paints it.

I just download pictures I like from the web, open them up in Paintshop pro and crop and resize them (sharpening them if needed) to somewhere around 160 x 235 pixels and save as a jpg into the paintings folder in the My Docs/EA/Sims2 folder.  I have dozens to choose from.  My sims can paint a painting to match any decor.

I understand the directions and all its just for some reason i can never get it to work. The sims keep painting the old snapshot i took and not the new painting/ art i edited and saved for them to do instead.

After you copy your jpeg into the paintings folder, use paint custom painting, not paint still life. Then a menu of paintings will crop up and your pics should be among them. If all you see is a blank square for your picture, you may need to crop it. That has been my experience. Remember - custom painting, not still life.

However, my experience has also been that to do this, the paintings must be in the folder when you start the game.

I thought there was a refresh button in-game jamesabrown1 when you're on the 'choose a picture' part - but that might be with something else I'm not sure^^;

A Custom Painting option comes up? Is That only with a certain EP?

Me neither. I have used the method described and, frankly (being lazy), I've never sought another solution when I found one that worked.

What menu crops up when you click on the easle?

Sorry, it's been a while since I had any of my sims doing paintings. I'm not sure what custom painting is under, it may be it's own category, or it may be a sub-menu of portrait or still life, I just don't remember, sorry.

whenever my sims paint the only menus i get are Paint Portrait or Paint Still Life.

Silly question perhaps, but are you putting the new image into Downloads? If so, it doesn't belong there.

You must either delete the existing Snapshot.bmp image and replace it with the new one or else overwrite it with the new image. And the new image must be named eactly as the existing one - if the existing one is Snapshot.bmp (with a capital S) the new one must be named exactly that way.

Have never had a prob doing this. Perhaps this procedure will help you:

Open your graphics editor and do your resizing/cropping/whatever of your preferred image.

When that is done, use 'Save As' function and make sure the file type is set to bmp

Navigate to the Storytelling folder in My Documents-EA Games-Sims 2 and choose the Snapshot.bmp file. This will overwrite the existing file upon completion of the 'Save As.'

If, for whatever reason, your particular graphics editor happens to save the file with a .BMP extension, change that to all lower case.

Painting custom paintings is a feature that started with Pets.
If you don't have the Pets expansion pack (or higher, not sure if it carries
forward) you'll likely not get the option to paint a custom painting from
your easel.

ahh!! thak you, someone finaly saying so!! I said very early in my postings  i only have NL EP but nobody said it was only for pets or higher. And the sites i have read the instructions from failed to give that bit of info also. Well thanks anyway. I guess my option now is to learn how to recolor Maxis Paintings to make my own.