As Quint passed the line of police officers and drew near the Mercedes, Vivienne looked up at him with outsized brown eyes.  There was something about her that made him think she wasn't from Hawaii, more likely somewhere in Southeast Asia, maybe even Vietnam.  She was, in a word, elegant."

The above is from the Richard Hoyt novel, "Vivienne."  It is one of my favorite novels and I have been meaning to get around to doing a sim representation of the title character.

Here's some basic info on Vivienne Lambert.  In the novel, Vivienne is married to Colonel Del Lambert, an Army Intelligence office.  She is an artist (she is seen in several scenes in the novel painting several works of art), has a brother and a sister (the sister looks pretty close, if not "more beautiful" than Vivienne) and lives on Tantilus Drive in Hawaii in 1968.  Her name comes from the word vivre, which means, to live in French.  I can't give any more away without spoiling the book.  But if you are looking for something to read, I recommend the book.  Never the less, I was trying my best to make a Sim that looked like she could be from Vietnam (don't know if I succeeded, so I'll let you be the judge).

Creating Vivienne was a bit of a challenge.  Vivienne is Vietnamese, but when it comes to her she's described in two different sentences" 1. "Racially, she's basically a Malay, as are all women in Southeast Asia."  2. "You're looking at a little Chinese, a touch of Khmer, some Burmese."  So, for a little bit of inspiration, I looked at a couple of pictures of Malay women, the woman on the cover of the book and watched "Full Metal Jacket" and paid attention to the three "major" women featured in the film to at least get an idea on smaller details about their nose, hair and skintone.  One of the things I definately tried to avoid was to have any similarity to Lucy Liu (because my dad saw me read the book and he thought it was Lucy Liu on the cover.  And as a result, after that moment, I only saw Lucy Liu as Vivienne).  Needless to say, what came out is who I see Vivienne as.


I wish to extend my thanks to the Content Creators whose Work is being use for this Sim.:
Eye Color by LyricLee of www.3dconsortium.com
Eyebrow, Blush, Eyeliner and Eye Shadow by Helaene
Lipstick by Sandy of www.aroundthesims2.com
Idolatry of Flesh Skintone by Hysterical Paroxysm
K Fashions 60s Chic 2 Dress by K-030
In-Game Hair by EA/Maxis

Requires
Base Game: The Sims 2
EP: University, NightLife, Pets, Open for Business, Seasons and Bon Voyage (I listed all of these  just to make sure that the Sim runs, since I have all of these expansion packs installed and its hard to tell what is what for when I created the Sim)

Hope you enjoy the download.  

I would think using this would be a good means of "green screening".  I came across a solid neon green wallpaper for build mode, but I can't seem to find the place where I downloaded it from (I think it was at ModTheSims2.com, but I can't seem to find it there).

I have a question, seeing that I like the idea, I'd like to know if there are any simple programs I could use to create the poses (note: I do not have any knowledge in creating objects or animations, so anything that I can easily create these poses, preferably point-and-click).

Amazing!  Great to see the WCC still livin' and in the Sims 2.    Great work.  

Very impressive. Excellent job.  

I'm wondering, are there any particularly noticable Sims 2 trends that users do or don't do that you've noticed?  I figured I'd ask this as a fun and friendly topic.

When I say "trends", I mean in Sims and Objects that you've noticed being made or not made.  For example, a while back I made a post about the overabundence of Angelina Jolie sims that I noticed.  Another example is that I've noticed how there is really a small amount of Sims that are suppose to be robots.  And another is that I've noticed that there are more Sims, Outfits and Objects based on "Star Trek" and "Star Wars" than any other Science Fiction TV show/movie/book inspired Sims 2 downloads.

How about you?  Have you noticed any Sims 2 object/outfits/Sim trends that you've noticed and like to point out?

Got another for the One Handed Gun poses:

One Handed Gun Hold: Type 2- Similar to the above, except, the gun is pointed at the side with the body still facing forward, like in this scan of the DVD cover for John Woo's "The Killer"

BTW, is there any other gunplay poses that anyone can think of that could be used for such an object/hack?

Thanks.  I apologize for not responding sooner.  Life's been keeping me busy.

I've come to realize another problem.  Not only does the Sims in the CAS not show up, but the lots that I constructed in one of the neighboorhoods also do not showup.  I mean, they look blank, like they haven't been used.  Yet, when I use the lot size selection and click on one spot where I did construct a house, it then allows me access to the lot with the Sims that I had placed there before.  Maybe I should have just copied the downloads folder and not the lots directory.  And just when I've managed to redownload everything and not have my game crash on me when it runs.

Thanks for letting me know about the picture.  Apparently, the person renamed the picture from "Teacup" to "Solid", so I've updated the link with the correct name, so it should be working now.

Glad you like it.  

You know, I kinda wish there was some sort of "Sims 2 Ideas" section, where people could post ideas for Sims 2 stuff they had in mind, stuff that are just ideas and not requests.  But that's another topic all together.

Now, not too long ago, I came up with an object (+hack) that was inspired by some of the Sim posing hacks for storytellers and movie makers by Jixs and decorgal22572.  So, I figured I'd post the idea here and see what people think about it.  I must point out, I'm not an object maker and this is only an idea.  I have to say this because I sent a PM asking the opinion of an object/hack maker and that person thought I was making a request due to the massive detail of it.  But that's how I am (I come up with one idea and it just grows).  


Now, I've seen the typical holdable items, and how they are one handed carrying items with their arm bent "at the waist" as it were. This is okay when it comes to carriable handguns (like VampCat's guns), but even with a single handgun, it still doesn't look right when people are trying to make it look like their Sims are firing guns because of the fact that the Sims carry them close to the waist.

So, the idea I had is for a "Gunplay Pose Object" that can be used by Movie-Makers and Storytellers. Basically, it actually allows poses for gun objects that look like actual gun play. For example, there'd be the options like these:
(For handguns)
The Tea Cup Gun Hold- Basically the typical police officer two handed gun hold. Where you hold the gun in one hand and cup the other hand under that, like this.
One Handed Gun Hold- The typical pointing a gun at someone, as seen here (Warning: Big Picture Size).
John Woo Double Hand- Basically, the gun in each hand, both pointing forward (sometimes pointing at two different targets at once). See "The Matrix", the scene where Neo shoots at the Agent while on the roof of the Goverment Building (just prior to his "bullet dodge") and "A Better Tomorrow" as examples.
Old-Style Western Holdup- This is also two-handed, basically where a person has one gun extended out to take aim at a target while the other one is at their waist, ready to fire. Kinda like in this picture.
(for machine guns, shotguns and rifles)
One-Handed Hold-out- Typical for smaller weapons, like an Uzi, where one hand can be used (similar to the one handed gun hold above). This can apply to other machine guns that are typically held with two hands, but often depicted in films as "getting one more shot off before starting to run" (see "Terminator 2: Judgement Day", where the Terminator takes one last shot at the T-1000 as he begins to head for the elevator)
Two-Handed Hold- Typically for the bigger weapons, like an M-16 automatic machine gun, shotguns and other weapons designed to be held with two-hands to aim and fire, typically with the shoulder brace against the shoulder.
John Woo Machine Gun Style- Like the "John Woo Two Hand Hold" described above, but for the automatic machine guns, shotguns and rifles.
(and for all)
A Standby Posture- Basically, for the holding a gun with both hands, where the Sim will be in a holding posture, being ready for action. I'm going to use a Halo 2 picture to help explain two "standby postures". The first one will be holding a rifle, which can apply to machine gun too. For Handguns, it would be like the tea-cup hold, only with the gun aimed down.

So, what do you guys think of the idea?   Good, bad, ugly?  Useful, useless?

Well, I tired the deleting the CEP files, but still the same problem occured.

I don't think I clairfied the thing with the download folders.  I don't have two or more copies of the Downloads folder in the EA Games/Sims 2 directory under My Documents.  The backup copies I made of the folders were placed in two out of the four drives I have (and neither one of them are in the same drive that holds my Sims 2 and EPs games or the EA Games/Sims 2 directory).

Okay.  Maybe I should delete the CEP files, see if that does anything. Worse case scenario, I end up reinstalling CEP again.

Could it be possible that it's the CEP that's causing the problem?

I've checked the downloads from before, and the only objects I downloaded of Marvines were the spiral stairs and the ladder stairs.  And windkeeper's name didn't turn up in the pull down menu (basically, I have the AutoComplete on and it shows all the user names I typed in from downloads).

Anyways, I cleared the download folder again and used my previous backup again (made back in August of 2006) and transfered the files again.  And, no surprise, the same problem with the CAS occured (and I know all the objects on the disc worked with the game and EPs before, and perfectly with no problem).

The only latest file I've had in the download folder with all the times (and the only common factor I can see) is the latest version of the Color Enable Package (aka CEP).