I'm not able to paint any custom paintings on TS2U

[Vampire Lion]

Hey,
Well I have the sims 2 Double Deluxe & University,yes I bought them legally lol. Everything on my game works perfectly fine,except for when I'm trying to paint. When I go to the easel it shows me all the options,so I click on 'Custom Painting' and when I do,it opens,but I can't choose a file. I've looked around on my computer,and in the documents folder is:EA Games,EA Games. When I open them up,all they read is:"The sims 2,The sims 2 store edition,and The sims 2 Double Deluxe"..there's no University folder though. I've searched for a 'paitings' folder,but it's non-existing,I even tried creating my own 'paintings' folder. So how can I resolve this? I've tried restarting the game,etc,but it still won't let me paint a custom painting.
 

[ancienthighway]

When you are in game at the neighborhood view, there should be some icons in the upper part of the screen.  Find the one for University and see if you can add a Uni hood to your main hood.  If you can't because the icon doesn't work, Uni didn't install.

The only set of folders you should be interested in are found in (My )Documents.  Depending on your OS, there will be 1 or 2 EA Games folders each with a The Sims 2 folder.  Make sure you have the folder in My Documents, not Public Documents.  Open that folder and you'll see a whole mess of folders to include Paintings.  The names might be slightly different under DD, but the path is still the same, under My Documents.

Mess with the folders and files under Program Files and you put your game at risk if you don't know what you are doing.

[Vampire Lion]

Thank you for answering,
I searched my computer again and still no paintings folder anywhere. I have the sims 2 folders in my documents,not public documents. {:)} I've also had The Sims 2 University installed on my laptop for quite a while,it works perfectly fine,it's just this folder dilema is still bugging me. I searched my computer for a 'paintings' folder,but there is none whatsoever. I also searched 'University',and nothing came up. The only place I find the sims 2 University is in the start menu or when I go to the 'Games' folder. I think something must have screwed up when I re-installed all these games a while back.

[Engram]

OK, correct me if I'm wrong but didn't custom paintings come with Pets, not Uni? This would explain why there is no Paintings folder in a game that does not include the Pets EP - there isn't supposed to be one.

Prior to the Pets EP the way we used to get custom paintings into the game was to get a sim with a painting skill level 5 or above start painting a still life and then swapping out the still life BMP for a custom BMP as soon as the picture was snapped.

[Vampire Lion]

Thanks for answering Engram.
I'm not sure,a few people online have said the paintings do come with University,I don't have Pets installed,so I'd say it comes with it. And yeah,my character has her Creativity level maxed..so I don't know. I'll probably just have to do something different?

[Theraven]

"create custom painting" in the pie menu is a Pets feature. You can do it without Pets, but it requires a bit of cheating.

http://www.gamefaqs.com/pc/914811-the-sims-2/faqs/32636

---------------------------------------
VII. Bug: Implementing your own picture
---------------------------------------

Note #1: This is using “The Sims 2” V1.0, no guarantee it’ll work with any
         patches that get released.

Note #2: A picture editor is stongly advised in order to get the most benefit
         out of this exploit. I currently use Paint Shop Pro.


**********
The Steps:
**********

1.  Once the option becomes available, choose the "Paint Still Life" option
    after clicking on the art easel.

2.  The game should automatically pause for you to take the sceenshot.
    Whatever you do, DO NOT unpause the game.

3.  Once the game pauses for the screenshot, press the letter 'c' to take the
    picture.
    (Make sure to still keep the game paused).

4.  Minimize "The Sims 2" by pressing Ctrl+Esc (or possibly Alt+Tab)

5.  Find the screenshot you are supposed to paint. It can be found in
    ".../My Documents/EA Games/The Sims 2/Storytelling/Snapshot.bmp"
    (without the quotes).

6.  Open this file with a picture-editing program of your choice.

7.  Now comes the fun part....tweak that picture to your heart's content. You
    can do whatever you want to it (including overwrite it with another
    picture), but you must keep it as a bitmap file with the same file name
    (snapshot.bmp). The new modified picture will be the picture your sim will
    paint. Though not mandatory, it is strongly recommend to keep
    snapshot.bmp's resolution at its default (The default resolution for
    snapshot.bmp varies depending on the resolution of the game. For example,
    if you play at 1152X864, the picture has a width of 177 and a height of
    307. If you play at 800X600, however, the picture has a width of 255 and a
    height of 442)

8.  Save and overwrite the old snapshot.bmp with the new modified one.

9.  Maximize "The Sims 2".
 
10. Unpause the game.

11. Watch your sim paint the picture you wanted!

12. Once completed, treat it however you wish. The game sees it as just a
    normal painting.

[Vampire Lion]

Thank you Theraven! I'll be doing that from now on I guess,haha..thank you!