MTS2:Creator Guidelines/Sims/Screenshots

MTS2 TS2 Sim Guidelines
Quality	Screenshots	Packaging Your Sim	Credits for Included or Pictured Content	Adult Content and Nudity	Right Info and Right Files

Screenshots

In addition to overall quality standards, you will need to show pics of your sim so people know what they're downloading. Here's what we're looking for:

Screenshot Basics

For instructions on:

• Taking large, clear pictures (bigger than the game will allow)
• Changing your in-game settings for best graphics quality
• Camera controls

See: Screenshot Basics

You need to make sure you have nice big, clear pictures that show off what you've made. They can't be too blurry or pixellated, and you need to know how to use the game's camera controls properly, so make sure you review the information on that link thoroughly before continuing.

Required Screenshots

These screenshots are a requirement when uploading sims and you will not get your upload accepted without them!

Neutral Face Closeup (Required for All Sims!)

A good neutral face closeup and body shot.

Show a close-up of your sim's face with a neutral expression. While it may look a little boring, sims' faces distort quite a lot when they make expressions so having a good idea of what your sim actually looks like normally is necessary. Extreme facial expressions like big smiles, open mouthed animated talking, laughter, etc., can distort the face and can make an interesting sim just look like another goofy sim.

If your sim normally wears a mask, veil, or other item that covers their face, please remove it for the required face closeup shot.

Body Shot (Required for All Sims!)

Show a further-away shot of your sim from a distance. This can be from at least their hips and up or you can show the sim from head to toe. If you have made the sim's outfit, make sure to show them head to toe, to show off the outfit you've made.

Comparison Pic (Required for Celebrity/Character Sims!)

A good celebrity sim comparison pic

If your sim is based on a celebrity, anime character, cartoon character, game character, etc., then you need to include at least one picture of the original person or character for comparison purposes.

Please provide at least one plain basic comparison pic of the character or celebrity - just a photo of them. Simmerized (combining the sim's face with a photo in Photoshop) or divided pics (left side is sim face, right side is real face split down the nose) provided for comparison are not acceptable. You can, however, put two pics side-by-side like the below example with similar poses and expressions as this will best show how close your likeness is.

Adult Comparison (Required for Child Sims!)

Emily by Kamikitten

If your sim is younger than a teen (that is, a child or toddler) please include one picture of your child sim as an adult. This is simply so downloaders know what to expect when the child sim grows up - sometimes adorable children and toddlers become hideous adults. A child sim that becomes a hideous adult is not a disqualification for approval - it merely lets people know that they probably shouldn't let your child sim age.  :)

Big Enough

Your pics should be large enough to see the detail of what you've made. Remember, MTS2 allows images up to 1280x1024 pixels and 195 kilobytes so you should be able to upload nice big pictures. See the information above under "Screenshot Basics" for info on taking larger pics than the game will normally allow.

And please don't take smaller pics and just make them larger in your graphics program - this just gives you a blurry pic that's bigger in dimensions with no additional detail.

Close Enough

Make sure your screenshots are taken nice and close - your sim should fill up most of the picture, without a lot of space on the sides. Pictures taken close-up show your sim much better than ones taken from far away.

In-Game

In order to see what your creation looks like in-game, we require in-game screenshots. You must actually load the game and take your screenshots there. We do not accept Body Shop pics, texture pics, SimPose, 3D program pics, etc., without the required in-game pics too. Please don't try to cut out backgrounds or fake in-game pics. We can definitely tell the difference.

For best results, put your sim on a lot. Create-a-Sim screenshots are acceptable, but the lighting in CAS is pretty bright and you may not be able to get detail pics and that sort of thing, too.

Enough Light

Don't take your pics at night or in a dark room! Take your sim outside in the sunlight (make sure they're facing the sun - light comes from a certain direction on the lot!) or put them in a well-lit room. At the same time, make sure you don't use too much light: Create-a-Sim screenshots can sometimes be too bright.

Inline/Attached Screenshots

Please do not post more than 4 inline screenshots (images that appear in the text of the thread). Having a lot of images that have to load on the thread makes browsing downloads very slow and can make the thread jump around as they keep loading.

You may host your inline screenshots elsewhere like Photobucket.com - however, these screenshots hosted elsewhere must be additional screenshots, and you must make sure to actually attach your required screenshots to the thread itself. If your Photobucket account runs out of bandwidth or you delete the pics, people still need to be able to get the required screenshots on your thread.

You can attach up to 8 screenshots to the thread itself, with the 4 additional inline screenshots hosted elsewhere (or attached) for a total of 12 possible screenshots. This should be plenty to show what you've made, even for fairly large sets. Remember, you can always collage several different images together into one image if you have a bunch of stuff to show off.

No Pay Content

Do not use pay content in your screenshots! Do not use pay hair in your screenshots!

You MUST use free or Maxis hair in your screenshots! MTS promotes and supports free content, and using pay content in screenshots is basically like free advertisement for paysites. This includes pay content you found elsewhere for free - if it was pay originally, it's still promoting pay content. For more information, please see the Site News article on the subject. MTS has an extensive collection of free hairstyles in our Downloads section, and you can look in the Sims2Wiki Hair Gallery for more free hairstyles. You'll be able to find something you like.

MTS2 TS2 Sim Guidelines
Quality	Screenshots	Packaging Your Sim	Credits for Included or Pictured Content	Adult Content and Nudity	Right Info and Right Files