Random Facial Features Generator
With the release of the Plumbobber, which I love, I thought I might share a random generator I created a while ago but didn't share with the community at large. I love creating random sims too, and I found myself wanting more variety in regards to facial features than just getting one of the presets when you roll the dice in CAS, so I made this facial feature generator to be flexible but detailed.
http://orteil.dashnet.org/randomgen/?gen=Cnj8qv20
This one is online, so no download necessary.
What does it do?
It refers to most of the options for customizing a sim's face and gives you a detailed description, with details like "Forehead: Narrow and slightly prominent". The details are up to a simmer's interpretation, though. Does "small eyes" imply they need to be as small as possible, or just a bit smaller than they already are? You decide, depending on what you're going for. You can keep the details toned down for more realistic proportions, or go wild with the sliders for cartoonish looks: it's up to you.
The generator doesn't give any details that aren't facial features, including body shapes. If you're looking to create very random sims, you could use this alongside the Plumbobber or Create a Random Sim to get details that are outside of the scope of this generator.
How do I use it?
I will be referring to the different places you can modify on a sim's face as "sliders", even though we don't technically have sliders in TS4's CAS.
If you're not super familiar with CAS' sliders, it may be worth it to take some time to read through the random generator and try to identify which sliders go with which options before you try to edit anything. If you're stuck, feel free to ask me. If there's enough interest, I could make a visual guide to which sliders each description refers to. You will be using both the detail modifying mode and the normal mode if you follow this generator.
This step is optional, if you want a very random sim. Alternatively, you could start with another sim/face shape that you like as a template and go from there; this can be especially helpful if you have a certain style and want to keep your sims looking like variations on it. You could also take a townie and randomize their features to make the gene pool more interesting. For the more random option, roll the dice in CAS (some simmers like to roll it multiple times; you can do that if you want) to get a sim to start with. Some features cannot be changed with sliders, such as whether your sim has monolids or not, so you'll want a random face before you start messing with the sliders.
Next, select a hair that doesn't block your view of the sim's face or ears, and remove any facial hair. You can put these back when you're done, but for now you don't want them in the way.
Then, before you change any sliders, you want to decide what kind of look you're going for: do you want subtle differences from the original face, or do you want big changes? This will affect how much you move the sliders when the randomizer tells you the sim has a large chin or a nose bridge that curves inwards, for example. There are upsides and downsides to both approaches. With subtle changes, your sims are more likely to come out looking "normal" or fitting a certain style, but if the changes are too subtle they might not be noticeable and your sims might come out looking too similar. Stronger or more extreme changes can be fun, and you're not likely to get sameface syndrome with sims made this way, but they can turn out looking very odd indeed or drift far away from your desired style. It's not an all or nothing decision, though- you could go more or less subtle on a sim-by-sim or even feature by feature basis.
Now, keeping that in mind, it's time to change the sliders. Most of the descriptions I give refer to specific sliders. The exception is the face option: you create the face shape you're given by changing the multiple jawline sliders. If there's a demand, I'll expand this tutorial to talk about interpreting the different descriptions, since I could see it being somewhat confusing.
_______
Have fun! And if you make a sim using this, I would love to see it. Feel free to post it here or tag me!
http://orteil.dashnet.org/randomgen/?gen=Cnj8qv20
This one is online, so no download necessary.
What does it do?
It refers to most of the options for customizing a sim's face and gives you a detailed description, with details like "Forehead: Narrow and slightly prominent". The details are up to a simmer's interpretation, though. Does "small eyes" imply they need to be as small as possible, or just a bit smaller than they already are? You decide, depending on what you're going for. You can keep the details toned down for more realistic proportions, or go wild with the sliders for cartoonish looks: it's up to you.
The generator doesn't give any details that aren't facial features, including body shapes. If you're looking to create very random sims, you could use this alongside the Plumbobber or Create a Random Sim to get details that are outside of the scope of this generator.
I will be referring to the different places you can modify on a sim's face as "sliders", even though we don't technically have sliders in TS4's CAS.
If you're not super familiar with CAS' sliders, it may be worth it to take some time to read through the random generator and try to identify which sliders go with which options before you try to edit anything. If you're stuck, feel free to ask me. If there's enough interest, I could make a visual guide to which sliders each description refers to. You will be using both the detail modifying mode and the normal mode if you follow this generator.
This step is optional, if you want a very random sim. Alternatively, you could start with another sim/face shape that you like as a template and go from there; this can be especially helpful if you have a certain style and want to keep your sims looking like variations on it. You could also take a townie and randomize their features to make the gene pool more interesting. For the more random option, roll the dice in CAS (some simmers like to roll it multiple times; you can do that if you want) to get a sim to start with. Some features cannot be changed with sliders, such as whether your sim has monolids or not, so you'll want a random face before you start messing with the sliders.
Next, select a hair that doesn't block your view of the sim's face or ears, and remove any facial hair. You can put these back when you're done, but for now you don't want them in the way.
Then, before you change any sliders, you want to decide what kind of look you're going for: do you want subtle differences from the original face, or do you want big changes? This will affect how much you move the sliders when the randomizer tells you the sim has a large chin or a nose bridge that curves inwards, for example. There are upsides and downsides to both approaches. With subtle changes, your sims are more likely to come out looking "normal" or fitting a certain style, but if the changes are too subtle they might not be noticeable and your sims might come out looking too similar. Stronger or more extreme changes can be fun, and you're not likely to get sameface syndrome with sims made this way, but they can turn out looking very odd indeed or drift far away from your desired style. It's not an all or nothing decision, though- you could go more or less subtle on a sim-by-sim or even feature by feature basis.
Now, keeping that in mind, it's time to change the sliders. Most of the descriptions I give refer to specific sliders. The exception is the face option: you create the face shape you're given by changing the multiple jawline sliders. If there's a demand, I'll expand this tutorial to talk about interpreting the different descriptions, since I could see it being somewhat confusing.
_______
Have fun! And if you make a sim using this, I would love to see it. Feel free to post it here or tag me!
