@Spookshow You're welcome! What settings and filter do you use for the softening? You could probably reduce it to about half? Softening can actually help with some of the issues the game creates, like some of the cc hair being too pixelated. The quality was actually pretty great aside from what we mentioned, so your laptop is fine I think. xD
Well, using a hair brush to place strands isn't really hair drawing (technically speaking), which is why I called it hair stranding. xD It's building up base hair with pre-made hair strands to give it a better look. Unfortunately, there's 3 different brushes that everyone (even me, lol) just calls "hair brushes" so it's a bit difficult for people to discern which one we're talking about. :sweat_smile: There's full on pre-made hairs you paste, then draw in the textures and rest of the colors. There's hair strands, which are just strands of hair to add fly-aways and help the base hair, and then there's actual hair drawing brushes, which are made to create strands when you move the brush/pen. Then of course there's people who do hair drawing with the pen/path tools and single dot brushes, but that's not really pertaining to the three types. xD
Anyways, I forgot to mention that when hair stranding, flipping the brush settings horizontal (you have PS, right?) sometimes can help it look better and less uniform, which is the problem that arises when stranding. Or you can use multiple strand types to do that.
I have an example pic from a few months ago that shows how I built up hair using nothing but strand brushes and a little of the base hair. If you want to see how I did it I can send it to you.
As for the lighting, light rays only go so far. Shadows over the sim and highlights from where the light is hitting her are important as well. ^_^ This would have been covered in the beginner's comp...but yeah. Lol
Below I have more info on lighting.
@Meeshelby Lighting is actually very difficult to get down. It's easier in real life to notice where they are for photography, but when working from scratch like this it makes it hard to do. This is actually why ingame pictures are preferred, because you can adjust the lighting on the sim to match the direction of the light source in your background, which makes it easier to know where the light will hit, and from there you can do shading and add shadows/lighting. Knowledge of the direction of the light and where exactly shadows and highlights will be is hard to pin down, and takes practice. Even I still struggle with it when editing. xD References also help determine where they go.
As for your photos in the other comps, from what I can see from the second image in Manly, the one with the raven, his clothing is too dark, which blends him into the background. The blur is of course blending him into the background as well, so that is not helping. xD It was less of lighting you did and more of just the fact that the clothing choice + the blur + the background made it seem dark and blended him in (same goes for your first Manly picture, the pants match the background!). You have to be careful with choices like that, and always go for something not matching the background, unless that was a point, like a camouflage shot. Some highlights from the flame down the stairs on him would have most likely helped him pop a bit.
Try using the brightness and contrast settings to adjust backgrounds and sims, and help with lighting (but don't overdo it!).
I need to get back to studying, but if you have anymore questions feel free to ask. :3
