Custom Paintings By Steve Bonham, 17 April 2006

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Custom paintings This solution has been discussed around the forums and chat already, but here is a graphical explanation for those of you not already "in the know".

It's actually possible to create your very own paintings for use in the game. Unfortunately they cannot be extracted or shared with others, but paintings are a very personal taste anyway. Your fluffy kitten might look lovely on the wall of your Sims house, but others probably won't want an unknown feline in their game!

Anyway, I'll stop rambling and show how you can easily put your own design onto an in-game game Painting.

Step 1. You need to have a Sim with a Creativity Skill of at least 5 for them to be able to paint Still Life.

If you haven't found it in the game already, this gives you the ability to take a small capture of any area on your Lot (including Sim faces etc.) and have you Sim paint it for prosperity.

So, go ahead and start a Still Life paining.

Custom Paintings By Steve Bonham, 17 April 2006

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Step 2. When you get your area selector you can place it anywhere, we will be overwriting the image anyway.

Press C to capture and then ALT TAB out of the game (It's left in pause mode: Important you leave it that way).

Step 3. Now open up your favourite image editing software (I'm using Paint Shop Pro here). The game has saved your chosen area in a file called Snapshot.bmp in your Storytelling Folder.

The full path to the file is: My Documents/EA Games/The Sims 2/Storytelling/Snapshot.bmp

Open this file into your Image Editor.

Custom Paintings By Steve Bonham, 17 April 2006

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Step 4. The image that you open is a .bmp file and is the small capture area that you choose for your painting.

The image that you open is a .bmp file and is the small capture area that you choose for your painting.

You can replace this image with anything you like. Could be a logo as I have used in this example, a picture of your pet, a movie star or anything else that you or your Sim might like to see around the House or Lot.

The size must not be changed!

Once you are happy with the image you have, save it (maintain the original file name. You need to overwrite the .bmp file in your Storytelling folder before you restart your game).

Step 5. Use ALT TAB to head back into the game and take the game off pause, allowing your Simmie to paint.

As if by Magic, a picture appears!

Your picture!

Custom Paintings By Steve Bonham, 17 April 2006

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Step 6. As you can see, my Sim was hardly able to contain his excitement on seeing the finished article.

Paintings will actually increase in value, so don't sell it just yet!

In fact, a painting created by a Sim due to join The Reaper is well worth keeping hold of, as the value will increase dramatically when the creator dies. How sweet!

Step 7. My Sim seems to have gone into production creating "The Sims Resource Posters". I expect he will be listing them on eBay very soon.

Your paintings can be hung all around the House. Try capturing some hot action in the Tub or Bed, or some other Sims hitting it off or taking a shower… Oh, hold on.. That's my imagination running wild. It should be yours :-P

Enjoy!