It's another vamp post!

[profbutters]

Someone posted on MATY asking if it would be possible to create vampires like the ones in *Twilight*--sparkling, don't burn up in the sunlight, all that stuff. Well, of course, a Maxis vampire is going to have most of those vampire characteristics, like smoking in the sunlight and stalking with their arm over their face and saying "Blehhh!! The sun!!! I must flee!!!" With the exception of biting everyone in sight, I like those characteristics, but I still thought it was an interesting question, and of course. . .

Ulysses, this means you must become a sparklepire again.

I'm sure many of you remember that this is the way my vampire Ulysses usually looks. The combination is Lyran S2 + Dylan TK's Vampire Paste + icinitos Eye Candy red eyes as contacts, because the Vampire Paste leaves the original eye color the way it is, and I like red eyes on vamps.



You also might remember that I tried out a sparkly vampire default called Do I Dazzle You? He's still got the red contacts in--the default uses Astiee's Sparkle and Shine skins with Yumedust's CoalDust eyes.



I was thinking that if I wanted to make a *Twilight* style sparklepire, I'd probably want a good skin PLUS a good vamp default replacement plus some contact lenses. Meyer makes a big thing about how the vampires have different colored eyes, depending on how recently they ate and whether it was human or not. And if I could find a mod that created sparkle animations, I'd probably use that, too. I tried using HP's "Sparklies! Yay!", but it just made Ulysses look as though he was covered with Post-It notes. I hear there are some nice mods that use the AL Good Witch sparkle or the Free Time glow, but I don't know where they are and of course I can't use them.

So I was fooling around and noticed that Astiees has a NEW sparkly skin, and thought I would try it out.

Here's Ulysses as he is unvamped--S2 Lyran default, and whatever custom eyes he inherited from his father, Jack Buccaneer. On the left is his twin NoUlysses, made with the palest shade of Extreme Sparkle Skin and Sussi's Mirror Gold Eyes.

Neither of them are vamps, so I have no clue why they look as though they have fangs.



I thought it would be easier to see the skin tone in their undies--



and even easier in their swim togs.



Here's unvamped NoUlysses up close--SparkleSkin + Mirror Gold eyes.



Then I vamped them, with motivedecay off. They still smoke and bleh!!!, by the way. You'll notice that the Vampire Paste is very subtle. I'm never quite sure about it, but I'm used to it now and like it much better than the Maxis default, plus it works well with Lyran defaults.



Once again, here is Ulysses with his usual vamp appearance--Lyran S2 + Vampire Paste + icinitos contacts:



Here's what NoUlysses looks like as a vamp/sparklepire--the Vampire Paste on top of the Sparkle Skin.




I wanted to try out the multiple eye colors, so I chose Bruno's Gemstone eye color contacts. I probably could have done better with this.

The sparklepires have dark eyes when they are hungry. These are the Dark Goldstone eyes.



Their eyes are melted golden butterscotch topaz when they've eaten animals.  These are the Tiger's Eye contacts:





And their eyes are red if they've eaten someone you know.  I used Ruby here.



Anyway, I killed NoUlysses and got the custom skins out of my game.  But I think you probably *could* make some very nice sparklepire type vamp defaults out of Astiees new skin.  CC links, in case you're curious:

Lyran default skins.
Eye Candy eyes and contacts.
Dylan TK's Vampire Paste.
Do I Dazzle You? Default.
Extreme Skins "Sparkling Flesh."
Bruno's Gemstone Eyes.

Comments

[orikes13.livejournal.com]

This was all just an excuse to parade Ulysses around without a shirt, wasn't it? :)

I've debated going to something more subtle to denote vampires as far as skintones go, but I'd have to make it a plotty reason to change at this point since Ian's storyline has become so intrinsically linked to the vampires. Ah well. :)

[profbutters.livejournal.com]

See, this is what happens when you have a realistic, properly motivated plot and characters :) I'd probably have Robi call a FAMILY MEETING a la "Growing Up Cullen" to decide what skin tone we would be using from now on as a FAMILY.

I liked your vamps' most recent appearance. Are you using a special default replacement, or is it regular Maxis on top of your skintone defaults? I guess if I wanted something more subtle, but not as subtle as the Vampire Paste, I'd probably go with the RenSim Dumas defaults.

[orikes13.livejournal.com]

Hah! "FAMILY MEETING! No more grey!"

Actually, the only thing different about my vamps in these pictures is the eyes. I use the RenSim default replacement eyes. The skintones are all normal. I did get some pretty fantastic lighting with the scene between Mary and Ian in front of the fireplace, but that's really the only difference, I think.

[swhedonberry.livejournal.com]

There's also the StarTrek: TNG method that they used when explaining the reason that Klingons look so dang different from when they were introduced.

Stacie: Hey, Worf, son of Mog! Why do the Klingons look so different than they did in the age of Khan?

Worf: We don't talk about it with outsiders.

And that's how you deal with a plot hole.

[docnerd.livejournal.com]

I <3 you, Stacie.

[gintasticnecat.livejournal.com]

Ha ha! Sparkley vamp experiments, love it.

Ulysses actually manages to quite rock the sparklepire attire, and I can see what you're gretting at with it *nods* More subtle vampire skins do seem to work ever so well in general and I like the Paste. I'm still using Maxis just because I think it works better in my 'world' but I agree with Ori - your vamps have been looking great lately.

[rosefyre.livejournal.com]

Sparklepires!

Er, sorry, I'm kind of giddy at the moment, and seeing Ulysses shirtless is nice, though I still find Twilight, um, yeah.

[docnerd.livejournal.com]

My creature defaults are the Yumedust eyes, which I like for that. I wish there were "fantasy" colors in bruno's Seasons eyes, just for the matchiness. I do love her Gemstone eyes too, though.

Also? MOAR shirtless Ulysses!

[docnerd.livejournal.com]

Hehehe, you made Ulysses be a sparklepire, and he goes and commits suicide. I think he's trying to tell you something!

[profbutters.livejournal.com]

Heh. To be honest, that was the first thing I thought of.