Ideas on making this a (Sims 2) reality?
 

Description:
Her dress was an incredible creation, shading from nearly white at the throat collar shading down the bodice to a jewel-toned greenish black at the skirt, which was full-formal length, all but dragging the floor.

From this description, I see four things:

1. It is a halter-style dress
2. It has a collar (I think probably the thickness of two thumbs) that is not quite white (probably a very, very pale green in this case)
3. It likely has either a totally bare back or a "half-back" configuration
4. The color is a gradient from the collar to the floor. Perhaps from the collar to the waist, then another from the waist to the floor. Belt, if there is one, would probably match the slippers (see below)

Does this sound like I am mis-visualizing it?

The shoes, I presume, would be dancing slippers of a dark emerald green. I also see it as a very elegant and formal dress, rather inappropriate for every-day use.

I can just see this on some of the better female body-shapes, too, can't you? ;) And a recolor of one of the better looking tuxedos to an emerald green would match this for the guys. ;)

Sounds great! I'll tinker with the gradient...

Hmmm.....this sounds like a wedding dress I downloaded for a pinup from either Insim or ISA. I'll go check and see if I can find it.

Yep, found it. Tho the colors are backwards. It might work. There are other colors for this mesh so you might be able to find one.

http://www.insimenator.net/showthread.php?t=72343

Good. Thank you. :salute: Will decidedly look at this one. I'm not surprised that anything I can think up (within reasonable limits!) has been thought up and implemented already. After all, there are many players of the Sims 2 who have had nearly 5 years' head-start on me. (fixed incomes bite the big one.)

[After looking at the dress Hokieman sent him to]
Well, this is very pretty, yes, but it only matches the formal-length requirement, unless I miss my guess. LOL (I may still download the thing, since I think I do have at least one Sim it would fit, and while the Maxis-made wedding dress is pretty in its own way, it's a tad too traditionally white for some of my Sims to be comfortable in. LOL (cultural differences). (For example, some folks wear white as their mourning color, not black)

Note that the collar the description references goes around the throat, and forms the top anchor for the halter top.

Here's the gradient I came up with:

Miros: The gradient looks very workable. Pity I don't actually have the experience with my graphics editor (Paint Shop Pro 9 (the last Jasc Software release of that program) to actually use the thing. :mutters:

There's also the "issue" of actually making the clothing itself. None of the halter-top dresses I've seen thus far for either version of the Sims (most for Sims 2, admittedly) have the collar as described, and that seems critical to make the dress look correct.

Another project, same source.
 

The RSMC Formal Dress (and battle dress) uniforms. LOL The FDU has two variants (slight differences between the male and female versions) and there's a third variant that has white fabric (that only the Royal Family is permitted to wear), not the space-black of the normal RSMC. Will post the description once I find the one that actually describes the uniform properly. Fortunately, normal working-uniform (aka BDU) is very similar, only without certain of the accents present in the FDU (so could easily be classed as a recolor of the FDU)

As a start, though, the FDU strongly resembles the USMC Formal Dress Uniform, with certain differences. (Gold piping, rather than red, for one; black background rather than the dark blue of the USMC for another).

Rank "pip" design is very different between the original template (USMC) and the RSMC, though. RSMC rank pips are octagonal, three-color (Officer ranks consist of gold/silver/black for the "hollow" pip, gold/silver/gold for the "filled"'; enlisted would be silver/brass/black for hollow, silver/brass/silver for the filled), and there can be up to five on the collar. (four for the rank, one denoting "sub-grade") To make matters a bit more complex, (as if we needed it!) there are mentions in the books of several wearing more normal single pin rank designations with the sub-grade pin.

(in another, semi-unrelated thing, during trying to get usable rank pins that looked right IRL, the cheapest quote for the full slate I'd need (total of (I think) 15 pins) was close to $400. I shudder to think what the uniform will eventually cost as a one-off. Could have miscalculated the total number of pins needed for the various ranks, though. LOL)

I think I found the dress style!
http://www.bestbridalprices.com/allu...ml?cPath=1_106
Slight variants:
http://www.bestbridalprices.com/allu...ml?cPath=1_106
http://www.bestbridalprices.com/allu...ml?cPath=1_106

Most dress straps aren't meshed on, so I should be able to rearrange the neckline area easily.

You're a gem of great price! The second one is the closest I've seen yet to what I envision when I see the description. Coloration might be a bit of a trip, though. We shall have to see, aye?

Well, we've got a picture of the bodice, we've got meshes, and we've got a colored gradient... it's just a matter of putting all 3 together!

In case you guys are wondering, the description is of a dress used in one of my books. (Miros has probably caught me out.) ;) And the Regellian culture uses white for "mourning and mortuary personnel", so white during a wedding (or betrothal, as in the case of the full scene) would be a huge faux pas.

Also: The dress is actually something referred to (eventually) as a "forever suit". The untuned version of this basically looks like an off-white graduation or choral robe. On beginning to be tuned, it goes skin-tight, and usually turns a dark color. The item is made of a cloth that is living, and semi-symbiotic, too. It's been rather a good bit of fun writing about this fabric and the length of service it provides. (the cost is pretty extreme, since only a very few even appear in my books, and in one reference in a book I've yet to actually assemble, it's noted that a single suit of this material costs "as much as two large runabouts". But hey, if it's the last piece of formal clothing you'll ever have to buy, perhaps it's worth the expense. (I've not seen a forever suit used as a working uniform yet, just various sorts of formalwear.)

Any luck on this? Not in a hurry, mind, just wondering. :) My own attempts have ended in horrible results thus far, just like the one skintone I was experimenting with.

An artist I've never claimed to be.

Sorry, I've been sidetracked into converting underwear for Angelita, making child/teen/adult sundress sets, and recoloring the Futon sofa (and matching pieces by BeOSBoxBoy).

It's on the list! I was wondering about the shape of the skirt tho... is it straight down from the hips (like a Chinese dress), pulled in at the knees then flared (aka a mermaid or trumpet dress), near cone shaped, flared from waist to hips then draping to the floor, or almost hemispherical? (I hope not the last...)

Actually, while I haven't thought that much on it, the rest of the scene seems to suggest the "near-cone" or "flared, then draped" types. Walking regally in the first two would seem (to me at least) to be difficult at best, and I actually don't see her wearing a dress that would bell out in the way you seem to describe in the last bit. "almost hemispherical" sounds like what (in the 19th Century) was called a hoop dress. ::shudders:: The fact such dresses made it difficult (if not all but impossible) to sit would be a huge minus, I'd expect.

Several dress styles have been mentioned as being worn by her, actually. One such was worn on the occasion of her farewell party, and was a one-shouldered affair. Now, as there are a number of different single-shouldered dress styles, I can't be totally certain on which, but the fact the dress had a "short train that dragged on the floor" (long enough for someone walking behind her in an escort to step on and cause her to fall!) would seem to suggest it being an off-center halter-type rather than the sort that bares a bit too much for the wearer's comfort! LOL It's also the only time you ever hear of Symanthia wearing white in the books! :laugh: (Other than one scene where she wears a white turtleneck as part of her uniform during a ceremony, which, on reflection, would be utterly incorrect, since she was not an unassigned officer at that time, so should have been wearing either Medical blue or Marine green. (Yes, the color for the Marines is terrible, just like in Trek!) :rofl: I much prefer the deep, deep blue of the USMC uniforms, thus the fact the RSMC uniforms being space-black. (The RSDN uniform, on the other hand, has never truly been described clearly. Must think on that.))

Full-formal length is (IIRC) ankle length if not very slightly longer; the dresses Symanthia wears to her Betrothal Confirmation (which reads almost like a wedding, and that's part of the mystique) and the later farewell party are both formal length, unless I misrecall.

Unless very poorly made, Sims have no problems sitting in a hoop skirt. The chair might disappear inside the skirt, but the front of the skirt should stay at or near the ankle level. There were a few Sims 1 hoop skirts which flipped up in the front, but I haven't seen anything for Sims 2 with the bone assignements that far off, including some stuff that I know was slapped together and put up for download!

Not in the slightest bit sure if this is helpful, but there's a new alpha editable bridal gown mesh on TSR.

OOOH! That's pretty! Thanks for the link.

You're more than welcome. Miraculously, I remembered this post when I saw it. Considering I have problems remembering my own name lately (allergies, ugh)...

:lol: I've got a mental list of stuff people are looking for, so I post links when I blunder into them.