Recolors and copyright

That seems fair enough. I too do many a crappy recolor for personal use, and I never know wether it's legal or not.

Now that you mention Lothere fanfic, I'm so tempted to write some short parody featuring Paul and Vash in The Cave as a gift or something.

Parody is, in fact, oftentimes legal, from a copyright perspective.

Thanks for the clarification. I'm glad that you didn't take my request as greediness. It's just that I can't recolour or even mesh and I'm so grateful that others share their creations. I wish I could give them more than a Thank You in return (maybe using the stuff in game is reward enough). I so respect your comment! And I'm far from visiting this site for the reason of downloading. It's the most incredible Sims Site I've ever seen (I keep advertising for it at every opportunity, !) Allthough, for a non native English speaker like me (German) it's difficult to completely understand what's going on, but I surely admire the pictures!

Thanks. As for the CC, a simple "thanks" is enough for me. I don't claim any credit, since for the most part I haven't done much work. It takes me longer to start BodyShop than it does to recolor a dress from red to purple. All the credit goes to the original artist. (Which, on occasion, is me.)

You can always consider reading the story as a learning opportunity for English. François has, anyway. But don't feel bad if you don't understand... my own (French-speaking) husband claims he can't digest my writing.

I'm really glad to think that my pictures are good enough to be worthwhile on their own merits. My pictures were so awful at the beginning...

François isn't alone there.

I think your pictures have definitely improved in the sense that they aren't just aesthetically appealing; they also set the scene and the mood perfectly (just look at that picture of Ris!). I often stare at them for a long time, especially when I find little details that amuse me (such as the expressions of the characters that are in the background).

I meant a parody of fanfiction itself, more than anything. But even if I tried, I don't think I could write one. It's like writing about real people.

Ah, that makes sense. I think most creators are pretty good about recolors, with just "no paysite" clauses and the like, but there is the odd one who isn't too keen on the idea.

But yeah, I think you should be okay because everyone who comes here is here to read the story, not to find CC (although once, I did redirect a friend to your "Where Can I Get...?" page when she asked where I got my stuff, but I think she may have ended up reading the story anyway). The CC is just a bonus, and with the number of comments on the CC page, a creator would have to look long and hard for their mesh anyway

This may be off-topic, but I can't think of anywhere else to ask. I find that the pictures in the story are still extremely dark. I have to highlight the picture as if I was saving it in order to see any type of outline in it. Otherwise it's just a dark brown/black square interspaced throughout the story. The pictures that aren't dark ..... well, they are fantastic, and as maruutsu mentions, I can stare at them for some time, read, go back to the photo. They do enhance the story .... I just wish I knew why I keep having them so dark. Do I need to change something in "My Computer". Sorry, Jenny. I'm envious about anyone with computer knowledge. Me, lucky if it turns on correctly.

Even today, I feel like about 50% of my "dark" scenes are still too dark. Sometimes it's intentional -- a few pictures in a chapter will be extra dark because someone hasn't lit a candle yet or something -- but mostly it's just because candlelight is so weak, and candles tend to be distributed around the perimeters of my rooms, which means characters need to cling to the furniture if they are to be illuminated.

It is HARD TO DO. When I watch movies nowadays I look really closely when a scene is set in a candlelit room to see how the director lights it. (Hint: it's way brighter than real candlelight. ) So I'm still working the tradeoff between "realistic" candlelight and Hollywood-like mood-setting that nevertheless allows you to see the actors' faces.

However, "dark brown/black square" sounds really too much... I don't think I'm that bad any more. Can you give me an example or two of some chapters that are so dark as to be invisible? I would like to get a sense of what is the cut-off point for you.

Are you using an old CRT monitor or do you have a newer LCD? (Or laptop screen?) CRTs lose about half their brightness after a year or so of life, and they only get darker as they age. LCDs don't tend to have that problem.

And newer LCDs (which is what I have) tend to be quite bright. The newer iMacs in particular -- which is what I play on -- are blindingly bright. So I no longer have a sense of what my story looks like on a too-dark monitor. I may think everything looks fine when most of my readers are squinting at their screens or highlighting pictures to see them.

The only advice I can give to you is: can you turn up your brightness on the monitor itself? Check out a monitor calibration site like this black test. On all of my monitors (and, yes, with my 33-year-young eyes) I can distinguish all of the black squares from the black background, even #1. If you can't distinguish the first row or two, then your monitor is set too dark (or you're just too old and you should give up now ). You should be able to adjust the brightness and contrast using controls on the monitor itself.

I'm toooooooo old and should just give up!! I have a BenQ LCD monitor and realized I had a lot of changing to do in the Nvidia control panel. It was my roommate's old monitor. I hadn't really made any changes to what he used for settings. It seems to be much better once I did some changes. WhaddaNoob, eh! I'm now going to start at square one in the story and double-check that I can "see" the pictures!! I'm rather excited about that!

Some of the earlier pictures even I can't see! Even if you open them in Photoshop and increase the brightness, they just turn into a gray mush instead of a black mush. There's no there there!

But for the more recent chapters, for the most part, there should be something in every picture. Except when Paul blows out the lights.

Well, now that I'm caught up to real-time in the story .... it is definitely time to begin re-reading the chapters. Especially now that I can "see" the pictures. They are great, ya know!

"Except when Paul blows out the lights. "

Would love to catch a glimpse of him before he's enveloped by darkness

Quand c'est fini, ça recommence.

I'm too angry at Paul right now. He does not deserve shirtless moments.

When it's finished or not or .....

I'll be content to envision it myself, plus a little more than being just shirtless! I do have to agree though ... not good timing for being a Paul fan.

Definitely too angry at Paul to let him take off all his clothes. Cat probably is too.

On the plus side, I always did find him sexier when he was blind. But it seems that he has spoiled the Noble Savage vibe he was throwing off back in those days. Now he's just insufferable at best, a psycho at worst (if Ris's assessment is to be believed).

How I'm going to redeem Paul, I just don't know. Why do I do this to myself?