Caution: technical and mostly boring post with a smidgen of interesting info for a few. I hope this isn't too off-topic, but I was intrigued by how the game "decides" what painting styles your Sim will execute. This post on page 7 of this thread by Snooty got me started:
Copied from MATY:
No Trait - If your sim has no other traits, he will always paint the basic version of the painting.
Artistic - Gives a water-color effect to the painting, though with highlighted border effects on the object of the painting.
Can't Stand Art - Darkens the painting with higher contrast and heavier, thicker brush strokes.
Computer Whiz - Gives the painting a square-tiled effect, obliterating any detail.
Evil - Tints the picture heavily towards red, most details are left intact.
<snip>
Apologies if someone else has mentioned this, (I admit to not reading the entire 32 pages!), but I found Snooty's post very interesting. Though generally accurate, it didn't seem to explain everything, since I know I've gotten lots of genius-type paintings without being a genius at all. Strange.
I was trying to figure out how sculpting and painting work (thinking of trying out the Da Vinci challenge). I happened to be spelunking around in the GamePlayData package, and uncovered the following information, summarized in user-friendly fashion. Apparently both traits and moodlets can influence your Sim's art:
Moodlets that "force" various painting styles: (I don't think in fact these styles are forced in the sense that they are a 100% outcome, but that's the term used in the XML):
- Somber paintings: Desolate, Disappointed, Heart Broken, Lost A Friend, Mourning, Bored, Embarrassed, Feeling Unlucky, Humiliated, Lonely, Rejected Proposal, Upset, Buzz Crashed.
- Genius paintings: Buzzed, Divine Meal, Intrigued, Honor Student, Learning Quickly, Tranquil
I assume -- but have not proven -- that the style is applied when the painting is started.
Traits that force/unlock various painting styles:
- Forced Somber: Can't Stand Art, Grumpy
- Forced Insane: Over Emotional, Insane, Neurotic, Never Nude.
- Forced Genius: (wait for it, this is going to be astounding and game changing) Genius
- Unlocked Somber: Artistic, Grumpy
- Unlocked Insane: Artistic, Insane
- Unlocked Genius: Artistic, Genius
So it kind of makes sense... if you have an Artistic sim, a lot of styles will be unlocked. If you're in certain moods, that can affect your painting style.
I will repeat: I don't think "Forced" is quite the right English word to use here as I don't think you will 100% get a genius painting if (say) you have a Divine Meal moodlet, but experimentation does seem to verify that it's considerably more likely.
For any interested, the entry I'm talking about is called by the user-friendly name PaintingSkill_0xc50c42ca983f12cf (yes, really!) in the file GamePlayData.package, in the base game.
Cheers,
-Holmes