Halloween Update

Just a quick update on my current Halloween set! I ended up making four different versions, and each one comes in five colors for a total of 20 trees! That may or may not be a lot to you, but you can always choose not to install any of the ones that you don't like! Also, just to clarify: these are only deco. They do not actually do anything in game. (Imagine if they were like the magic gnomes and were randomly appearing and disappearing all over the lot!) You could have your cat scratch them, if you want. Although they might scratch back! Just kidding! Cats won't have the urge to scratch this any more than any other object, and will still prefer a scratching post if one is avalible.

Halloween

Hi everyone!

Just a quick preview of a set that I just started for Halloween! A set that I am calling, for now, "Evil Halloween Trees" (How original! I know...)

Notice anything unusual about it? I'll give you a hint: the glow! It's the result of a material called "Full Bright" (for any other creators who might be interested) that makes things "glow". I've never seen this effect used in any Custom Content before, so I am incredibly excited at the possibility that this may be the first time! (Apologies to any creators who might have already made use of this technique, I just haven't seen it!)

There is one downside to the shiny, pretty, fancy looking effect, though, in that the glow color is NOT recolorable. Gasp! Horror! I know. I hate when things are not recolorable! The tree bark is recolorable, but everything that is orange can not be changed from within the game. To counter this tragedy, I'm thinking about maybe making multiple versions of each tree, with a different color. I'm thinking Orange, Red, and Purple. No guarantees, though! I may end up with more, or fewer colors.

I'm also highly considering taking this effect to some regular Jack-O-Lantern pumpkins, so stay tuned!

*UPDATED* Pets/Patch Beds Update

Hi all,

As you may or may not know by now, the Pets expansion pack - and it's accompanying patch(es) break the majority of Custom Content. The amazing TSR team has worked and came up with a generic "fix all" program - however, so far, we have discovered two things that it does not fix: bathtubs and beds. These have to manually fixed/updated/remade. I have several beds, and I just wanted to let you all know that I am working to get them fixed as we speak! I am hoping to have them all updated and ready for re-download tomorrow sometime. I'll post an update here when they are all ready, as well as on each individual bed/set. Check back soon!

Kris

• UPDATE - Oct 22, 2011

     All of my TS3 beds have been updated and the new, working files have been uploaded and published. Each file now has the "PetsUpdate" identifier in the file name, so you should be able to tell if you have downloaded the new one or not. I tested them in my game and had no problems. (Base Game, Generations, and Pets) If you run across any problems, errors, or glitches, please let me know! Happy Simming!

Garden Shrubs

Hello everyone!

I know that I have been rather inactive for past couple of months, and I apologize. School has been keeping me fairly occupied! I HAVE been working on something though! ... just working incredibly slow on it. Created as per request of Degera, I present a set of some shrubby/bushy type plants:

(Click image to view full-size.)

Currently, I do not have more individual types of plants planned for this set, however I may still do another couple of variations in size/shape for the plants that I already have.

Here is another picture, showing some recolors. Everything in this set is fully recolorable.

(Click image to view full-size.)

New Poll! Downloader Preferences

Hi everyone,

Just a quick update to tell you about my new poll that I've posted. It's just a couple of questions about color and style that, in the furutre, will help point me in the right direction as to what kind of things you all like to download. Right now I generally base everything on my own musings, or that of what is suggested to me. Hopefully the results of this poll can get me more geared towards creating what you like! So, please, if you haven't already, go answer it!

If your ideal choice isn't listen for a question, feel free to either let me know via PM, or in a comment on this post!

Also note, the results of this poll aren't going to be conclusive for the rest of time. If the favored color is red, that does not mean that everything I create from now is going to be red. Everything will utilmately be based off of my discretion - but I will definately still keep in mind the preferences that you've told me!

Bucket Planters

Hi everyone!

I'm working on a new set of planters that I wanted to show you all! There are only a couple versions as of now - Star Flower (my brilliantly unoriginal name for the pointy pink one), Philodendron, and a "Tropical" Philodendron that has flowers. As of writing this I am half-way done with meshing a Tulip version as well.  You'll also notice the plain bucket of dirt, too - it will be joined by a dirtless bucket, and a knocked over bucket with spilled dirt - as suggested by MsBarrows for screenshots and story telling purposes.  Bucket, flowers, and foliage are all recolorable on all versions - the dirt is not. (Although it might be on the "spilled dirt" version, for things like a bucket of spilled rocks, paint, concrete, etc)

Click image to enlarge.

Bryant Bedroom

Hi everyone :)

I know it's been a while - 'tis the curse of school :( At any rate, though, I'm on winter holidays for the next weeks so I'm getting back to creating for a while. At the moment I'm working on a new bedroom (pictured below) and I may or may not work on some Christmas themed items, depending how long I work on this current set for and if I have time afterwards.

New Tutorial in the works!

Hi everyone! It's been a while since I've been around, I know! My old computer started randomly shutting down at the most inopportune time, and I had to buy a new one. Trying to save money, I decided to buy a new-but-refurbished computer. After about a day it got to the point where all I got were "Windows has failed to boot" messages. Most unhelpful. Now, 3 computers later, I finally have one that works quite well.

I just finished installing all my programs - one of which is the new 2.5 Beta  release of Blender3D. After some poking around, it appears that most functionality has been restored - most importantly, the "Bake" feature that was missing (or extremely well hidden!) from the initial 2.5 Alpha release.

And thus, I have begun dissecting the new Blender UI and have started writing a tutorial on baking in Blender 2.5. I'd guess I have roughly half of it written, and should be finished with the rest of it in the next few hours. When I will get around to publishing it, however, is another story...

Ceiling Beams - Update!

Hi everyone!

I've decided to go ahead and make my ceiling beams in multiple preset sizes to avoid the lighting problems that are present in-game. I'm going to keep the 1x1 (someone may have a use for it, a small hallway or something) but I've also made 1x3 and 1x4 sizes. Based on my building habits, I've picked out six sizes that I would find most useful. I plan on having total:

• 1x1
  
• 1x3
  
• 1x4
  
• 1x5
  
• 1x7
  
• 1x10

However, I would love to know what you all think would be good sizes too. I don't want to make a beam in every size because I feel like that might be overkill.

There is some versatility, though, if you place a celing light right where two beams meet - they can be placed in succession and they will not have any shading issues.

Please, again, feel free to leave any comments you have about what sizes I should make them - after all, I am making them for you all as well, not just me!

Ceiling Beams

Hi everyone! Sorry for the lack of general activity lately; I've just started college and it's been keeping my incredibly busy! Anyways, that's not why I'm here. I'm working on a new project, Ceiling Beams, and have run into a slight problem. As of now, for maximum versatility, each beam comes in 1x1 segments. When placed next to each other, they connect and textures run along the length of the beam seamlessly. However, each segment of beam reacts to lighting different. One segment, while close to a light, will be fairly bright. The next will be darker, the next yet even dark, etc. Well, it SOUNDS like it's normal, but unfortunately, it's horrible in the game. Each beam is shades apart, they don't subtly blend together.

Where there isn't light, one segment will look almost black. The next one will be a lightish brown, and then next to a light, it will be very bright brown. Rather than scrap the project, I figured I'd ask the downloaders what they would prefer:

Option 1: Keep them as is! As long as they are there, the shading difference isn't that big of a deal. This will give a lot of flexibility in terms of how big you can make your rooms and where they will fit.

Option 2: I can make them into preset sizes (1x3, 1x5, 1x7 etc). While these would render better, there would be less flexibility in terms of room size and how they will fit into your lots.

I'm not going to make this into a "real" poll, but rather, you can feel free to leave your opinions or ideas on what I should in a comment here.