Red Alert! Real life intrusion!

Well, oh well, oh well...  My creating days are put on serious hold here at TSR.  I had gotten a job, lost it, got another job, lost that, seems I can't hold onto a job these days.  The boyfriend has been shipped out to boot camp for the Air Force, and now I can't stop staring off into space, tears welling, sobs choking my words.  I've never been one to rely on another person to live, but jeez, I can't deal without him!!  Holy cow, what's happened to me?  I can't even create him in the sims and play him, it makes me really miss him all that much more.  It's not forever, I know this.  But he really had a profoundly calming effect on me, and now I'm back into the chaotic, dog-eat-dog world of job hunting, medical & dental insurance shopping...  I'm gonna be 35 in February, and I feel like a lost teenager who just watched her father die...again.  All I can do is sit here and wait. 

Don't mind me, I'm just venting.

So the creative juices are at a standstill, and while I try to get the priorities back in line, I'm going to let my sub run out (2 days left anyway), and put my sims aside for the next few months.  Thanks to everyone who's downloaded my paintings and such, I hope you enjoy them fully, and I'll be back...whenever.

Cheers, y'all!

Picture Taking 101: Lots and Houses

I love making lots.  I love downloading lots.  I think that a Sims 3 Residential Lot is a real challenge in and of itself.  But I'm not talking about architecture here.  You can read my other blog post about that.  I'm talking about taking pictures of your lot to show everyone how wonderful your architectural prowess is.  Taking pictures of your lot is easy and will display some of the finer points of your house/community center/etc.  By following these pretty simple steps, you can show off your lot and not annoy potential downloaders with flashy photos of really angular rooms.

1. Front of the Lot: Taking a picture of the front is enough to entice.  Think of how home magazines are set up.  There's the front of the house, a couple pictures of the views or attractive rooms, then the layout.  The front of the house is important because you don't want to show off a really nice home/community lot with a rather crappy looking entrance.  The front of the house picture is like a prologue of what's to come.

2. Interior shots: The most appealing to you is most likely what's going to be appealing to others.  The amazing looking split level living room, the raised kitchen, the sunken bedroom, the sunlit basement.  Decorated makes the home attractive.  Not decorated makes the imagination run wild.  Throw in a couple of these, but don't go overboard.  Give the potential downloader just a taste of what it'll look like from the sims' point of view.

3. Outdoor shots: Landscaping accents the house by framing the views, softly hiding the structure to make the home look almost mystical at times.  Show off your bridged pond, your outdoor sunning area, your garden bursting with fruits and vegetables. 

4. LAYOUT PICTURES:  I feel I must emphasize this one, though not rightly enough.  I HATE it when I see a cute little house with a couple really nice accent pictures, and no layout shots.  I'm the type of downloader where I like to see a map of what I'm getting.  Looking at that makes the real decision as to whether I'm going to click that download button or close the window.  I don't want to have to download the house, then look at the layout, and discover that it's a house I didn't really want to download.  A birds-eye shot of each level is wonderful.  If you don't want to take pictures while the grid is all over the ground, click the terrain paints option in build mode and hide the cursor under the house.  After you take a snapshot of the roof, hit the page dwn button on your keyboard, hit the C button, lather, rinse, repeat with each floor.  Make sure that the house itself fits your screen, too.  You don't want to have your home in a corner of your picture so that the main purpose of showing off your layout is moot.

5. Birds-eye Lot Pictures: These I wouldn't recommend putting in unless you have a rather complicated maze going on with your lot.  They may be fine just to accent the download, but they're not necessary.  Leave the downloader with something to discover on the lot.

6. Brightness: I've seen houses uploaded that have nothing but frontal shots, daytime and nighttime, and there are just way too many "glaring" angles that blind out the entire shot.  It's good to put accents here and there with maybe photoshop or gimp.  But don't blind me with your super white house with the sun behind it.  I can't see what I'm looking at.  A typical day shot, maybe while the sun is setting behind the camera is nice.  But if you have a regular day shot, when the sun is high in the sky, the shadows are minimal and it brings out the true color of the house, as well as some depth and detail that a nighttime shot may not provide.  

7. Bunch up the shots: Put some nice photos of your house together.  Interior shots in one image, exterior shots in another.  Limit your images to four shots of the house, maybe some text to explain what the images are of.  Anything more than four photos of the house (especially of one room) is just overkill.

If you don't know what I mean by any of this, please refer to this download: http://www.thesimsresource.com/downloads/1005112

Copyrighted material in Sims creations

I came across something in the forums, a simmer wanted a couple of T-shirts made with a rock band logo on it.  My heart lurched!!  I wanted to reply the following, but figured it'd be a better blog entry, so as to keep the controversial converstaion to an absolute minimum.

"I was going to do this for my own personal enjoyment, I love the band myself, along with a few Edgar Allen Poe girlie shirts I'd designed for TS2.  I personally would have a real hard time uploading it to the site, though, as I am steadfastly against uploading to a subscriber site (as free content or otherwise) an object with a copyrighted image on it.  I won't even download anything that has obvious trademarks/logos/copyrighted material (spongebob, hello kitty, those really cool x-ray paintings of flowers...) even though they're free content here.  In fact, in a set that I'd downloaded, I didn't realize that there were some paintings made with copyrighted images that I'd recognized, and I deleted them out of my game.  A little extreme, but as an owner of copyrights myself, I don't like (personally) downloading that stuff.  In an article that I wrote about them (the rock band), I wasn't given permission to use their photos, so thus, all I could do was link to their products on amazon, even though it would've enhanced the article and driven more sales to them and their music/merchandise.  On another note, someone over at MTS had created a music channel for the sims 2 (or enhanced the music channel) and used (the rock band) videos and music.  It was taken down, even though it was a free site, because of the copyrights and potential legal issues.

Just a personal opinion on creating items using copyrighted material."

I personally own copyrights.  I can't justify using anyone else's artwork without their permission.  That's why I don't even upload lots to the site with custom content.  I refuse to, even though it's TSRAA and it's a "standing permission" deal.  I personally would need express permission from the artist/creator in written form, mainly just to cover my own butt.  Copyright violation is insane.  Using public domain images, one thing entirely; the copyright expired after so many years, and now we, the public, own it and can use it as we wish.  The wonderful thing about Sims/Maxis is that Maxis encourages the use and recreation of their items.  But, if you look on the website, they had to obtain express permission to use the logos of The Sex Pistols, Shakira, Lil Wayne, Ozzy and Kiss in order to create Sims 3 stuff with it.  That's why you have to pay for it, it's not free.  Permission to use that stuff is pretty expensive, depending.  There are some gray areas in everything, sure.  Technically, you can use the images for your own personal use, just like you can make a backup copy of Windows for your own personal use.  I can make rock band t-shirts till my hair turns white, as long as it's for my own personal enjoyment, and even then, I'm pushing it.  For TS2, I made Edgar Allen Poe girlie shirts that I used for my own game, and didn't bother uploading it anywhere.  Edgar Allen Poe images, even his signature, are all copyrighted by the Poe Society in Baltimore.  Even if I was related to him, I couldn't use it without express permission for uploading to public and/or private sites.  Even as a free download, it's a violation of copyright laws because the creator/artist isn't getting any royalties from it.

In essence, and maybe I'm just paranoid, but everyone's better off if they make their own stuff for their own sims game (using said copyrighted images, of course - I'm not speaking of artists here on this website or in this community as a whole creating original objects for the game from their own ideas and inspiration), and not upload it anywhere.  I praise this community for its originality, creativity and intense artistic talent.  I just don't think it's wise to use copyrighted images/logos in artwork for public use.

Ooof.  I need a coffee, I need to calm down.  *phew!*  Thanks for letting me vent.

PS.  Just for clarification, I'm in no way an expert on this subject.  Don't take my words as the bible.  This is just my *albeit, paranoid* opinion.

Compressed Rock and Super Compressed Rock

I noticed that when I had compiled these packages for uploading, I must've done it wrong.  The single files have no description, and therefore, we all have to refer to the set page to find out what it does.  Nice of me, no?  Well, I'm mildly frustrated, so I just figured I'd give everyone a heads up on a couple things about the purpose and use of these terrain paints. 

As the set description dictates, this is just meant to keep the same rock graphic, but compress it a little on some of the steeper hills and cliffsides so that there's more detail in the rock, and it doesn't look so goofily stretched.  In some instances, it looks rather linear, if I can use that word, like the rock is compressed too much.  So here's a couple ways to work with these...

1. The super compressed rock vertical and horizontal are a little weird to work with, and they will seem a little pixilated.  If you pull up a hill roughly a wall and a half high, it looks great.  Anything higher than that will kinda look goofy.

2. The compressed rock is a little easier, the detail looks good on higher slopes, or it'll give smaller slopes a better, fuller rocky look.  I was going to come up with a vertical version of that, but I'm still playing around with it.

3. When you go to paint the hillsides, mountainsides, or the cliffsides, it will seem as if nothing's working, like nothing is there.  You may have to paint one section of the hill, et. al., for a while, meaning putting the cursor over the terrain and holding the mouse button down for a while, like a good 10-20 seconds.  Now, I've noticed that when that's done, it looks sorta pixilated.  If you erase the mountainside down to green grass, the paint will show up more clearly, more detailed, and very quickly.

Please, if you have any questions or concerns, feel free to drop me a line.  Again, I'm sorry I didn't put descriptions in the individual files, I hope this clarifies anything.

Thanks for downloading, everyone, I aim to please.  ;)

Salome... 

Sims housing projects and architecture...

I've been playing the Sims for a long time now.  Suffice to say, I'm a bit of an addict.  I didn't play anything yesterday, and went the whole day feeling like I was missing something (someone should start a Sims Anonymous...).  The first two games, I built houses, never uploaded anything (that I can remember), downloaded lots and lots of stuff.  But the Sims 3 has given me new light to architecture in general.

My sister is an architect.  My boyfriend's father is an architect.  So lately, I've come to study general architecture, both commercial and residential, and compared these buildings to that which I create virtually.  I was never good at design, color, art is generally not my field.  I'm a writer, through and through, down to the bitter core.  So when I build houses, I have no idea what the hell I'm doing.  But I think I'm actually getting the hang of it.  Here are some things that I've learned:

1. Remember to generally keep the plumbing in one place.  I've noticed in all houses, bathrooms are stacked on top of each other, or near major plumbing lines.  I knew this, it's common sense, but it never registered with me.  So as I'd build sims homes in Sims 2, I'd have bathrooms all over the place, basically wherever I felt they needed to be.  But realistically speaking, it's feasible, but not exactly wise to just throw a john in here or there.

2. Efficiency.  It's so wonderful to create these monstrous estates in the Sims, we all want our sims to live large.  However, I find it INCREDIBLY annoying for my sims (in Sims 3) to take a good half hour to an hour getting from one part of the house to the other.  As I look over real life floor plans of houses and commercial lots, I notice the more direct routes through the core of the house, the efficiency of movement, the placement of general rooms and how they branch off to different sections of the house.  It shouldn't take my sims half an hour to get from the kitchen to the sidewalk to go to work.  That drives me guano.

3. Waste of space.  Given that all sims houses are on a grid, and we have to make due with the space we're given, I'm discovering a severe waste of space in designs.  I'm just going to slam a couch, loveseat, coffee table, bookshelf, lamp, TV and stereo in a 10x10 square room, and hope for the best.  In the Sims 1 & 2, we had to do that.  Now that we don't have to snap crap to a grid, we can cut the size of the room in half, hold down the alt button, and maneuver.  It's wonderful!  More room for...what?  Do I really need a 40x40 lot?  Nah.  Cut that sucker down to 20 and you can still throw a pond in there to fish out of.

4. Structural physics.  There's a reason, I discovered, that floor tiles can't be placed more than two spaces outside of a wall.  Realisticly and virtually speaking, anything past 2 spaces in real life would collapse (assuming that the metric equivilant to a sims "space square" would be 3-4 feet).  No support.  So I built a house in my Sims 3 game.  It had balconies reaching into the sunset, glass walls, jutting slabs of roof, et. al.  Wonderful, I was pumped, all kinds of happy and proud of my architectural prowess, and showed it to my sister.  She shook her head.  "Looks great, but that sucker would collapse so quickly.  Too bad you don't have lawsuits in the Sims..."  After explaining to me the physics of basic architecture, I had to get somewhat bitter.  I personally think that in the Sims, they need to create some sort of architectural collapse feature, so I don't get too crazy with my weirdo designs.  Glass houses, as wonderful as they look, couldn't go over well, unless seriously thick glass is used (thus turning the home into a greenhouse...), due to cracking and collapse of glass.  Beams and columns are needed every once in a while to keep the house from caving in.  And seriously, if that feature was in the sims, the collapse and caving in feature, I'd be one frustrated builder.  "My house keeps caving in!!  Why?!"

My houses that I create will most likely never be published unless I feel particularly proud of one and it passes my sister's seal of architectural approval.  I know what everone thinks.  "Sal, this is a game.  A virtual world where anything is possible with cheats."  I know this.  But I'm into realism.  I like to make my sims as real as they can possibly get.  Judging by the custom content floating around in the community, so does everyone else.  Oh yeah, sure, it's good to dream up amazing modern homes, and I fall victim to dreamland too.  But, as my first gallery will show (if it does show up on my minipage), the house looks great, but it's completely and utterly ridiculous, architecturally speaking.

I'm gonna need to study a bit more...