Cyclonesue / Blog

Author: Cyclonesue | Posted Mar 29, 2010 | 6 comments

I have at least three more Washroom mini-sets to come out.  I had intended making one huge set, but it has grown to something like 30 meshes now and people who want a simple toilet roll holder won't necessarily want an old mop too - which brings me to my next ridiculous muse of the washroom series: a mop and bucket!

Make nice new dry mops, or nasty grey-green wet ones (like you even care)! I can't even believe I've made a mop of all things!  Still, the grey mop on the left looks quite ghastly (yay!) which is exactly what I'd hoped for. 

This version needs a wall so the mop can appear to 'lean', but should I make a version with the mop stuffed in the bucket too so that it can be more free-standing?  What do you think?

Also to be included in this set will be the abandoned toilet rolls, old bleach bottle, some reflective puddles and, hopefully, a stand-up wet-floor sign. 

Author: Cyclonesue | Posted Mar 20, 2010 | 6 comments

I haven't forgotten about the washroom set - far from it.  A new 'who left the seat up?' toilet joins the other three questionable thrones and now I'm finishing off with a few decorative touches...

The so-called piece of art on the left is aptly named "The Last Sheet".  It joins it's stable-mate called "Too Bad!" on the right.

There are also three 'puddles' that can make your bathrooms look totallywrecked.  Sims can walk through them and they can be placed indoors or outdoors.  They can only be cleaned up (ie deleted) by you though - otherwise your poor Sims have to put up and shut up!

One of the bigger delays in this set (tutorial-writing aside) has been me not being satisfied.  

My first goal for this set was the typical toilets (washrooms to those of you over the pond) that you might find in those run-down parks and such.  The sort of thing that would be found in the lower picture is still an unfortunate 'feature' of 'beautiful Britain' - especially in tourist places like coastal resorts.

But I don't like suffocating the versatility of Sims 3 either.    What if you want to write a story that happens to need clean washrooms in it at some point?  So I've been cleaning up my act a bit!  I've revisited all the meshes to ensure that, without compromising on grunge or sizes of the files, the object can still offer a convincing clean-and-new version too.  The top piccie shows the same items from below spruced up and new-looking (ignore those ugly shadows under the sinks - they're gone now).

I now need to make a nice closet door (I only have that ugly old fashioned version in the set right now) and then I think I'm done!  Not bad going either!  I only started this set last October...

Author: Cyclonesue | Posted Mar 12, 2010 | 1 comments

I promised I wouldn't update, but you probably realise I am weak on promising so I shan't even bother apologising.

I have added two great new pieces to the tute.  Firstly, how to use extracts of real photographs to make the best Multipliers ever, using Multipliers to reduce polycounts(!), and also how a couple of simple black and white lines make amazing fabric details thanks to Apple (and all within reach of the total newbie who hates painting anything).

Secondly, we have an entire new section on making glass objects, which includes mention of all the glass shaders at your disposal, how you should map glass for undistorted reflections, and the perfect settings for realistic looking translucent glass (thanks to Shino&KCR).

And if you missed the last update, a totally rewritten section on Speculars!

Get the new version here

Author: Cyclonesue | Posted Mar 8, 2010 | 0 comments

I can't leave anything alone.  I have updated my tutorial ALREADY!  The download is available on this page (look for the "Download PDF" link at the bottom).

After chortling heartlessly at many more people's mistakes with Speculars (two mistakes of which I confess I've also made), I decided on a swift rewrite of that entire chapter.

If you believe any of these (and some are more 'wrong' than others), then I urge you to at least read that section of the guide because you're getting it either slightly or massively wrong!  It's short, and will save you being ridiculed at parties should speculars come into conversation (speculars being typical party conversation)...

• The specular's alpha should be 50% grey
• A specular is rarely needed; the image is usually empty
  
• Speculars should use EA's 'empty specular' image
  
• Speculars are nothing more than a contrasted multiplier
• Speculars don't need an alpha unless the alpha is to be used
• Speculars can only be black and white or greyscale
  
• The Workshop loses the Specular alpha
  

I've completely rewritten the Sepcular section based on some of the things I've been hearing because there are a lot of us out here who have made these same assumptions.  I've used better pictures to show how it works, and removed all that nonsensical repetition too. I've added a new myth-buster section to explain what's wrong with some of the aforementioned assumptions, and I've also updated a few other sections with additional tips too.

I apologise if you wasted a stupid amount of green ink by printing the previous version.  I have no plans on any further updates.

Author: Cyclonesue | Posted Mar 6, 2010 | 2 comments

We have today released an epic two-part Object Creation series for you.  The first part, written by riccinumbers is the eagerly-awaited Beginner's Guide to Object Meshing, and the following part is a less eagerly-awaited Object Textures, written by yours truly (yes, me)!

Object texturing - who's it for?

I will resist answering "for makeup artists" because I'm stiill under some BE NICE rule (which is getting real old after all these years).  So, this second part of the series is for beginners and experienced alike.  Beginners will be shown, step by step, how to make the standard images of an object (no experience necessary), import them into Workshop and finish off the object they started in the Beginner's Guide to meshing tutorial.  More experienced people will secretly be reading how to use the specular properly (you all know who you are) and how not to make images the size of table cloths!  Oh, and all that clever transparency and wall-mask stuff too.

What's covered?

• Image sizes (and how to map EA-style)
• Multipliers
• Speculars (including coloured speculars)
  
• RGB/RGBA Masks
• Overlays
• Stencils
• Dirty-state overlays
• Non-recolourable textures
• Wall masks (and the automatic wallmask generator)
• Sheers and transparency
• Importing textures into Workshop
• Defining patterns
• Making texture variations
• Using useful EA textures
• Outputting a complate for Sims 2 conversions
• Working with alpha channels

Does it work?

Oh ye of little faith!  We beta tested both guides with a small group of absolute beginners and we have seen some stunning results for first meshes already.  These testers are still making new meshes, and one of our newest testers, Illiana of lot-building fame, has already uploaded an incredible first set here.  There are other beautiful examples by our testers too, only they're still creating rather than uploading right now (we hope to see some new creations popping up on TSR soon)!

Who wrote it really?

I can't believe you even asked that.

Author: Cyclonesue | Posted Feb 26, 2010 | 2 comments

You might guess by the title that, for once, I'm not about to fan one of my own creations!  I don't do "wow!" (I tend more to do "oh...") and I'm not fanning because my name is mentioned either (even if it may look like it), but because this lot is simply incredible and shows what can really be done in Sims 3 with some brilliant imagination.   And so, without further ado, let me introduce Cyclone Foundry to you - by Wolfspryte...

It's not all that easy to make something LOOK industrial in Sims 3, and I have opted out before now on buildings that were meant to be industrial, but somehow ended up looking pretty and simply overgrown and unkempt.  However, Wolfspryte has achieved it by making a top-notch foundry that is every bit foundry inside as well as out.

A cop-out I made in Sims 2 was to make an industrial building, but happily slap on the label 'conversion to residential' or "loft conversion".  It's a perfectly fine thing to do (and plenty of players liked it), but it IS opting out of hardcore industrial a little bit, because it puts the builder back into the comfort zone of using regular furniture and decor.  It also removes a little bit of fun for the player who would enjoy carrying out the conversion for themselves.  It can make a better building and more fun for the player NOT to opt out of a true industrial.

Wolfspryte has not opted out by any means.  Rust and smoke and girders and just about every iron-clad 'nasty' make this lot a true industrial artwork.  The whole appearance is unkempt and derelict on the outside, and resident Sims will surely be like trespassers in a thoroughly dangerous and unhealthy home.  Give them just enough money to move in, then make them work hard to earn enough to repair broken windows and make it habitable.  Alternatively, let those Sims live in dark corners like squatters who really shouldn't be there.  Whatever you do, players who love to give their Sims a real story will lnot be disappointed.

Enough of my waffle.  I urge you to go check out Cyclone Foundry and DO look at all the screens.  This has become my first-ever lot download for Sims 3, and I'm very happy to have it.

Author: Cyclonesue | Posted Feb 21, 2010 | 3 comments

Tutorial done and foisted upon hapless beginners to try it out and point out the error of my ways, so back to the Sims 3 drawing board!

One set I am very keen to complete now is the bathroom set (well, the word 'bathroom' might be playing a fine edge to the real set I am making).  You've seen the toilets and the sinks now, so how about some mirrors?  The rust is in two recolourable shades.  I was going to make that non-recolourable but the mirrors can be made to look very different depending on the colour of that rust.  Four different designs (including a cracked, broken mirror) will ensure you'll have no 'repeat' effect when using more than one...

If anyone asks me nicely, I might even make a 100% boringly clean and rust-free mirror to complete the set, but we'll all know who you are!  Anyway, I'm sorry I was timed-out on creating.  Now that tutorials and other nonsense is out of the way, I can throw myself back into ruining your game - my favourite pastime!

Postscript: time for MY moment of shame.  Everything is this set will (unfortunately) clean up into pristine items too.  I've simply chosen the worst possible colour variations to show you.  Even the sinks will shine like mother came along and cleaned them in disgust!

Author: Cyclonesue | Posted Feb 14, 2010 | 6 comments

Since my mad uploading for the recent Yard and Gardens theme (or was it Gardens and Yards?  Or something...) I've been a bit out of commission on creations because my attention was forcibly routed (drat!) to writing a beginner's tutorial on making all those horrid DDS images for objects some time back.  A new meshing tutorial is in the works by Riccinumbers, so this tutorial has now become urgent rather than "do in 2014 maybe", so I thought I'd best crack on and add the final pages...

The tutorial is fully comprehensive, concentrating mostly on WHY (which is often missing in "now do THIS" tutorials).  For example: why images are the size that they are, why an alpha is sometimes needed (what it does and how to make the stupid thing).  It will cover all the main images including how to make a multiplier from scratch, who-cares-about-baking, understanding the rotten specular, doing just TOTALLY amazing things with the RGB Mask - really! (well, I thought so)  And it's all aimed at people who really couldn't care less about having a rubbishy old brain instead of a multi-core processor in their skulls!

[insert yawn here ]

But, for all my fellow grunge-fans, I have not abandoned you.  I've made something else shiny for the upcoming (yes, it really IS coming at last) Factory bathroom set.  There are two versions: this one pictured with a worktop, and a version that has no worktop (just bolts to the wall in that "Vandals - break here!" way).

And I have been given some fantastic ideas from you!  Thanks to all those of you who've messaged me with your very cool thoughts.  Often, I'm bad at requests, but I'm on the course of thinking old boilers (and working furnace fires), decorative industrial chimneys, industrial posters and signs (again), basement stuff like tanks and fuseboxes, recreating my pipework from Sims 2.  Posptponed (for now) are remakes of my gas cylinders and gas pump sets (I've had a surprising number of requests for my gas pumps - didn't think you liked those!) because similar creations have just been uploaded (therefore I will remake mine later in the year).  

Also on the further-down-the-line list will be my round walls (they'll be decorative rather than REAL walls of course, something that resembles my Bang-On-A-Can series, the Never-Ending Windows - which are on hold until a particular bug is fixed in the Workshop), and likewise the Mariner Roofline windows (30-degree angle sets).

Writing this has been a wonderful distraction from writing about Stencils.  Now I've run out of chat, I have to return to the task.

Ta-ta for now!

Author: Cyclonesue | Posted Jan 31, 2010 | 8 comments

But I bet you didn't expect this one! 

Yes, to launch my part in this week's upcoming Yard and Gardens theme, I really did upload a pile of trash!  I know I say that anyway, but this really IS trash!  The showpiece of the set is a fully working trashcan fire (a big thanks to riccinumbers for helping with bashing the default chimney into oblivion).

Also included in the set is an all-new terrain paint for litter.  When painted around the tipped-over trashcan, it matches the litter in the bin perfectly so you can spread the litter as far as you like!.

Unfortunately, the default trashcan cannot be changed (yet), so the remaining bins in the set are decorative and won't replace your in-game bin.  However, they are proportioned similarly so you can build quite a collection of bins around your in-game bin, match up the colours etc.  Another 'unfortunately' is that I felt obliged to ensure these bins could all be shiny-new too.  The propped lid in the piccie demonstrates this shudder-worthy example.

Also added to the litter is a faint smell.  Lean close to your screen and breathe in deeply, and you should catch a nice whiff of rotted fish....

And you ALMOST did that, didn't you?!  You nearly fell for it!

Author: Cyclonesue | Posted Jan 29, 2010 | 9 comments

So, all this stuff...  Exactly HOW do I arrange this pile of doo-doo into sets?!  The theme starts this weekend and yet I don't even think I've finshed!.  It takes me on average three days to prepare screens for a set (this includes an approx 2.5 days of doing anything BUT screenshots in a massive sweep of procrastination) and I still want to make another couple of ladders, a dustbin or two, piles of house bricks and even see whether the old car wreck I made in Sims 2 is salvageable for Sims 3.  I'm not big on converting Sims 2 stuff (it's mostly proved impossible and 'repeats' like the tyres are brand new remakes), but I do really want that old junk car.

But setting stupid ambitions aside, the main problem is what do I do with a water pump, a lawn mower and a broken gnome?!  Hardly a set in its own right, yet they don't sit comfortably with a broken toilet seat and pile of tyres either!  It's all my stupid fault; iinstead of making things that actually go together, I just went junk-mad.  Someone should stop me.  Really, someone should, because I just get carried away and now I have all this to shovel into some kind of collection of sets.