's Blog

Moving on... to the Sims 3!

I've moved on to the Sims 3 (hooray!) since I last uploaded a new house to my site. Sims 3 builds are coming! But I wanted to make sure I was building good homes first, obviously. My current project is recreating Toronto - we'll see how that goes. I've built a real estate agent who shows off each house for me - and lives in a copy for awhile so that it can be tested for good living. I'm also playing with the build-a-world tool so that I can properly situate these long and narrow lots that are so typical of the city, and have fun laying out the long sloping lakeshore sandwiched between two gorgeous ravines.

I had been playing and building on my laptop which has been frustrating as it is not quite powerful enough for the new game engine. Now that I've installed the game on my more current desktop, that frustration should disipate, and the building should move ahead full speed. Watch for a new series of post-war bungalows and semi-detached Victorian Bay and Gables coming soon!

Meantime, here are some screen shots of some of the Sims that have been born since I started playing, and a couple of fun moments...

Bah

It's taking a little longer to make the next set as I have stuff happening in my real life. They shall be here when they are here I suppose. :-)

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

Shamelessly Seeking Input On My Flip

I downloaded one of fredbrenny's lots and asked her permission to flip it from residential to commercial. The screenshots on my minisite show the first phase of the flip. I started with the main house and turned it into Grandmother Burrisoph's Bakery. (No, Burrisoph is not my name, but Grandmother Burrisoph's storyline, if one develops, really is my grandmother's.)

Mainly as a point of reference for fredbrenny (since this is her lot I'm flipping), I'm going to outline my future plans in a blog entry (or more than one, as needed).

The building to the right of the main house has been emptied of the sculpting station and etc., and turned into a hot beverage hut. I will put in several countertops to place the variety of "hot beverage makers" I've collected and place several pieces of tea- and coffee-appropriate wall art throughout the hut. There will be no interior walls.

Between what is now my bakery/sweet shop and the new beverage hut, I have placed small to medium tables/chairs covered with more clutter to make it look like an outdoor cafe'. I already have a buffet table inside the sweet shop, but there are no tables in there, so I assume if a Sim uses the buffet, they will go outside to eat.

Drifting organically, I hope, from between these two buildings to the back of the lot, I will intersperse the tables and chairs among outdoor seating arrangements and sun shades. I want another buffet table out here, but haven't decided if it should be on the ground, on floor tiles, or up on a new foundation.... I'm leaning against the foundation because I want it all to flow smoothly (I hate using CFE and am afraid to do so with so many buildings so close together). Anyway, I'll probably just use a combination of terrain paints from paving to grass to flowery grass..... (input here please?) I kind-of suck at terrain painting and am never satisfied with what I do compared to other people's work (actually, I suck big time).

The building to the left of the main house is the old barn, converted into a garage. I un-converted it and made it into a Gnubb (sp?) game room. Amazingly, the game fits exactly inside the building. That is all I am doing here. I've dropped two butterfly spawners behind the bakery and put two ordinary fish spawners in the canal. Are the fish appropriate? I'm just looking for the splashy goldfish fx.

I have a set of urban city clutter to make bus-stops, phone booths, newspaper stands, bike rental (is that like mo-ped rentals in the US?) parking meters, and more. I'm adding this clutter and added the lot to my M-DART line as a stop/station. (M-DART stands for Midtown-District Area Rapid Transit, i.e., a bus line. Quirky.)

Using sub-basements, I'm dropping in bistro and theater rabbitholes. I want the bistro for Grandmother Burrisoph's bakery, but the theater is for my mock Children's Theater building. (Details about that are forth-coming.) Any suggestions of a quirky, yet appropriate name for a European Children's Theater/Cinema for that rabbithole? The Punch and Judy Show? No?

The biggest aspect is last to come. Fred, could you tell me if it would be appropriate to expand the green building that runs over the canal at the right side of the lot back across the lot in the other direction? In other words, can I make it run parallel to the main set of buildings you started with on the other side of the canal?

• From left to right, back of lot (behind canal): 
  

1. barn,
   
2. house,
   
3. sculpting room,
   
4. building in front of sculpting room,
5. green building attached to building in front of sculpting room (end of right side).
   

• Canal running down center of lot.
  

• From right to left, front of lot (in front of canal):
  

1. same green building at far right (#5 above), pulled out toward the front of the lot (it is now 40 x 40, not 40 x 30), then made wider toward the left of the lot so that it faces the original set of buildings on the other side of the canal. 
2. space left between canal and green building, similar to behind canal for a commons (chess tables, easels, etc.)
   

It's easy to envision, but hard to explain....... Grrrrr..... This is where I want to build my mock Children's Theater using some electronics and clutter I downloaded from TSR.

By the way, I WILL NOT be clicking off as many shots of the remainder of the lot as I did the bakery and sweet shop. That building is the main reason for having the lot, therefore gets the most attention. If I need to, I will be glad to grab shots of the "green building dilemma" to get assistance, though.

I've written too much to digest it all. I'm going back to work and will check back later for responses (I hope!!)

Computer Problems...

I encountered some troubling computer problems a few days ago while working on my 12th chapter of Pieces of me, and had to reinstall my OS completely. Meaning I had to also reinstall The Sims and all expasions and stuff packs, I was upset when I thought I had lost everything and wouldn't be able to continue the story as it was made due to CC reasons, but thank god all my files were saved into a folder and was able to retrieve them. So the story continues on! Wrapping up my 12th Chapter now, have a few more to go!

Also started working on a new story, when the idea popped in my head I had to start on it right away so that it wouldn't pass me by getting it started now, so be on the look out for that to be coming soon!

Happy Simming all!!

-NyGirl08

Incentives...

On 20th of September my published houses have brought 40,000 incentive points :)

Confession of a Junkie

I have a confession to make. Not only am I a building addict and have plenty of build CC to keep me happy for 5 lifetimes, I'm also a... pattern junkie. GASP! Yes, I can't have enough patterns. I love color and changing everything about everything, from the pattern to the texture to the metal to the purpose. LOL It's madness! But I don't really have to stop because it's not a bad thing. I doubt my doctors will ever say, "If you want to live another 10 years, stop downloading patterns!" So phooey on them!

Erm... it looks like Iona passed inspection. That's my next lot of course, not a person. LOL This one... I dunno. I didn't get to decorate it all in one sitting and my moods changed. It will be obvious when you look at the rooms. Not that it's bad, just... varied. And there is a lot of coral/salmon/whatever. It's not pink, not orange, not red. It's... some sort of unnatural splatter of color. Quite girly, but maybe too much. The kitchen is good. I like the bedroom in plaid and floral. I don't usually do that and am not sure if it really works or not, but I thought I'd give it a try. I like the colors at least. And I went all itchy scratchy girly in the master bedroom with the fabrics and bed and furniture style. That fancy crap. I could not sleep in that room. But I'm not the one living there so it doesn't matter. As for the structure of the house, I like it. Very symmetrical. The carport is too cute and I love the ivy covered posts. Anyway, I hope somebody likes it. I have a sim in it and she's not planning on moving. Although she is living next to the Bunch household. They're better neighbors than I have.

I have been considering doing a lot with TSRAA stuff. I've always wanted to include stuff in my lots, but... I'm afraid I'll tick someone off or use something I shouldn't. A girl can only make so many notes about her CC before it's an absolute mess and lost cause. Guess I'll think on it some more. I mean I'm an outcast for "doing the right thing", having "high moral ground", an "overdeveloped sense of responsibility", and "standards". Huh. Can ya tell I've been analyzed a few thousand times? What would happen if I accidentally did something... shifty? Why, the next thing you know we'll all be living on an ice cube, naked, with squirrels for scarves. It could be total chaos. Fire, brimstone, and thundersnow!

Laugh. You know you want to. And one last tidbit of randomness...

"I want cake. Where is this cake? I was told there would be cake. The cake is a lie."

THANK YOU!!!

7 000 downloads WOW :) Thank you my dear friends and I hope you like my work. :) And of courseenjoy and happy Simming

New stuff

Hey guys, I just wanted to let you know that I uploaded my new lot today that I've been working on all weekend. I literally could not stop playing, I was so involved in this lot, haha. It's very different from my usual style, but I actually had a lot of fun making it. As you all probably can tell, I'm into colonial and Victorian architecture more than anything else, but this new lot is something totally new for me. It's a modern-style house called "Verdantis." It has an eco-chic and Asian zen theme to it. The main color palette is neutrals and greens. It's so beautiful, and I really hope you guys enjoy it, because I worked really hard on it! :)

In the beginning.....

I started flipping one of fredbrenny's houses today from a residential to commercial lot. I love the Dutch flavor, with the canal running through the center. While I was planning the design (a "fake" sweet shop adjoined to a kid's "fake" cinema featuring Disney classics), some ideas began to germinate about stories I can write describing my current world. I think I'll introduce the Browning family: personalities, aspirations, background on conflicts that may develop into story lines of their own.... From there I could lead into the Browning family contributions to Sunset Valley, i.e., a tour of my Midtown District venues. This will have to tie in to another story line concerning the Burrisophs and Johnsonophs, from which inspiration for several of the existing venues sprang. My over-caffienated brain is spinning. I need to stop for a while; take a breather and really focus on what my goals are where the Sims world is concerned. I may be spending too much time in it. To be continued.

EDIT: I have written a story using Gracie Browning, singular, as a main character. The story series above described about my Brownings will just need to be renamed. Maybe Carlson....