's Blog

Butterflies, Cakes, Chateaux, Love & Peace - I've got them all!!!

Having had an unexpected afternoon of work, I decided to re-stock my gallery, so here are a few previews of some of the latest paintings I've been working on and will be appearing here shortly.

Firstly, since quite a lot of you seem to like my drinks and chocolat paintings, I thought I'd add some yummy cupcakes to the menu:

Secondly, a set of rather nice French chateaux paintings (ideal for all your homes in Champs Les Sims):

Thirdly, for all you nature lovers, a pair of butterflies:

Then there's fashion from around the globe:

A pair of modern abstract tangents:

And finally, lots of 'Love & Peace':

That's it for now - Enjoy! 

Meshing Part Three - Porch Column attempt number one :)

 After almost two weeks of solid study and reading fun, I finally made a porch column that is almost perfect.  I have a few issues with the bottom (haven't created the base yet) and a couple odd pokey things that didn't disappear when I removed duplicate vertexes.  But!  At least it is standing straight and not leaning... (remembering that I can lock on the z axis would be really nice to remember, I actually had to put a sticky note on the corner of my monitor)

Once I figure out what I broke with the pokey thing, and can lathe up columns at will, I will start working with the import/export to Milkshape, then see what happens when it's applied to a clone.  I am still foggy on what I need to make sure follows the .obj file, so more reading for me!

Here is a picture of the alpha column.

My anniversary

Though it's not a good round sum, I still like this number- 111 days on TSR :)

Boardshort long for the summer !

To celebrate the arrival of the summer in a week, here is a boardshort to make surf, or to go to the beach and being fashionable. Available in download this Saturday!

World Cup Fever!!

That pretty much summarizes this post :D I'll try to keep designing and creating but the world cup is every 4 years so Ill be quite busy watching the games!!! LOL don't worry I won't dissapear. The matches are broadcasted in the morning so after work I'll design :D

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BARB!!!!

Today is my sweet American sister Barb's BIG BIRTHDAY! She had a nice round number coming up and today is a day to celebrate!

Go on over to Spitzmagic's guestbook http://www.thesimsresource.com/members/spitzmagic/guestbook/view

and say Happy Birthday!!!

My best friend's Haagje's birthday is today too!  YEAY!!!  http://www.thesimsresource.com/members/Haagje/guestbook/view

Did I tell you that also my sister in law Chantal and my co-worker Nikolien have their birthdays today? They are not on TSR...so no need to go say Happy Birthday. :D June 14th is a SPECIAL DAY

Sneak-peak on TF Fashion Set 5!

Guys you're killing me but not commenting on my fashion sets..Am I publishing them for myself?

Back, B******s :D

I'm gonna start creating stuff again because I've recently picked up an interest in Sims again. I dunno if I have any subscribers left to care, but it looks like I have over 20k downloads on my stuff...how the hell did that happen? 

I also need to refill my TSR subscription...I may not do that for awhile, but it won't stop me from creating stuff. TBH, the fact that I have to pay for downloads to a game is a bit silly to me.

Avaliable Scholarships in Sims 2

Available Scholarships in S2U
=================================================================

Name: Hogan Award for Athletics

Qualification: Level 8 or higher Body Skill

Award: §750

=================================================================

Name: Bain-Gordon Communications Fellowship

Qualification: Level 8 or higher Charisma Skill

Award: §750

=================================================================

Name: Kim Metro Prize for Hygienics

Qualification: Level 8 or higher Cleaning Skill

Award: §750

=================================================================

Name: London Culinary Arts Scholarship

Qualification: Level 8 or higher Cooking Skill

Award: §750

=================================================================

Name: Will Wright Genius Grant

Qualification: Level 8 or higher Logic Skill

Award: §750

=================================================================

Name: Bui Engineering Award

Qualification: Level 8 or higher Mechanical Skill

Award: §750

=================================================================

Name: Quigley Visual Arts Grant

Qualification: Level 8 or higher Creative Skill

Award: §750
=================================================================

Name: SimCity's Scholar's Grant

Qualification: A- or better in High School

Award: §1000
=================================================================

Name: Extraterrestrial Reparations Grant

Qualification: Abducted by Aliens

Award: §1500
=================================================================

Name: Young Entrepreneurs Award

Qualification: Level 3 in any teen career

Award: §750

=================================================================

Name: Undead Educational Scholarship

Qualification: Teen is a Zombie

Award: §1500
=================================================================

Name: Phelps-Wilsonoff Billiards Prize

Qualification: Level 8 Pool Skill

Award: §1000
=================================================================

Name: Tsang Footwork Award

Qualification: Level 8 Dancing Skill

Award: §1000
=================================================================

Name: Orphaned Sims Assistance Fund

Qualification: Sim has no living parents

Award: §1500
=================================================================

* Dancing and Pool skills are "invisible" skills. There is no way to view your sim's skill level in these areas. To build these areas have your sims spend time dancing or playing pool to accomplish special moves. Qualifying in these areas for a scholarship is "trial and error". If you don't qualify when you first check available scholarships, keep working in these areas and check again. *

This concludes our broadcast day . . . Have Fun!

Basements Quick and Easy part 2

19. I must have had something in mind when I made this detail shot.


20. And this one.


21. This one, too!

Now when it's all done, look at what some of those diagonal walls did to our basement floor. Where the walls are convex, it leaves a sloping floor.


22. Convex diagonals left sloping floors in the basement.

I don't like that effect, so I square off those corners to bury the sloping floor.


23. One little square of foundation tidies up those corners.


24. Much nicer; no ankle-breaking sloping floor here!

With the whole foundation done, now you're faced with the scary prospect of having the some of the floor tiles apparently floating above the level of the first floor. Be not affrighted.


25. The floor above the basement doesn't seem to line up.


No problem! Just pick a nice floor tile. Select a square on the foundation at the level you want the floor, and drag across those floating squares.


26. Add a floor, starting at the level of the foundation and sweeping across the mess.


When you release the mouse, voila! The floating floor tiles snap into place!

(Some tutorials talk about using the 'boolprop constrainfloorelevation false' command here. I've never needed it.)


27. The floor levels out when you release the mouse button.


28. You can shift-click to fill in the floor to the edges of the foundation.


29. Fill in the holes in your floor, and then cut out a 1x4 slot for the cellar stairs.


An interior stair needs a 1x3 space in the floor above it for clearance. Exterior stairs need 1x4. I like to use exterior stairs inside because sims will follow each other up and down exterior stairs. If you use an interior staircase, they won't mount the stair until it's completely clear and often forget the commands that made them want to go up the stairs.


30. I used an exterior staircase to reach the basement.


31. Our completed basement, with staircase.

(Just ignore the little staircase in the left. I just happened to leave the stair tool resting there when I made the screen shot.)

Well, now that we've built the foundation, let's finish off the house above it!

Wilhelm wants to build this house to impress his girlfriend. so we'll make it look nice. If all goes well, he'll only be living here for about 2 hours; but it's an important two hours!

Part of the front porch will be roofed over so I added some ceiling lights. To get them to go outdoors, I used the 'move_objects on' command. Ditto for the burlgar alarm.


32. I extended the front porch out another square to add some more architectural interest.

Note that I always paint the interior of the foundation walls. That raw brick just seems to look funny otherwise.


33. Ceiling lights are vital in the basement. Otherwise it's too dark and the sims will hate it.


34. The completed house. Wilhelm enjoys the view from the balcony.


35. Our new construction in the neighborhood.

Wilhelm's girlfriend lives right across the street. The third floor of the bedroom wing is the servants' quarters, of course!